Human Nature [PARKER]

TWO

[ word count: 1366 ]

[ TWO | UNEXPECTED VISITS ]

WHEN ALISON ENTERED THE APARTMENT EVERYTHING FELT DIFFERENT. What she knew as a warm and colorful environment was now a cold and monotone one. It made her long for the times when she would come home from school and her mother would be in the kitchen making dinner, or in the winter when she went ice skating with her father and Eliza would be in the living room watching a movie while the cookies baked in the oven.

That was when Alison realized that her home would never be the same. Her mom was home, and that home was gone. "Home sweet home," Cristofer said as he stood behind Alison. She glanced up at him, silently judging him for his wording. How could he say that, she thought. How could he say that when everyone knew that our true home was Mom and now she's gone?

I guess he could say that because he doesn't have to live with the constant guilt and blame of killing her.

Alison faltered as her eyes scanned the room. Everything was the same, nothing was moved and she knew that this was the place she lived in. But Alison couldn't help but feel like a stranger in the place she called home. "Yeah, sure Dad," she responded. She took the duffel bag from his hands and made her way to her room, shutting the door and throwing everything aside. Alison sighed and threw herself onto the bed, she closed her eyes once she yanked the covers over her body and longed for the feeling of a peaceful sleep to take over. Moments after she had finally fallen asleep, Alison heard voices near her room. She shook it off, thinking that it was her Dad watching TV then opened her eyes when she realized that the voices were in her room and were currently speaking about her.

"So this is Alison, huh," a girl asked. The brunette didn't move a muscle, fearing for her life. She felt herself begin to tremble as her heartbeat quickened.

"Yup," another girl said, a tone of authority coming from it. Alison heard shuffling around the room and she began to feel even more nervous. She tried her best to reach for her phone while doing her best to not make many movements. Alison heard more shuffling but ignored it assuming it was them walking around her room. Before she knew it, the sheets were pulled off Alison's exhausted body startling teenager. She gasped then pulled herself up and she backed into a corner, which she quickly realized was a bad idea.

"I knew she wasn't asleep," the girl with a hijab commented. At the sight of the three girls in her room, Alison felt her heart beat furiously against her ribcage. Alison opened her mouth to yell for her father before the girl with short, brown hair reached forward and swiftly placed her hand over Alison's mouth.

"We're not here to hurt you, we just came to talk but I need you to keep quiet okay," she ordered. Alison nodded slowly as she breathed in shakily, she tried her best to keep the tears in her eyes from escaping but one had already slipped down her cheek and she was too far gone. The girl slowly removed her hand off Alison's face and sat down at the edge of the bed while Alison brought up her legs to her chest. "I'm Indra," she started before turning slightly to motion at the dark haired girl who sat at Alison's desk. "That's Enya, and that's Akilah," Indra pointed at the other girl.

Alison's lips began to quiver as she pulled her legs up to her chest, "What do you want," she asked them shakily. "I don't have any—," she defended before Akilah quickly cut her off.

"We don't want your money either," she responded before standing beside Indra and sighing. "We heard about what happened with your mom," she said and her claim made Alison want to die in a ditch. "We know that she died but how—,"

"Akilah," Indra dragged out her name, her voice low as a warning. The last thing they wanted was for things to get out of hand, especially with this being Alison's first time meeting the others.

"What," the girl snapped, looking down at the oldest one with her arms crossed over her chest. "Her mom is dead, don't we deserve to know why and how it happened from the girl herself instead of shitty reporters?"

"You wanna know what happened," Alison's quiet voice asked after a moment of silence. The girls' eyes moved towards Alison's trembling figure, the fourteen year old looking up at the intruders with a menacing, empty glare, "Fine I'll tell you what happened," Alison stood up from her bed and she did her best to stop herself from collapsing in front of the strangers. The ache in her chest returned, and this time with her head pounding fiercely. Alison stood in front of Akilah, raising her chin to seem more confident and composed than she actualy was. "I was in the lab messing with things and the next thing I know, I knock something over a plant and there's this gas that makes my lungs feel like they're on fire. When I wake up, I'm in the hospital and my dad's telling me that mom's body hasn't been found," she confessed, tears streaming down her face. In the middle of her story Enya leaned off the desk and towards her, immediately feeling remorse for her. The brunette looked at the broken girl in front of her with a look of worry on her face, and all she wanted to do was console her. "Now you know," Alison said to Akilah with a careless shrug and frown, "I killed my mom, is that what you wanted to hear Akilah?"

The aforementioned girl swallowed the nerves that overtook her once Alison stood up. The poor girl had no idea what she was capable of, and because of that she could spiral out of control in that instant and mess everything up. "Something else is happening though, right," she asked and Alison looked at her, confused. "Ever since the mishap at the lab, you've felt like there's been something different about you. Like something in you finally clicked into place."

Alison stepped away from Akilah, shaking her head quickly, "Get out of my house," she told them angrily. The girls blinked but didn't move, making Alison slightly more angry. Who the hell did they think they were? They broke into her room and started asking questions about how her mother died, and now they're accusing her of being a homicidal maniac. "You guys are psychos," she scoffed, using the term loosely. "Get the hell out of my house before I call the police," she threatened and Enya gulped quietly.

Enya reached to Akilah, tapping her shoulder lightly, "Okay, we're leaving," she said to Alison, and Indra got off the bed. She looked over at Akilah and watched her carefully, afraid she was going to scare Alison again.

"Akilah," she called forcefully, the other girl turning to look at her. "Let's get out of here," she told her then glanced at the girl who was still staring Akilah down. Akilah huffed and climbed out the window and into the fire escape. Alison watched as they left the window one by one until she was left staring at Indra who had a look of slight disappointment on her face. Indra sighed, "This isn't over Alison," she promised, trying to make it sound like the least threatening thing in the world. But to Alison, it shook her to her core and made a shiver run down her spine. Once they closed the window and went down the fire escape Alison released the breath she didn't know she was holding.

Shakily, she opened the door to her room and peered out to the living room then called out to her dad. She sighed when she didn't receive an answer back and leaned against the doorframe, an unexpected wave of relief washing over her once she realized that he wasn't in the apartment to hear.

[ an: listen y'all, this first part is mostly going to consist of self-pity, Alison and Peter fluff even though they aren't EVEN CLOSE to dating, and time skips :))))) also we met the girls yaY!!!!! ]