The Monster

Chapter 7

I saw a huge lake with a waterfall. I sat down on the small beach. The man took his shirt off to reveal huge muscles and abs. I looked away, knowing I couldn't be distracted by those things. He walked into the water and went under. He came up and wiped the hair out of his face.

"Novia, come on in! The water's nice," he said a big grin on his face. I scowled at him. He was definitely getting comfortable around me to be acting like this.

"No thanks. I may be part shark, but I don't want to go in," I muttered.

"Aw! Come on party pooper!" he teased. I ignored him as I laid down in the sand and looked up at the orange and pink clouds above. I took a deep breath. I was tired. I didn't get much sleep recently. I sat up and looked at the man splashing around in the water, obviously having fun by himself.

"What's your name?" I asked, realizing he knew my name, but I didn't know his. The man walked onto the beach. He thought for a second.

"Andrew. My name's Andrew," he said. I nodded. He sat down next to me.

"How much do you know about me?" I asked.

"A lot. You've been in the news for a really long time. They pretty much gave up all of your information." I sighed.

"Great. So everyone knows just as much as you do?"

"No. Most people didn't care what happened to you. When I realized you were the new project Xavier was working on, I read more about you. I was surprised when I found the sites that didn't think you were the monster the media portrays you as," he said.

"There are people like that?" He nodded.

"Yeah. I looked up stuff about me, but it seems as if everyone thinks I'm the monster they show on the news." He stared at the sand.

"I doubt that. There are always people who have revolutionary thoughts. I'm sure there are people who don't think you're a monster." He shrugged.

"I don't mind if they do. I am a monster," he said softly. I sighed.

"That's what I thought when I was younger. I thought I really was a monster," I said sitting back, propped up on my forearms, "but I soon realized how stupid, terrified and hypocritical humans are. In their religions, they claim to have tolerance for others, but murder those who aren't of the same religion. They're scared of what they don't know or understand. That's why they have a god. They make up these stories about how everything came to be. They don't understand us, you and me, we contradict everything they've ever known. For them to not be scared, they need to understand us. But they can't and they don't like that. It's not you or me, it's them." He sighed.

"That's deep for an eighteen-year-old," he said. I nodded.

"Yeah, I've spent a lot of time in that cell, all alone. With nothing to do, but think." I looked at the surrounding trees for something to accompany what I heard.

"Did you hear that?" Andrew asked. I held my finger up to my lips to silence him. I slowly stood up and looked all around me. I saw something glint in the moonlight in the trees. Gun. I pulled Andrew up and ran into the water.

"Get in!" I yelled trying to get to the deeper part, "It's harder to aim at objects when they're distorted in water! Hurry!" I dove under the water and saw him dive deeper under. He motioned for me to follow. I swam after him until something shot through the water in front of me. A bullet. I swam faster, dodging the bullets that flew through the water all around. I followed Andrew through a tunnel. I broke through the surface and gasped for air. We were in a small cavern.

"Did they get you?" I asked. He shook his head.

"You?" I shook my head.

"No. How long do we have to stay here before they leave or come after us?" I asked. He shrugged.

"I think it leads to somewhere else. We should follow it," he said. I nodded. I went back underwater and followed the tunnel with Andrew behind me. The tunnel was carved out of rock. It was pretty spacious for me, which was saying something. The water was a little murky, but I could still see pretty well.