Alone Together: A Rose Undying

Why We'll Run

"You may know that there was a small group of ... Racists I'd say, wandering around killing people who they thought were mutants. The community turned the other cheek." Payne voiced in his professional tone. "Ok why are you telling me this?" I pondered as he went on. "Don't be rude." Smisammi shot back at me. "This said group has expanded, and is moving in to other comunities. They have begun to 'cleanse' them as they call it." Payne went on to say "But they become allot more accurate, as if they know exactly who's a strain and who's just pretending for unneeded attention. The higher ups believe that a student from my school is giving up information on whom is or isnt a strain. This has come to my attention..." I interrupt him "we havent been there in years, why or how could." "Exactly!" he retorts tired and frustrated of this seemingly meaningless conversation. "You seem a bit confident with your, so rude, judgement. Obviously I'm the culprit right? Obviously! That's the only reason you'd bring your ass here." Smisammi turns to me and tried to calm me down. Payne's unworldly colored eyes tear up. "Those bastards killed my daughter and I want answers. If you're not the one giving information to them who could?" I see the pain deep in his eyes and feel sorrow. "I'm not going to lie to you or sugar coat my answer. I don't know who's giving up information on students or faculty. I really dont, but I want to help. If you've got any leads I'll be happy to look into them for ya. But you're a man you shouldn't be crying to people like us, we wont cry with you, we won't give you a shoulder to cry on." Payne chins up and gains his composure slowly. A minute after he gets a call, stating that another student had been killed.

We rush to the scene the looks on people's faces, it was a grusum scene the ground around a young girl with black hair and red highlights had been singed, charred a pitch black. "Smisammi look at her hair it's black but the tips are red. She wasnt burned, this was her powers dispersing after death. Someone tore them out of her body forcefully." I think as she surveys the corpse. "But how do you know that someone didn't kill her with fire?" she thinks in return. "Look at the way the ground is charred the flames were going outward." I think as she turns to me and tried not to gag. Mangled and torn she laid bare some cloth melded to skin, Smisammi shed a crystal clear tear and turned to walk away. She gets a good ways away when I notice a perfectly unharmed locket and what seemed like a note to the parents of the the victims. The note stated:

"Hello, so we've caught your attention. Finally it has come into your interest that several of you disgusting creatures are being cleansed. As we see it you do not deserve the oxygen or food this planet provides. We will grant you two exits. One by your own hand, or two by ours. The choice my dear is always yours. And by the way Z, Payne is next."

I drop the note in shock as I turn to see Payne inspecting an area alone. Smisammi rushes to my side after feeling the stress I'd experienced. I try to tend too Payne but he pulled away from me he groans "Just gimme a second kid." and looked at debris for clues. While he searched to handed him the paper and he read it aloud. Smisammi turned over the locket which had a bit of blood on it. It nicked her thumb and forefinger she winced the blood on the locket got into her wound and memories flooded her mind. She saw children laughing in this blurry vision she saw a small boy and an older teenage girl. Then she heard screaming, the boy ran to her, hugged her waste, and cried out. That was the last memory she saw before she fell to her knees, and began to holding her stomach in confused agony. "What just happened?" I grasp my skull pleading for answers. Payne's hardy laugh rolls over us you think you've discovered all of your powers. Please DNA mutates all the time as long as you're a mutant you'll be learning all sorts of things about your powers. I remember when my hot headed little girl got mad cuz her little brother burned her hand he was only five and she was twelve. He laughed and sighed "Hope she's sitting pretty somewhere up there." He then said he needed to head off his sons waiting for him. "Misses is always exhausted." he chuckled as he left. Smisammi and I stayed at a motel that night, she stared out the window she seemed disstraut about something, but she eventually came to bed. The quiet morning after I had been thinking, it had been hard too sleep for both of us. She had been worried for me, and I couldn't sleep, because I was trying so very hard to think of any possible suspects. The quiet morning after "Hey Z? Can I ask you a quick question?" illuminated through out the house. "Yeah shoot." I returned hoping it wouldn't be a profound and impossible question. "Do you know anything about Payne's kids?" she asks holding the locket. "Uh huh, no why?" she hands me the locket and opens it. "The victim has a brother." "you saying you think that Payne's daughter is the one we saw last night? But hadn't she been dead judging by Payne's face for some time now and not murdered last night? Plus didn't didn't he get a call about the murder the night of, so it couldn't be his daughter." I ponder as Smisammi thinks about the note. "Lets head back to the body." she spurts as she turns to me. "They would've disposed of it by now." I reply as she bites my neck. "Well I know that much. I just thought about trying something." she says stooping over as smoke pours off her arms. "3d copy?" I ask helping her. "Yeah." she replies proud of her idea. "Well unless you've got a pretty good memory this won't do much." I inform as the scene began to solidify. "Photographic." she replied smugly. She replayed it over and over again until she was faint then it all came together. Smisammi noticed Payne crouch over the body "Z loo..." she falls flat on her face then I feel a sharp pain in the back of my head.