I Am Annika

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

We went our separate ways shortly after, him to the recesses of the broken city and me towards the only home I knew.

Home. A funny word. A luxury. Some people had loving homes, with people inside that wanted them to come home each night. My home, the only one I could ever remember, was the four bare walls that housed my stiff bed and a nearly empty dresser. It didn't even seem like it was fitting for the word. I wondered if I had had a real home, before having been turned into...this. Parents that cared for me. A family.
I shook my head. It was useless to think of that now. It was a past swept away by the sands of time and by the iron fist that the government possessed.

I clenched my hand into a fist, bringing it up to my face, examining. I opened it, watching my fingers spread and tense. It looked so...normal. 5 fingers. Light veins crisscrossing from my wrist. What was I, really?

I stuffed my hand jerkily into my pocket and quickened my step back towards the compound. I had a mission, now. One that wasn't ordered, but asked; a completely new concept.

The rain was pouring down, giving everything a distorted sheen. The cement beneath my feet glistened as my dull footfalls made connection.

Out of seemingly nowhere, I felt something crack me across the side of the face. I lowered to a crouch and searched for the source. A stone, lying a few feet away. I brought a hand to my face to assess: no damage. I mentally scolded myself. Nothing should have been able to sneak up on me. My eyes darted around the street and the buildings looming over it. They caught a quick movement in an ally and I lunged towards it, in full defence mode. I made contact with a body, grabbing it as I fell. Only a second before we hit the ground did I compute that this body is smaller than mine. Much smaller. Just before contact, I twisted myself to land on my back, the unknown person tumbling on top of me.

I pushed myself up as the person scrambled off of me. A young girl, maybe 7 or 8, stood before me, back to the wall. Her eyes were wide and she was breathing quickly. I could almost feel her heartbeat, pumping away like a frightened rabbit. She was wearing a stained white dress, and her tiny feet were bare against the cool cement.

I took a step towards her cautiously. She cowered, dropping to her knees in surrender.

I kneeled before her, making myself eye-height.

"Did you throw that rock at me?" I point to the street, where the rock lies dormant in the glow of an unbroken light. I internally cringe; I sound so distant. So cold.
She nodded slowly and I could now see the glisten of tears on her dirty cheeks. Her tears left clean trails, washing away paths of hardship and poverty on her face. I sucked in a deep breath.

"Why?" I asked her slowly, sitting in front of her. Of course, I knew. But I just wanted to hear it from a human, instead of the dark corners of my mind.
The girl was quiet, until she saw that neither of us would be going anywhere until she answered.

"Y-you..." She swallowed. "You're...bad." She whispers the last word, and it hovers in the air between us, a label that I felt has been tattooed to my forehead for all to see. I studied the girl as she regarded me with a fearful gaze. This is what I was to people. Bad.

I push myself off from my knees and straighten. The girl whimpered.

"Go home. Your family must be worried," I said carefully, stepping back. There was no need for me to punish her; I was not yet that inhumane. The stone had left no physical damage, but I could still feel it's weight cracking me in the side of the head again, again, again. Except it wasn't just my face, it was my gut too, and it felt like a thousand stones instead of just one thrown by a small, frightened girl.