Three Secrets Of Lisa Reisert's That Just Never Came Up
1. Lisa cannot get into a truly sound sleep unless she showers first. She'll toss and turn until she resigns herself to it at varying times between 1 AM to 3 AM and then will return after however long it takes for the hot water to run out. Her sleep is deep after that and not even a touch on her cheek will awaken her—not even the lethal shadows that prowl and poke. (It is his favorite time of the day.)
(Nothing else works. Not even various sleeping pill prescriptions. He finds it curious, but writes it off mostly on insomnia running in the family.)
He does not realize the connection until ten seconds before the pen is shoved in his throat, and then vilely curses himself for emphasizing the physical over the psychological in his ruthless pursuit of her compliance.
Fuck it, he thinks, later, and pulls a knife off his dead mutt. It's too late for tenderness now.
(Lisa prefers tea over coffee despite the amount she drinks of the latter at work—there is a clear difference between preference and need.
He doesn't much care for either, but makes note of which brand of tea she keeps stocked in her cabinets.
Just in case.)
2. Lisa does not speak with her brother. At all. Her father calls as much as twice daily (nightly) and her mother checks in maybe every two weeks and god knows that there's a constant stream of calls from work (all the most fucking tedious things possible, are none of her underlings competent?)—and Lisa takes every one except for that rare monthly call that she just lets sit on the table and pretends not to hear. He knows for a fact that she deletes her brother's messages immediately and without even listening, which is very vexing when that is the only thing he truly wants to hear of the lot.
Sometimes he thinks she does it to spite him. Sometimes he thinks that she is playing purely to his audience. Sometimes he wants to break through that fourth wall between him and her and just make her see, but he is a patient man, a disciplined man, a details man.
He doesn't know how sharp the edge is on this detail, nor the length, nor the precise balance, and charging in blind is just not his style.
He lets it lie. He hasn't spoken to his own brother since he was eight after all, and he suspects a kindred spirit in Lisa (with just a little push and shove and he'll know it and, best of all, she'll know it).
The push and shove is not so little against the wall of her brother's old room and he'll never, never know that every message is "sorry, sorry" in the broken tone of a man that did the same to her before Alias Rippner ever got a breath of her perfume mixed with the even more intoxicating smell of adrenaline and fear and sweat that he caused.
So sorry, so so sorry, the man tucked away will beg and never know that his sister has learned to fight. Just like he taught her to lie.
(Her father knows nothing about this either.)
(Lisa has three tickets for not using her seat belt while driving, but that's just because she's only been caught three times. Alias Rippner clenches his teeth and promises himself that once he has her, he'll keep her pinned down.
Safety first.)
3. Lisa shows no particular interest in religion, even with a choice of Judaism or Catholicism via her father and mother respectively, but she celebrates all the Jewish holidays with her father without fail, and she knows her bible verse as well as her mother. Neither parent seems to have any idea that everyone else who knows Lisa is aware that she is an atheist. (But not many people know Lisa anyway—he is starting realize that he might be the only one who really does.)
Lisa is practical, so practical and cannot suspend her disbelief long enough to recognize anything that isn't testable or physical or lying (dying) right before her eyes.
And he wonders if she cares where he might go after his breath rattles out of him.
It scares him (to be alone) how very, very intent she is on surviving without mercy to anyone who might stand in the way of it. Twice now she has shrugged off the deaths of enemies that only someone truly godless can do, and as she walks away, he wonders.
Maybe he pushed and shoved just a little too hard?
(Lisa truly does keep her secrets well.)
Author's Note: This really got much darker than I originally intended it to be. Would you believe that I began with intention of something humorous? No? Too much to ask.
This isn't meant to be a "Lisa is soooooo evil" fanfiction; even if I portrayed her as a bit of a monster. I love Lisa, really, and I was just taking the concept of "never a victim again" a bit farther than they did in the movie. Sometimes victims have to have a bit of monster in them when it comes to confronting their own. Jackson is certainly no better in this case (with an over heavy touch of Stalker! going on), so it's a bit of "like recognizes like".
Any inconsistencies between scenes in the movie described in this story can easily be blamed on me not watching Red Eye again before writing this. It's been a feel months since I've had the time for writing or movies. I obviously made up a bunch of crap too.
This is pure one-shot. "Update soon!" would be a mildly irritating way to review.
Kiss kiss and thank you for reading!
P.S. Listening to Paramore's "crushcrushcrush" was an awesome background to writing this. It might be equally awesome to read it to? Give it a try.