Silence. Darkness. No one says anything. They know what's happening.
Walking. Always moving forward, never looking back. I can't stand to look back. If I do, I'll see how many people hate me. So I keep moving forward. I have to.
We all knew this day was coming. I knew it. I'm not afraid. I'm ready. I've been ready for a long time.
He doesn't have to look so smug about it. He knows I'm going to be gone forever, and he couldn't be happier. Let him have his joy.
Yeah, yeah, blah blah blah. Get to the point. I'm a disease. I have to be thrown out. We've heard the speech. Get on with it.
The council will vote now. The council's always voting. They never make the right decisions. They have to go by the laws. They have to follow the rules. They never listen to their heart. Heck, they don't even listen to their brains. They just follow that book. And the book says I'm a disease.
I know the decision has to be made. I know what their vote will be. I've always known.
Even if they did listen to their brains, it wouldn't matter. Everyone wants me gone. Fine. I can handle that. I expect no less. It's who I am.
"I always knew you were cruel, sir. But I never knew you were this cruel."
The words come out before I can stop them. I won't take them back. I'll never take them back. That's probably part of the reason I'm here in the first place. But it doesn't matter. Those words are truth, nothing more, nothing less.
"I called you cruel, sir. Is there an explanation for that?"
You didn't want an explanation, like you asked. You wanted me to jump further into my own noose. You wanted me to say something that will make everyone hate me. To make you seem less like the monsters you are. To shove the blame on me. So I do what you want. I don't care. I've always been the monster.
I still believe you to be the greater monster, though. I don't mind you doing something horrible to me. But don't do this to him…
He's torn. He has to make the decision. It's all down to him. One word, and this could disappear, at least for a while. I could stay here, and I wouldn't have to go through this. All he would have to say is one word…
But you want him to say that one word, don't you sir? You want him to show weather his loyalties lie with me, or with his city.
I know what decision he'll make. I know what's going to happen. I know what one word he'll say. And it won't be good for me.
"I said I knew you were cruel, sir. I never said what a monster I believe you to be."
Why not keep going? Everyone hates me anyway. And I'm all right with that. So I tell him what I think.
"You are unspeakable, sir. To me, your very name is forever a horror. Forever a crime. Because you would be so horrible, so low-down, as to make the last person decide. To make sure that I know who made this decision against me. To make sure that I knew HIS decision, sir."
I look into his eyes. Everyone has always said his eyes were… beautiful. Deep. Bright with happiness and youth.
I see horror. I see darkness. I see despair. I see insanity.
I see death.
"I say that you are the lowest of the low, sir. Not me. But what do you care? The people see me as the monster now, sir. Not you. You deflect their natural anger towards you onto me."
It's true. But what do I care? It's happened all my life. I'm used to people hating me. I've come to expect it from people.
The decision has been made. I hear the votes of the last council member. That's always the way. I know which is the last vote, because it makes the final decision.
He stands up. He looks down on the people, looking at them with his nose in the air so much that it makes me sick. How can these people not be infuriated? I know I am.
He addresses me, addresses everyone, and says a long, boring speech that is the only one I will remember for the rest of my life.
"Before us today, we have a case that is long…overdue."
You can say that again.
He continues. "And the decision has been made. Her… crimes are too great. Her own words before this council speak for themselves. Her manner, her outright disrespect for our way of life has gone on far too long already. We wish there was another way…"
No you don't.
"But unfortunately, there isn't. Our attempts to control and eliminate this behavior have been… ignored. Destroyed, even. So much so that we have no other choice."
There's plenty of choice. You just want to make me the monster. And I'm ok with that.
"Therefore, we can do nothing else for you."
Oh, so now he's speaking to me, and not just about me. That's refreshing.
"I regret to inform you of the council's decision".
No you don't.
"They find you guilty, and sentence you to banishment from this city."
I expected nothing less.
"You are never to return. If you do, we will have no other choice but to terminate your existence."
That's the nice way of saying 'you come back and we kill you.'
"We will give you the essentials for survival."
Yeah. A knife, a saucepan, an old microchip, and some food. What about my Florlics, beef brain?
"As your Florlics are empathetically attached to you, and are necessary for survival, you will be allowed to keep them."
You read my mind. Don't do that.
"No one in this city is to assist you outside of these walls. You are to have no contact with the others. Anyone caught assisting you with anything will face the same punishment."
Like they would anyway. I'm used to being hated.
"If there are any others who were banished before you, and are still alive, you may speak to them."
Like you could stop me if I wanted to anyway.
"And, from this day forth, your name will be changed. You may keep your old name, because it is a part of you. However, your new name shall be the one that will be used. Your old one shall be kept for yourself, in private. Only those high in rank may use it if they encounter you outside of these walls."
Here we go with the names again. Names are so important to you.
"From this day forward, you shall be known as 'Rouge Child.' It seems… appropriate."
Rouge Child. I like it. Believe it or not, I like it. Better then the one I had before.
"Now." He stacks papers on his desk. It looks very official, but I know that it's planned. "You are to leave here. And never return."
There's the general mutterings from the crowd, and I'm pushed along, people adding things to my survival kit as they lead me to the door. The very heavy wooden door, which will be locked as soon as I'm gone. They can't get me out fast enough.
The hand me my survival equipment. My Florlics are at my side. They growl at anyone who gets too close. I sling the bag over my shoulder and attach the knife to my belt. They gave me an old cell phone instead of a microchip. There must have been a few strings pulled for that one. I stick it in my pocket and attach to it. That's my lifeline now.
I start to walk to the door, and the crowd gives me some space. I've always known it would happen. I've been ready for a long time.
I promised myself I wouldn't look back, but I realize now that it wouldn't be fair to my parents. So I look back for them. They're standing there, watching me go. My mom is crying. My dad is smiling. He wanted me gone too. But for different reasons then the rest of the crowd.
I'm glad my dad is smiling. He's always known I wouldn't be happy here. So he's happy for me.
I start to turn around, to look ahead again, realizing that it wasn't so hard to look back. Now I can look ahead again, and I'm still not scared.
But then I see him, and everything changes.
The one person in the city who didn't care what was wrong with me, besides my parents. The only person here who isn't smiling that isn't my mom. The only person here who isn't smiling or crying.
His blonde hair falls in his eyes again. His eyes look exactly like mine. Bright, metallic blue. He has an almost identical pattern, almost exactly the same as mine. It surrounds his eye. The only difference is the small blue circle under it.
My brother. Sam.
He doesn't cry. He doesn't get mad. He doesn't smile. He doesn't wave.
And I don't forgive him.
I turn back to the vast emptiness in front of me, the dark space, the cold desert. I'm almost at the door.
When I get there, I place a hand on the door frame. I look down, and think of Sam's face.
I think of his face, and it makes me turn around.
The words are out before I can stop them, before I can make sense of what I'm promising. But when they come out, I know that I'll keep my promise to them.
I look at the faces in the crowd, and promise them. "I'll be back."
And I keep going.
"I'll be back one day. You'll see. I'll come through these walls." My eyes are hard and determined as I look at them. "But I won't come back for you. I won't come back to stay here, to prove you all wrong. I'll come back to show you that I am exactly what you think me to be. And I'm going to show you that there is a better life out there. I'm going to show you that I can live outside of your false rules. That there's more to life then that pack of lies you call a law book."
I look at the sky. "I am the Rouge Child!" I call out to the stars. "And I will come back some day! And then the stars themselves will remember my promise!"
I look back at them. "I will be back."
And then I turn around. I don't look back.
The Florlics howl in triumph. They feel my emotions, and experience them as well. I am not alone in this fight.
And, from this day forward, I am the Rouge Child.
Two days after I was banished, I had my first encounter with a Predator.
I've fought them before. It isn't too hard, so long as they don't have the element of surprise.
But the problem is, gaining the element of surprise is what they do best.
I didn't see the dark, grey shape until it was almost on top of me. The Florlics were a while away, so they hadn't been able to warn me. They could have barked, or growled or given some sign, but they weren't here.
When I saw the creature, it was just above me, ready to fall. I dropped to the ground, lying on my back, and then rolled. It landed in the spot where I was. It clicked and screeched, annoyed.
I was up and on my feet in two seconds, the knife in my hand. Like it would do any good. So, I made it better. Electricity danced up from my hand and laced the blade.
"Come and get me." I hissed.
The Predator seemed to have no choice. Obviously, I was the first living creature it had seen in days. It must have been starving.
Which wasn't very good for me.
But it was finished surprisingly quickly. The Predator was weak, exhausted. It charged at me, and I dodged, slashing out with the knife. It screeched, and charged again.
We repeated this, over and over until it looked like a complicated dance. Finally, it was too tired to go on, collapsing into the dirt.
I finished it quickly. I don't like seeing something suffer. It went with dignity.
But it didn't go before giving me the worst wound I'd gotten in my life.
The three claw marks ran from the back of my shoulder, down the top of my arm, and down to the top of my hand. When the fight was over, I collapsed to the ground as well, screaming in pain.
It wasn't too long before my Florlics found me. They felt my pain. They brought me my survival kit, and I bandaged my arm.
For the first time, I had a real brush with death. And, for the first time, I realized just how alone I was. There was no one who could help me if I got really hurt. And that night, I screamed with the pain. The pain of my wound, the pain of being alone.
And the worst pain of all. The stinging pain of betrayal, hot and strong, coursing through me with its own venom.
There is no pain like the pain of betrayal. I know it well. It was caused by the council member, the man I refuse to name, calling him only 'sir.' It was a pain caused by him, because he made me know the last council member's decision. He made me listen as the last council member condemned me to be banished, thrown out of the city.
It was a pain that I was all too familiar with. Because the last council member was someone I loved. Someone I would never forgive.
My brother. Sam.
Anomaly woke up, screaming.
She sat, bolt upright in bed, panting. Connor was standing in the doorway.
"Bad dreams?" he asked.
Anomaly nodded slowly, then pulled herself out of the bed.
Connor moved to the side as she walked out the door, aiming for the bathroom, probably to splash cold water in her face, like she always did.
Connor went back to work. A whole week had passed since he'd first met her, and by now Anomaly had practically moved into the ARC, sleeping there with her Florlics at her feet. Someone would always try to wake her up in the morning, but normally she would wake herself up, screaming and panting. She'd been there for seven nights and not one of them had passed without a bad dream. Anomaly was a person with secrets. Secrets and nightmares.
When Anomaly came out of the bathroom, she looked like a new person. She was wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and, without the eye pattern, could have easily passed off for a normal teenage girl. She smiled. "Anything new?"
Connor shrugged. "Not really. I'm recalibrating the ADD today. Hope there's no anomaly alerts while I'm doing it."
Anomaly smiled. "I'll keep an eye out for them." Suddenly, she stopped cold. "Recalibrating? What do you mean?"
"Well… Basically, I'm going to reboot the whole system." Connor liked Anomaly. She'd listen to his long speeches of techno-babble for hours on end, and enjoy every second of it. But today he wasn't really in the mood for talking.
"You're not going to change the base codes, are you?" Anomaly asked, worried. "Like, no messing around with the wires? No changing anything about the actual computer, just rebooting the system?"
"Yeah, basically." He looked at her. "Why?"
Anomaly smiled. "No reason. I just don't want to end up dead on the floor." She said it in a completely cheerful tone, so Connor almost missed it.
"Ok." He said. Then he realized. "Wait, what?"
But Anomaly was already almost out the door. "See you in a bit!" She walked out.
Connor stared, confused. Finally, he gave up trying to understand and turned back to the ADD.
Anomaly smiled at Lester. "Good morning."
Lester's eyes narrowed. Anomaly had taken it upon herself to make his life as miserable as possible. "I'm not going to find my desk booby trapped today, am I?"
Anomaly's smile widened as she kept walking. "You're good!" She called to him.
Lester shook his head and kept walking.
Anomaly entered the room where Cutter was working. "Hello!" She called.
Cutter smiled. "So, what DID you do to Lester today?"
"Booby trapped his chair." She shrugged. "When he sits down an alarm will go off." She smiled. "I was bored. Couldn't think of anything better."
Cutter smiled and looked back at his papers.
"You really shouldn't do that." Steven said, walking into the room.
"I shouldn't." Anomaly agreed, jumping up so she could sit on the corner of Cutter's desk. "But I've always had a problem with authority."
Steven looked at her, sighed, then turned back to the papers in his hands. He gave them to Cutter. "Here." He said. Abby had some research she wanted me to give you.
Cutter took it, and Anomaly smiled. "Research is BORING." She said matter-of-factly.
"It can save your life." Cutter replied, raising an eyebrow.
Anomaly shrugged. "So can shoes, but you don't see me going on about them."
Steven looked at her. "Shoes?"
Anomaly shrugged again. "Really big shoes, aimed at someone's head."
Cutter chuckled. Steven just stared.
"Hey guys." Abby said, entering the room. "What's up?"
Anomaly smiled. "It's getting crowded in here."
Abby smiled as well. "Oh, good, you're here. I need you to come look at something for me."
Anomaly smiled. "Sure thing." She jumped off the desk and followed her.
The plant lab was an amazing place. Hundreds of different plant species, all growing in this one room.
"What do you think?" Abby asked, holding one up for Anomaly to see.
Anomaly reached out and gently took it from her hands, then held it up against the light. "I think it needs just a little more water." She said, pinching a leaf with a few brown edges. "This kind of plant doesn't do well in these climates." She shrugged. "Maybe bring the temperature down a few degrees."
Abby smiled. "Thanks."
Anomaly nodded, smiling as well, then handed her the plant.
As Abby's hands touched the dirt around the plant's roots, she noticed something she never had before. "Oh." She said.
She tried not to stare, but couldn't help it. The three scars started at Anomaly's hand, but ran upwards, all the way up her arm and disappearing underneath her sleeve. She looked at Anomaly, concerned. "What happened?"
Anomaly looked at the scars. It brought old wounds to the surface. She kept her eyes on them.
"An accident." She replied simply.
Anomaly really was a person with secrets.
Secrets and nightmares.
