Brigits Flame- Entry 1- April
Title: Elizabeth
Author: deandratb
Rating: PG-13, for mentions of violence
Author's Note: This is the first piece based in an AU world I created, so if things are cryptic please have patience. No fandom was involved in the writing of this piece, and any similarities are a huge compliment.
She was ten years old when she watched the men dig her brother's grave. When she saw him again, seven years later, she was taken instantly back to that day. Liam had been so sick, and she hadn't been able to take care of him. She'd done all she could, every day since their parents died, to protect him, to be his security. He couldn't say "Elizabeth" when he was only four, so she was Liz for the next three years-- her only real sense of identity came from being his big sister. After he died, she never answered to Elizabeth again.
She couldn't help feeling protective of Will, even though this angry fourteen-year-old wasn't her Liam. At the wise age of five, her brother proclaimed his distaste for always having his name shortened without permission to Will, or Willy, so he was Liam until the day the pneumonia took him. This boy who wasn't her brother went by Will, and she tried to use that fact to keep a handle on the reality of the situation-- especially since he seemed to forget that she wasn't his real sister most of the time.
Liz believed it was destiny that he'd fallen through to her world. She knew he wanted to go home, but no matter how noble the cause, she’d sworn to uphold the barriers. Her mission couldn’t be one that would hurt a child, so she knew there was some reason he was here now, some reason for why he would have to stay here. Even if she didn’t know what that was.
During the dark, silent times when he wasn’t there trying to convince her to open the doors, or torturing her because she refused, Liz slipped between the past and the present.
Liam wasn’t the last boy to die that year from neglect, and the shelter had been shut down when she was twelve. She’d eventually found herself at Grandma Jean’s, and the abandoned building was left to decay. Technically, though, it was still the last place her brother had lived, and so it was there that Will had found himself when he fell through the mirror in his bedroom. It was there that he’d taken her when he learned she was the only one who could help him get back home.
By the time Joey found her, tied up and locked in, Will had kept her there for almost two months. She knew everything at that point; how he’d been trapped in her world by the Guardians from his, how it was McKenna who found him when he was lost, and twisted his mind against her.
She told herself, when she thought about it, that it was the guilt she'd kept from those early years that made her care about this lost, destructive kid (that would be healthier, right?), or that it had a lot to do with how alone she'd been since Liam had died, and how long she'd drifted without a purpose. Because she did feel bad for Will, even after everything he’d done to her, and she wanted to believe that she hadn’t gone a little crazy, too.
But Joey didn’t ask. He just accepted that she still wanted to try and save the doppelganger that had almost killed her, because that was his way. So she kept her deepest, darkest secret where it belonged-- in the deep dark. And she tried to pretend that every time she looked at Will, she didn’t see those men, still digging.
Author: deandratb
Rating: PG-13, for mentions of violence
Author's Note: This is the first piece based in an AU world I created, so if things are cryptic please have patience. No fandom was involved in the writing of this piece, and any similarities are a huge compliment.
She was ten years old when she watched the men dig her brother's grave. When she saw him again, seven years later, she was taken instantly back to that day. Liam had been so sick, and she hadn't been able to take care of him. She'd done all she could, every day since their parents died, to protect him, to be his security. He couldn't say "Elizabeth" when he was only four, so she was Liz for the next three years-- her only real sense of identity came from being his big sister. After he died, she never answered to Elizabeth again.
She couldn't help feeling protective of Will, even though this angry fourteen-year-old wasn't her Liam. At the wise age of five, her brother proclaimed his distaste for always having his name shortened without permission to Will, or Willy, so he was Liam until the day the pneumonia took him. This boy who wasn't her brother went by Will, and she tried to use that fact to keep a handle on the reality of the situation-- especially since he seemed to forget that she wasn't his real sister most of the time.
Liz believed it was destiny that he'd fallen through to her world. She knew he wanted to go home, but no matter how noble the cause, she’d sworn to uphold the barriers. Her mission couldn’t be one that would hurt a child, so she knew there was some reason he was here now, some reason for why he would have to stay here. Even if she didn’t know what that was.
During the dark, silent times when he wasn’t there trying to convince her to open the doors, or torturing her because she refused, Liz slipped between the past and the present.
Liam wasn’t the last boy to die that year from neglect, and the shelter had been shut down when she was twelve. She’d eventually found herself at Grandma Jean’s, and the abandoned building was left to decay. Technically, though, it was still the last place her brother had lived, and so it was there that Will had found himself when he fell through the mirror in his bedroom. It was there that he’d taken her when he learned she was the only one who could help him get back home.
By the time Joey found her, tied up and locked in, Will had kept her there for almost two months. She knew everything at that point; how he’d been trapped in her world by the Guardians from his, how it was McKenna who found him when he was lost, and twisted his mind against her.
She told herself, when she thought about it, that it was the guilt she'd kept from those early years that made her care about this lost, destructive kid (that would be healthier, right?), or that it had a lot to do with how alone she'd been since Liam had died, and how long she'd drifted without a purpose. Because she did feel bad for Will, even after everything he’d done to her, and she wanted to believe that she hadn’t gone a little crazy, too.
But Joey didn’t ask. He just accepted that she still wanted to try and save the doppelganger that had almost killed her, because that was his way. So she kept her deepest, darkest secret where it belonged-- in the deep dark. And she tried to pretend that every time she looked at Will, she didn’t see those men, still digging.