Winter's Shadow

Author: Meyukiu

Archive: anyone who asks

Rating: PG-13

Spoilers:  God Loves, Man Kills II

She frowns at the TV, flicking it off with an angry click.  She hears enough propaganda at work and school—not on her free time.  She doesn't want to hear about how evil her race is ever, but she refuses to listen to it now.

Annoyed at humanity in general and herself in particular—because she is human, she reminds herself, despite what the bastards say—she goes and stands by the window, looking out at the snow that's beginning to fall and cover the black streets.

Is that what I am to you?  A serpent?

If the skin fits…

Eyes shut tight, trying not to remember as she opens the window without thinking, not even flinching at the freezing air as it blows in.

The woman was like a tiger, striped, furred, beautiful.  But the only thing Kitty had noticed was the pain and horror in her eyes as she phased into the glass, not quite solid, then the blankness as she died.  Kitty had touched her…and she'd died…

It was an accident!

Does that really matter?

No.  It doesn't, and she knows that.  One more death.  She feels the walls she's built up start to come down and instead of reinforcing them she lets the guilt and sorrow wash over her, tears starting to fall slowly down her cheeks as she perches on the ledge, straddling it almost comfortably, the snowflakes landing on her skin and melting, on her hair and sticking. 

There was a teddy bear on the floor, the corpse that it belonged to already decayed.  Horrified, she had picked it up, holding it tightly.

Two races can't exist side by side.  Sooner or later, one will replace the other.  It's war.  It's evolution.

Why are you here, then, instead of fighting the good fight?

She rests her head against the pain behind her, feeling the ridges press painfully into her but not moving.  "Because I'm tired," she whispers, answering her own question.  "Because I want there to be a better way…because I don't want to watch more people die.  I don't want to kill more people.  I just want to have a normal life…"

They'll die anyway.  And this way isn't better.  You're just putting civilians at risk.  Because of you, your entire class was nearly killed.

"I know."

So what are you going to do, little girl?

More tears, unbidden, and the snow drifts into the room, unstopped by her presence, as if she were no more than a ghost.