Hi guys! Thanks for all the great reviews again, in this chapter we finally get into the story!

Not too much to say but, well, enjoy! ^^

-Realm 13


Chapter Four

Smash

The sharp and piercing wail of a whistle bursts through the quiet chatter of the children and the loud thud of a chorus of screaming people run towards the center of the gym while one child remains rooted in place, stunned on the floor of the gym. Rubber dodge balls begin to whiz through the air, smashing into some, racing past others. Lie stands amidst the high school slaughter, frozen in confused fear.

The tips of her light brown hair have begun to turn black, the brown die wearing away. The bright red flash of a rubber disk comes barreling out of Eric Cartman's smirking face from the other side of the room. Lie stands, frozen. From standing beside Cartman, Kenny watches Lie with an expression of mixed shock and horror. Lie's eyes, her pupils swimming in the vibrant green irises, begin to rapidly shrink with panic, becoming tiny black pin prints, nearly invisible in the green of her cat like eyes. Her mouth opens, a tiny crack as the ball is just inches away from her nose.

In a fraction of a second Lie's palm shoots outwards, her body shifting into a bizarre, sideways fighting stance, her pupils smash back into their regular size and her gaze turns into a violent, bloody glare. Her fingers grip around the edge of the ball like the claw of a dragon, stopping the strong throw literally in motion.

"Well fuck me." Cartman says, gulping as sweat runs down his face. Lie shifts again, into that bizarre and pointed fighting stance, and hurls the ball with incredible speed and strength in Cartman's direction. The ball smashes into his forehead and he nearly flips over his knees, lying flat out on the floor of the gym. Every other child in the room stops and begins to stare, silently.

"Kitz, out! No head shots!" The gym teacher's shrill voice screeches from the bleachers. Lie's face loses all color and turns to a pale white of a ghost, her body loses the sharp and pointed violence of the instinctual fighting stance drilled into the back of her mind by primal instinct and years of necessity. She gulps, the oversized white gym shirt swishing around her frail form, the one long strand of her brown and black streaked hair rests on the tip of her nose.

"But he…" She mutters the words nearly silently under her breath, so no one hears her but the person standing closest to her. "…attacked me…"

"Attacked you…?" Stan repeats to himself quietly as Lie turns away, her head hung in partial shame to go stand on the side lines.

The dodge ball game then resumes, with Cartman gone, sent away to the nurses office with a potential concussion. After a few minutes, Lie is instructed to re-enter, and she stands quietly in the far end of her side of the court. Stan rushes over before the next round starts.

"Hey, that was pretty sweet, kicking Cartman's ass like that." He elbows her in the side, giving a playful smirk. Lie gives a wide smile back, grinning nearly ear to ear.

"I can do a lot more than that… but…" She frowns. "… no head shots?"

Stan laughs, "No head shots." Wendy glares from across the room, whispering something to Bebe. Bebe nods, repeating it to Milly, who repeats it to Red, who repeats it to Rebecca, who repeats it to Kate, until every girl on the opposite team has received a silent message from Wendy.

Kenny runs over to stand next to Kyle. "Stan's getting along well with Lie." Kyle says, looking up at the slightly taller Kenny.

"Mmmuph nmmumph umunfum."

"What?"

Kenny pulls on the strings of his hoodie, shaking out his hair and repeating. "Wendy sees that too." The two boys turn their heads to see all of the girls on their side lined up in a perfect, pack formation, Wendy leading them.

Kyle laughs. "Damn."

The whistle tears through the air and the children all dart forward. Wendy, Bebe, Red, and Rebecca all hold red dodge balls perched in their hands. Lie comes out empty handed and watches with a look of cold calculation as each girl raises their ball.

"Go!" Wendy shouts. Each girl hurls their ball with full speed at Lie's head.

Lie's eyes narrow and she snaps into that same stance, side stepping the first ball by barely a hair. Lie brings her right hand up, snatching Bebe's ball out of the air and smashing Rebecca's ball away with it. She hurls the ball in her right hand towards Wendy just as the fourth and final ball wizzes over her shoulder. Bad Aim.

The final ball in the air sails towards Wendy Testaburger and before she can even glare at Lie, it smashes into her stomach, forcing her to stumble backwards and nearly falling onto the floor.

The bell trills, signaling the end of the second to last period of the day.

"Jesus Christ that was G-Gah!" Awesome…" The blonde boy named Tweek cheers as a crowd gradually begins to form around Lie.

"Thanks…" Her voice is quiet.

"How'd you learn to throw like that?" A dry sounding raven haired boy in blue asks.

"The way you knocked Cartman on his ass!" Token shouts.

"I'd kill to do that once to him…" Kyle says, smirking.

"Thanks…"

"Seriously, fucking awesome, dude." Kenny says and Stan nods.

"Thanks…" Lie glances over the crowd of boys and a handful of goths to see Wendy storming over, a dark look in her eye. Lie turns away from the crowd, hurrying into the girl's locker room and leaning over the sink. She catches her own reflection in the mirror and reaches into her gym locker, pulling her blue hoodie over the gym shirt and quickly shuffling her shorts of and pulling her jeans on. Then Wendy and her group walks in.

"What the hell was that?" Wendy hisses, glaring at Lie in the mirror.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said, what the hell, bitch? I saw the way you were looking at Stan and all of those boys that crowded around you." Wendy snips.

"Are you a whore, Lie?"

"Yeah, bitch?" All of them begin chattering viciously, tearing at the un phased girl.

"Oh look, is that black in your hair?" One of the girls chirps.

"I knew it, brown wasn't even your natural color!" Bebe snickers, kicking over Lie's backpack. The top zipper was undone and her things come spilling out. Lie sighs, finally turning around, and a look of dry disinterest in her eyes.

On the floor now lies two water bottles, one half full the other new. A box of half eaten pop tarts lie open, held closed by a clip. Also now on the floor is a long and worn piece of rope and a half used roll of duct tape. Along with this is her grey tank top and a rusty pocket knife.

"Oh my God guys, look! She has all her stuff in this shity backpack!" The girls begin to snicker and giggle wildly, kicking the things across the locker room floor.

"Look, Lie," Wendy says the name like its poison. ",you hang around Stan anymore and I'll make sure everyone in the school knows you're a two faced whore. No, everyone in the goddamn world. I'll post your name on websites, and upload pictures of you naked to every blog in the damn world. I'll make sure you can't go anywhere without being recognized." Lie's blood runs cold.

"Any other threat… anything else I couldn't have cared less about… but the one thing I need to not happen…" Lie shivers.

"Got it, bitch?" Bebe hisses. Lie nods her face turning pale again. The school bell signaling the last period of the day trills throughout the halls and echoes throughout the locker room. Wendy scoffs.

"Let's beat it." Milly makes one last kick at Lie's things, sending the roll of duct tape skidding across the floor and into the locket set. The door slams shut behind them and Lie breathes a deep shuddering breath.

With a loud and sharp groan Lie whips around on a pivot and smashes her fist into the mirror. The glass shatters with a sharp crack and blood rolls off of her right thumb. Her reflection is now distorted and cracked throughout the different shards of glass.

"Screw this." Wordlessly Lie picks up all of her things and violently throws her backpack over her shoulder, storming out into the gym and out into the street through the back entrance.

Kenny watches from hidden behind the bleachers.

Lie makes out into the road and begins to run as fast as she possibly can towards Stark's Pond through the deserted streets, tears beginning to sting the corners of her eyes. Not because of Wendy or because of any other petty girl, but because of this. Her situation and her life. It's never going to get better and it's never going to go away. She'll always be like this and everyone else will be too. Afraid.

She hears the noise of feet hitting pavement out of sync with her own pounding footsteps and turns around, stopping in the middle of the road. She throws her arms up in the air above her head, walking in a circle in place, speaking between violent shuddering sobs. "Okay! Okay c'mon then!" She holds her breath, as if expecting something. "Just do it already! I'm right here! Just do it!" She screams. The echoing silence of the street greet her. Lie turns, running back off again into the forest.

Kenny slowly eases out from behind his cover of the dumpster, realizing he's totally lost her. He was right about her. He watched the way she defended herself and attacked in gym. You don't just learn that kind of instinct and brute force from martial arts classes, you learn that from instinct. That part of a person is burned in, seared onto them like a brand. The way she moved wasn't even second nature. It was too much to be second nature. And that fear in her eyes when the first ball came… Kenny shudders just thinking about it. That was fear. Potent and thick. That was fear.

Kenny sighs, realizing he won't be able to find Lie until later. He turns, walking back down the road towards the railroad tracks and to his home.

Once in the cracked and weed filled driveway, he pauses before the door, expecting loud drunken slurs. Then he hears them in his silence, when before it was muffled by the sounds of the wind.

"Shut 'yer mouth ya' drunk bitch!" His father screeches like an animal. Kenny sighs.

"You shut up ya' dumb asshole!" His mother slurs.

Kenny eases open the door, nearly using his backpack as a shield. His father and mother stand on opposite sides of the couch, a large cigarette in his father's hand and a bottle of vodka in the other. His mother, a tall and skinny woman with disproportionate features and a dirty face holds a bottle of wine in her left hand and it sloshes the staining red liquid across the already stained carpet. Her scraggly vibrant red hair lies tattered on her dirt smudged face. Her lip is busted and bleeding.

His dad's signature trucker hat is crooked on his mop of dish water brown hair, his blue shirt is nearly falling off his shoulders and it looks like vomit is on the floor beneath him. He turns and sees his son in the doorway, his face pressed into a disgruntled scowl. Kenny pinches the bridge of his nose and tugs his orange hood over his face, but before he can tighten the lip around his face his father speaks.

"Oh, look who 'da hell it is! Our damn dumbass-s-s son…" He slurs, taking a long swig of the vodka. "Come in son…" His father motions him over.

"Don't get 'im involved, dick! He's just like you! A good f'r nothing piece of shit!" His mother spits.

"I 'aint no piece of shit! He got that from you, bitch!" He takes a long drag of his cigarette and spits on the floor.

Kenny turns to walk behind his father into the hallway to his room when Stuart abruptly stops Kenny with his hand. "Where the hell do you think you're going, shit?"

"To my room."

"Are you try'n to sass me? Huh, ya' little smart ass? Little shity smart ass? Huh, huh?" He slurs, shoving Kenny on his chest. "That's my room that I paid for with my money and all that-", He pauses, taking a long gulp of the vodka. "-all that shit in there that I paid for?"

"Fine, your room, Dad." Kenny puts his hands up in surrender.

"Don't bullshit me you little shit!" Stuart swings a heavy punch into Kenny's stomach and he topples, nearly smashing into the wall. Kenny grunts, staggering. Stuart kicks him sharply in the ribs, to incoherently intoxicated to console or calm down. He kicks him repeatedly until Kenny begins to retch and vomit on the floor.

Stuart pulls him up by the collar and drags him up the wall, dropping the burnt out cigarette on the carpet. "Don't you shit with me… son." His father then swings his fist into Kenny's eye with brute force and smashes the bottle over his head. Kenny crumples to the floor, blinded by the stream of vodka dripping from his blonde hair into his eyes. "Teach you s'me damn respect." Stuart hisses.

Kenny, as he scrambles off of the floor and out of the room, takes a sideways glance to see why his mom didn't interrupt. He sighs, finding she's passed out on the couch, the wine dropped and guzzling all over the floor. Kenny runs down the hall, slamming the door behind him and sliding down, reaching up with an explosion of pain to lock the door.

Kenny sputters, blood spilling out of his front teeth. He drags himself over to his window, looking in the faint reflection to assess the damage. A small and jagged cut runs along the left side of his head just above his ear from where the bottle broke. His eye will no doubt be blacked tomorrow, and more than likely one of his ribs is bruised.

"Damn…" He mutters, collapsing on his bed.

"Just come on!" Lie's frantic screams echo through his ears and Kenny cringes. His eyes fall upon his dresser drawer.

At least there's one thing he can do today.

Lie snaps forward into her sideways defensive stance, lurching forward and landing sharp and pointed blows into the air. Her foot swings around and lies a straight kick into the side of the small tree trunk, spinning around on her free foot and landing another punch. She jumps backwards, skidding in the leaves.

The sun hasn't set yet and still burns with late afternoon haze through the thick heavy trees. Her breath is ragged and her eyes narrowed with a fierce burning rage. Her cheeks are puffy with dry tears of frustration and her eyes are still a little swollen from crying. Her grey tank top sags off of her frail and sagging dirty shoulders loosely and her jeans are newly ripped.

As she begins another round of attacks a voice startles her from behind. With instinctual precision she brings her foot around and stops seconds before sending Mysterion sprawling out across the leaves. Her toe is just close enough to feel the fabric of his hood. He seems unfazed, his simmering blue eyes watching her curiously. He can see she's been crying and beads of sweat drip of her face like rain.

Lie lowers her leg and stands, facing Mysterion as an equal.

"Hello." She pants.

"Great reflexes there." Mysterion smirks.

"Mm." Lie watches him silently. "Is there a reason you're here? Or just the usual, 'my eyes' bullshit?"

"Just the usual." Mysterion jokes. He wouldn't normally talk to anyone like this, at least not in disguise, but he feels some sort of flexible yet physical duty to make Lirah a little happier. She seems extremely torn up and he needs to find out why exactly. Only very petty girls could be affected by Wendy and her friends, and Lie just isn't the type to be bothered by that kind of shit.

"No, that's not it." Lie corrects him, sitting against a tree in the leaves. Mysterion sits across from her. "You're here because you can tell I was crying." Her eyes narrow with that emotionless and icy glare that could strike terror into someone.

"…yes."

"Why do you care?"

"What did the Testaburger girl say to you?" Lie raises an eyebrow.

"Oh? You know Wendy Testaburger?"

"I've been in this town for a long time, Lirah. I know everyone."

"Right, right. How do you know she talked to me?"

"I have eyes everywhere, remember?"

"Right, right. Lie by the way, not Lirah." Mysterion nods in acknowledgement.

"Alright, Lie."

"She told me she'd post pictures of me online and make sure everyone knew my name." She admits sheepishly, going pale. Lie reaches for her backpack, pulling it close to her and drinking a long gulp of the water.

"Oh? You don't seem like the type to be bothered by that, camping in the woods and what not."

"You think I give two shits about what she thinks?" Lie scoffs loudly. "It's just… no one can know who I am or where I am… or else…" She goes silent. "I don't know why I'm telling you all this…" She mutters, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Because I can help." She scoffs again.

"If you think you can help me, let me tell you something, Mysterion. Your head is far up your ass."

Mysterion raises an eyebrow, still visible through the mask. "You'd be surprised."

"No, I don't think I would be." Lie bends, packing up her things and pulling her hoodie on. The sun has already set and a darkness is seeping into the sky.

"Where are you going?" He asks, standing. Lie looks at the sky, forlorn painted on her face.

"I don't know." She whispers, barely audible. Then a loud noise rips through the clearing. Mysterion jumps and Lie blushes a crimson color.

"What was-"

"Just my stomach." She admits softly, turning her head away.

"Are you-"

"Girl living in the forest, use your big superhero brain. I'm not swimming in cash."

"I know a place." Mysterion steps forward towards her as she pulls her hood up around her head. She turns to him, a look of surprise on her face.

"You're offering to feed me?" Her voice cracks a little at the end of the sentence. Mysterion nods. "Why?"

"Everyone needs someone sometime." He says quietly.

"Okay." Lie responds after a moment of silence.

The two begin to walk out of the forest, Mysterion in the lead, and they step out into the road. Lie stops in the middle of it, looking up at the moon. "It's nice… tonight." She smiles wryly.

"Lie look out!" Mysterion shouts in panic as a car comes barreling towards them. Within moments the front of the red car has smashed into her side, crushing her in on herself like a leaf bending in the wind. Her body crumples under the car, rolling with a loud crunch under the tires as it drives over her and speeds off into the night.

Kenny stands over her body, staggering forward in a daze. He collapses down at her side, her legs bent inwards at awkward angles, her chest rising and falling with infrequent and ragged breaths. The whole left side of her face is streaked with crimson blood and part of her upper arm is nearly tenderized.

"Oh God…" Mysterion croaks, bending down beside her. "It should have been me…" He screams at himself.

He watches in silence as the light fades from her vibrant green eyes and the air escapes from Lie's lips as her life burns out. Lirah's head lolls towards the sky, her eyes fixed on the distant glow of the white moon, leaving Mysterion alone with only the lifeless body of a dangerous girl in the street.

And her breathing stops.