Beneath Your Lies

It had been two full cycles in the abandoned little building until the feverish Isobel had finally threw up all the toxic drug particles out of her system or had it go south the other way. It had been a moment of pregnant silence then to plastered sweat and shivers that ran down her slim back until it ended with the last torturing step. It was pain in the chest and hallucinations that left her vulnerable to the shadows around her. A growing ache in her abdomen and a dangerous hunger of lies and addiction tore at her thoughts, plaguing them until she became a violent person that said things she wished she never unleashed to the people who cared about her.
But it was a lesson that left her empty of tears that crafted her body into skin and bones. It was a lesson that left her eyes shimmering with a need for something that would kill her and the half moons under them understood her commands. She forgot what day it was when the hallucinations took hold of her mind and the pain of the scars that reminded her of the dangerous things people and substances can do.
But every time she saw those ocean blue eyes or the simple fidgeting of the stealthy dexterity of a young prodigy, Isobel took note: Be alive for them.
After another restless night of nightmares and sweat soaked sleep, Isobel climbed out of her nestled home of crazed blankets on a mattress on the ground.
“Good morning, how are you feeling?” Corlain asked, glancing up from a new invention of cords and plaster from a nearby table.
“Fine,” she lied, yawning to support the line so it made it look more casual. “Where’s the doctor, where’s Gabe?”
“Gabriel and Dr. Cythen just left for the facility back at Quince’s. I don’t know, preparing for some important Royals ceremony that all the brats go to--”
“Wait! What day is it today?” Isobel asked frantically, her eyes going wide.
“It’s the sixth cycle, why?”
All the blood drained out of Isobel’s face. She knew her healing took a long turn but almost a month being in this prison had let her missed out her opportunities for revenge. For the man that almost killed her and for the target she was suppose to kill a thousand years ago on the festival. She felt sick again.
“I need to leave,” she concluded, pulling a random black shirt from the ground hoping it was Gabe's or Corlain himself.
“What? Gabriel told me to keep you--”
“Well, I don’t need him to be my jailor. I’ve told this to hundreds of men and I’m going to tell you, sweet Corlain. Don’t. Control. My. Life.” Isobel stated, throwing a thin red cotton sweatshirt over her head.
Her stitches screamed in pain, synchronizing with what was happening in her brain.
“You didn’t let me finish. Gabe only told me to keep you here because he has something important to tell you and didn’t get a chance when you were delirious at all of us these past few days and shouting unnecessary petty insults,” Corlain huffed, his brows forming a V.
Isobel stopped tying her laces from her calf deer skin boots and frowned. She never remember the things she said whenever she had gone crazy off the drug. Every day she was sober, everyone around her acted as if the things she said was just random catch phrases they learned to tune-off. She guessed Corlain had another story to tell that questioned what she actually had been slurring at them all.
“Look, you know that whatever I said earlier, I didn't mean them. If I can’t even remember them, the insults I said meant nothing. Not to you and not to me, understand?” Isobel said, putting her dark locks of hair into a braid that slung over her right shoulder. “Tell Gabe when he gets back, that I’ll be on campus to finish what I started a long time ago. He’ll know what that means.”
Corlain’s eyes narrowed on the gun she cocked and put back on safe. “It’s just for protection,” Isobel lied, knowing that this would be the day where lies would be her friends.
After leaving the building behind and checking to make sure there was no stalkers waiting for her outside or worse, the west coast militia spreading all units at the location, Isobel walked near the edges towards the subway.
This was probably one of the only places in the whole nation that Kings and Queens stood on the same ground as the gangs and beggars. The subway led to other cities and to different levels of the town. Downtown Sirensfret held one of the biggest subway stations beneath the soil so a lot of things left unnoticed went on here.
Isobel herself once left another kill on one of the deserted cubicle sections of the train on good terms.
She found herself in the midst of all the insanity, the heart of her home where the people down here were always looking at the future and never what was going on right at the moment. They were so focused on their own destination that it felt like a ticking bomb every time they heard a slight noise from one of the speakers. That was the signal for each train stopping by. There was a little boy from the slums that would come here everyday to pickpocket the rich bypasses and some rare Royals at the time.
Not once, had Isobel found herself face to face with a Royal. On all the jobs she had to do, ones involving targeting the upper ring rich people, not once was a Royal. She could thank the Lords above for that because just thinking of Royals made her blood boil. Just when she thought life couldn’t get any more unfair, some idiot gifted the royalty power like no other, a power something from a different world that only royal blood had. It wasn’t the power to order people around or to make the whole nation quiver in your rule, it was a power each Royal possessed that was different from each other but equally dangerous. The king could control other substances in life that were fire and metal.
The Queen could manipulate a human’s free will (not that she doesn't do that anyways) by controlling their thoughts. She was considered the most dangerous of the Royals.
She waited until the buzzing noise came from the speaker.
    “The Ciathryn Academy: Royal Campus”
    Only a few people hopped on the train for that destination.
    Isobel sat alone for the whole ride, observing anything suspicious in the people that kept crowding up the bus. It seemed like everyone in here no matter what they were about to do or what they did, would not murder anyone on the train. Because like Isobel experienced, everyone was too busy waiting for their destination. It was the perfect illusion for another time.
    Once she saw the beggars off the crooked streets turn into higher cemented roads leading to the countryside, Isobel finally relaxed to admire the view. Between the slums and the upper circle, there was always some Rural areas stacked in between. Those were always the best parts, the most peaceful.
    The sun was strained today, bringing off wavy hues of colors into the sky with the dancing clouds.
    “Are you going to the Academy? My big brother is making his ceremonial speech right now and do you think I can still make it?”
Isobel turned around from the window to try look at the source of the threat. Then, she looked all the way down to a little girl with the biggests of smiles and hopeful green eyes. She was apart of a rich family but she was too young to be used as bait to her and who knows, maybe the disguise Isobel drew on was innocent enough for a little girl to talk to her. She sighed, calming the alarming nerves that threatened to burst out.
“Maybe, I don’t know. Do you know if Professor Antonio will be there, he’s just my biggest idol and I always wanted to meet him,” Isobel lied, giving the girl a little smile of her own. Hopefully she didn’t lose her technique of plain smiles because she spent too much time scowling or smirking for hungry men.
“Oh of course, he’s uncle Tony and he was suppose to bring me but I guess he forgot. I think you should change your idol because Tony sure is getting old,” she said, her golden pigtails bouncing up and down with her energy.
“Are you here by yourself?”
“Yep!”
Isobel’s brows raised in surprise and leaned a bit closer so only the girl and herself could speak more privately.
“Hey, how about we make a little plan together, you and me. How about, I take you to see your brother’s ceremony on time without reporting that you are going places with an unattended adult, and you arrange Professor-- Uncle Tony and I, a little chit chat later on, hm?” Isobel negotiated. “It will be like a little girl power you know? But first, I’m going to need your name and your brothers.”
Her emerald green eyes widened but not with fear, but with excitement. She was still unaware of the dangers of the world and didn’t know how to judge the book by the author.
“Okay! My name is Penelope but all my friends call me Penny, you can call me Penny! My brother’s name is Darius, I know such a weird name but my nanny said that my parents had always had the weirdest vocabulary… whatever that means,” Penny explained, her energy nearly matching a puppy dog on steroids.
“Um okay, Penny. Well, in case you wanted to know, I’m an old friend of your brother Darius… uh, yeah we met a long time ago and maybe I could get to know him after,” Isobel said, coming up with an identity in case Penny had come to her senses and reported her.
The bus came to a halt and Penny’s tiny hands instantly flew to Isobel’s bony ones, squeezing them so hard she thought her pinky finger lost some blood circulation.
“Alright, this is our stop. Remember our deal, little Penny and everyone will be happy,” Isobel compromised, walking hand in hand to a destination only one of the two knew, that someone would die in vain for justice.
“Okay, last one there is a rotten tomato!”
Isobel sighed.