"We're actors in our lives, pretending to be who we want people to think we are."
~ Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
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Will's P.O.V
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The sun had set when I'd finally decided to make my way back to the rental house. I was originally planning on skipping town until my injuries healed but staying in town to look help them find Cassie is more important than hiding my bruises from my family. I chose to head back after I was sure everyone had fallen asleep because I didn't want them to freak out or ask any questions when they saw the bruises on my face.
I could've easily turned on the torch light on my phone to help me find the lock, but I chose not to as I didn't want the light to wake the others up. I fumble in the dark for a full minute before I finally manage to open the door. I slowly turn the doorknob, making an effort to be as quiet as possible. Opening and closing the door is easier said than done as the door is extremely squeaky.
After a few tries I realize that it'd be better to shut the door quickly than take my time with it because that sound would probably attract less attention than the constant squeaking of the front door being opened.
Better make this quick, I tell myself before closing the door and locking it.
I wince as the hinges squeak under pressure, but let out a sigh of relief when I don't hear the other stir.
I sling my backpack off my shoulders as my way to my room to retire for the night. My hand reaches for the staircase but I stop halfway when I remember that I share a room with Alice and Lewis. I shake my head, proceeding to make my way towards the living room. I guess I'll be sleeping on the couch tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to explain where I was when the others find me tomorrow.
The lights in the living room abruptly turn on just when I'm about to look for the light switch and I almost drop my bag in shock. My eyes dart to the lone figure seated on the couch. Her arms are crossed over her chest and a scowl is etched on her face. Her eyes are red and puffy.
She's been crying.
"I know about Cassie," I blurt out after a few seconds of painful silence.
She begins to open her mouth -probably to yell at me- but the words die before they leave her lips when see gets a good look at my bruised face. The infuriated look on her face is immediately replaced with worry when she notices my injuries.
Her hands fly to her mouth, but they fail to stifle the gasp that passes her lips. "Will, what happened to you?"
Remember, family must never be involved...
"I had a run in with some blokes on the outskirts of town," I lie. "It's only a few bruises. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
"Where-" I assume she's going to ask me where I've been, but instead she shakes her head and grabs my forearm.
"What are you doing?" I ask as she to drag me up the stairs.
"I'm going to dress your wounds so you don't get an infection," she says as she opens the bathroom door, her motherly side showing.
"It's fine." I wave my hand dismissively. "I've already dressed them."
"You look like you've just been shot," she tells me, rummaging through the cabinet for the first aid kit as she does so.
I bite my bottom lip. "Well..."
"Someone shot you?!" She exclaims, jerking her head to look at me.
"I wouldn't say shot exactly," I mumble. "More like, um, beaten up."
"Why-? What-?" She stutters at a loss for words.
I rush to assure her. "I didn't provoke them. God, I'm not that daft."
"Did you manage to throw any punches?" She asks, returning back to the task at hand.
"Of course," I reply. "What do you take me for? A pansycake?"
"No. I take you for an idiot," she responds.
I place my hand on my chest, giving her a hurt look. "Well, ouch."
"Just shut up and sit down," she commands, pointing at the bathtub.
"Yes, ma'am," I reply, sitting down on the rim of the bathtub.
Alice rolls her eyes.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, young lady."
"You're only six months older than me," she states, taking out a bottle of disinfectant and a cotton.
"Six months and nineteen days to be exact."
Alice stops unraveling the gauze, pausing to give me a black look.
"What?" I ask. "Aren't your born on the 11th of September?
"Yes, but I didn't ask for specifics."
"Why? Can't a guy show off every now and then?" I question.
Alice shakes her head and mutters something about me being an idiot. She gestures for me to remove my specs then dabs some of the disinfectant onto the cotton wool.
"How did you get attacked again?" She asks, clearing the cuts on my face as she does so.
"Um, I- Uh-"
At that exact moment the bathroom door is slammed opened and a very disheveled-looking Ray barges in. "Alice, I think someone's broken into the house-"
He stops mid-sentence when he realizes that I'm in the bathroom too.
"Will! What happened?!"
Alice answers for me. "Some ruffians beat him up."
Ray sighs. "What did you do this time?"
"Why does everyone keep assuming I did something to provoke them? I'm the victim here."
Ray shoots Alice a pointed look, which causes Alice to shake her head in response.
Are they hiding something from me?
"Not now" her eyes seem to say.
Ray just gives her a curt nod, confirming my thoughts.
Alice looks out the window. "It's late. We'll talk about this tomorrow."
Ray hums in agreement before proceeds to walk out the door. Alice turns to leave the bathroom but I say something that makes her stop in her tracks.
"What was that?" She asks, turning around to face me.
"I'm sorry about Peter."
Tears cloud her eyes and she blinks. "So you know about our past?"
I nod. "Yeah, Henry showed me his Storybook. How- How are you holding up?"
A flicker of sadness crosses her face and it's gone as soon as it appears but I don't miss it.
"I'm fine," she replies.
"Are you sure?"
Alice hesitates for a second before answering. "Yeah. I'm sure."
She then walks out the bathroom without another word, leaving me to my thoughts.
She hesitated...
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Tia's P.O.V
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I look at clock. It's one a.m.
"Where is he?" I ask out loud, knowing that no-one's going to answer me.
I bring my hand to my mouth and bite my nails, I habit I'd formed when I was young. My mother had always said that I tended to bite my nails when I was stressed. I pace the corridor again, checking the clock for the sixth time.
Two a.m. Still no sign of him.
"Calm down, Tia," I mumble under my breath. You're over thinking things. He's probably still delivering the supplies. No need to worry."
The telephone starts ringing just when I utter those words and I jump at the shrill noise.
Maybe it's him?
I make my way over to the phone then take it off the counter.
"Hello?" I call out, bringing the speaker to my ear.
"Tia, it's me. Alice."
"Oh. Um, how are you?" I ask, not bothering to hide the disappointment in my voice. "Did you manage to find Cassie?"
If Alice noticed my change of tone she doesn't comment on it.
"No. I-I don't know how to explain it."
"Do you want me to come over?" I offer.
"No, I don't think I can handle anyone coming over right now," she tells me.
"Okay, well, do you want to meet up tomorrow?"
"I don't know, I need to watch over the twins and check up on Will."
Now that catches my attention. "Will's back?"
"Yeah, why'd you sound so surprised?" she questions.
"It's just-" I pause, taking a deep breath. "My brother said that he'd like to meet Will, that was on the day you told me that Cassie was missing, and he still isn't back yet."
"Wait- Your brother said that he was going to meet up with Will?"
"Yeah. I told him that Will was a sharpshooter and my brother said that he'd like to go hunting with Will. Why? What happened?"
"Will came back all bloody and bruised," she says. "And he told me that some thugs beat him up so I thought-"
"You thought it might've been my brother, didn't you?" I ask, a note of accusation in my voice.
"No. I just thought about what you said when I told you about Will acting odd."
"You think that he's joined a gang."
"It's just- Ray and I are really worried."
"Okay, how 'bout this; you get Ray to look after his brother, Lewis can watch over the twins and you and I have have lunch together to talk about this situation."
"Okay. So has your brother contacted you yet?" she asks.
I shake my head. "No."
"Maybe he's running late?" she suggests.
"No, he should've been back by now."
"Do you want me to call the sheriff's station?"
"No, not yet. I'll call them if he doesn't come back by tomorrow."
"Are you sure?" she asks. "He could be in trouble."
"Yeah, I'm sure. We should probably go to sleep now, it's been a long day."
"Okay, see you tomorrow."
"See you."
Alice hangs up.
I glance at the clock again and sigh. "Where are you?"
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Alice's P.O.V
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I sigh, placing my phone down on the nightstand. I lie back down on the bed, trying my best to get comfortable. I feel the bed shift beside me and I turn to face the boy lying next to me.
"Who was that?" Ray asks.
"Tia," I reply, flipping the light switch off.
"Did you tell her?"
"About Cassie or about us?"
"Both."
I shake my head. "No, not yet. That's why I agreed to meet up with her tomorrow."
"She might be able to help us."
"How do you know that Tia isn't in a gang like her brother?" Ray asks.
"I don't know how to explain it. It's just a gut feeling."
"I know I shouldn't question your gut, but what if you're wrong this time?" he asks. "What if Tia and her brother are trying to manipulate Will onto joining their gang?"
I sit up on the bed, leaning my head against the headrest. "Do you honestly think that Will would fall for a ploy?"
"Anyone can be manipulated," Ray states.
I shake my head. "Will's smarter than that."
"That's what they all say before they are manipulated."
I turn the light back on then grab a blanket and my pillow.
"Where are you going?" Ray asks, propping himself up on the bed with his elbows.
"I'm going to sleep on the couch," I say, proceeding to get up.
Ray grabs my hand. "Was it something I said? I'm sorry, Alice. You know I didn't mean it that way."
"No, it's not that-" I sigh, turning around to face him. "It's just, I know we've only gotten our memories back yesterday, but you still treat Will like he's just a child."
"But he isn't, Ray. He isn't the same little boy who you abandoned when The Shadow brought you to Neverland. He's grown up. He's gotten more mature. And you have to accept that he's changed."
"I know he's changed, and I'm trying my best to get used to it, but it's hard." Ray falters. "He was around Cassie's age when I left him and now he's almost an adult. I wasn't there for him when he needed me the most and I'm trying to make up for it."
I bite my bottom lip. "I know you're trying, but you have to realize that Will's a lot smarter than you give him credit for. He didn't have any friends when Lewis and I befriended him in middle school and he also had cripplingly low self esteem."
"If you're trying to tell me that I've failed him, don't bother," Ray snaps. "I know I did."
"I'm not going to do this right now," I say, getting off the bed.
I hear Ray stumble out of bed as I approach the bedroom door.
"Alice, wait," Ray calls out, grabbing me by the shoulder. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell. I'm just... Worried. Will's grown up, he doesn't need me anymore. I'm scared that he doesn't what me in his life anymore."
"That's- That's not what I meant." I sigh. "This is not a conversation we should be having at two am."
He lets go of me, dropping his hand to his side. "Okay, but we'll talk about this first thing tomorrow morning, alright?"
I nod, not trusting myself to say anything.
"You're not coming back to bed?" Ray asks when he sees that I'm still planning on sleeping downstairs.
I shake my head. "No, not tonight. I really need to be alone with my thoughts right now."
I need to be alone right now.
"Oh." Ray's shoulders slump and I know that he understands what I'm trying to say.
"Goodnight, I guess?"
"Goodnight, Ray," I reply.
I then leave the bedroom without another word.
****
Knock. Knock. Knock.
My eyelids flutter open at the sound and my eyes dart to the front door, then to the clock hanging above the fireplace. It's six a.m.
Who in the world would knock on someone's door at this ungodly hour?
I grab the hem of my blanket and pull it over my head in an attempt to block out the noise. I close my eyes.
Maybe if I don't answer they'll go away?
Unfortunately, they don't. And the knocking gets louder.
"Hello? Is anyone home?" I hear the person ask, their voice is muffled by the door so I can't identify the gender of the person.
I groan, trying to tune out their voice.
"Hello?"
"Oh, for the love of God," I grumble, throwing the blanket off and making my way towards the front door.
I quickly unlock the door and pull out the chain.
"What do you want?" I snap when I swing the door open.
It takes my eyes half a second to identify the person standing in front of me and I gasp.
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Please don't kill me for taking so long to update, I had writer's block. Anyways, what did you think of Alice's and Ray's argument? (Did it seem reasonable btw because I have no idea if the argument made sense at all tbh) And who's side are you on, Alice's or Ray's? I know Alice isn't always right but I'm on Alice's side for this matter.
What do you make of Will and Alice's relationship? How does it differ from his relationship with his brother? I'm asking this to see if I've done a good job at describing their relationship or not so I can see if I need to do a better job at describing it and also because I'm currently over my writer's block and I want to write as many chapters as I can before I get writer's block again.
You guys have no idea how much I missed writing while I was at camp. I finally had inspiration to write and my phone wasn't with me -_- thank God I was given a camp notebook to write my ideas down. I probably should've torn out that page bc my Ma'am looked at me like I was possessed or smth when I handed up my notebook for inspection.
I srsly hope you guys appreciate the stupid ways I try to remember my ideas bc I've gotten a lot of weird looks when I jot down my ideas. I don't know if you guys can tell but I've totally messed up Checkmate's playlist so I'm probably going to wait until I'm done with writing Checkmate to fix it if you guys don't mind. Well, that's all for this A/N, bye guys.
~ Alice xx
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Who do you think's at the door?
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I made this edit a few weeks ago and I'm happy I can finally show it to you guys
"She was brave and strong and broken all at once."
~ Anna Funder, Stasiland
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I made this after watching Miss Pergirene's Home For Peculiar Children. What do you guys think?
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Vote, comment, rate, do whatever you want <3
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