The Girl Called Red

Chapter 9.

My hands fisted themselves in his shirt, nails digging in harshly to his chest before they pushed him away.

I staggered backwards, my sense of gravity twisted, a sick feeling filling my gut. The thought that had formed twisted, larger callused fingers taking over, mauling at soft flesh as if intending to rip it off.

No.

I went down in a heap between the coffee table and the couch, my wine threatening to tumble over and cover me in a deep, dark red.

"Scarlet-I-" He came towards me, arms reaching out, fingers open.

"DON'T!" I sat there panting, my heartbeat not slowing its pace. Choosing instead to race even faster.

My eyes darted everywhere, always returning to him. He slowly came towards me again and I teleported without a second thought.

Those hands would not touch me. Could not touch me.

My heartbeat stuttered, bile rising for the deep dark recesses of my cold, hard stomach.

Another image flashed in front of my face, a camera pointed at me naked as I was now, covered in scars and old bullet wounds, my reflection staring back at me as I tried to cover myself.

Large, fatty hands reaching for me, and covered in my blood.

I was over near the kitchen table this time, behind him, still panting in that odd way as I tried not to turn around. Tried not to look to see if those arms really were reaching for me once again.

"I-I'm sorry!" He said spinning to look at me. "I-I shouldn't have touched you. I know that-"

"THAT WHAT?!" There was no controlling the lilt in my voice. I could not focus on my training and calm down my body enough to control my actions.

I could feel him near me. I could smell his putrid breath as it hit the back of my neck.

"Well, I-I-I accidentally saw the video while I was digging-" My chest began to tighten as I struggled even more for air.

The image flashed again, 'Joey' standing behind the camera, a cruel grin lifting the sides of his face as he showed himself off like an evil Cheshire cat. One of the hands fisted my hair, pulling some of the strands out of my head.

"Which video? Was it the first time? The fifteenth? The fortieth?!" He hesitated, watching me with widened eyes as it became harder to breathe.

"I-I don't know! There was a lot of blood and I stopped watching when I recognised that it was you! I don't even know why they had it!"

"Because it SELLS! $65,000 for some Russian orphan! Quite low if you ask me!" My scalp was tingling, the phantom feeling of blood weeping out and moving down.

I could not breathe.

"Scarlet-please" He took a step towards me again and I backed up. "I didn't mean to hurt you like this!" My eyes were burning a hellish red as a lone tear escaped out of my eye, threatening for others to come.

"I am not hurt. I do not get hurt! I am a weapon first and a person last!"

Sensei, help me. Dear god get him out of my head!

"Then why are you having a panic attack?" My eyes cut down their glow as air came slowly into my lungs.

... What did he say?

"I am not having a... Panic attack?" My voice filtered away, echoing the room around us as another tear stole its way out of my eye.

"You are a person Scarlet, and we need you."

Everyone needs me. No one can do their dirty work themselves. You are no better.

Or was he?

Enough! Kill him now young one. Get it over and done with. He has seen your weakness, do not let him live long enough to use it against you!

"Just like Katya needed me, and I failed her." I spat at him, cursing him in Russian. It was all a show and I knew it, the fight in me was gone. Replaced by the old familiar hollow feeling that stopped roiling, returning to its hibernation within me.

I looked around the room, noticing that my glass of wine had spilled over and was attempting to sink into the heavily lacquered wooden floor.

My voice was heavy and gruff when I finally spoke again. "Do you have anything stronger?"

Joey nodded and walked off, he edged around me as he passed. I did not blame him. Although the fight in me was gone. I would not get too close to a wounded wild animal either.

My eyes leaked out one last tear each before I collected myself.

I now believed in his words... But I did not trust in his stupidity.

If this was all some kind of trick, he would be killed first in the most painful way I knew how.

If he was just plain idiotic, I would spare him.

Do not be a fool, young one. I know you wish him to live but you are a weapon!

The room was silent but I could almost feel Sensei with me. Staring at my hands I took in the evidence of hard use.

My fingerprints were no longer there, they had not been for years. Minor scars lightly graced my pale skin, nails always just long enough to play dirty in a fight without breaking.

They were human hands.

I looked around the room, before quietly thinking to myself.

Did you ever consider us human?

I wasn't just asking for myself, but also for those that I knew came before and after me. They would be wiping them out too now if they had not done so already.

There was no conceivable way that I had been the first psychic that they had taken and trained, and there was no way that I would have been the last.

If they had Partners, that did not even mean that I had ended things before when they had tried to burn me.

I was a minor inconvenience in their machine. Their machine of terror that used its metal fangs to rip open throats and cover the world in blood.

After a few drinks of a liquor I did not even stop to look at, I was ready to talk.

"I did not mean to freak out on you. I have kissed others."

Though, I usually am aware that it is coming.

It did not feel right to leave it at that. So I settled for the truth. "I do not seem to be in control as much as usual recently." Joey nodded, glancing away from me for a moment. The alcohol was moving its way through my chest, easing the tension just slightly.

"My name is James." So quiet I almost didn't hear it, he changed the topic completely. For that I was thankful.

"I was closer than I had expected to be then." A brief snort left his mouth causing my mouth to lift up slightly. "Thank you."

The solitary phrase echoed in between us, and in that moment, the sound sucking abyss began to close in on itself, finally giving us some peace.

James began to tell me about himself, and with each word the tense feeling between my shoulders eased, little by little.