"It's our duty to protect mankind from mutants! Am I right?" Indi heard the man's voice and the cheer that followed, and she shivered in her cage.
"But some of those mutants have the audacity to walk among us, pretending that they're human, pretending that they deserve to live!" Boos followed this sneering comment. "Can we continue to let this happen?" asked the speaker.
"No!" answered the crowd.
"What about the mutants who look like human beings? How can we flush them out? Ladies and gentlemen, I have discovered a way to identify the humanoid mutants living among us!" Amidst more cheering, Indi's cage was brought on stage. The man pointed at her and kept talking.
"Three years ago," he said. "I discovered this child in an orphanage. She seemed human at first. But there was one preteen boy, sitting away from the other children, and whenever my little friend here went near him, her skin turned blue!"
The people in the crowd muttered amongst themselves, and Indi hid her face. She remembered that older boy, even though she had been only three years old when she was taken from the orphanage. He could take an old and broken toy and make it good as new in the blink of an eye. Then he would smile and play with her for a little while. So she kept bringing old toys for him to fix, not caring that his talent was strange, or that she turned blue near him.
"I took the two children. The boy admitted to being a mutant, and needless to say, he was destroyed." The people in the audience actually laughed. Indi couldn't help it. She started crying. The man who was talking paid no attention. "But the girl, I kept and tested. She is a mutant," He was interrupted as the crowd booed once more. He raised his hands for silence. "She is a mutant, but her ability is very useful to our cause. She is an indicator of mutant DNA. She will turn blue in the presence of another of her kind."
Indi hugged herself and squeezed her eyes shut, shaking with each sob. At six, she was old enough to know that her power was the only thing that kept her alive. They needed her to find mutants, but once the mutants were found, they were killed. The mutants Indi saw stared at her, their eyes reflecting her own fear, begging for mercy. But she couldn't stop herself from changing colors and betraying them.
The man onstage asked the audience if they'd like a demonstration. Of course they yelled the affirmative. Five people were brought onstage, bound, gagged, and blindfolded. The crowd couldn't find the mutant among them. One by one, the people were made to stand next to Indi's cage. Indi refused to look at them, but she knew from the crowd's gasp that the fourth person was a mutant. She knew that her skin was bright sapphire blue. She knew that the mutant was going to die.
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Later that night, after Indi had been dumped unceremoniously into her sleeping pen, her owner came to visit her. He was the man speaking at the demonstration, a leader of the anti-mutant movement. She turned her back to him, staring at the blank wall and pretending not to listen.
"You did well, my little Indicator," he said.
Indi stuck her fingers into her ears. Not listening, she thought to herself.
"You're upset about the mutant today, aren't you? Don't be. It was better off dead, anyway. It was a danger to us all."
I'm not listening…Indi's chin quivered, but she had no tears left.
"Do you know what someone said to me after the demonstration? He said I ought to kill you as well, because after all, the only good mutant is a dead one." He chuckled, as if he agreed. "But fear not, little one. You're much too useful to kill."
"Go away," Indi moaned, before remembering that she wasn't listening.
The man was silent for a while, and she knew he was smirking. Finally, he left.
Once he was gone, Indi knelt on the floor of her pen, bowed her head, and prayed. She remembered that in the orphanage, the kids did it every night before bed. She couldn't remember exactly why they were praying, but it felt right. She liked to think that somewhere, there was someone who could hear her, someone who cared enough to listen to a six-year-old mutant. She said she was sorry for the bad things she did, and asked for someone to help her and all the other mutants.
"Ay-min," Indi finished. She didn't know what ay-min meant, but the orphans had always said it after their prayers. Her own silent prayers done, Indi fell asleep.