The dormitory lights flickered on with a tired hum, washing the room in pale yellow. One by one, the children stirred, rubbing at their eyes, groggy from sleep. All except Maria. She blinked awake with a strange weight in her chest, an odd sense of déjà vu that clung tighter than the sheets around her.
'It feels like I'm a kid again…' The thought made her lips twitch into something between a smile and a grimace. 'Oh, right. I am a kid again.'
She sat up slowly, watching the others shuffle toward their lockers and shared dressers, already jostling over clothes. 'Better move before they steal mine.' She decided, the thought echoing with a mix of Maria's old instinct, and her new awareness.
By the time she reached her small metal locker, the morning chaos had already hit its stride. Shoes thumped against the floor, someone complained about missing socks, and two boys argued in low, half-whispered shouts over who had stolen whose sweater. Maria slipped her uniform on quietly, blending into the tide of tired children as if she had done it every morning of her life.
And in a way, she had. then one of the younger girls bumped into her shoulder, muttering sleepily. "Sorry big sister." and darted off not before giving a hopeful smile which even as the monster she was something hit her heart about how the girl looked at her with a lack of hope as if life was just barely worth living.
She then remembered how her cult operated. How cultists weren't simply recruited, but made. Her dreams carried a memetic weight, a recurring vision that slipped into the minds of the downtrodden, the abused, the forgotten.
Each dream was tailored to its victim's pain, whispering promises no waking world could keep, until they began to see her as their mother. Over time, her touch in those dreams rewrote them, erasing the memory of their birth mother, replacing it with her embrace.
'In a world like DC… that dream will spread like wildfire through a field of dry wheat. And yet, here and now, there is silence inside me. No worship, no prayers clawing for my attention. Meaning the spread hasn't begun in full force yet. I guess it could be considered a mercy to the Justice League? Only time will tell.'
she thought, resting her hands against her small desk. Maybe I can just enjoy this existence while it lasts. Her lips curved into a faint smile. 'Maria's smile. I'll wear it, so her unintentional sacrifice wasn't in vain. I'll make every bit of her life good. That is my vow.'
Walking to the breakfast hall, she eventually sat among the others, spooning lukewarm porridge into her mouth. The children talked around her about school, about toys they wanted, about the older boy who swore he'd seen Superman fly past the skyline the night before.
Then something peculiar happened her titular bullies walked up to her, and she expected insults but instead the oldest boy named Luca spoke first. "Hey uhm Maria we just wanted to apologize. We thought you were some criminal's kid but well coming from Gotham after loosing your mom, and dad to the Joker must've been hard especially since you watched it happen."
Looking at the group of three boys she's smiles like she used to when she was Riley. That kind soft smile surprised the boys one named Elio looked away blushing. "It's... alright i forgive you... all three of you so let's just get along alright?" Their faces lit up with the childlike excitement you'd expect from the boys who successfully improved their relationship with a girl.
To her surprise the three of them invited her to sit with them so she obliged. The conversations were more about video games they knew of, and surprisingly they were all games Maria knew so she was very informative, and her inner elder scrolls nerd perked it's head out when Skyrim was mentioned by the quietest of the four of them his name was Alex, and to say he was her equal in TES lore would be highly accurate.
Then breakfast ended, and the Orphanage bustled once more as they all got ready for school as the hallways filled with the familiar rush of morning chaos, children tugging on jackets, teachers calling names, the scrape of chairs against linoleum floors. Maria moved with the rest of them, quiet but not withdrawn, her presence folding seamlessly into the tide of voices and footsteps.
Outside, the orphanage van was waiting, its faded blue paint dulled by years of weather and neglect. The children clambered inside, laughter and bickering spilling into the cool Metropolis morning. Maria slid into a seat near the middle, Luca and his two friends quick to sit nearby as though claiming her as one of their own.
The city was waking around them. From the van's fogged windows, she watched the skyline unfold, steel towers glinting in the pale sunlight, LexCorp's glass monolith piercing the horizon like a blade. The children craned their necks to catch sight of it, pointing and whispering about how Superman had once thrown an alien starship into orbit from that very district.
Maria listened, smiling where she should, laughing when the others laughed. But behind her hazel eyes was a monster in human skin. Then she looked at every honking car, every flashing neon sign, every hurried pedestrian on the cracked sidewalks with interest unintentionally looking like a child, but they all radiated fragments of longing and fear. The city was a silent cry of desperation masked by a symbol of hope.
'There is so much pain beneath them all' she thought, resting her cheek against the window. 'No wonder cults thrive here. No wonder gods walk among mortals in this world. This place was made for me.'
The van jolted to a stop outside the school. Children poured out, scattering across the pavement like startled birds. Maria followed at a measured pace, her small shoes clicking softly against the concrete.
A teacher waved them in with a tired smile, but her gaze lingered on Maria for a moment too long, brow furrowing as though she had remembered something incredibly important.
Maria felt the stare like a prickle on the back of her neck. 'She's new, and Maria definitely doesn't have anything on her but it's worth the check.' Closing her eyes she dug deep extremely deep in Maria's memories, and surprisingly found who that woman was. Her older sister her name is Michelle, and hated Maria, but the gaze she saw was a mix of both confusion, relief, hope, and longing.'
Shaking her head at the mere thought the memories were clear Michelle viewed her as an invader never tried to reconcile just left for college without saying goodbye. The old Maria was always hoping her sister was ok despite the hate she directed at her. But unfortunately that small kindness died the same day her parents did as she cut them out of her life thus it'd be hard to know they died.
While walking Inside the school building she silently scoffed, as she did the fluorescent lights buzzed overhead, and it brought a sense of melancholy. 'That noise makes me think of the backrooms ironic that I now make my first reference since I crossed over.'
While lost in thought she heard lockers slam open and shut in uneven rhythm in the background. Then the air itself smelled faintly of chalk and disinfectant. Maria blended into the crowd seamlessly, yet her presence bent space in small, invisible ways, papers fluttered as if caught in an unseen draft, shadows twitched against the floor a heartbeat too slow to match their owners.
(Michelle's POV/Mini Timeskip)
Michelle kept her eyes on the attendance sheet, though the names blurred together. When Maria had stepped through the doorway, her heart had stopped. It was impossible, it had to be. And yet the resemblance was undeniable. The same hazel eyes, the same nervous little tilt of her head.
For a split second, Michelle had thought she was seeing her sister again.
Her stomach twisted. She remembered the phone call. The news. The way she hadn't gone back for the funeral, hadn't even called, because the distance between them had already grown into a canyon. Maria had begged for closeness, even as a child, and Michelle had shut her out. College, escape, freedom, all of it had mattered more at the time than her own sister who she'd used to be inseparable from, but when she grew it all crashed in flames.
She grew to hate her parents, and their strict rules, but instead of targeting the people she actually didn't like she took it all out on poor Maria. She was just awful so bad infact she regularly cries herself to sleep regretting it, and then their parents died. And Michelle hadn't been there. Here one chance to repair their relationship, but she was to enthralled by her ex who talked her out of it.
Her gaze flicked up, unbidden, to where the girl sat in the back. Maria. She was smiling at something another child had said, but there was a weight behind it that no little girl should have been able to carry. That made her feel way worse. She then looked away quickly, throat tight.
"Good morning, class," she said, her voice steadier than she felt. But her thoughts whispered louder than the children's chatter. 'Maria… I don't deserve a second chance. Not after what I did.'