A Beast with a Smile {Book 1}

Chapter 20 (Elly): The Tear of Life

Being clinically dead for three minutes isn't the best thing to think about when you're only fourteen. I didn't see my life flash before my eyes like everyone says. I got to see storm clouds rolling over the town I was imprisoned in for my entire life.

I watched as lightning cracked buildings in half, tornadoes form from small gusts of hurricane winds, and worst of all, the ice cream shop flooding the streets with coffee flavored ice cream.

I can deal with bolts of energy ripping apart the horrid prison but, god why coffee flavored ice cream. Not even the road deserves that horrible burden.

I had stood in the town square watching the whole town disappear; I would try to run, only to return to the same spot in the same dull, god forsaken, brainwashed town.

I was still shocked that I had escaped. Although my personal prison was one that only exists in nightmares, I have returned every night since Archy found out how to sneak into the control center of Paradise Valley to use the shadow machine.

"The events that led to our escape only raised the tension between Atom and Tyler. Scavenger had a change in heart about how things were being run. I didn't know the exact details, but I knew it started years back when Scavenger went out on a mission alone.

He was supposed to find some escaped chromo-enhanced humans and terminate them. He came back with two kids, twins, the boy Clark and the girl Elizabeth. They are the first of their kind, a new species of human beings, children conceived from two genetically enhanced people.

Tyler thought the children to be abominations and that they should be put down like a sick dog. Scavenger nearly killed Tyler when he tried. I kinda hoped he would, the little brat deserves it," I explained the details of my past to Scarlett.

"Elly, you don't really mean that do you?" Scarlett asked.

We were walking down the ramp from The Mother of Time's office. Archy and Chris were trailing behind because I asked if I could have a talk with Scarlett to thank her for Frankensteining me.

"He killed me, Scarlett. If it wasn't for you, I'd be on the same cold table that my friends shared after bumping heads with that monster. If anyone deserves to die it would be that spoiled brat."

"I won't tell you he's not a monster, but no one deserves to die. Guilt can work in both ways, Elly. I can't tell you what to think, but know that morals remind you of your actions. He will have to live in defeat for the rest of his life for what he's done, but if you kill him you live with those sins and he's free of the burden," she suggested.

"Can we change the subject please? Don't want you to think I'm an axe murderer or something."

"Why would you need an axe if you can fry people with your fingertips?" she asked.

It was hard to not smile around Scarlett. She had a way of bringing life into any situation, no matter the danger. She brought me back from the dead with tears of love when she barely even knew me.

Her tears of life could save the world one day. That's why The Mother of Time showed her the images of her family; we needed a sample of her tears.

"Elly? Yoo-hoo? Are you even listening?" she said waved her hand in front of my eyes.

"Sorry, I was lost in my own head. What were you saying?" I said trying to hide my rosey red cheeks.

"Tell me about yourself. I know The Mother of Time's past, and I would like to know everyone else's."

"Well I like long walks on the beach, destroying things with my bunny, Tiny. Uh oh... I completely forgot about Tiny," I said, sprinting towards the barn house.