Jessica

Us Part Three

Lori was just about to have lunch but when she was told that there was a phone call for her, she promptly left everything where it was and hoped that it was the only person she cared about calling.

She picked up the phone and prayed. "Hello?"

"Hi, mum."

"Lana! How are you doing, baby?"

"I'm alright. I guess I just wanted to talk to my mum..."

"You sound sad. Where are you?"

"Oh... you know, at home."

That wasn't entirely a lie. The one she was standing in front of was their old house.

"Well, if you're at home, can I talk to your grandma?" she asked, sensing her daughter's hesitation.

"No, sorry. She's sleeping...you know."

"Yeah. Right. I know." Lori willingly ignored Lana's weird attitude.

As if she had finally found an opening, Lana started talking again. "Mum, there is actually another reason I called you. I found this attorney, his name's Nelson. His old partner was kind of like you and me and I think he can help you."

The young girl couldn't have seen it but Lori's facepalm could even be sensed over the phone. "Lana... no, you're wasting your time."

"Mum, don't say that... don't say that again, please. You never asked for this, it was all forced on you."

"Maybe the powers were but from the moment I ran away, everything I did was my choice. From the first heist to putting you in danger. I was weak."

"You're not weak." she promptly replied, almost like a scolding.

"I made the wrong choices, it means I was weak. It means I deserve this and I don't want you to waste your time. You're running around in circles, trying to get me out when you could be doing so much more."

She didn't answer, she was too busy staring at the place where they used to hide and she remembered the way she contested every one of her orders, only now realising that she gave her mum for granted. She couldn't have her along with a better life, it was either one or the other.

"Lana, never forget that it doesn't matter where you come from, same goes for the circumstances of your birth or what you once were. The only thing that matters is who you choose to be now. Don't let others tell you what you are, you—"

She was cut off by a stone cold voice, once again taken away from her daughter right when she needed her. So Lana put her phone away in her white trench coat, gave one last glance at her former life and ran away. One would punch something in her place, she only had to point her fist at the ground below her and an explosion propelled her upwards.

She kept doing this over and over, each one being a punch directed at the loneliness, until she reached a rooftop where she heard a louder, artificial, explosion. She saw a police helicopter losing altitude and being rescued and also recognised the guy that shot it down. You already know what she did to him and what came next.

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Lana walked into the Baumgartner residence, trying her best not to make a noise. She inserted her keys and cringed with every noise she made turning them around. When the door unlocked she attempted to move it slowly but it creaked, making her even more anxious.

After closing it even more carefully, she walked around the house on the tip of her toes and was relieved to find out that her grandma was still asleep.

She recognised that her granny must have been a tough woman in the old days but she feared that even she couldn't handle the shenanigans she was up to.

She headed over to her room and locked herself in. Not just in the room but inside her thoughts. Her mum's words still echoed in her head, she just hoped that she interpreted them right. She hoped that she did something right for once and no one would be mad at her this time.