HUMAN-LESS

Chapter 8: Bad ideas

One day later

Distant gunfire and screaming.

Rule number 2: No one will come for me.

I am definitely going to punch something. Maybe the liar in front of me. After all I'm still so very cold, so very dead inside.

"You are the victim no one has ever cared about. A forgotten girl, a runaway." Aliza laughs and shakes her head.

I have to admit the opportunity is perfect. Aliza is not only a weak and easy victim; she is also a willing one. "You don't know half of the abuse." I can smell her crude intentions. It makes me wonder about why she would trade any kind of favors with the military but it is time to face the reason why an accidental killer accidentally turned into a serial killer.

There is a sharp salty aroma in the air. Another reminder that I never had a chance to be soft.

A couple of possibilities rapidly cross my mind. I could tell her that none of the documentation from the original virus is here because I burned it or I could let her wonder where it is. This facility is destroyed but one isn't enough and I thought I'd have more time like always.

Aliza frowns and then she looks over her shoulder at the window behind her. It doesn't look like much of an escape road, and the truth is, it ain't a way out but she might use it.

I don't know if it is nerves or stress, but the first beads of sweat are starting to appear on Aliza's brow.

"This is who you are, please don't forget that." Aliza checks her appearance in the window, then digs out her makeup bag and freshens her foundation with a clean brush.

Aliza is neither short nor tall and her long legs, average hips, and small waist still are all in proportion for she never puts on weight. Her hair is as dark as my own, without a silver thread showing.

She is not the kind of person you would meet in a bar holding a beer either.

Someone's coming. It's something else for me to deal with so I just sigh and shake my head then stare at the empty doorway. Her heart skips a beat when the corner of my mouth lifts in a faint grin. She is being forced to face her own identity in ways she could never have imagined. Aliza is looking for a way out of the carefully controlled lie she's living; all this pressure is giving her anxiety and the killer in me likes that.

"No one knows what happened to you sister," Her words are empty, meaningless. "It felt more like an excuse to leave early," Her voice goes up and down.

"Do you still hate yourself for killing our mother?" Aliza's looking into my eyes for too long which only means she's lying or about to do so. "I'm grateful I saw it with my own eyes though." She tries to plaster an apologetic look on her face. "It was too late for her anyway." She tells me so.

"Be careful what you wish for. You may find out more than you want to know." I say through my smile; it makes her feel small.

She pauses, as though needing a moment to gather her thoughts but I'll do what I want.

On my right there's a square grand piano; the keys have not been clearly touched for many years. Jared received it the day after he married Cerise.

My fingers glide on those keys.

Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do

She fixes her face into the most neutral expression she could assemble. Then she held's up her hands in a brief gesture of surrender and moves two steps away as cold sweat trickles down her back.

"Is this darkness in you too?" Aliza asks suddenly.

"What doesn't kill me might kill you."

I'm dedicating this chapter to SabrinaElouardi , Debismita , FetchingPenumbra , Perci_Snickedy & alessandra