Newborn

Chapter 34: A Good Girlfriend

Anne Halton

I keep running.  The bloody body is in my arms, soaking through my jacket.  Eventually, I slow down and feel the woman’s pulse.  She’s dead.  I feel tears running down my cheeks.  I’ve never held a dead body before.  I don’t know what to do.

I just want to be home.  I wish I hadn’t come out tonight.  I’m covered in blood.  I failed.  I’m weak.  I’m worse than weak, I’m a demon. 

I think about Algea hovering over the body.  Do you want some?

He knew me and he thought I would join him.

I ate Rover, could I eat a person?

What am I?

I leave the woman’s body at the hospital.  I know that it’s too late to save her, but I don’t know what else to do.  I want to go home.

I pass my building a few times before I go up, waiting for the lights to go out inside the apartment.

I’m pretty hungry so I grab a couple energy bars out of my backpack.  I don’t want to lose control again.  I need to remember to bring more water with me, they’re really dry.

I put my outfit in my backpack.  My clothes are stiff from the dried blood, and my arms and chest  are marked with a faint red residue.  I don’t know if I can keep on doing this, but I don’t know what else to do.  Is it worse to go out there or to just burry my head in the sand and pretend that I’m normal?

My fear has always been that, if I release the fire, I’ll become monster.  Now that I’ve seen Algea, I know how terrifying that can be.

He said I’m destruction.  Is he right?

I get back into the apartment.  Jess isn’t in the living room.  I peak into the bedroom.  I can hear her rhythmic breathing.  She’s asleep.  I’m glad.  She hasn’t been sleeping enough lately.  She didn’t go to bed until at least three in the morning and she’s probably going to be up by six.  I don’t know how she’s functioning.  I hope she wasn’t staying up waiting for me.

I take off my pants in the living room.  I don’t want to wake her with my changing.

I look over at the table and see Jess’s computer.

I need to know more.  Maybe if I can learn enough, I can stop whatever it is that’s happening to me.  I have to know what Jess is getting herself into and what it has to do with me.  Legion was looking for her when it broke into our apartment and started all of this.

I sit down on the couch and turn on the computer.  It’s encrypted but, like a good girlfriend, I’m able to guess the password in less than three tries.

I look through some of her recent files, acting quickly. Jess has been a light sleeper lately and I’m afraid she might wake up and hear me.  She’s been looking up information on Legion and the Sword of God.  There are other topics.  If I knew what I was looking at, I would realize that Jess is also trying to investigate the Forseti Foundation too, but she’s being discrete about her files on them, even on her own computer.

Seeing the word ‘Legion’ sends a chill through my body.  Even though I’ve long since healed, there is prickling sensation where it shot me, almost like a phantom wound.

The Sword of God sounds familiar too.  Why haven’t I been asking more questions?

I don’t know who I am or what I am or what I’m supposed to be, but Jess is getting herself into trouble and I need to learn more about it.  If there’s one thing in the world I know, it’s that I love her and I need to protect her.