*COMPLETED*
One event in history has the power to change everything. One choice...can leave an entire society shifted. For the new society, it is a constant battle between two powers, separated from one another by a defining characteristic.
...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I find a cracked mirror shoved in one of the corners of the room, and I stride to it. I peer at the figure in the glass, and it's distant. I scour at the cuts and dried blood on my forehead and cheeks, dirt and brown smudges covering my face. The person staring back at me would be considered disgraceful, homeless, inelegant. I find a small smile spreading across my dry lips, a small part of me content with what I see peering back at me.
"Maddy, are you okay?" Becca's meek voice pierces through my gaze.
I recoil from the image, "Yeah, I'm alright," I involuntarily stride to her, taking her small hand in mine and showing her to the mirror. "Look at that beautiful little girl, that's you," I say, playfully messing with her reddish locks.
She giggles and tries to stop me by lightly shooing my fingers away.
I let out a breath of air, "Now, let me see if I can find a comb or something," I say, using my knees as leverage to hoist myself up. I go back to the shelves, finding a drawer under one of the shelfs. I pull it open and look inside, only to be met with a vacant, rotting piece of wood. I look on one of the shelves, and out of the corner of my eye I catch a makeshift steel comb with rounded edges glinting under the light. I seat myself down behind Becca and begin brushing softly, her thin hair untangling at the impact of the bristles.
I start brushing my own after a while, and instantly jump out of my skin when I hear a brute knock at the door. I toss the comb on the bed and rush towards the hunk of metal, dismayed to whom I see standing outside.
"Who is that?" Becca questions, appearing at my side swiftly with little noise made by her flats.
"I'm not sure little B," I say, not wanting to explain to her the fact that the man standing outside the door...was the last man of the trio I witnessed stealing from the food garages.
I panic momentarily, asking myself over and over again if I should open the door to him, though I'm under strict orders to not leave or open this door unless it was Gage. I inhale a short breath, my warm hand taking hold of the bleak handle, pulling down with all the strength I could muster.
"Hi," he says immediately, his dark eyes promptly connecting with mine. "I'm Malcolm, your neighbor on this side," He points to the left of where he's standing.
As soon as my eyes drift back to his, my mind instantly brings me back to the moment I first saw him, taking crates out of the food storage facility. His fiery red hair is the only thing I remember about his persona.
"Hi," I finally squeeze out. I silently find it funny how all of the events of the day have brought me to see the three men I saw that one day before we ran. Fate has a funny way of working things out in the end.
"I just wanted to say welcome, and that if you ever need anything, and I mean anything, don't be afraid to knock," he mischievously peers at me with glittering blue eyes, and I can't help but squirm under his gaze.
