Alison awoke groggily the next morning. Her eyes red and puffy and still in her gown. She had fallen asleep to the sound of the clinking of glasses and her own despair and had woken to sunlight streaming into her window where she had left the curtains open. Alison sighed, it was Sunday and the rest of the family would mostly sleep for the whole day. She would have the house to herself, and she would do some homework. The excitements of Secondary School.
It felt like an age before she could convince herself to face the world and crawl out of bed. Her movements were laboured and heavy, she was reluctant to do anything. Flynn's words from the previous night were whirling through her brain and she was struggling to decipher what he had truly meant. It wasn't as straightforward as it had seemed, there was a hidden meaning to his words and she just needed to work out what. But thinking about her mum's death and why she was still living with the Lyson's made her feel depressed. She couldn't think of a good enough reason as to why they would want her. She was a burden, wasn't she? Yes, she was. She was different to them, she wasn't family and she required completely different amenities then they did. But they always said that she was family, her mother was family so she was too. Wasn't that what Charles and Emma said?
Alison rubbed her eyes as she made her way into the bathroom and started when she glanced in the mirror. She looked like death warmed up. Which was rather ironic when she thought about it. Her eyes were swollen and red beneath the thick black smudges her makeup had left ringed around the lids. Her skin was pale and patchy; red in places where she had lent, splotches of orange where her foundation hadn't been rubbed off compared to her natural pallor. Her hair was all over the place and her dress was ruffled from where she had slept in it. She wished that she could just wake up looking radiantly beautiful like Amy and Emma could.
That was it. She was spending the day in bed, watching films and TV on her laptop and pretending to be doing work. Last night had drained any energy that she might have had and seeing as none of the others would be leaving their rooms at all during the day she was pretty much safe to do whatever she liked. Splashing her face with water and then rubbing rigorously to remove the stains of makeup, before dragging a brush through her birds nest of hair (even when straightened it was practically impossible to manage), Alison retreated back to her room where she changed and settled back into bed. She lost count of the amount of times tears streamed down her face when she thought back to what Flynn and Felicity had said about her.
Somehow staying in bed and doing nothing but cry and watch films had done her some good. When her alarm startled Alison awake the next morning she felt ready to face the day, to face school. She had reached a conclusion at some point, she wasn't entirely sure when, that the real reason why they kept her around didn't matter. What mattered was the way they treated her whilst she was here and she had nothing but gratitude for that.
"Morning Alison, how are you feeling? Ready for school?" Phillip greeted her as she entered the kitchen. He was smiling rather smugly at the fact that the others all had school whilst he had left and apparently gone to University a couple of years before.
"Oh I'm good thank you. How's your arm? Ready for the needle?" She retorted, looking just as smug as the moment of worry flashed across his face. Phillip really did hate the injections. She giggled at the look on his face as she went to make herself breakfast.
Thwack
Something squidgy hit the centre of Alison's back with force. She arched in reflex and cried out in shock, a hand raised to touch the tender spot between her shoulder blades. The area was damp and sticky. She spun round on her heel and glared at Phillip in fury. "You! ... YOU!" She stammered out in anger. Phillip chuckled as she glared at him. He had thrown an orange at her back; it had burst and gone all over her jumper. Alison tore it off in fury. "If you've bruised my back I am going to murder you Phillip Lyson!" She growled, screwing the jumper into a ball and throwing it at his head. He ducked easily and continued to laugh.
"Yeah, you try that." He teased between laughter. Alison took a step towards him and he quickly sprung to his feet, holding his hands up in surrender. "I'm going! I'm going!" He said with a chuckle before retreating out of the kitchen. She could hear him laughing as he made his way up the stairs.
Once she was sure that he was gone she smiled and shook her head. Her back was throbbing slightly where the projectile fruit had hit but it wasn't serious. She would never admit it, but it was things like that that made her feel at home among this family. She continued to make her breakfast with a smile upon her face.
"I believe you may be wanting this," A soothing voice called out making Alison jump in surprise. She hadn't heard anyone else enter the kitchen, but then why would she? She turned round and smiled at Maxwell who was standing before her with a grin, holding a spare jumper in his hands.
"Thank you," Alison said quietly, breaching the gap and taking it off of him. She'd just about finished tugging it over her head when his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him in a hug. She smiled and rested her head against his chest. "I heard you yesterday... I won't ask why and I won't tell anyone else, but I wanted to tell you that you're not alone." He whispered into her ear softly causing her to freeze in shock. He had heard her crying? If he had heard her then the others might have and she didn't want to have to explain to them all why. She pulled back from the hug and looked up into his green eyes with worry. "You won't tell them?" She asked, wanting to make sure that she was safe.
"I promise," he said, kissing her forehead gently. Maxwell pulled out of the hug as the others made their way into the kitchen. Alison resumed her seat at the table in order to finish her breakfast as the others lined up for their injection. She relished the look of discomfort on Phillip's face. Payback was sweet.
Charles looked up from preparing the serum to glance over at Alison. His face changed from serious into a smile when he saw the look on her face. "Right, who did something to Alison?" He demanded, turning to face his children whilst holding the needle up high in a threatening way.
"Whatever it was. It wasn't me!" Amy declared rather quickly, smiling mischievously which only made her look guilty even though she wasn't. She had a thing about provoking and teasing. Claiming that it made her day much more fun. Alison rolled her eyes but kept her mouth shut, curious as to whether Phillip would own up.
"Why do you think one of us has done something?" Phillip asked whilst his voice was surprisingly controlled. If Alison hadn't know that he was the one to throw the fruit at her she wouldn't be able to tell from his speech. He showed no signs of guilt or weakness, he was causally formidable.
"Maybe because she looks far to satisfied about you three getting injected for something to not have happened... obviously this," He waved the needle round causally, "is a good enough form of payback for her. So, what did you do? And who did it?" Charles responded, looking almost fed up with the questioning but Ali knew he was only asking to make sure that she was alright. Although she didn't see why that was needed, she was quite clearly both unharmed and content, well except from the possible bruise on her back but that was inconsequential.
Charles stared at the three of them for a moment longer, waiting for someone to obviously avoid his eyes. If they looked into them directly then they would automatically give themselves up. Thus, whoever avoided his gaze would be the culprit.
The silent tension in the kitchen grew and was left stagnant, hanging in the centre of the room like a bad odour for a while longer. No one saying a word, the only sound being Alison's shallow breaths. Eventually the ball of tension had swollen to such a size that it was unbearable yet the silence could not have extended for longer than a minute or two.
Alison let out a deep breath, "leave it Charles, it was nothing." She said, her voice was quiet in risk of interrupting the atmosphere. Charles blinked at the sound of her voice and the other three visibly relaxed, released from his gaze. Nothing more was said about the incident, Charles just approached Phillip and gave him the serum. That was the thing with their family, if someone wanted something to be forgotten it would be, it wouldn’t rear its head at a later point in the heat of an argument or even as a recollection of a fond moment. The moment someone said to forget about something it was gone, as if it had never happened.
School was a blur for Alison, she tried to concentrate on her lessons and the conversations that her friends were having. But she was struggling, even when Max tried to get her to talk at lunch time she just couldn't seem to engage with any sort of enthusiasm. Her mind was focusing on the one thing that she had vowed to forget, her encounters with Felicity and Flynn respectively. But she couldn't shake of the brunette’s harsh judgements, treating her as nothing more then an object. No, pet was the word that she had used and that was all that she was to the rest of the society. A pet. Not a person, not an individual. Just Charles and Emma's pet. How on earth was she meant to gain enough respect to be allowed to join them when the deal was completed next year? They all saw her as nothing, so even if she did get permission would they even accept her? Somehow she knew they would, but only once she was on equal footing to them and not a moment before.
As for Flynn, his words rang round her head more then she wanted to admit. She knew that it was stupid to consider what he had said as true but she was. She still couldn’t think of a good enough reason as to why they would want her around and she had never gotten the chance to find out what his theory was. It was strange but she had the conviction that whatever he was going to tell her would have been the truth and that it wasn't by chance that Max had intervened at that exact moment. What if he had been listening in on their conversation? It was too convenient a time for him to appear for that not to be the case. But if he had been listening why didn't he stop Flynn sooner if he was a danger to her? And why act so surprised and angry at Alison for having been listening to him? The questions began to multiply tenfold, spilling over one another in an attempt to reach the front of her brain first.
"Psst. earth to Alison." A voice cut through her reverie startling Alison back to the reality of her English class and the excited drone of her surprisingly young - for someone so dull- teacher's voice. Kirsty was prodding her lightly on the shoulder in an attempt to get her attention. Ali took a deep breath before turning to her best friend with a smile.
"Sorry, I was-"
"Away with the fairies? Yeah, I know... you've been stony faced silent for the last half hour or so. You're lucky that Mr Hall has been so engrossed in the sound of his own voice to want to be interrupted by anyone else's so he hasn't asked any questions.. Although you've missed out on some pretty good notes." Kirsty responded, smiling and nudging Ali's shoulder playfully. She received a half hearted smile.
Kirsty's smile dropped and her face went serious. She was going into over protective best friend mode. "Right, something's up Ali! I get you don't want to talk about your weekend of whatever, which is fine but you've been out of it all day so I think that straight after this lesson you get on your phone let your folks know you're going to be out late and then we are going for a coffee, then shopping and possibly even a film and a pizza." Kirsty looked rather proud of herself for planning an evening out. She swiftly held up her hand to stop the protest that was already forming on Ali's tongue escape. "I am not taking no for an answer. Suck it up princess. We're having a girl’s night out!"
Ali smiled when Kirsty dropped her hand. As reluctant as she was to admit it, going out sounded like fun right now. She was pretty sure Charles and Emma would be alright with it, as long as one of them picked her up afterwards. It wasn't safe to walk alone at night apparently, although Alison was pretty sure she was well acquainted with the worst type of danger this town had to offer.
Class finished shortly after and all the way through her phone call with Emma Kirsty was bouncing up and down and listening in, trying to see what they would see. Alison had a funny feeling that Emma only said yes because she could hear Kirsty through the speaker, she had always liked her.
Alison had finally gotten permission after promising a long list of rules and regulations in order to stay safe and that she would be ready to be picked up at nine from outside the pizza place. She was dubious about this girls day out, for a while she had been worried that it would be a whole group of them as she didn't know if she was in the right state of mind to deal with a whole load of people. No matter how great they were.
But as they made their way into the coffee shop things started to look up. Kirsty managed to keep up constant conversation which swerved around the reason why Alison had been so spaced out and at the same time kept her thinking and engaging. Before long she had forgotten about Felicity, Flynn and all her worries about the future. That evening she was just herself, a teenage girl out with her best friend. Giggling over boys (particularly James King whom they happened to pass on the way into the shopping centre after coffee) and laughing at the ridiculous clothes they got each other to try on.
There had been some dispute when it came to what film they were going to see in the cinema, Alison wanted a comedy whereas Kirsty was adamant about going to see some soppy romance story that from the film poster was evidently as cliché as they come. In the end they had both agreed on something completely different, an action like mystery film. The girl at the ticket booth said that her boyfriend had taken her and even she found it good.
Alison was waiting outside the screen holding both hers and Kirsty's bags and coats whilst her friend had gone into the bathroom. She was glancing round at the posters on the wall causally, whilst also watching the people around her. Many were also waiting to be let into the same theatre as her, others just seemed to loitering. Teenagers using the cinema lobby to keep warm. But there was one man standing off to her left, leaning causally against the wall but that was where the resemblance to the other cinemagoers stopped. His face was stony, clothed completely in black casual attire - black jeans, black hoodie and coat and black boots - his eyes unblinking and staring straight at Alison. She froze for a moment, staring straight back at the man, waiting for him to grow uncomfortable in being caught looking at her and to drop his gaze. But he didn't. His face remained resolute. The hairs rose on the back of Alison's neck and she grew more agitated the longer he stared.
She dropped her own gaze, glancing round to the door of the bathroom, wishing that Kirsty would hurry up so that she wouldn't be out here on her own with the strange man staring at. It was almost time to go into the film. Kirsty had already been a long time, she couldn’t be much longer now. Could she?
"Excuse me Miss Lyson," A man's voice said coolly into her ear. She jumped slightly in fright, her heart racing in her chest. Slowly Alison turned round to find the man in black standing directly in front of her. Very close.
"Yes?" She whispered, the logical part of her brain screaming at her to shut up and walk into the bathroom and wait for Kirsty there. But her body didn't respond. Besides, it wasn't like he could hurt her in such a public place, if he really did intend on hurting her, could he?
"Now Miss Lyson I know that you're a smart girl so I'm not going to waist my time tiptoeing around what needs to be said. I'm Mr Grey and I have a proposition for you. You see Miss Lyson, we both know that right now you are in a very dangerous position, the only thing is you are wrong about where the real danger to you comes from.
"It's not from up high, not yet anyhow, but instead it’s from very close to you. From those you trust the most. Now, I know you won't believe me Miss Lyson but I am a relatively minimal threat in comparison to what you deal with every day without even knowing. You're blinded by a false security that they have lured you into, you've never seen the danger because it's been kept hidden from you, carried out in secret, without you ever having to witness a thing of it your entire life.
"But you see Miss Lyson, my organisation, well we would like to remove you from this danger and thus protect you... teach you how to protect yourself form it. You're experiences have given you great knowledge which could be very useful to us in protecting both you and others similar to you.
"Don't make up you're mind just yet, but take my card Miss Lyson and give me a call when you're ready. I only hope you make the right choice before it's too late. Enjoy the film." The man, Mr Grey, smiled coldly at Alison, handing her a pure black business card before turning and melting into the small group of people. Alison didn't see where he went, she was shaking with shock and fright. She had no idea who the man was but she knew that he knew. How did he know? It wasn't possible. They were so very careful. And if he had known, and if he had been watching her, then why did he think that her family were a threat? Surely he would have seen how they protected her. She turned over the shiny lack card in her hand, on the back impressed into the material was a logo which she traced with her finger only she couldn’t work out what the symbols were. In silver script there was a phone number, one she vowed never to call.
"Hey Ali! You look like you've seen a ghost!" Kirsty's chirpy voice startled Alison, she looked up quickly at her friend who was already scooping up her bag and collecting her coat from Ali's arms. She shoved the card into the pocket of her own coat and smiled.
"You took your time!" She teased her friend as they headed into the cinema screen. Ali tried to keep her spirits up and eventually the encounter with the strange man in black faded from her mind as she enjoyed the film. She had no idea who he was, pretty sure that Mr Grey was a pseudonym, he could be the devil for all she knew (it was unlikely that he was some type of God unless it was one like Hades or Ares or someone like that, there was too much black) and she couldn't care less either way. She was going to push him from her mind because she wasn't in any danger that her family couldn't protect her from and she didn't want to help a mysterious organisation. She would never call. Yet she still kept a hold of that black card.