Trial X6

Terminal City

  "You'll get caught. You won't even make it to Terminal City." Max told Joshua as he was ripping up his artwork and tossing the pieces into the fireplace.

  "I'll take the sewers." Joshua sighed.

  "Why are you doing this?"

  "I can't be with upstairs people," He sighed again. "I don't want to be alone anymore."

  "You don't have to be alone!" Max said while stepping closer to the tall transgenic. "I'll come every day."

  "You come, and you both go, and I'm alone." Joshua glanced at both of us. "I'm tired of being alone, Max." He turned back to the fire.

  "If you go to Terminal City, I won't be able to look after you." Max was looking up at him

  "You don't have to look after me, Max. I can look after myself. At Manticore I-I took care of myself, I took care of everybody else."

  "It's different out here." Max's voice was pleading.

  "No!" Joshua raised his voice to our surprise. "I'm talking now, you listen." He pointed a finger at the dark-haired female. "I don't want to hide anymore." He paused. "I need to be with people like me." Then he picked up the bag off the couch and walked away from Max, passing silently by me.

  "Fine. You wanna go. You wanna live in toxic waste, you wanna eat rats for dinner, be my guest." Joshua glanced back at her before changing hands the bag was in. "Joshua." He turned back around, giving her a look. Walking towards her, he put his forehead on hers.

  "Goodbye, little fella." He turned to me and did the same. Joshua had to bend down lower since I was shorter than Max, but he didn't seem to care. "Goodbye, Shadow." And he left while Max and I watched.

  Going downstairs, I sat on the edge of my cot with my fingers in my hair. All these things were happening too soon and too quickly, I wasn't given enough time to absorb these things and put tags on each new emotion I was having. Holding my head as my elbows rested on my knees, I sat there for what seemed like hours just thinking.

  I was trying to wrap my head around everything, but it was so hard to. Hell, I didn't even know my spots could turn blue, or yellow, or any color they had as of late. I thought it was just black and the neutral light brown to look like freckles.

  When I finally lifted my head, I sighed. Standing up, I pulled out the piano bench. I needed to non-violently vent these thoughts in my head and try not to chase after Joshua. He was his own person, he could make his own choices, and I needed to respect them.

  Flinging back the sheet, I brushed my fingers over the keys. Taking a deep breath, I began to play. The music was immediately loud and echoed in the now-empty house. It was a raging noise like a predator on a hunt, chasing its prey. My fingers flew across the keys, and my eyes closed as my eyebrows furrowed.

  What was with all these feelings settling in my chest and weighing down my mind? These chemical reactions in my brain were too complicated, and I had momentarily wished for me to be back at Manticore. A place where I had no worries, no fear, no anger, no nothing. Just a silent calm and occasional rush of adrenaline during a mission. I stopped playing and sighed through my nose.

  "Bravo, Bach." I heard a chuckle from my right. Looking, I saw Alec sitting on my cot. How long had he been there? No one had ever been able to sneak up on me....when I didn't have my hat on at least. The piano must have covered any noise he made.

  "Shut up, dick." I reflexively growled while noticing my eyes drifting to his lips. 'Why?' I thought while trying to look back up. When I kept failing, I stared at the piano's keys.