Don't let go: Joel Miller x OC

Behind The Mask

Wednesday 13th June 2029...

Sophie inhaled a both deep and shaky breath as she faced herself in the mirror. Long auburn hair now almost down to her waist, pale skin, deep ocean eyes... If he wasn't fucking married to her, then the first plan would have been sure to have worked... This could have been over and done with years ago... One look at her and she knew there was no point in even attempting the detailed scheme that Abby had surmised. All it would have done is broken the trust before she had the chance to even build it, and then what? They'd be back to square one, that's what...

Darkened circles now lay embedded beneath her eyes. It's not easy to live a lie day after day, week after week, year after year... To make matters worse, she'd actually grown to like Ava over the past few years. She was friendly and emitted a sense of warmth and belonging... None of this was even her fault. So naive to the fact that she was about to have her entire world ripped apart at the hands of someone she considered a friend. That only made what she was about to do- what she needed to do even worse.

She could barely recognise herself in the mirror. Oh how did she end up here? Selected by Abby after being deemed 'the prettier out of the girls", to infiltrate Jackson, seduce Joel and then lead him to a place where he would be vulnerable so that Abby could give him the same fate as he gave her father....

She'd often ask herself, why she was doing this? But then she'd remember the bloodied face of her uncle who was simply stationed at the hospital to protect it, her only remaining family... a life that was brutally ended at his hands, Joel's hands.

Sophie closed her eyes as a single tear burned steadily down her cheek, unable to look at herself any longer. Terrible person. Wretched and hateful.

The new master plan was one she had come up with all by herself. One that she had been carefully working towards over the past two years. One that she could take full credit on when the time came. It was a delicate matter, one where she needed to infiltrate herself into their day to day lives to gain the trust that she would eventually use as ammunition. One slip up and the plan could some crashing down around her... She needed to take her time.

It made her realise how sick and twisted this world had truly made her. She wished that there was an easier way, one where she wouldn't have to hurt the innocent bystanders in the process. They are just collateral, Ava and Lily. Every action has collateral, is what she would tell herself over and over. Trying to dissociate from what she was about to do.

Joel was a dangerous man. One who had single handedly taken out a whole damn army and caused a national rebellion to collapse in on itself. At first glance most would think that this man had no weakness, just a relentless cold blooded killer... but then Sophie found herself striping away at the layers. Why did he do it? Why did he murder her uncle, Abby's Dad and so so many more? Why would he prevent a fucking cure from being made? What would possess someone to do such horrors? And then it clicked, it was there in plain sight all along... the only thing he rendered powerless against, his one vulnerability.

...his family...

Sophie couldn't be sure of what came to happen to the immune girl. She never saw her, never learned her name and nobody Joel seemed close with, appeared to fit the description...Perhaps she succumbed to the elements? Maybe he was unable to protect her...

She found herself observing him and his day to day life. The fearless protector, a head strong leader, one who most appeared intimidated by, yet respectful of. The same man who would soften to mush just at the sight of his wife and little girl.

She walked away from the mirror and out of the bathroom. She couldn't stand to reopen her eyes and have to look at her unrecognisable reflection. One that was scorned and clouded by darkness. Terrible person. Wretched and hateful.