Earth Is Mine

Chapter 14

My eyelids feel like they've been glued together as I wake up from my empty dreams. I squint at the plain white ceiling, my eyes are too swollen, I can't open them fully. 

I blink a few times remembering my last conversation with Lucian and crying the entire night because of it. 

Now I am tired and lonely but for some reason I feel release like a huge weight has been lifted off my chest. 

I've lost my family, my friends and now the one person I love with my entire being. Last night was an all new low for me and that's saying a lot because these past few weeks have been filled with lows. 

I place my hand over my heart. After crying buckets of tears, I'm all dried up and oddly calm. 

This is me. I can finally be who I am and maybe being alone would be like starting a new life, a fresh new start. 

It's like I'm waking up for the first time with new sight, the world is now different. 

I feel different.

There is a line I remember from when I was young; when you hit rock bottom, the only other way to go is up. 

Those words have never rang truer in my thoughts. I rack my brain trying to remember who told such a wise thing. It can't be anyone on Pluto because I blocked out almost everything that didn't have anything to do with escaping. 

It must be someone from Earth, from the time I was a child. 

Can't be my father, he was mostly the joker. My mother was always running after us, she wasn't much of a talker. Definitely can't be my annoying brother. 

I grin slightly as I remember my grandmother. We used to visit her every once in a while and my memories of her are minimal considering she passed on when I was very young. But I remember she had a smart mouth and it used to drive my mother mad. 

My grandmother was what the Plutonians would call a scary Madam. A scorned wife hell bent on making a paramour's life hell. 

In my mother's case it was her mother in law. Nana constantly complained about her but she treated my father, brother and I like gold. 

My smile widens when I remember all the chocolate treats we used to get when we visited her. I don't know why I never thought of her before but now I can't stop. 

My nana lost my grandfather to war when she was very young. She used to tell us the story repeatedly but now that I think about it, I've never once seen her wallowing in depression. 

She was always busy cooking treats or dusting off a surface and nagging my mother every second we spent with her. 

I sit up slowly, my vision becoming clearer as a new found fire reignites in my chest. 

Now that I'm on ground zero, I have two options; remain miserable and useless or I could do what nana did and make someone else's life miserable. 

Lazarus. 

I've been wanting to get back at him for as long as I can remember and this time I will succeed. I stand up and head to the washroom to wash up. 

I stare in the mirror, my swollen eyes now sharp and focused as I brush my teeth. I picture Lazarus's arrogant face and my heart beats in anticipation. 

I have nothing and no one to hold me back now, no more heartache, no more regrets. I am not 7203 or Aria the Bone Breaker anymore. I am just Aria, someone who will stop at nothing till Lazarus is defeated. 

If I could escape Pluto and survive thus far then destroying an imbecile will be a gratification. I will now devote every cell, every tissue, every organ in my body to winning this war. I owe it to all the people I have lost.