• Lily Louise Lisa Lena Lewis was an amazingly beautiful young lady. Her blond hair, so light it looked silver, cascaded in waves down her back, and her bright blue eyes sparkled with innocence and love for everyone. Even when she wore no makeup and the drabbest of clothes, she attracted attention simply by walking down the halls of her high school. Eyes followed her perfect body everywhere she went.

    Unfortunately, instead of her beauty being the blessing everyone mistook it as, it was a curse. Girls envied her and made up jealous lies behind her back, while boys talked only of how they wanted to go out and have sex with her.

    “How ridiculous. Go ahead and do something now before I puke all over the pretty little mini skirt she's bound to be wearing.”

    Lily stopped and looked around the hall in confusion. Where had that voice come from? It resounded throughout the hall as though someone were on the intercom, but no one else seemed to have heard it.

    “I-I'll wait,” a different, unsure voice said. “There's always a chance, you know...”

    The voice let out something like a discontented grunt and let the matter drop. Lily decided to do the same; surely these voices were just two more jealous onlookers who forgot to lower their voices. She ignored them as she did the whispers, taking all with stoic grace.

    Then she saw him. It was the boy who had slipped date rape into her Mountain Dew the previous weekend and... She couldn't bear to think of it, and she could barely even look at him, let alone hear him bragging to his friends about it. She could hold her head high in the face of all other trials with admirable strength, but this was too fresh a wound. With cheeks aflame, she dashed into the bathroom that was luckily close at hand.

    A quick survey of the room made her freeze in place with her breath caught in her throat, heart skipping a beat in fear before pounding painfully against her ribs. They were there, near the window, cigarettes in hand. The five girls who hated her the most just happened to be occupying the same bathroom that Lily was currently trying to escape into. The door slammed shut behind her, trapping them together.

    “Oh god. Oh GOD no.” The voices were back, but Lily ignored them in the face of her fear. “The author can't be serious. We're down to bullying already? Do something soon, or – “

    “Hush!”

    There was a short pause, and then, “Are you... Are you enjoying this?”

    “N-No! Of course not!”     came the hasty reply, a bit too defensive.

    The voices lapsed back into silence, and Lily watched as the girls regarded her coldly. “Isn't that the girl who made out with Brian at the movies?” one said casually, flicking her cigarette ashes on the floor from the windowsill she was sitting on.

    “That was David,” another said.

    “I thought she let David feel her up?” someone else cut in.

    The leader of the pack dropped her cigarette and stepped on it, a signal for the other girls to be quiet because something was about to happen. “You're all three wrong,” she said coolly. “She's the one who made out with Steven, let Brian feel her up, and had sex with David.”

    Lily watched in frozen terror as the girl walked up to her. “You leave David alone,” she snarled, knocking the books Lily was holding to the ground. “He's mine, you hear? Come near him again and I'll kill you.” She shoved Lily to the ground and left. Her followers flicked their cigarettes towards Lily, casting disdainful glances as they left.

    When they were gone, she slowly picked up her fallen books. Why can't I escape this?! she cried out silently. It's not fair! I haven't done anything to anyone! I just want to disappear into another world where people will accept me and not hate me for who I am... A single crystalline tear trickled down her cheek, falling onto a book she'd borrowed from the library but hadn't read yet.

    “Sue level has reached critical. We cannot allow this story to continue or this Sue will infect some other, innocent world. Do something now, or I will.”

    “O-Okay...”

    Darkness descended around Lily suddenly. She stood up, looking around in confusion. What's going on here? she wondered. Am I... being taken to another world? Her eyes glowed with an inner light as her hopes soared.

    “Think again.” It was the first voice she'd heard, only this time a body was forming to match it: a lady in her mid thirties with cropped dark hair, dark eyes, and a face twisted with a bitter scowl.

    “Am I always to be attacked by those jealous of me?” Lily cried. “I didn't ask for this!”

    “It's okay, everyone will be alright soon.” Another body formed, this time a timid looking girl around her own age, 17, with light brown hair, glasses, and freckles. She was holding a sword.

    Something inside Lily recognized it, and her features suddenly grew blindingly beautiful. Her hair flowed about her, longer and more perfect than before. Her eyes grew ten times more blue, a thousand times more sad. “Please,” she pleaded, her voice that of an angel. “Please, don't do this. My life has been so terrible, so lonely...”

    The timid one was moved to tears, but the scowling girl grabbed her shoulder. “Listen to me, Anna!” she shouted. “You were a Sue once, too; you know what it's like! You know their tricks! Fight it or be lost forever!”

    Anna blinked, coming out of her trance, and tightened her grip on her sword. “I'm sorry, Sam,” she said. “Thanks. I can do it now.” She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and began.

    Her eyes flared open, a coldness in them that even Lily was unaccustomed to. “You're ugly,” Anna said clearly. “You're a despicable creature. You feed off the innocent, naive readers' pity.”

    “I am a pitiful thing!” Lily protested desperately, but even as she spoke her beauty seemed to dim. “My life has been nothing but torture, but still I have hope that someday that will change! Spare me!”

    Anna smiled, a smile as hard as her eyes. “You do not deserve mercy. You are terrible and savage. You have no right to whine. You're beauty is only an illusion, a facade hiding your true self.”

    “I'm only what I am! I was born with this beauty, this curse!” Lily was on the ground, crawling towards her.

    “Reveal yourself, Sue!” Anna yelled, ignoring Lily's protests. “Let this poor girl alone so that she may be redeemed and become a true character!”

    Lily reached her hands up to clasp Anna's pants, hanging onto the fabric as if for dear life. The luster of her hair was gone completely, her eyes dulling. “Please...”

    Anna looked down at her. “I banish you, Mary Sue.”

    Lily screamed, a piercing scream of anguish mingled with hate, then a spirit rose from her body and floated in the air above as Lily collapsed. “Curse you,” the spirit spat. She was the ugliest thing Anna had ever seen, though there was nothing in her otherworldly body that was ugly. Anna swept her sword horizontally, and the Sue named Lily disappeared.

    Anna breathed a deep sigh of relief, and the coldness of her eyes left to be replaced by warmth and forgiving as she crouched down beside the poor girl who had been possessed by the spirit of an evil Sue. “Your name shall be Laura Mary Thompson from now on,” Anna said with a smile.

    Laura looked up at her. Tears were welled up in her dull blue eyes, making them red and puffy. “What do I do now?” she asked. “Where do I go?” She faltered as she choked up.

    Anna let her cry on her shoulder, stroking her shoulder length, messy blond hair gently, comfortingly, pleased to find the split ends that revealed the girl was truly healed. “You must go to the Sue Reform Society for a while,” she replied. “They will teach you how to be a character whom the more literate audience doesn't despise.”

    Laura looked up at her and tried to speak, but she couldn't through her hiccups. “It's okay, I understand,” Anna said quietly. “I was a Sue once, too, but Sam helped me reform.” Laura smiled as she began to fade. “Good luck!” Anna encouraged her before she was completely gone.

    “Good job,” Sam muttered, helping Anna to her feet. “I thought they let you out a little too early, but I guess not.” She let a fleeting smile play across her features before turning serious again. “Let's go, we have more work to do. I'll take the next one while you rest.”

    Anna nodded her thanks. “It's hard work, being an Anti-Sue,” she said with a deep sigh. “I'm just glad that one's over.”

    “Others are far worse. You ready?”

    “Ready as I'll ever be.” Anna steeled herself as they cast their eyes upon yet another story, only one of an infinite amount. Their work would never be done, would it...?