She had been an impostor. A cold and cruel fake who had stolen Mother's face. Real Mother was good and warm and would make everything alright. The thing that had taken her form lay lifeless in the floor. That just proved that she wasn't Mother. Mother could not die. She would come for her, one day, and they would be together, and everything would be okay again.

Lisa took one more look to the impostor's lifeless body, rage swelling up inside of her again. She had Mother's face! How dared she?
Enraged Lisa clawed at the corpse's face, expecting the face to pop off like a mask. She discovered it was instead fused into the flesh of the not-Mother. She turned her attention to the room they had been confined to, looking for something sharp. A shard of metal, protruding from the door frame. After few tries she managed to snap it loose.
Satisfied, Lisa turned to the corpse and began her work, carefully cutting the facial muscles, every now and then licking off the blood from her mother's face. It was frustrating how Mother's face clung to the impostor's flesh, but finally the last string of muscle snapped, and the bloody lump of flesh that had once been a face came off.

But Lisa could see Mother's face in it.
She would have to keep it safe. Mother would come for it. Lisa could hear them coming. They had finally noticed something was wrong, but too late for the impostor.
Instinctively, she turned to them, growling, when she sensed a familiar presence.

There were the guards, who smelt of fear and were of no interest to her. No, the one human who had her full attention was standing behind them. A figure of authority. One gesture from him, and the guards would fire. One word, and Lisa would be killed.
She couldn't see his eyes. She never could. He always had those things on, concealing part of his face.
Lisa racked her brain, in search of the word for them.
Glasses, no, that was not quite right... Glasses, sunglasses, that's it. He hid who he was behind sunglasses, and everyone feared him. They all did what he told them to do.
Lisa made her decision. She backed away from the impostor's corpse, all the way to the back corner, as the men turned their attention to the dead woman.
In the dark Lisa raised the morbid mask to her face.

She would hide behind it.

Where was Mother? Lisa paced around the room, like a gaged tiger, confined in this darkness.
Scientists had lost interest in her after getting what they wanted from her, and locked her in one of the rarely used parts of the laboratory.
Where was Mother? She was alone, Mother was not there.
The man with sunglasses wasn't there either. She paused for a bit, thoughts briefly resting on him. When was the last time he had been there?

There was a sound. Someone was coming.

But the little bit of hope she felt soon vanished, as she realized it was not Mother.
Or even Sunglasses-man.

At that moment, something in her snapped. She had been alone in the dark for so long she had gotten used to it. Filling her days and nights (for there was little to differentiate between the two down there) with endless circling of thoughts as well as movement. But she had allowed herself, even if only for a fleeting moment, to hope for something else.
For someone.

And now the thought of that dark isolation she had endured for so long felt unbearable.

She had not been strong enough. Mother had left her. He had left her.
All because she was too weak.
She would need more faces, that would help. These people who were coming would do. She would take their faces.
And things would change.

1998

Lisa had grown timid, avoiding humans and taking refuge in an abandoned cabin in the woods.
She would occasionally sneak into the buildings looking for food. In one of those journeys she had stumbled upon the underground room where she had finally found Mother. The scent was faint, but Lisa was certain of it. Mother was there, but she couldn't get to her. Try as she might, the stone did not yield, blocking her, taunting her.

But now people had came, and with them a familiar scent.
That had brought Lisa from hiding. And now she had found the man from her past, in the same place where Mother was.
What could this mean? Was he there to hurt Mother? Or to help her?
She was so preoccupied with him, that she didn't notice how the other man was moving the stones until the last one dropped, and the lid of the coffin slid off.

She was in the dark. All was quiet. Mother was gone, dead. She would not come for her. There was no need to get up. She could stay forever in this void where there were no pain, thoughts, or hunger. But in this darkness something stirred. There was a presence, ever-so familiar, but now somehow different, calling her.
Slowly the creature rose, and it wasn't quiet anymore, as the jingling of her chains broke the silence.

There were two scents.
First, there was Mother, no, what was left of her. Lisa's eyes, that could see in the little light that found it's way down the gorge, could see her skull in the dust, hollow eyes blindly looking at nothing.
Secondly, there was Him.
His smell had changed. He had always been different from all the others in Lisa's eyes, standing above them all, having a presence so strong that when He was in the room, all other people became small and insignificant. But now.
His smell was still there, but now it had a subtle, strangely familiar undertone to it.
Lisa climbed out of the abyss, the scent guiding her.
Mother's skull was left in the dust.

She found Him in the corridor.
He smelt of blood and sweat and.
He wasn't wearing his sunglasses anymore.
There was such strength in those eyes that burned with that red rage that was so familiar to Lisa in her own way.
She took few steps, at first uncertain what she should do. What she wanted to do.
And then it was too late. The elevator doors closed, leaving her behind.
And Lisa knew exactly what it was she wanted.

She wanted to be close to Him.
So close His scent would surround her and overpower all the other smells, including her own.
She would sink her teeth into His flesh and taste His blood.
He would belong to her, and He would be let inside her wall of borrowed faces, and she would never be alone again.

Lisa screamed, not because of pain, she could hardly feel the bullets He fired, but because of frustration.
Why could she not get to Him? Try as she might, He would get away, being faster and more agile than Lisa with her chains and manacles.
But now there He was, right in front of her.
Lisa's attention was so focused on the man standing in front of her, that she failed to notice how the chandelier came loose.
And then there was a great weight, crushing her into the unconsciousness, and the darkness was there to claim Lisa again.

A charred figure limped from the ruins of the Spencer estate.
Mother was gone. All was lost in the inferno that burned everything. Everything except her. She was the one who would not die.
She took one painful step, then another, before collapsing again in the rubble.
But she was already healing, viruses in her body repairing the damage, and after a short rest, she continued her journey.
She could smell Him. She would follow Him, and find Him.
He had a name, yes. Lisa had usually no need for names, but this one felt important.
She strained her rarely-used vocal cords:
"Wes-keer"