Chương 40: The girl who was left alone

"Did you do your homework, Lily?" her brother says his line. His look is immaculate. His clothes are clean and ironed, and his shirt is tucked neatly into his waistband. There's a pencil behind his ear, pristine and sharp. He never uses it, but mom loves it when she sees it for some reason, so it serves well for demonstration purposes. A perfect son, responsible and strict in his preparation for college.

"Ugh, but it's so boring!" she says her line. Her look is immaculate. A childish sundress, with a small and barely noticeable stain of dirt on it. It took her a while to pick the right spot and shape for it, just big enough for mom to notice and playfully chastise her, small enough to not actually incur her displeasure. Her hair was brushed perfectly, and then ruffled just right to indicate clumsiness. A perfect daughter, a little hurricane of sparks and giggles, always excited, always having a sugar rush.

Honestly, she had outgrown the role a while ago, but the new one wasn't ironed out yet. That one would have to involve a boyfriend, and finding the fitting candidate was hard.

"And I've done a half already! Really!" That was a lie. Her homework was finished, and doublechecked.

"Can't we go play instead? I'll finish it before dinner, I promise!" His shoulders were hunched as he furrowed his brows, the expression showing the internal war between wanting to spoil his beloved sister and the duty to studying. Good job, that.

"I'm sorry," he says sincerely, firm in his conviction but with a hint of regret.

"I'll need to go soon. There's a new study group at school and I promised to attend. To see if they're worth my time, of course."

"Aww…" She looks dejected, but not too much. Just enough. They both risk a glance at the kitchen. Mom watches happily, quietly humming some tune to herself as she washes the dishes. Her eyes are predatory, but she sees no fault. They are a perfect family.

"Why don't you go play outside, Lily?" she asks. It was not a question.

"I'm sure Missy will be happy to see you again."

"Okay…" She allows herself a few more moments of looking sad. Kids her age were supposed to be whiny, after all.

"Yeah! That's a great idea, thanks mom!" But not too much. She was the bubbly one. Her quick run to the door was, for a change, not a lie. She did want to leave the house. When she's outside she takes a deep breath, but then quickly puts her smile back. You never know if anyone is watching, and you can't let a lie be revealed. Never. She slips into the alley that is too narrow for an adult to pass through. There, in a well-hidden cranny, she grabs a lighter and a pack of cigarettes.

The way to the park is a short one, and she arrives quickly at their usual hiding spot. She finds a twig of the right size, snaps it in half and waits. Her brother arrives just ten minutes later.

"Yo," Jacob says. She passes him the cigarettes. He tosses to her a bag of M&M's.

"A study group, really?" she asks as he fiddles with the twig, putting a cigarette between the halves so his hands won't smell.

"I've never heard of a study group in the school, ever. It's a flimsy lie."

"She'll never check," he shrugs and takes a puff.

"And I've got some friends to cover for me if she does. It's not like you're spending time with Missy either."

"We have an agreement," she says, leaving it at that. She opens the bag. He exhales a cloud of smoke. It's pretty. She eats her candy. They hear a scream. / - / The trash can was small, but she was also small, and it had a lid so it worked well enough as a hiding place. Sure, it was a bit nasty, but the outside was worse, and she was no stranger to hiding in weird places while her brother bailed her out. It took time, after all, to learn how to play. He said that he'll come back for her.

He must've been off his game, because she could immediately tell that he was lying. Still, she waited. At first, because there were monsters outside, a tide of green and gray that slaughtered everything in its path. Then, as the screams faded and she could no longer hear the sounds of bones crunching or the meat being ripped off, she stayed for Jacob. He said that he'll come back, and it was a lie, and you never let a lie be revealed, and she was a considerate sister.

So she stayed and waited, giving him a chance to turn a lie into a truth, to come back and give her some ill-conceived excuse for why it took him so long, and she'll pretend to believe him. She was nice like that. She stopped crying maybe an hour later. The constant pat pat pat of a gun going off was driving her crazy. She peeked out of her hiding place. The whole park was a mass of bodies, human and green-monsters alike.

In the distance, she could see an older man constantly shooting the monsters the moment they appeared out of thin air. A young woman was passing him the bullets, and a boy not much older than Jacob was running around with a sword. She could barely hear the unending string of obscenities, something about 'stealing exp'. Safety. Leaving that trash can was the hardest thing she'd done. It meant depriving her brother of the chance to prove her wrong. It meant saying goodbye.

She didn't want to, but it would be silly to believe her own lie. Approaching the house didn't take long.

"Oh you poor thing," the young woman with the bullets gasped when she saw her.

"Are you alone?" Oh. Fuck. With everything happening, she completely forgot about her mask. How did she look? Was she sad? Worried? Was it visible that she was crying? Was it allowed for her to look like that? What role was she supposed to play here? She wasn't prepared. She needed to–"It's okay," the woman said gently, terrifying Lily even more.

"I understand. Come inside, we'll take care of you." The deer in the highlights look worked, apparently. She will stick to that then, temporarily. The inside of the house was filled with people. She hated it immediately. You never knew what to expect from new people, what they liked, how did they want you to act. Her usual routine for meeting strangers didn't feel appropriate for the situation, and it put her on edge. Was her mother among them?

Her heart was filled with dread as she checked every room one by one, simultaneously coming up with the appropriate mask. Some variation of mourning, perhaps? Surely she was supposed to be mourning. It was a safe bet, she hoped. Her mom wasn't there. She still nearly jumped from her seat every time someone new came into the house, but it was never her. Even when the group gathered and started the walk to the gun store, her mother wasn't there. She was on the verge of panic when they passed her house on the way.

The door was smashed open. She couldn't see clearly inside, but she managed to glimpse a hand, on the floor, with that perfect manicure that she would never fail to recognize. And she smiled for the first time that day. For real. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. / - / She was going to pick the archery skill. Really, she was. It was a good decision, and it would tie her stronger to the group.

Make her useful, allow her to get stronger while simultaneously calming down the louder voices who were concerned for the safety of a child. Archers stood in the back lines, after all. Being a healer would've also worked for her, but sadly she didn't get the option. She might've overdone the childishness act, but it was too late to change it. Lucas was just there, was she not supposed to 'befriend' him to look just as gullible by proxy?

Nancy was just there, and the woman was so clearly desperate to replace her dead kid with a new one that Lily couldn't resist just tugging a few of her strings on instinct. And the role was such a familiar, useful comfort. A different, more 'mature' role would've probably been better, but Lily always sucked at improvisation, so she stuck to what she knew to give herself time to find a footing. Cute kids were protected, cared for, and could 'grow up' later. It was a good, versatile role.

She was fine with being stuck with it for a while. And then she fucked up. Warning: The available pool of skills contains a Heritor-tier skill. Play Pretend. Active. Heritor. Part of The Omnipresent Mimic. Just smile for her, sis. As long as it looks like the truth, it's the truth. Effect: Convince yourself and the world that you are what you're pretending to be. She couldn't not take it. It was perfect.

It was everything she needed her whole life, and more than that, it was her brother's legacy, carved into reality with magic, his own words speaking to her for one last time. Jacob's parting gift. She couldn't refuse it. She wouldn't dare. But she had to change her plans rapidly, because now she was a cute kid with a skill that was useless for a party and had no place in a battle. More than that, she was a cute kid with a secret skill that she refused to share with anyone. It was outside of her role.

She didn't have secrets or misbehave. Her mom would've lost it, if she was alive. Fuck you, mom. Maybe one day she'll be brave enough to say it out loud. Now it was time to see if the skill was good enough to smooth out the edges in her role. She could push to be a scout, maybe? It was believable enough. / - / It was all falling apart. The skill was a curse as much as it was a blessing. Once she figured out that she was a tad too convincing, she was already deep in shit.

Sure, she wasn't that careful when experimenting with it, quite the opposite, but to her defence she had no idea that a glorified magical makeup could do… that. It was dumb of her, yes, of course if she could convince the fucking universe that she was the wind then she could convince anyone about anything. But she thought that she was just exceptionally good with her acting that day. Because she was. She was pretty good. And it was reasonable to assume that her 'pretty good' became great with the help of the skill.

So she didn't notice it at first. And then it was too late. You never let a lie be revealed. And it was all falling apart. She lied to Nancy, she lied to Lucas, she lied to John. She lied to everyone, all the time, and every time it was flawless, and they never doubted her. In the moment. But they could second guess her later, and she had to cover for that. Then they'll second guess her cover, and she'll have to cover her cover the next day. And her first few lies were so obvious.

They weren't supposed to work in the first place! She was trying out harmless and obvious lies to see how it worked when the skill failed. And then it didn't fucking fail, and she yanked people like some kind of meat puppets, and now she was screwed. As days passed, more and more of her time was spent just running interference. Digging her own grave, really. And Jacob wasn't there to bail her out anymore. She can't just hide while he comes up with a better cover story or takes part of the blame. She was alone.

Truly, hopelessly alone. She was having nightmares about the moment they'll figure her out. She was lying to Jenny that it was about her dead family. It was kind of true. Her mom was there, in the dream. When it all became too overwhelming, and she was on the verge of breaking down, she lied to herself. That it was okay, that she could figure it out, that she was fine. And it worked, again. She could now believe her own lies. Silly, that. So she sucked it up, wiped her tears, and worked.

She was that kind of person. / - / There was only one way to cover up such a big and flimsy lie. And it was a better lie. Stronger one. She needed more levels. It was either that, or to reveal the truth, so there was never a choice, really. Play Pretend 3 -> Play Pretend 4 It was convenient that the skill leveled up on its own. She wasn't sure why, she never put even a single point into it, it just did. But it wasn't enough.

For what she needed, the effect was still too weak, the manacost too high, and the emerging passive part of it more annoying then helpful. Joining the raiding party was not an option. She could, but the mind control needed for that would be too big of a risk, and not worth it anyway. Too little experience, too many ways it could go wrong. That left Dennis. She watched him for a while, discreetly followed him everywhere, and studied him like a book.

Noticing what he did, and didn't, what he said, and what he didn't say. Building a model of him in her mind, refining the role she would have to play to join him. It was nostalgic, in a way. Grounding. Dennis was weird. He didn't make sense. He never lied. Not really. Everyone lied. In small ways, maybe, just puffing up to impress their friends, or being more meek in front of their boss. Everyone tried to influence everyone, it was just how people worked. It took her a whole week to wrap her head around him.

To stop second-guessing herself. She just couldn't believe that a person could even exist like that. For a while she thought he was a liar on the same level as her brother. A true master. He wasn't. That left her dumbfounded for a while. Because if Dennis was what he appeared to be… He could bail her out. He wasn't Jacob, he was the opposite of Jacob in every way, but it was really, genuinely possible that she could reveal herself to him and he just… wouldn't care.

The only other person but her brother who she might be honest with, and who would still help her while knowing the truth. The idea was absurd. But she was so sick of being alone… And it might be a way for her if not to cover her lie, then to cushion the fallout. As a Plan B, of course. Revealing herself to him still took almost a dozen attempts. It was just that terrifying. But he didn't even yell at her. / - / He left her. Indifference was such a sweet poison. She knew that he didn't actually want her company.

With Dennis, it was really easy to know what he was thinking. And it was her who fucked up and teleported them to this weird dimension. Her skill that was the final straw that made those cracks grab them. She knew that, he knew that, everyone knew that. The only reason he bothered to deal with her was the synergy between their skills and a little bit of silly blackmail. She won't actually stab him. No one would've believed that threat in the first place, but Dennis was a special case. He left her twice.

She wasn't sure why he even bothered coming back the first time. To brag? That sounded uncomfortably plausible. When she joined him, she was useful and also could somehow threaten him into letting her join. After all, she could stab him in the fort or something. He did take her threats unreasonably seriously. Here, she was a liability. Dennis won't hurt her, but he also won't help her unless it fit into his weird world view.

He didn't need her, and, as she was reminded again and again to her own joy, he didn't care. He did say that he will come back, and he didn't have a single lying bone in his body, yes, but not all lies were made intentionally. His skill didn't need her now. Her threat became useless the moment they got stranded here, and her synergy became useless the moment he upgraded his skill.

She saw how fast he was, almost appearing next to her out of nowhere, just to disappear in a blink after a monologue that was too fast to follow. No need to play damsel in distress anymore. Still, despite the lie, she waited. She waited for hours for him to turn that lie into a truth. The world was silent, save for quiet gunshots in the distance. Those didn't stop. Pat pat pat. Unless she paid them attention. Then it was quiet again.

With Dennis' new speed, he could be on another side of a country right now for all that she knew. It just didn't make sense for him to take more than a few minutes, with how fast he was. So he was either dead, or he just left her. He was probably dead. Come to think of it, she also didn't actually know if Jacob died. Either way, she was alone again. But just like the last time, she'll figure something out. And just like Jacob, he left her a parting gift. She did enjoy watching that anime.

Those nights hiding with a phone under a cover were one of the sweetest memories she had. There was no use in moping. She had to learn to fix her problems herself. The wind blew gently, up to the roof. It didn't concern itself with leaping between them, it just passed. The Arm of High Authority didn't notice the small breeze. Was the wind supposed to do something here? Ah, right. Silly forgetful wind.

"I Am Here," he said with gravitas, studying the weird creature. He wasn't sure how he came here, he was quite confused with the situation, but his gut told him that in front of him was the enemy, so he knew what he had to do. The monster turned around impressively fast, raising its fist to deliver a punch. He could take it. All Might raised his own fist, content with trading blows.

"Texas Smash!"