Subject 15

CHAPTER 13 - Seth

When the bell rang I didn't jump noticeably. If people were looking they would think that I had shivered, and not have jumped at the shrill brrrring! I stood up, towering over most of the students and the Math teacher, and I received a few curious glances, some of them casted to my chest and arms.

As I got up from my chair, someone bumped into me and hissed, "Watch it, scum!" I looked at the individual that had shoved me, and dark electronic eyes flashed back at me from behind a curtain of black hair. The young man growled and asked in a metallic voice, "Do you have a problem, Karitan?"

Richard Karitan was a lobbyist for anti-augmented humans, and voiced to remove the Modifiers and all non-medically required human modifications. He was found dead in his hotel two days after his speech, with a hole in his chest the size of a human hand. Cause of death: a bionic arm ripping through his heart and out his back. Ever since then, his name has been a curse for all those who didn't have a modified body.

I narrowed my eyes back at him, something roaring inside, and I hissed back at him, "Only if you're looking for one, Defiler." The man's black eyes zoned in on me, and he whispered as he turned away, "Watch your back, Karitan... No one else will."

As he walked away, the remaining people in the room turned to stare at me, but my attitude only grew stronger, shutting more people out. My Mask was as cold and hard as a rock; stiff, unmoving, and impenetrable.

I quickly gathered my things, took the worksheet as I headed out the door, and then became another face in the crowd. I was almost a ghost, how well I blended in, even with my height and abnormalities. When I passed people, I made sure that my shoes made no sound, and only if you listened closely could you hear the whisper of my pant legs rubbing together. I could barely hear myself move, and my white Mask blended in so perfectly that many students and staff didn't notice me until they were right beside me – by that time, I was already gone.

I walked the hallways, observing, studying what my route to and from class would be as I scanned my schedule, searching for the class I was to go to next. When I did find it, I cannot say that I was surprised to see that most people were already in gossip groups, and I sighed to myself. Same as always, I thought. It always begins like this. I wonder how long it will be until the first gossip fight breaks out...

I spotted an empty chair that was far from most, unsurprisingly near the teacher's desk, so I moved there and sat down. When I closed my eyes, it was like everything went into slow motion, that I could feel every little thing, hear every whisper, and sense every breath of air that blew around the room. I knew where everyone and everything was just by feeling where they were by the vibrations they made in the air. I was a silent hunter, a predator whose senses were more refined and sharper than anything else in this world.

"Look at him, over there," I heard someone utter in a hushed whisper. "The Karitan?" hissed another wraith-like voice. "Him," whispered the first voice. "Where do you think he came from?"

"I don't know, but he's not like us... There's something different about him... Something... strange...  And not necessarily good..."

If they only knew. I opened my eyes, taking a small glance around before looking down at the tablet on the desk that contained a few books. It was a similar creation like that of the teacher's device, but this one was only about the size of my hand. I unlocked the device with my counterfeit ID, found what looked to be a good book, and started reading when I heard someone sitting down in the desk next to me.

A voice, light and misty, almost like the wind in a tall grass said, "Hi, I'm Samantha, Samantha Jones. What is your name?"

I almost sighed aloud as I thought to myself, Why can't they leave me alone? and my attitude grew it's strongest. I will not try to hide my emotions: I simply did not care that I was different, I did not care that I was the new kid, did not care that I was attractive, and so I wondered why everyone else did. But when I looked up, I was completely caught off guard, and my forbidding attitude was nearly destroyed.