Pages and Pictures

7 • Hawkfields

I'd been walking for days, nothing was stopping me. I felt empty. No home now. No going back. I had left after Colton found me, and had been walking for days. I felt nothing but a pain in my feet. The weight of walking was becoming too much, the pain becoming sharp and intense, too much to keep going. My vision blurred, but through the must of pain I saw it. A tree, one of the few around, with a message.

Welcome to Wonderland.

I stopped in my tracks almost stumbling, but I won't do that here. No matter how I feel, I won't break down in front of him. I can't let Isiah know how badly I did at being on my own. Too late. I felt my knees crumble to the ground first, but I couldn't stop it. Just before I collapsed, a dark figure caught me, then everything went black. I wake up in an office, an oak paneled room. There's pictures and string and papers everywhere, along with multiple fallen cork boards. I peel my eyes from the destroyed office and squint at the shaggy tall figure to the right of me.

"I need to see Isiah, where is he?" My voice is raspy, even though I meant to sound demanding I sound like a frightened child. The freak smiled slightly.

"Hey sis." He says weakly and I gasp. He smiles, something that I haven't seen in half a year and something that warms me up, knowing he isn't mad. But I shake my head, attempting to stand but I fall again. Weak, that's what I am.

"You need a doc, Izzy." Isiah states, holding back that victorious smile of his. But his brow furrows and he frowns. "Why are you here?"

I open my lips to speak a lie, but I just let out a small croak. How do I tell Isiah that I was in a riot, one similar to the Hiltcreek Riot that killed our mother. A riot that just killed Miles.

God Miles. Miles, with the sandy blonde hair that I would run my fingers through just to tease him. Miles, the boy who found me scared in an alley, and took me in to his group. Miles, who is, no was, a man of honesty, a man who protected me no matter what. The man who I had fallen in love with.

Isaiah glances at me curiously, studying me like he would one of his contraptions. "What's got you so distracted sis? By the way, I called the doc, one of them will be by soon."

My hard eyes met his gentle ones, and I saw through it all. I could see right into how he seemed to be calculating me, predicting what I'd say or do next. This is what would drive me nuts, what was one reason for me to leave his protection.

"Stop that. Please Isiah, just stop."

"Stop what?" Isaiah asks, cocking his head to the side in an almost birdlike manner. His eyes never left her though. They didn't shift. He felt he had to hold his sights on Izzy, otherwise she might vanish into thin air and leave again.

"I am not one of your machines, I'm not your inventions. So please look at me like a person." It came out much harsher than I had meant to, and I turned away, not wanting to see if he was hurt. I couldn't stand to see the pain I had caused etched across his face right now. Or maybe he wasn't phased, I can't decide which is worse. But I now know it is easy to predict me, it was obvious I was going to snap at him. And of course I'd turn away, because I'm a coward.

Isaiah opens his mouth to say something, but then closes it. He pauses, hesitant.

"Izzy, I'm sorry. It's just that I haven't seen you in over half a year and I don't want you disappearing on me again." He decided he needed to be honest. She was, after all, his sister.

"Is the doctor bringing drugs? I'm a little stiff." Forcing a smile, my head seemed to cloud as if on cue. But I just bit my bottom lip in order to cover it up, even though I started to draw blood, I couldn't stop. He didn't need to see me hurt, I was fine after all. Well, physically fine anyways.

"Izzy, don't bite your lip like that you're bleeding." Isaiah states, and suddenly he's back, back to the months after their mother died that he's the older brother again, taking care of Izzy as best he can, always trying to be there for her. He snaps out of his flashback and feels tears at the edge of his vision. He quickly blinks them away. Not now, not now.

The doctor arrives and takes Izzy out on a stretcher, taking her to the ward to recover. As she leaves, Isiah looks around his office.

"It's been so long, Izzy. Too long. I can't be the big brother this time, I've just got too much to deal with. I promise you'll be okay sis. I promise." He sighs, turning back to his desk and plopping down in his chair. Then the mechanical dog leaps into his lap and the a smile grows on his face like the soft beginning of a melody.