I am number Ten

CHAPTER 7

I awaken to flickering lights and I stretch out. At first, I have no idea where I am but I feel a lumpy mattress beneath me and wonder if everything was a dream. I roll on my side and see Annie flicking through channels on an adjacent bed. She turns her head and smiles at me. I assumed we were in a motel, just someplace safe.

"You did good kiddo," She mutters indicating the TV.

        I turn my head and look at the 'Breaking News' feed. There is a helicopter shot of the hospital and they cut to a female reporter.

"I don't know how you did it sweetheart but our dirty work was wiped clean from the scene."

            The story is about a patient was mentally unstable and went insane two nights ago. The person began stabbing people wherever possible on that floor. There was a live news feed of Lance talking to a reporter. He claims he was the only survivor and witness to this event and managed to get himself to a bed and hook himself up to a ventilator that saved his life. The hole in the window was where Lance said the killer committed suicide. The body had not been recovered or identified. The victims flashed onto the screen, that included June and a few nurses and doctors. There was a huge feeling of guilt boiling up in my stomach and I roll over to avoid the T.V. any longer. I shut my eyes and allow myself to cry once more. Annie shuts the T.V. off and listens to my sobs. She wraps her arms around me and rocks me gently. I scratch another face from my memory.

"I-I get it now..." I say softly, "If I hadn't made those connections, it-it wouldn't hurt so badly." It releases another round of sobbing.

        I curl up in a tight ball and squeeze my eyes shut. For a brief moment, I wished I was normal. No legacies, no responsibilities, no mission, just a normal human. I then think of Anali and my grandparents and I sob even harder. Annie continues to cradle me like I'm a toddler.

"You always were a social butterfly," Annie begins, "I found that the most redeeming quality of yours. No matter where we were, you would a make a friend or two. You'd even made friends with the flowers in the garden; you gave them all names and personalities. I...I just found I was never worthy to be your Cepan..." She begins to cry.

"What do you mean?" I ask softly.

"You and I were polar opposites. I was never social at all. You could blend into a crowd so easily while...I...I was the ugly duckling. I was the scholar...the nerd...I was never really accepted by others. I felt different from the others and often ignored. When I was paired with you, I saw all the things in you that I wasn't. You made it look so easy, the way you interacted with people. It was some kind of gift...You'd walk into a crowd and be loved...it hurt me and then... When everything became...complicated, I never felt ready for it. I had to leave a home world behind...

"You were scared too?"

"Probably more than you were... the way you two played together gave me hope that we would make it out alright. It was reassurance that as long as I could protect you...I'd fit in and put all the things I was neglected for to use. We probably fit in on Earth better than the others." I can feel her laughing a bit, "but every time I saw you frown or cry made me feel that I had failed you and I couldn't understand your point of view no matter how hard I tried..."

"That's why we need each other" I mumble from her arms, "You were assigned to me because we need each other. I never thought of you as an ugly duckling, you're different and I'm different. We fit together."

I rise up from her arms. "You are the perfect Cepan." I pull her into a hug and we both cry for a while. This is a moment I would never forget.

            When we finished hugging, Annie told me to take a shower. I had been out for two days and was still wearing my hospital robe that was cover in blood. I rinsed off and stared at myself in the mirror. I looked a little different. A little bit taller, a bit more mature. I twirled my pendant in my hands and then squeezed it hard. I cried a bit more and then put on clean clothes. I found Annie at her laptop, scrolling through something.

"What'd you find?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm researching when's the next flight out is and where the nearest airport is."

"Where are we going?" I ask, brushing my hair.

"Argentina."