Favourite Crime

Cada

I thought I would have difficulty finding someone to take me away from this place.

Turns out I forgot the many willing to do it without me even having to ask.

You couldn't blame me, though. I had spent so many years in that horrid place with its all white walls and tiles, machinery lined up everywhere, computers that kept record of each of my heartbeats.

I was an anomaly, they said. An oddity. A paradox. Everything, but a person. They lied, of course. They didn't want me knowing I wasn't the only one. I had heard stories. My parents spent a lot of my childhood reassuring me I wasn't a monster.

I don't know if I fully believed them. It was in how these people looked at me. How the newest ones gasped and stared at me with panic in their eyes.

And, after all, how could you explain all the bodies I left lying in my wake as I made my escape?

And now, I travelled across the sea to who knew where, on a ship of crooks and thugs who took one look at me and thought I'd sell well. My hands were bound but a thin cloth that I could probably tear apart, similar to the situation of all the other people with me. I think the thin body they mistook for weak is what led to them not taking as many precautions as they should have.

The same could not be said for the whimpering people around me. They were simply bound too, but they were nowhere near capable of fighting and escaping. They were fearful. I don't know if I was capable of such a human feeling anymore. The last time I remember feeling fear is when they took me. That was also the last time I had travelled on a ship.

When we docked and they marched us out of the cabin, our eyes were blindfolded. I could smell and hear a lot of what I couldn't recognise. I could tell that there were many people cheering and shouting in a language I didn't know.

I turned to the side and walked straight off the side of the ship. I fell into the water and I heard shouts behind me. I didn't stop, however. I took off my blindfold and stayed underwater until I found a space covered by planks.

The water that I was used to wasn't nearly as murky and impure. I could still see and breathe in it but it came with its issues. I was coughing under the planks and I saw someone jump in the water, perhaps after me.

I knew humans couldn't breathe underwater. What confirmed it was when he came nearer and I dove towards him and pulled him under. He pushed against me and jabbed at me. More people dove in but I had taken the man much deeper where his struggling finally ended.

We surfaced by a forest about a mile away. I dragged the limp man into the trees until we were surrounded by them. I finally looked at my most recent victim.

He was a middle-aged man with stubble and a nose ring. He wore a brown shirt that matched his skin and a darker shade of pants, both of which I pulled off of him. I then spent a good while squeezing and drying them.

Water leaned out his mouth and I couldn't be sure if he was alive. Nevertheless, I got to work.

I discarded my rags and put his clothes on my body. His physique was broader and taller so it showed that the clothes on my body weren't mine. I took his watch for myself and found what looked like paper currency in his pockets. I couldn't tell if the bills were worth much but I had much to learn, anyway.

I stole the chain around his neck too. It was silver and heavy and could be worth something.He had a gun and a knife, which were both now mine. I took his shoes which were only a little big for me, and the man was left in his undergarments and socks. There was only so much I could wear of his.

The only thing I forgot to take was a look around but I finally caught the man staring at me in the reflection in the knife. I turned around and pointed the gun at him.