**CURRENTLY A FEATURED STORY**
highest ranking: #11 in Science fiction
❝true happiness is only achieved without freedom.
There is a girl who wakes to a world that she was supposed to protect. Instead, she fights it.
There is a man who is cursed wit...
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THERE'S AN X across my face. It obscures the eyes, distorts the features like a disguise in a self-portrait. I sit across Bernard, jaw set, both clenched fists on the table that separates us. "I want to know everything, and I want to know it now," I tell him stiffly. Bernard laughs at my tone, drawing from me an affronted frown and a look of mild confusion.
He seems so sure of himself, so... so at home, here in his underground tunnels, tunnels that lie underneath a city of glass that will never shatter. He is the father and the leader of the people of the Red Hand; he takes care of them, guides them into fighting for 'what's right,' keeps their heads high with speeches, restores hope by talking to individuals and by expressing his devotion to certain people.
I grit my teeth and lean forward over the table, attempting an intimidating stance. "Listen here, alright? You're going to tell me everything you know about what Julian and I found in that laboratory, or you're going to lose me."
His response to that is a mocking expression, featuring a raised eyebrow.
"You need me more than I need you. I could just walk out of this facility. Nobody can stop me, and trust me. I'll take down anyone who tries to stand in my way."
Bernard sighs. "The President has billboards and projections of your face slapped onto a wanted poster, Evanna, I don't think you'll get very far. Besides, the drones are everywhere. They'll put you behind bars within less than a few hours."
He's right, of course. I sit back, feeling as though I've lost my case. I'd threaten to kill him, but Julian would never forgive me for it.
"But if you're so eager to know everything, I'll tell you what I know."
At last. Answers.
▿
Bernard begins with the obvious. "I assume you're aware of the fact that you're not like me."
"You mean we've got different physiologies," I reply.
He nods, bringing both hands up, knitting his fingers together on the table. "Yours is unique." He frowns, slightly, looks down, then back at me. "You were human, once. Fully so, like Julian, like me, like the President."
"I know." I'm eager for him to just get to the parts that I don't know about.
"Let me finish," he answered calmly. "Do you know why... why you were created? Do you know by whom?" He doesn't give me the chance to answer any of his questions. "You weren't the only one. The people who made Tetrahmon also made you what you are. Exactly what it is they did to you, I don't know- but I know that your purpose was to protect Tetrahmon."
I tuck a stand of white hair behind an ear and give him a befuddled, non-comprehending look. "Protect it? Protect it from what? There's nothing beyond that wall, just ice. There's nothing living."
