Avery anxiously paced the marble tiled hallway, fluorescent lights flickering overhead. The last few hours had been a blur- this was the first real time he'd had to think.

Barely five minutes after he'd called an ambulance, it'd arrived, quickly putting Mira on life support and taking the hooded figure into police custody. Avery had stayed by Mira the entire ride, refusing to leave her side until he was sure she was ok. She was then rushed to the emergency room, and as much as he hated it, Avery was forced to wait outside. Hence the pacing.

A worried-looking nurse came out of the swinging doors leading to the ER, and Avery looked up from the floor, "Is she ok? What happened??"

"I-I don't know!" the nurse exclaimed, flustered, "She refuses to talk to any of us, and isn't showing any pain at all. She's not saying anything, doing anything, barely even moving, and refuses to let us take scans on her. In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say she-"

But by then Avery was long gone, leaving only a pair of gently swaying doors in his wake.

Avery burst into the room, "Mira! Y-You're alive! What happened? Are you ok? Please tell me you're ok..."

Mira, facing away from him, shrugged almost imperceptibly, "Yeah. I'm ok."

"Oh, that's a relief!" Avery smiled, "For a second there, I thought you'd died. There was so much blood... Did you see it? Wait- of course you did, you were there..."

"Yeah." Mira said again in a monotone, before falling silent. At this point, Avery began to realize something was off, though he couldn't pinpoint what.

"Um... Mira?"

"What?"

"Are you... are you sure you're ok?"

Mira scoffed, "I'm alive, aren't I?"

Avery shook his head, "No- I mean, are you ok? What... What exactly happened there? Was it your dad?"

Mira shook her head, "1. Don't call him my dad."

"Oh, sor-"

"2. Nope. I don't know where he is, and I don't care."'

Avery, while relieved, still pressed questions, "Then what was it? Why are you acting like this?"

Mira finally turned to face him, and Avery froze. Her face was as emotionless as the day he'd first met her, and she had not the look of a killer, nor a psychopath, but of someone long dead.

"M-Mira...?"

"What?"

"You're-"

Mira cut him off sharply, "I'm fine, ok? Let's get out of here."

She swung her legs out of the hospital bed. She sharply tore out the wires from her left arm, causing a racket of beeping from protesting machinery. The forceful yank left bloody rivets running down her arm, but she didn't even seem to notice.

Blood-soaked bandages covered her entire right arm from hand to elbow, but that was that last thing Avery was thinking about right now, though he'd later wonder how he didn't notice it.

Mira walked out the door without a glance behind her, as if she was hypnotized. Avery hesitantly followed, and when Mira didn't protest, tried to talk to her.

"Mira?"

"Hm."

"I know something's off. You don't think I'm stupid... Do you? I don't know why this is happening-"

"Good." Mira said.

"-But I need to find out," Avery continued softly, "Just give me something, anything. Please?"

Mira stopped walking, and for a second a flicker of pain crossed her face. But only for a second. Then it was gone, and her expression resumed its off-putting blankness.

"Fine. Since you won't stop asking."

Avery mentally cycled through all possible scenarios, but nothing could have prepared him for what she said next.

"It was my mother."

Mira continued walking, brushing her way past doctors and nurses, past the patients in the waiting room, and out the hospital doors.

"Oh." Avery said. Then, "Wait- WHAT?!"

He hurried to catch up with her, convinced that he must have heard wrong, "D-Did you say- your mother? As in- your mother, your mother?!"

"Yep."

"B-but that- that makes no sense! How could she-"

Mira shrugged impassively, "Brutally smash my bones? Physically and psychologically torture me? Almost kill me? I don't know. But it doesn't matter, does it?"

Avery laid a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed it, "Of course it matters..."

Mira jerked away, "No. It doesn't. You know why?" she looked at him, eyes hard as stone.

"Because I don't matter."

And before Avery could respond, she was gone, blending in with the crowd.

***

Avery ran up the creaky stairs of the clock tower, not even noticing the fatigue in his legs. When he reached the top, he sat down next to a silent, hooded figure watching the ocean.

A tense silence followed before he finally spoke.

"I thought I'd find you here."

The hooded figure sighed, "How'd you know?"

Avery smiled slightly, "You've told me more than you think, Mira."

"Which was obviously a mistake." Mira said, harsher than she intended.

Avery looked hurt, "Why- why would you say that?"

Mira winced apologetically, "Sorry, that came out badly. What I mean is..." she trailed off, seemingly at a loss for words.

"What you mean is...?" Avery prompted.

"I care about you, Avery," Mira said, "I don't know why, I don't know how... but I do. And bad things tend to happen to the people I care about. Everyone I've ever loved has either gotten hurt, turned evil or died." she choked down a sob, "I don't... I don't want that to happen to you, too."

"Nothing's gonna happen! I'm strong, you don't have to worry about me." Avery grinned, and shoved her playfully.

"But how do you know?"

The grin melted from Avery's face, and he looked serious for the first time. He tucked his knees to his chin and gazed out to the horizon, lost in thought. It was a long moment before he spoke.

"I don't know, Mira."

And for once, she could hear the pain and defeat hidden behind his perpetual smile.

"But I have to hope, don't I? Hope has been all I've had for... for most of my life. It's the reason I manage to be- well, who I am." He laughed softly, "I stay positive, always try to look on the bright side. Sure, it gets tiring sometimes, and sure, things don't always have a bright side... but I look for it anyways. Because I have to." he fell silent, looking slightly surprised at what he'd just said.

Mira chuckled, "Wow. The ray of sunshine has a dark side, huh?"

Avery laughed with her, She's making a joke! Progress! "Yeah, but don't worry, I'm only like this sometimes- It's not like I'm you, after all."

Mira smiled, "Now that would be weird."

The two sat in silence again, but this time it was a comfortable silence, filled with warmth.

"I'm sorry... y'know, about earlier." Mira eventually spoke, "It wasn't your fault that what happened to me happened, and I'm sorry I was so cold to you."

Avery smiled, "Don't worry about it, I'm just glad you're ok now." A sudden thought struck him, "But..."

"But what?"

"What- um, what happened to your hand?" He eyed the bloodied bandages warily.

A shadow fell across Mira's face, and fear gripped Avery's heart like a vice. He quickly tried to amend what he'd said, "I-I mean, you don't have to tell me, it's fine, I-"

"No," Mira said quietly, "I'll show you."

She slowly began to unwrap the bandages, visibly wincing as she did so. Avery had to stifle a scream at the bloody, broken, misshapen mess that used to be her hand.

"Oh my- w-what happened to your hand?? Holy- are you ok?!? We need to get you to the hospital- hold on, let me call them-"

"NO!" Mira snarled, looking for all the world like a ferocious animal. She seemed to realize this when Avery stared at her, eyes wide with fear, and she calmed herself down,

"S-Sorry. I mean- no thanks. If you haven't noticed, I haven't really had the best experience in hospitals."
Avery nodded, "Yeah, I can tell. So- no hospital?"

Mira laughed, "No hospital."

She gazed ruefully at her hand, "I guess you're wondering what happened to this thing, then." At Avery's nod, she sighed and began to explain. "As you probably know, my mom is 1. Not dead, and 2. Evil."

"Right. I'm so sorry..."

Mira shook her head, "No- no, it's fine. I'd rather know the truth than be trapped in a happy lie. But anyways, back to my hand. She brought out a cart of these weird, rusty torture tools from the 16th century, and attached a thumbscrew to my finger." she spotted Avery's expression, "Judging by your face, I think you know what happens next."

Avery visibly paled, "Y-you mean she-?" he pointed to his index finger.

Mira nodded, looking dismally at the place where her finger used to be, "Yep. She broke my hand with a hammer, too, isn't that nice. And- it's probably going to get infected, isn't it? Because of the rust."

Avery nodded, "Which is why-"

"No," Mira cut him off, "No hospitals."

Avery sighed, "Then what do you suggest?"

Mira pulled out a gleaming knife from the depths of her jacket, "You may want to look away."

Realizing what she was about to do (and also realizing that he could do absolutely nothing to stop it), Avery turned green and closed his eyes. He really didn't want to see that.

There was a sickening splutch, a sharp intake of breath, and a clatter of metal against wood. Avery turned to find Mira wincing in pain and clutching a bloody stump of an arm, her severed hand lying on the ground.

Avery winced, "Are...are you ok?"

Mira nodded, face strained, "Yeah. I'm good."

They both stared at the bloody mess on the ground that used to be her hand, "So... what now?" Avery eventually said.

Mira shrugged, "I don't know. We can't exactly carry it around, can we?"

Avery nodded, "No, we cant... I know!" He picked up the severed hand and threw it into the ocean below, where it landed with a small splash and bobbed on the surface like a bright-red toy boat.

Mira gaped at him, "Are you crazy?! Someone could find it, and use the fingerprints to track me, and- hold on." She picked up her ringing phone from the railing,

"Hello? ...What? Ok then. Yeah. Sure. On my way."

She stuck her phone in her pocket, roughly rebandaged her stump of an arm, and started walking down the stairs, "C'mon." she said to Avery as he hurried after her, the matter of her hand forgotten.

"Who was that? Where are we going?" Avery asked.

"To see my mother."