Putz12 Plus One

THIRTEEN | BURNING QUESTIONS

I just wanna go to the surface with him. I wanna know what it's like to see him in action, for all the stuff he talks I hope he could back it up. And I could be his cheerleader like in those ancient human magazines. The days must be normal there, too. Why else would that thing up above piss him off so much? She smiled in her thoughts, staring at the wood, knowing it would be her last day in this shellhole. I wonder if he heard everything. I wonder if--

Was he even safe? She got right out of bed, rushing from the barn, sweat pouring, her old boots skidding and sand rose up from the ground, the air rushi-

"Where are you doing?" Sera stood there, walking slowly to her.

Iza's feet sank in the sand below. "Water." The lie was so pathetic even she didn't believe herself.

"Running like that? I'll get you water. Go to bed."

"It's been hours. I know that because I have a strong sense of time. The body has to be gone by now."

Sera ran up to her, covering her mouth, and in an instant had her arm around her waist. She was paralyzed. "If only I'd kept that stupid weapon in my pocket," she thought.

"I didn't want to have to ever lay a hand on you. But please, keep this between us." She shoved her free, carelessly as she fell to the ground, there, staring at Sera whose heat grew and closed in on her. It was a bad time to wear a sweater. "Nobody can find out."

"Why did you do it?" She was leaning on her arms now, hoping the mirroring of her past behaviors would bring out old Sera, the one who wasn't a psychopath, at least not knowingly.

"You saw him, you saw his hand on your thigh."

"What if it was something else he wanted?"

"You're kidding?!" She coughed and spat, looking horrendously offended. "He's a guy, what else do you think he'd want?"

She remembered how Inkling didn't want any of that. Sure, he joked, but when it came to her advances he was either blind or more likely just didn't like her. She remembered that you can't just say because they're a 'guy' they automatically want one thing. She turned away and faced the blank wooden wall.

"I know you don't think I did the right thing--"

"You killed someone. Of course you didn't."

"It was to protect you!"

Protect her from what? She could defend herself, just not from her with powers, or Inkling, who had the upper hand physically most of the time. She felt like she was talking to Pheobe, which just agitated things beyond what they were already. Yet Pheobe, to her knowledge, didn't kill anyone. It was against the entire code of conduct for Sector Nine to ever hurt anyone, even an enemy, unless absolutely necessary. Killing an enemy would give The Order even more of a reason to scout them out, a nightmare nobody wanted to come to fruition. 

Nothing in Sera's logic made sense. Maybe she panicked, sure, but even under his self-assessed threatening situation, Inkling didn't try to kill her. And then she remembered that Seraphyne wasn't an inkling or octoling. "Just, what are you?" She finally asked.

"Glad you asked." She walked to sit by her, the jangling was back again, this time annoying and not charming at all. "I'm a starling."

"Starling?"

"Yes." She blushed, looking away to admire Felix's half-built bookshelf at the end of the barn. "I've never told anyone before."

"So??"

"So, trust me..." She demanded.

Iza got up to go outside. "Why trust a woman who now won't let me leave the barn, what, are you gonna keep me in here, incinerate me if I don't comply?"