Faith finished talking and was immediately hit with a punch in the stomach. It was enough to wind her, sending her to the floor and breathing heavily. It seemed like so long since something like that had brought a tear to her eye that it was almost a good experience. Almost. The younger Faith stood above her, eyes flaming with unhidden rage and a passion for the pain she had just caused. She no longer seemed so young, it was as if she had become old and embittered all with the action of one fist.
"Bitch" she said simply, this one word dripping with venom which should have been for a whole essay. "Do you really think I'm that stupid? You're one of her friends aren't you? You all like to tease me."
"No, I'm telling the truth." Faith was again lost for words but seemed to find them as soon as thoughts of the mayor came into her head. "I'm here to find myself, you're her, you're who I should be and i want to be you again."
"and you expect me to believe that?" The young girl's face contorted in incredulous anger as she began to shout. "You gave me hope! I thought you might be here to take me away from this shit hole and then you start to spout some crap about being me from the future? I know I'm young but I'm a hell of a lot less gullible than you seem to think. Don't you dare fuck with me! You've only had a taste of what I could do to you!"
Faith couldn't take this anymore, she was older, she was stronger, but she was her. The little girl, so strong yet so vulnerable was her and as much as she wanted to beat the crap out of her, she couldn't. she could remember how it was now, the human mind has a great ability to repress things but it wasn't far enough. Her subconscious had decided it was time to bring all these things to the forefront again and as much as Faith tried to prevent their appearance they were as stubborn as she was and refused to be held back. Memories were painful, but pain was calming in a strange, almost masochistic way. She was so used to being in control, it was nice to let something else just take over for a while, to be out of control. As much as she always liked to believe all the killing wasn't her fault, she knew deep down that it was always instigated by herself. There was nothing else forcing her into it, it was always her and that realisation cause her to stop. The memories stopped flooding in for a moment and she realised. Her childhood couldn't be blamed for the way she turned out because she had forgotten half of it. A few disappointed Christmases and mother's alcoholism had managed to slip through the net, but in all her life hadn't been influenced by it. The repression made that impossible. Everything she had done, what she had become had been all of her own doing, she was back in control.
"Listen you little bitch, you may be strong but I can bet that I'm a hell of a lot stronger, you may be me but it doesn't mean I can't beat the crap out of you. Now, what you're gonna do is, you're gonna listen to me and you're gonna accept what I'm telling you, cause if you don't I don't think we'll get along. I could do with a little bag of shit like you as a punch bag." The younger Faith looked almost frightened for a moment before the expression on her face broke up and she began to laugh uncontrollably.
"Well if you put it like that sure I'll believe you. I know i wouldn't be that damned nice." she spluttered between giggles. Faith realised the look before wasn't fear, it was awe. She had gained her own respect by threatening. She was amazed at how little she knew herself.
Faith smiled at herself and then looked towards the table where a groaning sound had just come from. The woman at the table had just woken up, her head obviously in pain. She seemed to be completely out of it yet aware of someone else's presence in the room. Faith approached her and she looked up, eyes squinting in an attempt of recognition.
"You." she said, pausing for breath. "You were in my dream." faith smiled kind heartedly at her for a moment before tightly embracing her.
"Mommy!" she said childishly after releasing her mother. The smile faded from her face and turned into an expression of hardened lack of sympathy. She looked at her mother's battered and pallid face for a moment before punching her hard in the face. Her mother's head quickly fell once more to the table in a drunken and beaten stupor.
"I hate you." Faith said to her, though knowing she was unable to hear it.
"Wow, you really are me!" the girl exclaimed, surprised.
"let's get the hell out of here." Faith grabbed her hand and lead her out of the door, the docile girl closely in tow.
