Agony

3

I was staring at a reflection of myself.

Only, my waist-length hair was chopped to right above my shoulders and I had a nose piercing. As well, my blonde hair was back. My skin was more glowy and full. I looked a lot like the old me. The me from five months before.

"Hayley?" I whispered in disbelief.

If I'd been doing the dishes, there'd have been millions of shards on the floor.

She grinned, confidence radiating off of her. "Hey, Lottie-Pottie. How are you?"

I was too much in shock to scold her for addressing me by that nickname.

Sure, I might've had suspicions of Hayley being alive, but I didn't think I'd ever see her again.

"You look like you've seen a ghost." She commented when I said nothing.

I broke out of my trance. "That's all you're going to say?" I scowled playfully, "No 'I missed you'? Should've stayed dead after all these years."

I didn't know how to react. How was I supposed to? There was no guidebook. No WikiHow. You don't learn these things in school.

Hayley shrugged, "Clearly you're doing great out here without me, working as a waitress and all."

I laughed before walking around the counter and pulling her in for a hug. "God, I'm so happy to see you."

She pulled away, "Me too, but I've been watching you for months."

"Creepy." I furrowed my brows. "And you didn't think it would be wise to talk to me?"

She shook her head. "I follow Ace Hendricks, and wow." She ruffled my hair. "My little sister really knows how to pull the hot ones."

I scoffed. "I'm younger by literally two minutes. And, I don't associate myself with that waste of space anymore."

I couldn't believe I'd thought some mildly-famous wrestler would actually be interested in someone like me.

"Every minute counts." She smirked. "Anyway, I saw that video of you getting attacked, quite embarrassing in my opinion, but after that, I followed the paparazzi's photos, they caught some of you going bowling with him, out for dinner. So yeah, I've watched you for months but I had no idea where you were."

Ugh. Not that stupid clip.

I had millions of questions to ask Hayley. How did she survive? Did she go to an orphanage the same way I did? Did she have to change her name? Does she know anything about Venom--

"--Excuse me," A lady called sternly, pulling my attention away from Hayley. "Some of us came here to eat, not to embrace people and waste time."

I sent the woman a death glare. "This is my sister. My twin. We haven't seen each other in almost twelve years--"

"--I don't care. I came here for a service, and I expect to get one. Or else, I'll complain to your manager."

"STACY!" I yelled, wondering who had crapped in this lady's pants. Then again, I supposed that I'd get mad too if I had to be denied access to food.

Moments later my blonde friend bounced her way towards me. "What's wrong?"

"Can you serve this lady? I have a bit of a family emergency, if Jane asks where I went."

"I thought your whole family died--" Stacy began, but stopped immediately when she laid eyes on Hayley. "Oh."

And with that Stacy took my place and I grabbed Hayley's arm dragging her out of the restaurant, to my car in order to take her back to my apartment.

* * *

Hours later, Hayley and I were just finishing up a tub of vanilla ice cream when Stacy barged into the apartment.

"Okay, explain the whole situation, because I was not aware that your sister was alive," Stacy demanded, grabbing the ice cream and spoon out of my hand, before kicking her feet up on the second couch.

She looked between Hayley and I. "And my, does she look exactly like you did in those old photos of you!"

I grinned at Hayley. She sent me a soft smile.

I was so happy to have her back in my life and I hoped we would be able to work together to figure out the truth behind everything.

"Long story short: Hayley escaped and managed to stay alive. She just so happened to become a fan of the wrestler I dated very briefly and found out I was alive through that." I explained.

Stacy nodded, licking her spoon clean. "Nice, nice. Now, give me the short story long."

Laughing, I settled down into the couch across from her, gesturing for Hayley to join us.

I gave Stacy the version without the mention of Venom nor the men in black. Though I assumed they were the same two things.

Hayley had explained how when the man came into our house and shot our parents, he'd nicked her leg. Instead of trying to be a hero, she'd dropped to the ground and the blood from the rest of the family pooling around her body made the man think she was dead as well.

She knew I'd escaped, having heard me scream in the kitchen that night.

I shared how I had run to the neighbours and went to the airport to flee and managed to land into an orphanage eventually.

Hayley continued to explain how she ran away, instead of going to the airport, she went to the cops.

Over there, she'd run into the men in black.

Only, unlike me, she didn't get away from them.

They took her back to some creepy dark basement and kept her there for days. No one spoke to her. She barely got any food and had no idea what they wanted from her.

She'd somehow faked a heart attack and was taken to a hospital. Guess, they had a little bit of human decency. All of this had been in California.

Then she managed to sneak out of the hospital and ended up hanging out with some homeless people for a good few years. She'd blended in with them soon enough.

No men in black came after her.

After a while, she'd landed a job as a clerk in a small retail store. She saved up money and began moving from motel to motel, eventually ending up in Texas.

She'd seen me entering La Vie and finally worked up the guts to say hello today.

I hadn't gotten the chance to ask her about the whole murdering of Ace's mother. We'd get to that another day.

I'd told Stacy previously about my whole family being murdered. She'd been shocked and sympathetic about it, but I figured keeping it a secret served neither one of us any benefit.

"So are you staying with anyone?" Stacy asked Hayley once I'd finished explaining the situation. She didn't seem as fazed by Hayley's story as she did when I'd spilled the details about Dallas and Ace.

Hayley shook her head, sending me a sidelong glance. "No, I've been staying in and out of different motels for years now. I move every few weeks."

I turned to Stacy, pleading with my eyes. "Can she stay with us? Please?"

Stacy didn't hesitate. "Are you kidding? Of course she can."

I pulled her in for a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you!"

It was settled.

My sister was back and I wasn't letting her leave anytime soon.

* * *

Hii,

Update tres! A little filler! Were you expecting Hayley?

Make sure to vote if you enjoyed!

See you with the next chapter!

xx IceCat

QOTC: What's the last thing you ate?