This Isn't About Reya

Chapter Four

Reya snuck into the back door of her house to shed her tattered clothes and don new ones. She took the torn articles out to the back, walked a few blocks down the grimy streets, and threw the clothing in the gutters. Her mother would not find them there, and if she ever asked why Reya never wore them anymore, she could just say that she lost them.

She told her mother about the school's power lines and then retired to her bedroom to think.

What should she do?

The shadow in the woods... if it really did take Svetlana, what would it do to her? What was it doing now? Would it kill her? What if it already had? Should she tell somebody?

Reya buried her face in her arms and sobbed. Svetlana was a demon, but she didn't deserve to die. She didn't deserve any of it.

Why did the shadow take her?

That was the question that rose above the others, and Reya became so entranced by it that she stopped crying.

She flopped backwards onto her bed. It was warm, soft. The epitome of comfort. The opposite of her planet, Aquilo-Nix.

The opposite of the Russians.

What if the shadow hated Russians as much as she did? Her head swirled at the possibilities. What if it was a person, or a synthetic? What if it was from one of the other hypernations? A spy, or the scout for an invasion force?

Despite herself, Reya smiled at the prospect of rebellion. A hypernation come to free her from the Russians' tyranny. And whatever the shadow in the woods was, it had undeniably saved her from Svetlana. Was it looking out for her?

A sentinel in the woods. A silent protector.

A guardian angel.

Reya's smile stretched across her face. She clambered under the blankets of her bed and buried her face in the pillows, the warmth reaching throughout her entire body. 

Somebody - or something, whatever the hell it was - actually cared for her. Besides her mother, it was the only thing in the world that did so.

It had saved her from Svetlana, but if the shadow wanted to kill the Russian skank, then Reya couldn't let it.

She grimaced at her own conflictions. Killing Svetlana would make things so much easier...

Reya's eyes flashed open. 

Would she be accused?

Svetlana had probably told her pures that she was going to attack Reya, and if her body suddenly turned up missing, the pures would come forward and blame her.

And who would stop them? The word of a group of Russians versus one Icelandic? Even without the massive racism in the NSU, the evidence would all point to her.

If they searched, they would even find Svetlana's body in the woods by Reya's apartment.

"Fuck..." she whispered.

Killing Svetlana would only cause more problems. 

Reya clenched her teeth and screamed silently at all of the world. The unfairness of it all.

She would have to go back. She would have to face the shadow, or at least find Svetlana. She couldn't let it kill her.

Reluctantly, she drew herself out of the comfort of her bed. Sitting on the edge, she wondered what to do.

It was only noon. If she left now, her mother would grow suspicious. If she snuck out, her mother would panic.

She would have to wait until nightfall.

This settled her mind, slightly. She had time to think, to prepare. 

She would find the shadow once the setting sun cast all of her world in darkness.

The sheer audacity made her laugh aloud.