Lita had never a fall quite like this- She couldn't picture herself swinging down from a rope and falling into a lake with the boys, from those times they had all gone down there to the nature park. Maybe she could die from it. Break too many bones, maybe her neck for an instant death. Something. Something to spare her from it all, to snap her away. She closed her eyes in the eternal fall, ready to feel an assortment of natural pain.

Goodbye, cruel world!

She landed, but not onto the grass. Instead, the long arms of the perfect stranger had opened outwards to catch her. Nyla Laude was just underneath the sun, so when Lita looked up to her, eyes squinting to protect them, she laid witness to an angel of holy, golden hair. "You're lucky I'm fast."

"N-Nyla!" Lita formed a nervous smile, grateful to see her. "What great timing!"

"You are a klutz," Nyla commented. "Seriously, don't you have an actual ladder?"

"And raise suspicion around then?" Lita shook her head rapidly, shaking so much that Nyla was losing grasp of her, so Lita was let down back on her feet. "Thanks for that."

"Don't mention it," Nyla brushed off. "Hope you're having a good morning, what say we hit the road and set out to the mall?"

"Oh, sure!" Lita accepted eagerly. "I love the mall!"

"I know you do." Nyla placed the hood of her green zip-up sweater over her head, which pushed her long, blonde hair back. "It's alright, fun for the arcade and food court."

"And not for the clothing departments?" Lita crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. "Nyla, that's so un-ladylike of you-"

Nyla let out a crazed laugh as they walked to the sidewall, heading off to Royal Woods mall. Her signature giggle, so dry and sinister-like in nature, that verified a sense of humanity in her. Nyla was not your average girl, definitely not the one who would spend half an hour applying make-up for school. She wasn't a cheerleader, she wasn't a popular girl. She was Nyla Laude, a fan of anything related to fighting, such as martial arts and the average combat. The girl you could depend on to vanquish that bully, a true woman warrior. On the other hand, Nyla had a geek side she hid, but for Lita, that was fact and not myth. Nyla was more like a mere boy than a girl, if anything.

Nyla might have been a lesbian.

"What does that even mean?" Nyla didn't naturally believe she was bound to behave like a girl. She was who she was, she knew and accepted that. Now, why didn't Lita? "I can't help it if I have my father's traits, Lita-Bottle."

Lita was still rather embarrassed about having to be saved by the likes of her friend- Anything to derail away from that now. "Yeah, but..." She tried to find ground to reason with, but her lack of knowledge in the field of genetics amounted to nothing. "I mean-"

"If I like something, I like it," Nyla shot back. "You'll never catch me in a dress!"

"It'd be a start if you were in one," Lita tossed, grinning. "You might need a makeover-"

"Don't you even think about it!" Nyla exclaimed, feeling uncleansed at the very concept. "I'm perfect as I am, change isn't necessary!"

"Talk about a Mary Sue," Lita joked. They both stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for the light to signal them. "You know what that is, right?"

"I use the internet, Lita-Bottle," Nyla sarcastically snorted. "Thank you very much. And no, I don't think I am."

"Says you!" Lita poked at Nyla's arm, mouth going agape. "Ooooooh."

"You doing okay?" Nyla had noticed something off about Lita. For starters, and the red flag, Lita was sneaking out rather than taking leave through the front. Now that she gave it thought, this was not commonplace. "What's with that prison break I've seen? Mom and dad not cool with you heading out?"

"Uh-" Lita was unsure how to tackle this question. Nyla wasn't too much of an intellectual to wonder about it, but there was no accounting for the predictability. Lita scratched at her face, the tell in which she told her she was still seeking out the logical answer. "Well, I didn't want to wake the others up. You know, big family, plenty of brothers and-"

"Wait, you weren't lying?" The light turned for them, enabling them to walk across. "Lita, are you serious? Nine brothers?!"

"You've seen a few of them, Nyla."

"Y-yeah but those I saw, I assumed they were all of them-" Nyla had her mouth propped open by force of Lita's truth. "Jesus, Lita, that's insane! All they all-"

"With the exception of one, they're all my half-brothers."

"Half...?" It confused Nyla. "Wait, so you mean to tell me that Charlie Sheen is your dad?"

"No- Wait, who's that?"

"Y-you don't know who Charlie Sheen is?" Nyla winced.

"Uh..."

Nyla placed a solid finger on her chin. Was that the one in The Outsiders or am I thinking of his brother?

"You're right, I'll Google it to get with the program! Just kidding."

"In any case, a house full of nine boys, I can imagine it would be rowdy as fuck." Nyla turned and slapped upon Lita's frail shoulder. "Well, you gonna tell me?"

Lita did let out a sigh of pure defeat, but she tried to make it of a different one. "You're right, it's terrible, but I make the most of it... Or, well, I try to. I really do."

"I guess that explains why you were sneaking out like that," the blonde surmised. "Sheesh, that sounds exhausting, I can actually imagine it to be stressful to your folks."

"Yeah..." Lita simply agreed, spiraling down into the hellhole again. It was her shifting tone that betrayed her out to Nyla. "You'd be right about that."

"Sounds like you need to divide. If they're half-siblings-" Nyla tried to do the math. "Wait, do all the mothers-"

"Nyla..." Lita sighed again before dropping the update. "My mother is the one who have birth to them, it's a bunch of fathers that aren't around, not even mine."

"Your..." Nyla was looking at Lita in a different light now. "Your mother, with a bunch of dudes?" In her mind, she made the unjust assumption that Ms. or Mrs. Loud was a natural easy woman; a damn slut- Maybe a literal prostitute at that, cursed from her clients. The Goddamn thing belonged in fiction, she figured. This was too unbelievable, to leave her dumbfounded and then...

She looked to Lita with the eyes of pure pity. A household with only one parent... "Damn."

"It's not so bad," Lita excused to stray away. "The older ones have jobs, and when they're gone-"

Peace.

"I'm an only child, I don't know crap about having siblings," Nyla shrugged, shoulders jumping upwards for a second. "But I guess I should be so grateful... Well, I'm not sure, what do you think?"

"Please!" Lita pleaded, "take half of mine and have your Nyla fun with them!"

"Hah, Nyla fun?"

"You know!" Lita clutched her hands into fists and raised them up. "You're all punchy and kicky, Nyla! I just know you could set them straight when they go berserk!"

"You want me to beat them down?" Nyla then smiled and leaned in to Lita's ear. "How much will I get for this? Why, Lita, I didn't think you'd ever say such... Garbage!"

"Garbage?" Lita gasped. "How dare, woman! You turn down such a generous offer!" Next thing she did was set the back of her hand to her forehead, pretend-fainted and fell backwards for Nyla tp catch her.

"I take it you've been touching Shakespeare recently."

"Hey, Romeo and Juliet is a quality story!" Lita clapped and rubbed her hands onto Nyla's face. "Yay, you caught me! You're my best friend, confirmed!"

"Lita, I had to catch you," Nyla groaned, pushing Lita back on solid feet with medium force. "Again, actually. What's with you and falling?"

"Hey!" Lita gurgled out defensively. "That first time was not intended!"

"Tomato, tomah-to!" Nyla blew back. "Don't expect me to save you every single time you have yourself a slip! You're lucky I was there the first time, but now you're just-"

"I'm allowed to have my fun," Lita scolded, sticking her tongue out. "You dull stick-in-the-mud!"

"Best friend..." Nyla grasped the notion of such a thing. "You think of us as that, do you?"

"Well..." Lita found herself in a funny position. "I mean, aren't we? You're the greatest friend I've ever had-"

"Too modest! You have other friends, woman! Do not be lying to us both!"

"Noooooo!" Lita's hair shook like a bush being moved by high winds. "C'mon, this is a basic compliment, you... Monster, you!"

"And I thank you, but not really- Oh, look, here we are!" Nyla pointed straight ahead, making Lita take her off of the tall girl right to the sight of the huge mall. The mall of thirteen clothing shops Lita was so eager to run into and check out. Her gathered allowance had a purpose today. As for Nyla- "Arcade time!"

They both went in with adamant smiles on their faces, to go around the place and explore to their hearts' content. Lita went first into the tiny chainers, scavenging through the girls' aisles, constantly grabbing whatever caught her eye and dove into the fitting room. She tried on tight jean shorts, some colorful shirts, mostly pink and purple, cute stuff. For the shorts, she checked her ass out to make sure it hadn't given her a layer of fat, being self-conscious enough to worry over her figure. She decided on one or two pairs of them in the end, believing it made her cute eye-candy to the boys.

To Glen Miller.

For those who didn't know, and that meant all of you, Glen Miller was the brown haired boy in Lita's grade, the very one she had a silly, shy crush on. Mister Popular of a trio of them. Glen and his cronies Kevin and Martin. Or, the genderbent versions of Gwen, Kimberly and Marsha, from the mind behind Lemy Has It Rough. Yeah, that one.

She thought about him as she tried a black sweater with a large pink heart in the middle, agreeing that she'd hug and cuddle him in this if or when they would wind up together. There was too little of courage for her to go and tell him how she felt...

...But the curse in that was one that not even she had known or deemed of yet. She would come to that realization later, but now was the time of great happiness, a pleasant distraction from the true status of what her life was. She'd get to spend it with Nyla and herself, to go on and fuck up the mall crossed her mind. Lita's world, and all who lived in it were mere guests.

For the first half of their day here, Lita had only two bags of new clothes in total, and nothing for Nyla, the latter simply didn't want anything. Not yet, at least. They assembled upon a table in the food court, but only Nyla was hungry. "Nothing, really?"

Nyla blew air from her lips. "Pshhhht, you've hit up the girliest of places, but I'm fine for now. I'm not even on my period yet-" She got two guys behind her to stop and turn to her, only seen by Lita who laughed, covering her mouth. "What? I'm being serious."

"You don't have any shame, do you?"

"I have nothing, my pussy-" Lita broke down laughing, turning red, only bringing Nyla to restrict herself. "My... Womanhood-"

"Oh, my God," Lita wheezed out. "Nonono, you're just-"

"I do as I please, you fool!" Nyla had no shame, a sense of it, or the feeling of embarrassment. She grabbed a pair of French fries from the food tray in front of her, placing them as tusks in her mouth. "I'm guh-guh-guh-gonna have you for breakfast!"

"Eww, cannibal sighted!" Lita cried, continuing the joke. "Don't you dare eat me, Nyla, I'm tainted meat!"

"Not with mustard, you ain't!" Nyla devoured up the fries, sucking them up inside. "I'm going to sauce your body and I'll lick the..." She leaned way back so that she could be heard by the occupants behind her. "...mustard off your boobies."

She heard one of the boys choke on their drink, having quite a spit take from the sound of it. It made her guffaw away, amused without shame or embarrassment. On the other hand, Lita went red, her cheeks puffing out, arms tucked between her legs, head dangling so lowly. "Nyla, why are you like this?"

"It's fun, Lita!" Nyla pushed her tray forward. "Have yourself some fries."

"I don't want people to get the wrong impression," Lita shared. "My mom raised me with manners-"

"Oh, so I have no manners?" Nyla let out a wheeze, eyes narrowing, mouth curling into an alerting smile. "Why, thank you! So, girlie, what's the plan now? Have you finished up your shopping?"

"Almost," Lita replied. "I wanna take a look at one more-"

"And then it's high tide on arcade central!" Nyla moaned. "I've been waiting since Wednesday to be here again! Lita, the Tomb Raider game has my name written all over it!"

"Games..." Lita formed a weak smile. "You really like those, don't you?"

"Damn right!" Nyla gobbled down on her food to speed up the process; she was simply this eager to go around and play all the kiosks that caught her interest. "I'm gonna-"

"Nyla fuckin' Laude!" came a strange voice from another girl, right on Lita's left. "Not even a week-"

"You've gotta be shitting me," Nyla sighed in an exhausted manner. "Why her, here?"

"Nyla, who is that?" Lita paid attention to the girl, a Mexican in a light gray shirt and black pants, arms pressed to her waist to present anger and irritation, walking her way to them as if she were some queen who could simply do as she pleased with no dire consequence. "Wait, is that Alejandra Santiago?"

"...Fuck me," Nyla peeped out, then towered upon by the Mexican girl with a height in between Lita's and Nyla's. Alejandra, the girl with an open-mind, always vocal, and a fan of the 70s rock music, notably AC/DC, let her hands run by themselves. They picked up a fry and Nyla's drink, and she devoured it before taking a sip- And then she sat down right next to Nyla without asking for permission. "Okay... Alex, this is Lita. Lita, Alex."

"Hi," Lita greeted with a smile, only for Alejandra to not return the notion. Wow, talk about rude.

"Alex, don't be a dingus and say hi to my Lita-Bottle."

"Ugh, hello, gringo girl," Alejandra said in a vulgar manner, barely radiating the right hostility. "Is this the she I've been left for?"

"The what now?" Lita's eyes moved from one another, confused all the same.

"Alex, she's my friend," Nyla scoffed. "Go away."

"Thought we were friends, Nyla," Alex deeply whispered, the smile of a sadist then forming cheek to cheek on her face. "I mean, you did say-"

Nyla took the drink back from Alejandra's grasp, opened the lid and then proceeded to dump the soda right into her tan face. "That was before you went all berserk on me!" Further, Nyla pushed Alejandra right out of the seat, showing no mercy to her. Lita gone dead-white, pressing right into the corner of the table.

"Como te atreves!" Alejandra worked to wipe herself dry of the soda dripping all over her face. "Jodete, pinche puta de mierda!"

"Shit, you!" Nyla knew Alejandra would not be easy to drive away. Both girls had the same type of nature going for them, as Lita would come to know herself by witnessing them shooting the deadliest of daggers at one another. There was drama behind it, drama happening in Nyla's life away from Lita's line of sight. "Why can't you fuck off?"

"You're a bitch, Nyla," Alejandra badmouthed her, "but I'm not done with you yet!"

"Not done with-?" Nyla expected something of a tussle with her ex-girlfriend, but not to be shown a full frontal nude Alejandra had kept saved on her phone. Lita began putting the clues together. "WHY DO YOU STILL HAVE THAT?!"

"Imagine this going viral!" Alejandra squealed delightfully. "What would mommy and daddy think of you showing off your sacred body like some high-class slut? What if- Oh, what if the teachers saw your juicy boobies?"

On that note, Nyla broke into a run, chasing after the blackmailing Alejandra, screaming and shouting after her, both of them running from the food court. Lita, pokerfaced like never before, blankly stood there like a lost fool, waiting for nothing to sit back down after the frenzy had died down- Until it felt like it died down around her, to not make her feel awkward and embarrassed of this. She already figured it out and yet it was just so sudden and silly. Nyla, the... Bisexual? Lesbian? A relationship with Alejandra that ended badly, hence this little scene.

And Lita took off with her shopping bags, heading towards the arcade to wait outside of it and have Nyla meet her there.

On the morning of October 21st, 2039, a lone gunman walks through a crowd of mall shoppers and opens fire upon them. Estimated wounded, sixty-eight. Confirmed dead, twenty-one.

A man in a moss trench coat moved swiftly about, moving with hands in pocket. This individual, made out to look Asian, maybe Korean, had a weird and goofy bowl cut that might have been too laughable- but he did not smile for once. He was not amused, he was trigger-happy and disturbingly enraged with something that had come and compelled him to disrupt society as he knew it. Deep in his pockets of the coat were a pair of X16 pistols, and right underneath the long get-up, a compact AK rifle, free with no stock, hung around his neck thanks to a rope tied around his neck, with the other end holding the rifle by the trigger hold. He moved this slowly to not make it obvious.

Not until he was in dead center of the plsce. His disregard of the human life, a nasty trait to automatically deploy his soul to hell. He unzipped the coat with one hand, then holding the AK with the other. He drew it out, and it had alresdy been chambered to load. It didn't take long for the sudden screaming of the women to start. The Korean gunman took aim and began spraying loosely all over the crowd. Many fell as they ran, the unlucky ones of what should have been a positively relaxing day.

Lita's heart stopped, flying right into a panic. Her limbs weakened, the bags in her arms suddenly slipping and falling onto the ground. She was the witness to the carnage, left dead inside and spooked, terrified of the death and gritty bloodbath before her. All of those poor folk, shot down like helpless cattle, and the gunman swept from side to side, hitting around and into the stores he could hit, shattering the windows with the bullets until he ran himself dry.

Nyla had been running along the crowd, but the opposite of their destination. "LITA!"

The gunman circled his attention back his attention to Lita and Nyla, the brave girl who moved to push Lita out of harm's way, and they were both fired upon with messy strays. Nyla covered Lita, knocking her down right under the doorway of the arcade. Right away, Lita felt a terrible surge of pain striking her legs- She had been shot- and screamed right into Nyla"s ears. There was panic in her body, the emotional squirming where she didn't hope to be killed. Life was unfair, simply too short. She walked into this to seek the escape, not to leave this world like this.

Strangely enough, there was a tiny ounce in her that did not reject and deny her own death. This one part, opening up to welcome the cold grasp of death's hands. This might just have been the escape all along, the permanent one. Away from the brothers. To leave mother Linka heartbroken, and who was to say she'd be mourned by the beasts?

Mom... Mommy, I'm so sorry!

Nyla had not been moving about, but Lita had begun to feel a warm liquid had trickled down into Lita's chest. Nyla's blood; the blonde was struck right through her back, a few rounds having plowed through her lungs, rupturing them. She was lifeless, dying away over the short girl, bleeding out until she would eventually be drained of blood.

N-Nyla... Lita hyperventilated, arms pressed on her friend's hips to shake her, but the blonde did not make any quick, clear motion. Lita stood still, focuisjy her hearing upon Nyla's mouth. Faint breath from the mounted girl, she was alive! "Nyla-"

The shooting didn't end, but the gunman had gone away, chasing after the running mall-goers with his handguns towed out in each palm.

Death was taking its exit, sparing Lita. "Nyla... Are you okay? P-please say something-"

Eyes red, vision going foggy, and with the added pain she felt in her legs, Lita lost her cool, weeping face up. The shots kept ringing out, but faded in seconds, the gunman had taken his massacre far from here, far from her. Lita was drenched in her friend's blood, the warmth keeping her skin half comfortable, but she didn't want it. "Nyla!"

The Laude girl had succumbed to the fatal injuries, literally dying on Lita. Leaving the earth. Left the earth. Trauma that added to her conscious, and the short girl hadn't the energy to pull the corpse off of her. She could not even move herself because of her legs. And everything hurt so much more, so much worse than ever before. It wasn't real, couldn't be. She left to get away. Left...

Left nothing.

She could never leave.

Trapped.

AN: I wonder what Odd will think of this. Bet you guys weren't expecting me to go here, but the title shall not betray the story, Lita's tale is not for the faint of heart. Now you'll see her back at home, stuck for awhile for her to heal her legs, and to cope with the death of (yeah, Nyla is Odd's version of Linette Loud) Nyla Laude. There exists a piece where Mano, his OC, is bullied by Nyla up to the point he fights back. I hope he writes that someday, it seemed doable and alright for me.