A different kind of Knight

Chapter 28

She leaned against the plasteel construction of the machine as she began  to ponder on what to do. The hatch is locked shut and so is her fate here. From where she is standing, that is where her final resting place shall be. That thought didn't cause her to panic even one bit. She had already accepted long ago that this would happen, hoping for a peaceful way out. Though this wasn't her first, she was sure that there won't be any waking up in a whole new world after this. All alone inside a machine that she can barely comprehend on how it works that used to belong to someone who died because of her usual cowardly feline nature. She exhales in acceptance of it. It is natural for a cat to run away. And all that chose to put their trust in a cat such as her shouldn't be surprised that they were left all alone to fend for themselves. "Yeeeesss. It was hissss fault for trusting you!" A serpentine voice slithered out from nowhere. She turned around to  meet the gaze of the person who whispered that to her. Nothing. It's just the same metallic wall like all the other walls of the confines that imprison her. But it felt so real, she felt the hot breath of someone on her nape. It sent a fearful shiver down her spine. Something tells her that someone is observing her at this very moment, and she has a gut-feeling that it hates her. She tried to calm herself down as she tried to make sense of her situation. "I'm just imagining things. I'm just imagining things. Calm down girl. C'mon, ghosts and all that supernatural stuff ain't real." She's trying to convince herself that her mind is just playing tricks. But it did little to calm her down as her heart thumped relentlessly in her ears without pause, deafening her. Just a runaway imagination, nothing more, right? Oh, how wrong she was. "He... He should've pulled the trigger on you." The self-talk of reassurance is interrupted by an old man who sounded sad at her being spared from death, lamenting the missed chance to kill her. "He would've been alive had he chosen to kill you instead." The old man wailed as if he was on the verge of tears. Lips quivering and all even though there is none there at all. His only evidence of existence is the sad request for her death. Alice was visibly shaken by such a statement. 

Though she had been through hell and high water as she had faced the worst that the people could give to her. Her father said it ever since his wife died during childbirth, her birth to be exact. Her classmates said it when and wherever with serious and comedic intent. Always laughing at her mishaps and her mistakes that often lead to the dip in academic scores of her fellow classmates should they be unlucky enough to be grouped with her. But never an old person. All of the old people that she had met were nothing more than sweethearts to her. So for an aging old man wishing for her death visibly shocked her. Someone on the verge of death who is about to depart this world as they lived a long and peaceful life with only a few moments to spare for the living. Would much rather use their last few moments in the land of the living wishing for her to die. That is the first time something happened to her. For her, it is the most hate she had ever experienced against her. It was always hate for her. She often asks why does she even exist? Do anybody even truly love her for who she was? Silence reigned as those words cut her open. Luke did. And now he's dead cause of her no less. But would she let someone tell her that Luke never loved her? No, it is about time she stood up. Enough about running away and living on your knees. She feverishly clung onto the idea that Luke loved her. She wouldn't let anyone twist the only love that she felt into hate. "Luke would never do something like that! I've been with him and I know him better than you!" Alice defied their statements as she  remembered what Luke told her back then. "BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO LOSE YOU!" Luke cried out to her not too long ago. It was the first time someone said those words to her. For the first time she felt like she was truly wanted. She waited in the dark, damp, and slightly sour-smelling cockpit of the machine. No reply came for some time. She slipped down, satisfied that she finally defeated those that wished to hurt her. It felt good to fight back, perhaps she could even change. The two corners of her lips lift up as she thought whimsically about the idea. Maybe, just maybe, but she was gonna die here and she might as well die satisfied. But then came an unsettling giggle. It bounced around the walls, creating an illusion that she was being laughed at by an audience. "Teehee! Hahahaha! Huahihihihaha!" A single person turned into two, then three, four, five, and soon it sounded so loud it was starting to become incredibly painful to bear as she tried to scream to even try to hear her own voice. Her ears threatened to burst as the intensity grew and it drove her to the floor as she writhed and struggled. "HAHAHAHAHA! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" She held her ears flat against her skull with her paws as her claws threatened to perforate her ears with how hard she was holding on. Then it stopped, but the silence was more akin to the one before the storm. She gulps in fear as she scurries to the corner trying to find a safe space. There is none where she can hide as her eyes darted left and right, up and down. Her pupils are dilated as her survival instincts urges to run.