Don't Lie to Me

Chapter 1

Lies construct our world. Confusion shapes it. I was born from the ashes of the truth, burnt down by generations and generations of broken hearts. I was nothing more than a hope, nothing less than an expectation. But I wasn't like the others. I had truth, I had honesty, but no one else could see it.

I took every punch and kick that the people inflicted on this world into my mind. They resounded in my brain, echoing off the walls and pouncing on each reacurring thought. I could feel them whispering to me. I knew they would each go away slowly, forgotten through time, but they would soon be replaced by the onslaught of pain.

When I was a child, my mother would constantly be woken up by my screams of confusion, whimpers of pain brought on by the overflowing words. My mom was terrified of the moment that she would be jolted awake by an earsplitting scream, running to my room and feeling helpless because there was nothing she could do. She worried about me.

No one knew what was wrong with me, and when I told them there were voices in my head, they exchanged frightened looks and just gave me more pills, instructing my mom to give one to me each night. They didn't make the voices go away. They only reduced them to muffled murmurs, still there, just muted. But as soon as the pills wore off, they came back, louder than ever.

I learned to keep my screams of fright to myself so as not to frighten my mom. I learned to pay attention to them, learn what they meant. I could tell each one inflicted pain from the echo it left behind. Sometimes I would hear the voice right after I heard someone say it. I could feel their deceit, their doubt in their own words, some of them not even realizing what they said.

I was incapable of lying myself. Everytime I tried, I felt a splitting pain rip through my head, deafening me, unable to hold back a scream. I tried once, lying to my mom. I started the sentence, but before I could finish it, I was doubled over in pain, gasping for breath. My mom ran to me, begging me to tell her what was wrong. Once I caught my breath, I told her I was fine, just a cramp. She looked at me, her deep blue eyes filled with pools of pain, and I just turned around and walked away, refusing to tell her. I couldn't tell anyone. No one understood.

~

"Elle, pay attention. I have a serious problem that I need you to help me with. Pay attention!"

My best friend was freaking out about her project that was due that day. I sighed and looked away from the window, deep in my thoughts, or, to be more truthful, theirs.

"What?"

"Ugh! I need you to focus! If I don't finish this poster before third period I'm going to fail my English class! My parents will kill me!"

I gave her a smile and looked down at her messy start. She needed more paper, more information, more...forget it, she would never be done on time. She wasn't very good at English. This was her second chance at catching up on her grade. Our teacher had taken pity on her and alowed her to redo her project one more time so that she could make up her grade. He wasn't going to give her another chance if she messed this up.

"Alright Claire, just take a breath. The first thing you need to do is add more information. Mr. Elliard isn't going to accept this if you only write a few sentences. Write more about the origin of your author and add pictures to fill up the rest of the space."

Claire nodded and ran to the computer to type up more info. She murmered a quick thank you, and then focused herself on her homework. I looked back out the window and fell back into my thoughts.

"I didn't cheat...."

"I will do my homework later...."

"I didn't do it!"

I heard these voices over and over, some repeated again and again. No one understood just how much they were inflicting on me.

I flinched and my eyes grew wide when all of a sudden it was quiet. I didn't hear anything. I only heard myself.

What was happening?

And then I heard it. One voice speaking calmly, clearer than any of the others.

"Don't lie to me."