Little Sister

Chapter IX

"The product doesn't work", she had said. "It was all fake; we tricked you. I'm sorry." The audience had bitterly left the arena, nagging about scams and money. Even Klaus had tried to leave and take Mia with him. They had all been so disappointed. "How could she lie?" they had said. The only thing Mia had felt was relief. Well, not the only thing. She was still feeling anxious, and now the tears were pressing behind her eyelids. She kept them inside. What would the others think of her if they knew that she was the one that had lied the most?

Klaus and Carmina discussed fiercely and seemed to be sorting things out, but Mia didn't hear a word. Her thoughts were racing, and her knees felt weak. If it hadn't been for the crutches, she might have collapsed onto the floor.

Slowly Mia managed to fight her way out of her bubble and into the real world. Carmina was taking all the blame onto herself. She had sat down on the stairs and tried to miserably make sense of it all.

"I don't know what has gotten into me. How could I do that to you and Little sister?", she sighed. Mia felt the tight ball that had taken place in her throat rise. It was made of guilt this time, not fear.

"Maybe it was some sort of magic", she said as she tried to gloss over the real reason Carmina was miserable. It was she who was the reason.

"Even so, it was called something entirely different." The ball of guilt was expanding, and it was getting difficult to breathe. Mia had to get it out somehow. Her tongue wrestled against it, but it was hopeless. She had to say something. She had to explain.

"I often lose things", she started, her voice trembling as she searched for the right words. "And annoy people who don't want to be bothered. And then I don't eat anything, and everyone is worried and trying to come up with something to fix it."

"We know, Little sister", Klaus said tiredly.

"But, I didn't actually lose anything; I just pretend I can't eat. I'm the one who is the biggest liar here!" The words that she had searched for, for so long, were now falling out of her mouth at a rapidly increasing speed. She couldn't take it anymore, she dropped her crutches and ran up the stairs, where she fell down crying. Now everyone saw what a fraud she was. Her two followers gasped in shock that quickly turned into anger, and left. They were probably already posting it all over social media, so all of her other fans would know who she really was. A scam, a deceiver, a liar. A complete failure.

"Dear Little sister-"

"I'm just faking it, 'Get a life', there's me in a nutshell!"

"I'm sorry I said that; it was just that you were..."

"Annoying? Of course, I was annoying; that was the point. I'm really good at being annoying!" She screamed out the last part. All of last year's frustration that had been welling up was now spilling out, and she resorted to sobbing her eyes out. When she thought about it, she realized that it wasn't even just last year. It had been the same all her life. People had always been annoyed by her.

"Dearest Little sister, the sweetest of them all, can you ever forgive us?" Mia stopped sobbing. Forgive them, for what? For mocking her years on end and making her feel so unwanted, she had to lie to get any attention at all? It wasn't that easy. Still, when she looked into the pleading eyes of Carmina and her brother beside her, she didn't feel unwanted anymore. After all, they must have really loved her to not reject her after what she had told them.

"Yes", she answered after a long pause. "If you stop calling me Little sister, my name is actually Mia", she added, half-jokingly. She wiped away her tears and smiled weakly.