The Huntress

Chapter Sixteen

Days had passed since the breakfast incident and I hadn't seen the girl, Piper, since.

My training had gone on as He had planned with Jasmine and Phyre and while it wasn't awful, I didn't care for it. Probably because I knew that it would lead to my brainwashing.

My progress was deliberately slow and I focused my attention on other matters.

Such as how I would bring this government down.

I still had my original plan, but as time went on, I found more and more flaws. I was still just a teenage girl.

A gentle knocking came from the door and I knew that it wasn't Phyre or Jasmine since neither bothered to knock anymore.

I didn't really mind it. Except, of course, when I was dressing.

I sighed and crossed the room, opening the door for the guest.

Standing in front of me was the girl, Piper. I stepped away from the door and motioned for her to enter. She did so willingly and sat herself down on my bed.

She was no longer covered in grime and her hazel eyes didn't shine with a mad light.

"Why are you here?" I asked. I disliked formalities and while Jasmine and Phyre tried to train me to adhere to them, I couldn't.

"I don't really know. I wanted to meet you. Especially before you were turned into one of them," she said, shaking her head in disgust.

"They won't," I replied. It was more out of habit than actual belief, but Piper didn't need to know that.

She looked at me curiously and I sat down next to her. Her face was so young, but her eyes were so old.

"How old are you?" She asked softly.

"I'm sixteen," I replied. It was a weird thought.

"So you remember the world before all of this?" She asked, gesturing with her hands to our surroundings.

"Yeah. I remember. Don't you?" I watched her. Did she truly not remember?

"I remember it. But only vaguely. And I never really had technology so I don't really miss it," she said. Her voice was quiet and sad.

"Why did you have technology?" I asked curiously.

"I lived on a farm with my family. And they didn't really believe in owning a TV or anything. We had a radio and a landline, but that was about it."

I nodded. It was a weird thought. By 2012, technology was practically everywhere. For her not to have had a television was weird.

"What happened to your family?" I asked after a moment's pause. We were both lost in our own thoughts.

"They were murdered," she replied simply. I had a feeling that she'd come to accept the fact that she was an orphan. Her voice, while sad, was not full of obvious pain. Perhaps, though, she was just hiding it.

"I see," I replied. What more could I really say?

She shrugged in response and we sat there in silence for a while. I thought about my mom and I wondered if she was thinking about her own mother.

An ache filled my chest as I thought about my mom. She was alive and she was working for Him. While I had known she was brainwashed, I hadn't expected her to be working for Him in the way that she was.

I wondered if maybe she remembered me. If I was a distant memory. Maybe the brainwashing didn't erase all the memories. Maybe it just made them seem... Unimportant.