Chapter 10

-Aisha-

I found Taylor in the living room when I woke up, chastising the scoreboard of some game for its inappropriate language (Alec, being Alec, had filled it up with swear words - though the first few spots had been replaced - over the last hour, judging by the timestamps.) As she started a new game, I plopped down onto the sofa next to her.

"So," I asked, "isn't playing with literally inhuman reflexes cheating?"

"If the Dragon's lesser cousins heed not the rules of the game - why, then, should I be expected to?" she answered, turning to face me even as her fingers continued to button-mash… uh… (the blue one is Sub-Zero, right?) into submission on the screen for a few more seconds.

"Flawless Victory!"

Taylor put the controller down after writing another line of gibberish in the scoreboard, then ran her hand through her hair. I noticed it was quite messy, and still damp from a shower.

"Bad hair day?" I asked.

"Bad mirror night.", she stated matter-of-factly. "I need eyes not my own for this."

"I thought you can do all sorts of stuff blind?"

"Blind eyes cannot be trusted with cherished memories," the vampire said, a mournful note in her voice.

"Okay, I guess I'll help you out with it? Though I think a mirror would still help, so…"

"I do not fear the polished silver - yet it appears to disagree."

I simply shook my head. I suspected I will either figure it out when I see it or I won't. If there is anything to see, anyway. I led her into the bathroom and started brushing her hair, but stopped suddenly when I saw her reflection in the mirror. What was supposed to be her reflection, anyway. Instead of Taylor, all I saw was a vague, staticky blur - I could see a tall brunette, but that was about it - I would have to try very hard to recognize the image as Taylor, hell, Alec could fit the image almost as well with the right angle. In costume, even, if I found her some similarly-colored clothes to match his outfit.

"Drinks blood, sleeps in the day, burns in the sun, messes with mirrors… damn, girl, if you ever go caping we'll have to call you Draculina."

"I do not have the honor of the Great Dragon's blood, not this time at least," she said disapprovingly. "I could work on my brooding, though, if that would help."

...I wasn't sure if she was joking or serious. I finished brushing her hair in silence and let her go. She went into the living room, slipped around a groggy Lisa walking out of her room, grabbed a marble from the bag that had sat there otherwise untouched since my first visit, and staggered back into our room. She collapsed next to the bed, and I took the time to push her onto the blankets under it. For a girl that tall, she was actually quite light thanks to her twiggy build.

Grabbing my clothes, I closed the door to our room as quietly as I could. It wouldn't wake her but-

...Huh.

Our room. With our bed. That we totally share. Gonna have to remember to comment on that later when Brian's around. He won't approve of me thinking of it that way and I bet his face'll be hilarious. I mean… neither would Winslow's E88 contingent, of course, but it's not like they could hate me more at this point… right? Also, fuck them. In the neck. Oh! With a rusty melon baller! Yeah…

Glancing at the clock as I nodded to myself, I realized I was going to be late for school if I didn't start getting ready like five minutes ago.

It was just another boring day at Winslow, so the arrival of more guys in uniforms quickly became the talk of the school. My attempts to find the three people Taylor named were much easier than I thought after hearing her crazytalk - finding the most popular three girls in Taylor's year and identifying them as a spoiled bitch, a violent bitch, and a cutesy-looking bitch was a breeze. I couldn't sneak up to listen in on their conversation during lunch break, though, and I doubted they'd discuss what they'd done in the middle of the cafeteria anyway. I only lingered long enough to memorize their faces and notice that the redhead and Hess were much friendlier with each other than either was to the third wheel. I wonder what these two would talk about without her…

It was this line of thinking that led to me tailing the two after school, when they stopped in a courtyard to chat half an hour before track team's practice. I split off from the crowd of students and made my way over there, hugging the wall of a building so they wouldn't see me. I got as close as I could while staying out of sight, and settled in to eavesdrop.

"...already asked me, if this keeps going that way…" an angry voice spoke. I guessed that would be Hess.

"Then… we just need to find someone to blame, don't we?" the other girl spoke, with an "I have this wonderful idea…" tone.

"And who the fuck could we blame?" the track star snapped. "We point at just anybody, there's no proof."

"Mads hasn't been too keen on this prank. And someone went in after school to let Taylor out," the snake said slowly. "How many people in this school would care that much?"

I remembered how Taylor described this girl as a "sister without blood". Holy shit, this bitch is one hell of a backstabber.

"...You're right. That could work…" her friend trailed off before suddenly refocusing. "No. Her phone. If she has even a tenth of our messages, we all burn."

Huh. If I could get that phone, then maybe - no. "Hello officer, I have evidence for the missing person case, it's in this phone I stole from - whatcha doing with these handcuffs, officer?" And it's not like the others wouldn't believe me on this even without it… I briefly considered trying for the phone anyway, but figured that the third girl would be gone from school by now and the messages would probably be gone from her phone before I got the chance tomorrow.

"That's easy. I'll just have her delete them, 'in case someone points at us' or whatever." I could hear Spoiled-bitch adding the air quotes even around the corner. "Once they're gone, she can't prove anything - if we clean our stuff too, at least. You in?"

"...Yeah," the other girl answered.

"Alright then. Dad should be here soon - see you later, Hero!"

"See ya, Survivor."

I rolled my eyes at the weird lameass nicknames and snuck out before either of them came my way and thought about what I'd just heard.

I closed the prank store's catalogue once I was sure my order was placed and addressed to Brian's apartment and switched to the PHO tab in search of new threads to troll now that it was getting dark out (Lisa was right, this was fun, even if Winged_One was the clear master of it) when the thread about last night's Assault and Battery patrol caught my eye.

First, because a patrol usually didn't merit its own thread unless there was a fight - it would just be discussed in the cape's or team's thread.

Second, because it was titled "Assault and Battery meet mysterious cape?"

I quickly opened the thread. It was a discussion about the mysterious, unphotographable girl (and any links to photographs that did get taken were already modhammered.) Buried in all the usual, "A new cape!? Everybody outta the Bay!" shit, there were people talking about a distorting blur around Taylor (I recalled the hair care experience this morning. I figured I knew what they were talking about… then it hit me that phone cameras probably don't use mirrors. Right? Meh… fucked if I know.) and what little people did get from the photos and now-modded posts - "tall, dark-haired girl" was about the only thing they'd agreed on in posts that evaded mod attention, and even the "girl" part only popped up after someone who'd seen it with their own eyes chimed in. I couldn't find any posts that looked like the person had actually recognized her - though the mods had come down on speculation - but the fact it existed…

"Ohhh… Liisaaa..!" I hollered across the loft at the blonde girl working on... something or another. She'd tried to explain what, but it sounded like math so I stopped listening.

"Still not shaking my ass for you," she answered, not even looking away from her own screen.

"Yeah, no, I'm over that. Butt!" I couldn't not giggle. "Uh… do cellphone cameras use mirrors?"

Lisa finally looked at me and groaned. "...Why?"

I grinned at her. "We might have a teeny tiny problem." I held up my arms as far apart as I could to illustrate how tiny.