Cold Blooded

Three

Chongyun looked down at Zandik. The small boy looked back up at him with a sad smile in his eyes and began his story.

"When Big Brother made me he was so excited. He called me 'Three' or 'Little Me.' I know that he was 'One,' but I was never quite sure what happened to 'Two.'

"He used to go to this big school in this giant tree." Zandik glanced off into the distance, caught up in memories. "I think people called it The Academia, but I'm not entirely sure. Anyways, he made me in secret. I caught glimpses of him before I was completed. He worked late into the night and was always trying to make sure I was perfect. When I was finally completed, he started whooping and hollering and jumping up and down.

"He immediately began to show me how to do things. He showed me how to walk and how to write, though I'm still not great at it, he taught me to read, and how to make little people and animals in the shadows with my hands. He said that I could call him 'Big Brother' because that was what he was going to be for me. He promised he would protect me.

"When he decided I was ready, he took me out of his room and into the rest of the school. Have you ever realized how beautiful flowers are? They are so simple and delicate, yet so very beautiful. That was the first day I saw a flower. The first day I really saw anything outside of Big Brother's room.

"We rushed to the Grand Sage's office. Running was a bit harder than walking, but it was fun. When we got there, people fell silent. They all looked at me oddly. One man around Brother's age asked if I was his little brother. I remember smiling at that. Brother said I was more than that though. He said that I was a segment of himself. I didn't understand then, and I still don't really understand now.

"People began to laugh at Brother, and that made me mad. I told everyone that it is very rude to laugh at people, and everyone fell silent again. A man with an odd hat slowly walked over to us and began poking at me. I wanted to tell him that this was another rude thing, but Brother told me to stay quiet.

"The man started messing with my face and hit the button that opens up to my speaker. It didn't used to be protected the way it is now, it was actually very easy to open back then.

"The man laughed and said that I even sounded like Brother, but I didn't like the way he said it. "The last thing we need is more of you," the man said. The man scared me. I tried asking Brother if we could go back to his room, but then the people started laughing all over again. They started yelling at Brother. Things about him being a creep and a freak. I didn't like that.

"We started to head back towards Brother's room when the man with the weird hat told Brother that he should scrap 'it'. Brother got really angry then. He started yelling at the people about how I had a life and how I could change everything that humanity knew. He started ranting and raving, it scared me a little. I tugged on his coat and asked if we could please go back to his room.

"There was something different in his eyes when he first looked at me, it was a crazed, wild look. He blinked a few times and looked at me again, calmer. He managed a smile and we both left the angry people and went back to his room.

"When we got there, Brother told me that we were leaving. He said that he was going to run out and grab things for the journey and told me to start packing up the things in his room into two backpacks.

"I wasn't entirely sure what to bring, but I packed up all of me and Brother's clothes. I organized all of his tools into a pouch and grabbed some of the story books that Brother had used to teach me to read. There were also a few journal's that I had seen Brother write in late at night. I packed them in the backpacks too. There was little else in the room and the backpacks were already full.