Immune

Prologue

My name's Athena, nice to meet you, I was born on the 5th of may 3056 to a rather poor family, my mother died a few days after I turned 10, and ever since my father has been an unemployed drunkard, so I, at the age of 10 became the soul provider for our family, I juggled part time jobs and school, trying to pay off the debt my father had racked up through gambling whilst keeping our lights lit, food on our table, and my grades high. And just to make my life even worse, I was born immune, you see, many, many, years ago, around the 2000's, cases of depression, anxiety and other mood disorders had skyrocketed, causing the human race to come to the brink of extinction as suicide numbers rose into the billions, so the government created an airborne substance that would regulate everyone's emotions so we were all created equal, I am one of the few who are born immune to this substance, this was the only reason anyone would ever be bullied in school, and so, I had lived for 16 years as the abomination, the freak, id be given a wide birth every where I went, lest I would pass on my immunity to the other children, even my father grew to hate me, id come home every day after having rocks and schools supplies thrown at my person, to be beaten and verbally abused by my father.

on the day I turned 11 I had been walking down the street after my shift at a rather sketchy restaurant when I heard a whimper down a side alley, being the kind person I was, I decided to see if I could help whoever had made the sound, so I walked down the alley and found, behind a rather large bin, a small, bloodied, Alsatian puppy. he looked up at me with fear and pain in his eyes and I couldn't help but see myself, so I lowered myself to his level, the skin of my knees on the wet concrete as my jeans had become so ripped that they were more holes than denim. I held out my hand to him for him to sniff, whilst whispering to him that I was not a threat. after intently sniffing at my hand he slowly licked the hand to signify his trust for me. So I reached further and pet his head, he recoiled slightly and I saw why he was so bloody, he had fresh cuts and varying degrees from fresh to old scars all over his face and body, he had clearly been attacked, so I carefully scooped him up into my arms, clenching my teeth at the pitiful sound he made, and carefully, as not the agitate his wounds, walked with him in my arms back to my home.

as I stepped through my front door I saw my father snoring on the couch, a half drunk bottle of beer in his hand and the football game on the tv, I carefully set the puppy on my bed and went about cleaning up my father's latest mess, turning off the tv, filling a bin bag with empty bottles and cans of various types of alcohol he forced me to supply him with and emptying the ashtray into the bin, 'at least he didn't put the cigarettes out on my arm' I thought as I stared at the burns and cuts that covered my arms, momentarily forgetting about the puppy on my bed until he let out another pitiful whimper. I used my beaten up smartphone that I had won from a competition at school, to look up vet services in my area, and, after finding  a close and respectful vet in my area I scooped up the puppy, earning a howl of pain that, thankfully, did not wake up my father I set off to the vet's to have the poor animal healed.

with a pleasant chime I entered the vet's office, the grey haired receptionist looked up at me over her half mooned glasses and said  'hello sweetie, what can we do for you today?' , I told her how I had found the puppy who was laying in my arms, and asked if they could help him. she led me over to a back room with a pleasant smile and introduced me to the vet, he was tall with short brown hair with a kind smile on his face, he carefully lifted the pup out of my arms, causing the poor thing to yelp in pain. he slowly placed him on the table as the receptionist handed me a form to fill out during the dog's check-up. I had to leave a few boxes blank as the only things I knew about the pup was where I found him and that he was injured. after the vet had x-rayed the poor animal and stitched up his wounds  he informed me that the dog had no broken or fractured bones, he had sustained a few bruised ribs and the cuts were from cats and dogs he had been fighting in the street, he had found no form of identifying the pup and had deduced that the dog was a stray, and asked me if I would like to adopt him. I looked carefully at the dog and, as his one blue, and one brown eye, reflected my own, I found myself, without thinking, saying "yes"

after I had filled out the adoption forms I was tasked with giving the dog a name, so I searched my mind for many hours for a good name for the dog, I finally decided to name the dog Fenrir, after the son of Loki from Norse mythology. so the receptionist engraved 'Fenrir' on a small circular name tag as I picked out a handsome brown leather collar, a large dog bed that he would grow into, a rope chew toy that could be used to play tug-o-war with him, a lead to match the collar and a food and water bowl from the shelves on the wall, the treatment was free as the NHS had evolved to cover veterinary practices in 2074 but the assortment of goodies for my new dog had costed a large amount of the money I had saved to buy myself some new clothes, but I did not mind, as I had already begun to hold Fenrir's needs above my own, the receptionist saw me off with a wave reminding me to have Fenrir take it easy for a few days, I decided to head over to the department store down the road that I knew sold dog food to grab Fenrir a bag of food and treats.

when I arrived at the store I was happy to find that dogs were allowed in the shop, so I headed inside with Fenrir at my side and picked up a 20kg bad of dog food and a 2kg bag of Gravy Bones, paid for them and put the gravy bones in the bag I had full of Fenrir's new things and swung the bag of food over my shoulder and headed home, when I arrived back home my father was thankfully still asleep so I wouldn't be questioned about my latest purchase of a dog and the things to care for him.

the next day, after I had set up Fenrir's things in my room, my father stormed into my room and saw the dog sleeping on the dog bed in the corner and made to walk over to him when I intercepted him, he stank of alcohol and cigarettes he looked down at me confused and slowly said "I just wanna pet the dog" I looked at him confused until I remembered the substance that the government had released into the air, it made people much more docile when they saw a dog, so I stepped aside and he carefully reached down to pet Fenrir, this showed me a new side of my father and I was thankful as this surely meant I could keep Fenrir he looked up to me and asked "who's is he?" "he's mine" I said decisively, he looked ready to tell me I couldn't keep the dog, until I reminded him that I was providing for us, and he accepted the retort and said "ok, but you'll have to provide for him too" I nodded my head and he went back to petting Fenrir.

life had become easier at home after I adopted Fenrir, as he stayed at my side for most of the day, but sometimes my father would catch me without Fenrir at my side and would throw bottles at me or just punch me, Fenrir had trained himself to defend me, he would run into the room as soon as he heard anything that could be me getting hurt, and he'd growl at my father with his hackles raised, sometimes he'd go to bite at my father but I would stop him no matter what as I knew that would give my father a reason to have Fenrir put down, and that would be a nightmare come true for me.

So, Fenrir stayed by my side everyday, today is my 17th birthday, I was excited for this one, as most people who were born immune lost their immunity on their 17th, so I would finally become equal. I was sitting in my room, Fenrir sitting beside me holding a cupcake with a singular lit candle sitting on top of it, and just as I went to blow out the candle, I heard a bang at my door as it flew open, Fenrir bounded over to the door, hackles raised snarling, as 5 to 10 police officers busted into the room, I asked "why are you here?" and one of them said "you are an immune, you threaten society!" so, without thinking I grabbed my faux leather jacket and bounded out of my window, calling Fenrir to come, as I ran across the garden, over the fence, and bolted as fast as I could, Fenrir running at my side.