Sin: Path of Poison

Chapter 27 (Sin's Past) Part 1

On a day like any other day a man rode up to our training grounds, behind came a carriage. He made his way to the scientists, they went inside a tent for several hours. We read the daily assignments on our own. When it was nearly dark the adults came out of the tent.

"You're coming with me." The new adult said. We followed as he walked back to his horse. He turned to look back at us suddenly. "Bring anything you need, we won't be coming back." He added. All of us stared at him blankly, what would we have that we needed to take with us? Noticing the confused looks on our face, he mounted his horse and we began to follow on foot while the carriage horses followed along after us. After traveling a short distance away he slowed his horse until he came to a stop. He turned around to look at us in surprise.

"Were you.. running?" He asked. We nodded in agreement. "Why didn't you get on the carriage?" He questioned.

"You told us to come with you, not get on the carriage." Fearless spoke up. When were any of us ever offered to hop onto a carriage?

"It's too dark to continue traveling safely, we'll continue on again in the morning, sleep in the carriage for tonight." He shook his head at us. We were just as puzzled as he seemed to be, why leave this late in the night to travel such a short distance? We obeyed though, Fearless chose to sleep on the floor while we took the two longer benches.

At first light we all woke up, wondering what sort of weird nonsense this guy would spout off. Under the bench I noticed three outfits, they were made of scratchy material, two for males and one for a female. All were the same cheap material, not like the silks and brocades we read about in books. Fearless looked out the window to find our odd adult still asleep.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"We don't know the directions, we can't start on our own." Tripping boy replied.

"You go wake him up." Fearless told me.

"Me?" I asked. "How should I wake him up?"

"Think of something." Fearless said.

I stepped outside and walked closer to him as he leaned against a tree, a hat covered his face to keep the sun off. I sat near him quietly, waiting for my scent to affect him. It took longer than I thought it should, but eventually he jolted awake. He removed his hat to stare over at me, my large black eyes stared back at him.

"How long have you been there?" He asked, still shaken.

"A while. I think the hat disrupts my scent.." I trailed off, still staring at the hat. "What sort of coating is that?" I questioned, smelling something odd about the hat. He put it away without answering.

"You're quiet." He trailed off, for the first time he looked at me as something other than a young unkempt girl. "Do you know where you were staying?" He asked me, curious.

"I don't understand the question." I replied wrinkling my forehead.

"The place I picked you all up from? Do you know what it was?" He rephrased the question. I shook my head, what did it matter where we were?

"Have any of you ever been to a morning market?" He suddenly changed the topic.

"No." I said flatly.

"Do you know what it is?" He continued on his questioning.

"Yes. It was described in some of the books we read." I retorted. He laughed quietly to himself and nodded at the carriage. I returned to the carriage and stepped inside without looking back at him.

We rode in the carriage the entire day, only taking breaks for the horses to rest. At night we slept in the carriage, but continued riding again the following day. By the third morning we arrived in a town. The adult, who claimed his name was Trace, told us to change into the clothing that were under the bench in the carriage. We stood in front of him in a small town, the first town we'd seen since we were little. We read books on different towns and cities but that didn't prepare us for the abundance of smells and noises blasting away at our sensory.

"Walk around a while, then meet back here." He said before abruptly leaving. Doing as he asked, I took a quick walk around the three stalls near us before turning back. Fearless left on his own, not even looking back. Tripping boy was near me the whole time, standing slightly behind me as if it were a coincidence.

I observed the people closely. Woman carrying baskets, walking from stall to stall commenting on prices, pretending not to like something. Men sometimes walked with women offering to buy them niceties. The woman laughed and said they needed nothing, but accepted the gifts anyways. Groups of men sometimes walked by going into various buildings off the main road where women urged them inside quickly.

Kids our age gathered in small groups, the girls stood around giggling and whispering while the boys pretended they weren't looking. The young kids ran everywhere, some clearly stealing coin purses from oblivious adults. To the side I saw a girl barely older than me sitting near a boy. They looked awkwardly at each other from the corners of their eyes, embarrassed any time their sideways glances met. I didn't fit in with any of them and neither did Tripping boy.

Despite wearing robes that were not as nice of quality as some of the other boys, Tripping boy stood out among them. Some of the girls who'd initially ignored him began taking second glances. Although I wasn't as dirty as before, I was still a far cry away compared to the girls around me. My cleanliness resembled the young kids stealing purses. From the side I could hear a young girl calling to her brother, asking if she looked cute with a decoration in her hair. He patted her head and laughed, purchasing the item for her.

"Big brother!" I called out to Tripping boy, waving him over to look at a similar stand. His eyes met mine, but there was only a blank stare looking back at me. "Come here!" I encouraged him.

"What?" His voice was flat as he looked at the hair decorations in front of me.

"Would any of them look good on me?" I asked, trying to copy what I'd seen.

"Move out!" The shopkeeper suddenly yelled at me. "You're ruining my business! Plan on stealing from me? I don't think so!" He yelled more. A group of people nearby started mumbling about my uncleanliness. As the crowd grew larger more people started commenting, telling me to get lost. I looked blankly at a woman that suddenly picked up a stone and threw it at me. Her eyes met mine and she suddenly screamed.

"Monster!" She yelled, as the darkness of my eyes shocked her. More people yelled while finding things to pick up and throw at me.

Fearless boy suddenly appeared nearby, he ran out from an alley, grabbed a man in the back and punched him in the face then already moved on to the next man. Fearless boy moved through the crowd punching and kicking until he was between Tripping boy and I. He grinned, showing his exhilaration among the chaos.

The mob grew larger as people called out for retaliation, a few patrol guards came our way. The patrol guards listened to the calls from the mob then charged at Fearless boy. I suddenly became aware of a woman not far from me throwing a clay cup at my head. Confused by everything going on, I didn't bother to dodge or catch the object. Despite all of my training I hadn't prepared for this, the human interactions. The cup hit my head, near the hairline, and shattered. A cut appeared, small in size but large enough for blood to pour out. It dripped down my temple, following the curve of my cheek before dripping off my chin.

The crowd fell silent, stillness fell around me. It was as if time itself froze for a moment, all the thoughts in their heads were whisked off into oblivion. Each of them inhaled deeply, time started again. Their heads swayed slightly in a trance, their eyes opened to focus on me. Tripping boy and Fearless froze as well, looking towards me in silence.

Just before the cup hit my head one of the guards had been stabbed in the stomach with his own weapon by Fearless boy. Now the guard stood staring at me with a sword sticking out of his abdomen as blood poured down from him. It wasn't the first time I'd seen this, things like this happened all the time in controlled studies. The crowd witnessed it and still did nothing. Nobody around us cared as the guard's face paled rapidly and his body wavered.

I spun around to look at them all. One of the boys that had called me an ugly monster wore nice robes, not scratchy at all. The cloth looked smooth and moved in the breeze. The color was light and charming. I thought it would look good on Tripping boy. I rubbed my sleeve to my head to soak up some of the blood, then looked into the eyes of the boy.