Living in the Shadows

18) Here Comes the Sun

Here comes the sun

Here comes the sun

And I say, it's all right

It had been over a year. Liza's dreams had been filled with the image of Lucas' fallen body, a bloody mask lying beside his head. She had seen no trace of her brother that night, but for all she knew he was dead too, her father too busy to unmask the new nobody on the street. Liza now spent each week in a new town, her father finding joy in replacing the word hero with villain. She was no longer alone in her father's abuse. Now a young girl sat with here every week, the only victim in the town. Once she died, they upped and moved.

New town. New victim. New name on the list.

Halloween came and passed, the one night Liza felt relefe as she dremt of her previous Halloween. The lights, the music, the dancing, she could remember all that night had in store for her. But it was all memories because he was dead.

Lucas was dead.

For weeks Liza tried to convice herself otherwise. That it was all a trick and that Lucas would fly down to rescue her any day. But the weeks turned into months and she felt hope fly away with each new town. While she may not have been alone in her pain she was alone. She had nothing but solitude.

"Liza? Hey, Princess, what do you want for lunch?"

Liza looked to her father. She had long since stopped talking to anyone, to anything. Her hope was gone. She looked into his eyes and opened her mouth, but held back any words that she could've said. She looked away, ropes biting into her wrists. Glass shattered in the kitchen.

"Why do you make me act like this Liza? We could be happy, just you and me. We could be a team, showing the world the wrath of the Queens. But no! You force me to tie you up and beat you." He began to walk towards her, glass shards still in his hand. "If only you could be a good daughter, an obedient one." He pulled her to face him. "All I need is your word."

She looked up, he face set in stone, unmoving. Love and kindness had left her months ago. Getting an answer from her would be pointless. She was finally broken.

He slapped her.

"I used to love you. Now I wonder why I don't just kill you. You're a parasite, a nail to be removed from by shoe." He turned away from her and resumed working on lunch. "All I want is my daughter back." She turned away and tried to sleep. That was the only release she found. It was her escape. Her way of pushing back the darkness.

"You used to love the snow when you were a kid," Robert spoke again, pointing to the open window. "You used to drag Damion out of bed as soon as you saw the little flakes. For a while, I believe that you would have powers of ice. But no, you had to be disgustingly human and musically inclined like your mother." He used a long knife to slice away at a piece of meat. Stopping, he took a long look at the piece of metal, examining every millimeter of it.

"That's who I blame for all of this, your mother. If she would have never left, all would be ok. I would have another son who has powers. The death of your brother wouldn't have been so crippling and I would have remained on top. And maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't be such a disappointment." He began to clean the knife, Liza falling faster and faster into nothingness.

"Well, I guess it's time to welcome our guest, don't you think child?" He began to slap a girl across the room with the flat of the knife, blood already caked onto her shirt.

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
And I say it's all right