Automation Era: The Battlefield

[8] confession

[8] confession

Angelo turned towards the girl and grabbed my wounded arm. He showed it off, the black blood. "There," he said, "he's an android."

The girl kept frowning with her arms crossed. Tilting her torso, she squinted at my arm, then straightened again. "And the girl?"

Angelo let go of me. Then, calmly, he walked towards Scarlett. I didn't bother watching him cut her. I just stared at my wound. The black stuff oozing out. And for this disorienting, overwhelming, inexplicable moment, I doubted my identity. We didn't even know exactly how we were made if the human race was extinct, so...could we...No. Nonsense. I was human. I'd seen my red blood before countless times.

I poked the cut in my arm. The inky substance splattered onto my finger, and the rest trickled down my skin. But then this load ended, and the red color came again. Red. I gasped. Quickly, I pushed my sleeve down before the girls could notice.

I didn't know how, but Angelo had managed to make the surface blood turn black. The rest was normal.

When I landed back onto reality, Angelo had finished up with Scarlett and showed the girls black blood. Scarlett looked as confused as me. And yet neither of us dared to speak, move, breathe—we just let Angelo save our butts.

"Planning to battle soon?" the dark-haired girl said.

Angelo nodded. "Planning to win."

The confidence in Angelo's voice pissed the girl off, and she hardly maintained an unbothered pretense. "Good luck, then," she said. A smirk pulled at her mouth. "Try not to mess up again, yeah?" Through my peripheral, I caught Angelo tensing. Like her mere words tugged at the tautest, most raw nerve in him. "You have history, you know—"

Angelo clenched his jaw. A vein popped in his neck. "Shut up," he spat. "Shut up before I cut your tongue. Before you talk about my past, remember yours. The most useless Assassin in existence. These newbies"—he pointed at us—"could do better than you."

She glared at him with the sum of all the hatred in the world. By what Angelo said, I could tell she'd been their Assassin. Their...ex-Assassin. She knew things about him. He knew things about her. And I didn't know shit about either of them. Fair.

"You know what makes me wanna puke?" the girl said. "That I used to like you."

"Yeah." Angelo nodded. "It makes me wanna puke too."

With a disgusted expression, the girl left, followed by her friend. I sighed. Angelo set his eyes on Scarlett and clenched his jaw. Pissed. He was damn pissed now. Not that he personally cared about us and what could've happened had he not appeared—it was just that he needed us on his team. I had to keep reminding myself of that.

No real love. No real connection. Bots could never give us that. Even androids like Angelo with emotions. They couldn't. Scarlett told me so.

I hated that.

"You stupid piece of shit," Angelo said, lunging at Scarlett. I shifted, ready to defend, but he only grabbed her by the arm. And for the first time ever, Scarlett didn't defy. Didn't struggle. Didn't yell and shout.

She...She just stood, motionless, wordless. With a frown that wasn't angry. A frown that was ashamed. When she caught my eye, the shame intensified by a thousand, then she looked away.