Bad Bleed | ✔️

Eighteen// Sameness:

The young female joins another girl standing with her arms crossed in front of her, staring into space determinedly as if she gets some serious time to do so.

At this point my heart is pounding in both my hands and the backs of my ears. The hard throbs can only be challenged by the alien object in my chest fighting to take up maximum room within my rib cage.

"I was a little curious you know. I just had to speak to you before you died. You are by far the most ambitious Pukka I've come across. It's a little inspiring. 473 other people are in here somewhere and you're the only who got close to surviving," she muses, tilting her head to the side and allowing a small smile to dance across her brims. "Reminds me a little bit of well ... me. There's no need to be frightened child, sit."

I walk towards her, ignoring the urge to be quiet. "Where are they?"

"Oh, so eager to get into things I see. I can already tell you've somehow managed to flush those drugs out, have it your way. I'm more interested in learning about you. For starters, were you actually convinced that you'd make it?" she croons, the over-wide grin on her face never leaving. "I mean, what did you plan to do once you were in Air Kru?"

From my position on the couch next to Juniper it's a little difficult to look unfazed. So I remain silent.

"You know what? I get it, you don't want to incriminate anyone, it's this thing you Kione people do, but I've got to give you props for getting that far. It must suck though, your mother's somewhere in here, getting ready to waste away forever for you ... and you're not even going to live," she continues with an annoyingly massive smile on her face.

I feel my hands ball up into fists before parting my lips again, "At least my mother actually bothered to help me. Your own son can't say the same about you."

"But you see I managed to raise my son to be accepting of his destiny. He knew this would happen. Even if his body is weak, his spirit isn't. He isn't afraid of dying, unlike you," she says, dropping her gaze a little at the mention of her boy. "Kai isn't an exception to the rule ... he understands that. The future of our people is of far greater importance. Don't you see? The end of your kind will do so much for the rest of us. It'll be beautiful," she finishes, half laughing.

I let my eyes trail away from her and look to the little coffee table in front of us. Does she really believe that?

"There is so much about what you just said that's wrong. Things you're missing that make you that much weaker than even me: the 16-year-old Retrograde who infiltrated your beloved Division, birthed by a mother who would do anything for her children."

"Ooh, I'm interested. Do tell," she gasps leaning forward with her tattooed hands clasped together under her chin, she almost giggles.

I see it. She wants to play the crazy game with me. What she doesn't get is that with half the stuff I've been through, I more than know the rules.

"You may think you've got this life thing figured out. You're rich and powerful and yet you birthed not one, but two children diagnosed with the condition you hate so much. If you think that what runs through my body is pure weakness that needs to be eradicated, then what can be said of you, the woman who produced it twice? Are you weak?"

Her gentle smile grows and stretches uncomfortably, turning into a grimace. Her green eyes bathe themselves in a moment of confusion as if asking herself how I know this.

I was bluffing; even if she did have another child first I'm not certain that she was a Pukka too. All I know about Juniper are the things Neave said to me and even then, they aren't confirmed, but her reaction just proves it.