clever as the devil, and twice as pretty.
It is a known fact that when you lie, you do it for a reason - but Nina was lying unhinged and she loved it. she loved the way they left the tip of her tongue. She loved the adrenaline she felt whenever she'...
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STEP THREE. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT LET THE MEDIA SEE YOU.
"What did I tell you?"
Illiana's voice is calm and collected, but Nina doesn't let that trick her. She'd rather have her mother scream at her and yell at her furiously - at least then she knows that her mother is actually pissed. Unlike now, wherein Nina can't seem to wrap her head around her emotions - was she mad? Was she empathetic? Was she proud?
The girl broke into a sweat. Her heart pounded, and her hand began to feel clammy against her bouncing knee. Her hands toyed with her pajamas, thankful that she had gotten a shower before any of this could happen. "Don't go near any cameras."
"Can you repeat that?"
"That I don't go near any cameras," the girl repeated, pacing back and forth, stomping her feet impatiently at the edge of the stairs. The very act of watching her mother breathing in and out was hurting her eyes, and her heart was still threatening to burst forth from her ribcage.
"And what did you do?"
Before she can reply, someone answers - someone she didn't expect at all.
"Give her a break," Valeria deadpans, trying to sound uninterested as possible, but there was still an underlying nervousness behind it. "There are cameras everywhere in Quee-"
Nina doesn't get to hear what Valeria says next. In a matter of one second, Illiana's arm came out of nowhere and slammed against her, knocking her backward. There was enough force behind it to knock her off balance. When she lost her footing, Nina hits her face on one of the cabinet doors handles as she came down.
Pain shoots through the corner of her eye, right near her temple.
"Goddamit, Nina," she hears her mother say, still monotone as ever. "It's not funny. You've exposed yourself to the fucking world!"
"Nina!" Samara appears from her left, altered by the sudden sound of something slamming against the wall. She looks at her sister, then at her mother who was at the top of the stairs, then at Valeria, eyes wide in fear. "Mom? What the hell is wrong with you?"
Illiana never hurt her children. Directly. It was always them hurting each other under her orders, but she never laid a single hand on any of them ... until now.
"Fix her, up Samara," Illiana states, voice cold. "When you're done, go to sleep."
When her mother leaves, Nina sighs and shuts her eyes close, listening to the T.V report while her sister tended to her wounds, exchanging hushed whispers with Valeria.
"... ATM robbery thwarted by Queen's own crime-stopper, the Spider-Man, and an unknown masked vigilante at Queens Community Bank. No destructions and casualties were ensured as the robbers leave at this unknown hero's command. This new masked girl - friend or a foe?"
