❝Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.❞
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Alissa Cameron was just an ordinary high scho...
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Saturday nights weren't always this hectic, but they certainly were this anxiety-inducing. The hundredth time of checking myself over hadn't done a damned thing to soothe my insecurities. Really, if anything, it just seemed to worsen them. What if he thinks I'm some hideous hag? What if my dress is too short and he goes around telling everyone I'm easy? What if my hair gets frizzed by the humidity and ruins my whole look? No matter what, the worries kept coming, until I was flopping on the nearest surface—which happened to be my desk chair—and burrowing my face down into my hands. The heartiest groan of all hearty groans escaped me, surely evoking laughs from whatever flitting entities inhabited my room.
"Fuck," I said simply, knowing if I said it any louder, Jared would hear and—damn him—he'd come and lecture me on language, of all things. The jerk took any opportunity to assert big-brother authority over me, and it was any wonder how he hadn't sniffed out my nocturnal plans and, somehow, planted a threat in the soles of tonight's date. Knowing the guy—his name was Tom, bless him—and his fraidy-cat personality, he would have certainly turned tail and ran, so the more minutes that went by without a last-minute phone call, the better for my conscience. Who wouldn't go mad with rage if their sibling cut the ties on a date for the fifth time that month? I wouldn't hold it against my heart to have a fatal arrest if I did end up dateless for the night. I could keel over, and I'd probably thank the fates for it, considering I'd commit murder if I spent more than two minutes still living afterwards.
Besides, Jared didn't have the slightest authority over me, aside from an extra ten months that allowed my itty-bitty embryo to develop in the womb, and even if he did—even if he was the freakin' president of Earth—he didn't deserve my patience, or my obedience, or to even hear my beautiful voice. He was just an asshole, and I wasn't going to cater to his ego like his stupid girlfriend did any chance she got. Fucking Kim, and that obsessive, Jared-is-soooo-perfect complex she had going on before the change. Before he suddenly thought Kim was perfect, and I was just a fucking speck of cosmos in the Milky Way.
"Yo, Alissa—you in there?" And would you look at that—speak of the devil, and he shall appear.
I didn't fight the great, ugly scowl as it appeared, but I did fight off the aching fight-or-flee reflex that accompanied it. "What do you want, asshole?"
A pause. Then a sigh. Jared was always one for dramatics; it was any wonder he didn't join drama club. "Just—stay inside tonight. Please. It's not safe, and I don't want to see you hurt."
Huh. That wasn't what I expected—no, not at all. Despite my curiosity at why he pegged me, his little, annoying sister, important enough to ward from venturing outside, I couldn't stop the bark of laughter, even if I wanted to. "Don't pretend to give a flying fuck about me, Jared," I snapped, ignoring the bitterness, hoping he heard the seeping hatred, even through the door. "And besides, I'm not going outside anyway. So be on your way. Toodles!"
