Persona (8 page)

Moira has the feeling her friends might be right, that he has hidden secrets. She just doesn’t know what, but she definitely wants to.

***

August 2023

Moira has been home for eight years now, and has grown accustomed to the day to day activity’s that come with being normal. It’s the end of summer, and her parents wanted some alone time in the house. So she said she’d take her ten year old brother Damon, and seven year old sister Annie outside to play. She got them into playing tag for a while, but Damon grew bored and wanted to play hide and seek. Annie didn’t want to though. She said she was too scared to hide alone.

Moira sympathized and tried to come up with something else to do, but Damon became upset. He started teasing Annie that she was a baby, and shouldn’t be out playing anyway. This made her cry and run into Moira’s arm. Getting angry, Moira yells at Damon to leave they’re sister alone. This makes him livid, and he tells Moira that she isn’t even they’re real sister. He then runs over to her, and shoves her down onto the ground. This causes not only her to fall, but also Annie, who is crying in earnest now.

Moira gets so mad and hurt suddenly that her body is filled with a vibrating sensation. Before she can worry what it could be, it intensifies to the point of pain and causes her to hunch over with a cry. Her head, mouth and hands are throbbing now and she feels tears falling out of her eyes. She feels pressure in her fingers and jaw, and then her nails and teeth begin to push up to a point. Next her hair that was up into a loose knot, falls free and cascades auburn around her shoulders. Blinking tears from her eyes, she realizes that she can see as well as a moment ago.

The pain she felt goes away, and she’s left with light tingling feeling beneath her skin. Annie gasps in surprise when she sees her, but she stops crying. Moira looks back to Damon, to see that his eyes are wide and he’s shaking. Before she can ask if he’s all right, he turns around and runs into the house calling for his mother.

***

October 2028

The following morning Moira has to brave the bus ride to school alone. Marty was suspiciously absent, for the first time since she met him. Thankfully the line into the school was uneventful, and she didn’t have any run in’s with Quinn. She did however see her as she went to her locker, and thought about going in the other direction, but remembered she has to hold her ground.

Moira had just opened her locker, when Quinn is walking past her. She regards her with alertness, but the other girl doesn’t even look her way. She notices then, that Quinn is all alone. Her clone copies are nowhere to be seen, and she looks less than her usual chipper self. Moira lets herself wonder what could possibly make her be so different all of a sudden, but then she remembers that she doesn’t care. Slamming her locker closed, she rushes to her first class before the bell can ring.

By the time she gets to gym, she still hasn’t seen Marty anywhere and she’s getting really worried. The last time he disappeared, he got into trouble defending Raven. As she changes into her workout clothes, she hopes he’ll be in lunch and everything will be alright. With a heavy heart, she follows the heard of girls into the gymnasium. As soon as she walks through the locker room door, her persona starts to tingle inside her. She pushes it back inside, as she gets farther in the room, and that’s when she picks up on the light scent of cinnamon.

Swiftly she takes in the room, until her eyes land on Liam Morgan sitting off to the side on the bleachers watching her. He’s wearing the usual sweats and shirt, and he makes it look rather rugged slouched back like he doesn’t care about anything. His eyes are bright though, and again they flicker from grey to violet before he looks away. She feels her vision getting brighter and weaker, and has impression her eyes might be flickering too. She stops right where she is, not caring that some girls yell at her and walk around. Closing her eyes before someone sees, she takes deep breathes until the tingling sensation dims.

Moira hears the other kids in class, make their way around the room, talking to one another, and she tries to ignore them. Hearing movement close to her, she opens her eyes to see Spencer standing in front of her. He looks worried about something, and she wonders if he’s worried about her. So she gives him a smile, and he easily returns it.

“You looked deep in thought there, everything alright?” He asks, as he puts his hand to her back and guides her over to the bleachers where most of the class is now seated.

“Just a headache is all. It’ll pass.” She tries to reassure him.

The closer to the bleachers and Liam she gets, the scent of cinnamon gets stronger and she can almost taste it. She tries to breathe through her mouth and ignore it, as she sits down next to Spencer. But she can feel eyes on her, and has to force herself not to look to see if it’s Liam again.

She gets a reprieve from her thoughts as the teacher tells them that the girls and guys are being immersed again today, and get to play opposite each other with volleyball. They are all instructed to get on opposite sides of the gym, while the nets are hooked up for them. Moira quickly scurries to get away from the scent that accompanies Liam, and Spencer gives her a weird look as she walks away from him. She doesn’t bother trying to reassure him since she’s not sure if he needs it, it’s not like he’s affected by her.

Now that she is on the other side of the gym, her sense are her own again. Taking deep breathes, she wonders if maybe she’s just imagining things. She doesn’t think it’s possible for Liam to smell so strongly. She’s never picked up scents form people before, not even others of her kind. But then, she doesn’t really know if he is like her. His could be wearing defective contacts or something, but deep down she doesn’t really believe that. As the game begins, Moira slinks around the court only pretending to care about participating. That is, until it’s her turn to serve.

She steps up to the net, and holds the ball up high and fists her other hand and pulls it back. Before she tosses the ball, she sees Liam in the back across from her. He’s watching her again, with such intensity that she feels the cinnamon scent tickle her senses even from the distance. He doesn’t look away from her this time, and she feels drawn into his gaze. Only when the teacher yells at her to serve, does she look away. Knowing she’s blushing, she tosses the ball into the air and brings her other hand up and hits it high over the net. It ends up going all the back on the guy’s line, but Liam moves fast and hits the ball back over to the girls side before anyone else can. He never looks his eyes off her and as she looks away from him, she notices Spencer watching her now. He gives her a confused look before turning to glare in Liam’s direction. Now she feels really embarrassed, she wonders how long she was zoning in on Liam.

She ignores both boys for the rest of the class, and actually gets involved with volleyball. This works well for her until it’s time to go back to the locker room to get changed. Spencer intercepts her before she can get inside. They stand off to the side of the girl’s locker room door. He looks fidgety for some reason, like he’s nervous.

“I don’t know if you heard, but I broke up with Quinn.” He says in a rush.

Moira is surprised by this, but the different appearance of Quinn suddenly makes sense to her now.

“I’m sorry, I hadn’t heard that. You want to talk about it?”

“Actually, I was hoping I could take you to the movies tomorrow night. If you’re interested?” Moira notices his cheeks go slightly pink, as he says this.

Moira hesitates for a brief second, not knowing what to think. Since she first met Spencer, all she wanted was to be alone with him and for him to be hers. But it feels different now, and she feels bad that he’d ask her out so soon after breaking up with Quinn. She knows she shouldn’t feel bad for Quinn, since the girl is a monster. She wouldn’t hesitate to take this opportunity, so Moira decides not to let it pass either.

With a smile, she says, “I would like that a lot actually.”

Grinning brightly now, he backs up a step toward the guys locker room.

“Great, I’ll pick you up at six-ish? We’ll talk later though.” He stumbles over his words before he turns around, and jogs over to the guy’s locker room door.

Laughing to herself, she finds it cute that she is making him so nervous. She thought she was the only one, but apparently not. With a glow, she rushes to go get changed for lunch.

Moira walks into the cafeteria later in a daze, and can’t wait to see Spencer. It’s not until she’s halfway across the room to her table, that she picks up on the scent of cinnamon again. It fills her senses and makes her stumble, before she regains control to ignore it. The closer she gets to her table, it gets stronger and that’s when she notices that someone new is sitting there among her friends. It’s Liam, and his gaze shifts to her as she approaches. As they’re eyes meet, her persona tingles under her skin and makes her suck in a deep breath. The cinnamon scent travels through her, and she can almost taste cinnamon rolls again. Liam smirks at her suddenly and looks away, and when he does, the scent dims a bit.

Raven was talking to him when she walked up, and noticing his distraction, she turns to Moira.

“There you are, we have new company today.”

She and the others don’t seem to have picked up on the tension that between them the moment before. Moira finds it weird that she picks up on a new scent and that they don’t. She wishes she could ask them about it, but can’t without giving herself away.

“So I see.” Moira says as she sits down next to a pensive looking Marty.

***

August 2023

Moira lies in bed that night after using her persona for the first time, and tries not to cry. She had never been as scared as she was earlier, and her body aches like never before. She feels like she was beat up, but doesn’t show any signs. Right after Damon ran inside, she was so embarrassed that her appearance shifted back to normal right away.

But she won’t ever get the sight of her brother staring at her, out of her mind. He looked at her like she was some kind of monster, and was really afraid of her. She had run inside before anyone could stop her, and has been hiding in her room ever since. She wishes her mother was here, and not Caroline, her real one. She can’t help thinking that Caroline doesn’t really like her, and she feels the absentness of a mother.

What really bothers her beside her freak nature, is that she got her period for the first time today, and never got to talk about it with anyone one. She’s about to let the tears fall, when there is a knock at her door. Not waiting for her to answer, it opens, and her dad walks inside. Not saying a word, he walks over to her bed and sits on the edge of it.

“How are you holding up sweetie?” He asks lightly.

Rolling over to face him, she says, “I don’t have to go away now do I? Now that I’m different I mean.”

“I’m not letting you go anywhere honey. I swear you never have to leave.”

“But what about Doctor Peter? He said if I ever changed that I had to go back to the lab.” Her voice quivers and tears fall from her eyes.

Touching her cheek, he says, “We just have to keep this to ourselves alright? I’ll help you control it the best way I can, and Fletcher never has to know.”

Moira feels relieved that her father cares so much for her, that he’d lie to protect her. She just hopes that he’s right, and that she never has to see Peter again. Not that he ever hurt her. She’s just scared of his intensity. She’s seen the way her father gets when he talks about the past, and shares in his worry.

She knows though, that her life will never be the same after this day.

***

October 2028

As Moira sits beside Marty in the cafeteria, Raven is on his other side, and Daisy and Ray are across from them. She tries to not look at Liam, but can feel him watching her again. It helps though that she’s sitting farthest from him, as he’s beside Daisy. She can feel her persona tickling her senses, but ignores that too.

“Liam was just telling us, that he grew up on a farm in Montana. Isn’t that fascinating?” Raven gushes as she leans across the table towards him.

“What made you move here of all places?” Ray asks him with a teasing note in his voice.

“My mother’s job got relocated.” He says with a light twang.

Moira reaches into her bag at her lap, for an apple and water. Leaning forward a bit, she lets her long hair fall into her eyes, so that she can peak at Liam. It makes since that he’s from the west, that explains the tan he has. Thankfully he’s not looking at her anymore, and she feels weirdly relieved.

“What kind of job would bring somebody here?” Marty grunts.

“Just business stuff, she’s a representative for a firm.”

Moira can feel his voice wrapping itself around her with the aroma of warm apple pie. Shaking her head, she focuses on Marty instead. He seems upset over something, and she remembered he was missing earlier. She doesn’t want to draw attention to him though, in case he doesn’t want to talk about it. So makes a note to find him later, to make sure everything’s alright.

“You know, Moira’s new this year too. We’re lucky to get you both.” Daisy says trying to change the subject, since Liam seems tense.

“Really?” He addresses her. “Where are you from Mo?”

She looks up at him, and can see him smirking at her again. She really wishes knew what his deal was, it’s starting to creep her out.

“It’s Moira actually. And my family moved from Rhode Island.” She says icily.

“What brings you here of all places?” He repeats Ray question.

The way he says it, it’s like he already knows the answer, and it makes her uncomfortable for a second.

“My dad’s work, he’s in the army.”

“My dad was too, once upon a time. Any specialty?” He’s staring her down now, almost expecting something from her.

Her skin tingles again, and she looks away when she says, “Not really no. Just the usual boring stuff.”

Raven interrupts then before Liam asks anything else and shifts the conversation back to him. She and the others continue to question him about his like and dislikes. All the while, Moira doesn’t really pay attention to what they say. She’s too busy ignoring the cinnamon smell that tickles her senses. So instead, she looks around the cafeteria for Spencer. She finds him at his usual table with his friends. She notices that Quinn is still at the same table, but is now at the other end ignoring him.