Author's Note: I've been toying with the idea of writing something in the Bloodlines universe, since there isn't much in this fandom to begins with, when I got this idea for a short drabble fic. I hope you enjoy this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bloodlines. This owned by the amazing Richelle Mead.
Masks
"All deception in the course of life is nothing but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words to things."-Robert Southey
Alicia was always good at lying. Ever since she was little, she always smiled back when someone smiled at her, and responded the few times grown-ups noticed she was there. However, mostly, she kept to herself.
"Why don't you go play with them?" her mom always suggested whenever they saw or heard children around her age play nearby.
She always pursed her lips and replied. "I already have friends." That was a lie of course. She had no friends, nor did she truly long for friends. All of the other children were noisy and boring, unlike the books she had read in her parents' library. When she read her first book on magic, she swore that one day she would be able to perform all the spells described in the book.
However, after the accident that killed her father, her mother changed. Perhaps, watching the coffin (nailed shut, because her father's wounds were far too graphic) of her father being lowered into the ground was too much.
Either way, she was walking out of the home library, when she almost tripped over her mother. Her mother lay on her back in a pool of scarlet blood that gushed from her wrists. Alicia almost gagged, but managed to restrain her stomach and dart over to the home phone.
"9-1-1, what is your emergency?" The dispatcher's calm neutral voice almost infuriated Alicia. How could she be so impartial when her mother was bleeding to death?
"Help, my mother cut herself and now she's lying on the ground, and she's not breathing!"
"Hold on, what honey?" the dispatcher asked calmly as if trying to soothe her.
"My mother cut her wrists, and now she isn't breathing."
"What is the address?"
"I'm on 2900 Oak Street," she managed to reply. "It's the Ridge View development. There's a CVS pharmacy right on the corner."
"Thank you honey, we're sending someone over there right now. Just stay on the phone with me, until they get there."
"It's ok," she replied. "I'm ok."
Moreover, that is what she kept saying when the EMTs finally arrived and worked at reviving her mother and stopping the flowing of her blood. When she went to live with her aunt and uncle after her mother was placed in a mental institution, she kept her distance. Her aunt and uncle may seem friendly, but Alicia had learned the hard way not to trust others. The only things she could trust were herself and the magic that she now wielded. Alicia had learned that the only way to get by in life was to put on a mask, smile a wide grin, and pretend that everything was ok.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed this one-shot and please read and review. I like getting feedback on my stories.