Nex starred at me blankly, obviously not in favor of the change in scenery. We were farther back in one of the dimmer hallways which led me to squint a bit. I ran a hand across the cold, white wall until I touched a light switch. I flipped it on in one quick movement, my eyes adjusting quickly. Nex had his mocha colored hands over his eyes.
"When you said you wanted to talk I was hoping you wouldn't drag me to a place without a couch and with migraine inducing lights." Nex stated moving his hands and placing them on his thighs,
"Yeah I know you have a comfort complex that has to be tended to. Can't you just bare it for ten minutes at most?" I questioned my forest green eyes looking into his own uncomfortable neon blues.
Nex grumbled something unintelligible, that I didn't bother too look deep into for my own sanity, and sat down on the hard wood floor splattered with white paint. Nex pat the floor in front of him looking up at me with his infamous blank expression. I begrudgingly sat on the floor pulling my knee up against my chest,
"Alright let's get on with this conversation so we can leave this hallway." Nex said as he scratched his head barely having any kind of hair growth to give him the youthful look, basically speaking he was bald.
I nodded opening my mouth to say something before closing it. I had to think of a way to say it without making Nex go off into one of his silent fits as I called it. He would just stare at you with a frustrated expression and wouldn't stop even when you walked away. It wasn't threatening, but having his gaze on you wasn't a comfortable feeling,
"Your time is dwindling. Hurry up Shayne." Nex hurried me tapping my shoulder.
"What do they mean enhanced?" I blurted out looking at him eager for an answer,
"Enhanced is just like what it sounds like, improved." Nex stated as if it was the most obvious thing ever.
"You're only making me more curious. I thought you said we were super beings, humans with abilities, you even said that we used to be called augmentations." I stated holding my knee to my chest,
Nex scrunched his nose up in an unpleasant way allowing me to see the sweat on his upper lip. He ran his hands through his nonexistent hair, licking his lips. I didn't enjoy the sight, but I wouldn't move my gaze away from the person in front of me.
"Well yes we were called augments, but it was just a fad I guess? Look Shayne, can you not just accept that they don't like us. I mean who cares about us anymore, besides well, us." He was never a guy of many looks, but this was a new expression on his face never seen by me before and it allowed me to overlook that he corrected what I said earlier.
"Augments?" I questioned myself in disbelief.
Is this what they were doing now, buttering up little kids and filling their heads with lies. It must have been a great idea if what they used on me they were spreading to others belonging to the enhanced category. From the look on Nex's face he was trying to decode my thoughts from the expressions displayed on my face.
"Why were we called augments? I know you call it a fad, but it's way better than enhanced, I mean you have to have some kind of knowledge on this right?" I said mainly to get him to stop analyzing me with his prying eyes.
"If I answered that question you would call me insane. Let's face it I'm a hairless man who just recently turned twenty two. I don't want to relive any of these things Shayne." Nex stated hiding his face in hands the light giving his hands a semiopaque look.
I rolled my eyes at him and rested my cool hand on his bare head. His mocha colored head radiated warmth and I looked down at him,
"It can't be that bad, if you only ended up with a bald head," I pat his head pulling my hand away when he lifted his head back up from his hands.
"They took the one thing I had left to care about and too like. My hair, they got rid of my hair, just like them crushing you're thoughts of being the only one and being superior." Nex took a shaky breath licking both of his thumbs and swiping the saliva colored objects across his eyebrows.
Two dark brown smears were now where his eyebrows were. Just when I thought it was over he yanked a pair of false, dark colored eyelashes off. Nex looked at me not a trace of hair on his face.
"Even as miniscule a value hair may have it's gone. It's all gone just like the time for this conversation." Nex stated standing slowly the false eyelashes he ripped off earlier hidden inside his fist.
He began to walk off turning the light off on the way leaving me to bathe in the darkness and everything that was told to me. I wasn't sure how to feel about it. I couldn't tell if I was pushed back into the loop of unknowing or what I was told just wasn't enough. I eventually stood up myself looking around the dark hallway.
"To many questions to ask and not enough answers to be given." I said with a click of my tongue the sound reverberating off the walls.
YOU ARE READING
What Am I?
Science FictionA story about a superhero who debates his actual meaning in life. Whose side is he on good or bad? What's his destiny? He doesn't know but he will find out one way or another.
