Continue To Lie - Tpn Fanfic

Chapter 63 - Found Family

The halls are dim, so much so that I wonder where each step I take next will lead me. When I had fallen, I heard Emma's voice calling out to Ray and I, but no matter how far I searched, I was still alone. Neither Ray nor Emma are nearby, so here I am, looking for nothing in particular.

I call out to them once more, but recieve no reply. I give up.

      I bump into a wall, nearly-breaking my nose in the process. I swear and comfort my nose, followed with a vexed stomp. I had mentioned that I have no idea where I'm going, and the lack of lighting doesn't do wonders for me, either. These once-familiar halls are changed, contorted. They do not lead me where they once would.

I open the creaky door to our bedroom, distinguishable by a drawing hung there by an adopted child, not sure what I expect to find inside.

     When I take the first step, I am alone. Only then.

     There are countless beds lined up in rows, one after the other. They consist of the same bedsheets used to escape this hell, but when I touch them, they are not soft and smooth as I remember them. No, they are hard like rocks and stiff like joints. They seem more rope than blanket.

      I reach the end of the room, and pause when I find a solitary figure resting on a bed, the body veiled under the rigid sheets.

     I take a cautious step back when she wakes, my hands going to the daggers on my belt. Her mouth opens in a yawn, and she stretches her limbs and arches her back. Her eyes are big and round, blonde hair still messy and tied of knots from the becomings of slumber. She looks at me, just as I remember her.

"N/N," She smiles, her hands resting in her lap. I bite my lip to stuff back the sobs threatening to escape it. My hands fall to my sides. "Helena," I utter. I hear and hate the fragileness in my voice, the possibility I might sink to my knees at any given moment. 

     The door revealing the washroom swings abruptly; my head jerks in its direction. With a plain white towel on her head and our every-day uniform over her body, Abby walks out, drying her auburn hair. "N/N?" She looks at me, up and down. "Your clothes are filthy. You were playing with little Don again, weren't you?" "That rascal," Helena laughs, yawning again.

     I look down at myself and find my gun and bomb belt gone. I am wearing a simple skirt with a button-up shirt and bronze boots, cloaked in mud and dirt. I move my hand to touch my hair, but it is still short. My physical body has not changed, but the clothing it sports has. What is this?

"What are you doing here?" I ask the two. They look at one another in mutual misunderstanding, then at me. "What do you mean?" Helena wonders, stepping up. Her blonde hair sticks to her neck. "We're where you left us- in Hell."

     I take a step back, but Helena continues. "You killed me. Or you might as well have. They ate me and you did nothing but wave. Were you laughing at us? Were you mocking our stupidity behind every smile? Thinking, how can't they see it?" 

     With every step she takes ceasing the space between us, I steal two away. "How does it feel to live outside while we're forever stuck here? Our minds are rotting, you know." She grins, taking my hand in hers. "I hope it was amusing for you." "No," I start shaking my head, and don't stop even after the blood fills my head and tears threaten to push my eyes out their socket. "I'm not, I wasn't, you're wrong about me. I tried to save you. I tried to save you. I tried to save you, Lena."

"Liar." A sudden pain jolts in my cheek, and I finally drop to my knees. My hand moves to rub at the place where Helena's palm struck. I look straight ahead, my eyes like vessels void of feeling. "You're such a liar. You know nothing but lies. You lied when you said you loved me, loved us. You don't lie to save us, you lie to save yourself- and you lie to yourself, most of all. Who have you saved?"