I scream.
At least I try. Nothing comes out but painful breaths. The dark man stands before me. The mark on his arm not like mine.
Its red. Like blood. He presses the cold circle of the gun to my skull. My body wrapped in choking ropes that cut at every movement. I look at the man's face.
It is half drone half man. The wires from the drone half piercing the skin on the other. Like veins. His expression is unreadable. I've never seen this creature in my whole life.
He disgusts me.
His now metal hand holds a tagging gun.
NO!
I want to scream. But I can't.
The gun goes off. It splits through my skull and embeds itself in my brain. I fall to the ground. My face pressed to the clean cold floor.
I feel electric shocks in my bones. And cringe. The wires and parts inside the tag start to move. They cover my brain and move on to everything else. Until I'm merely a piece of skin and hair covering the computer inside.
"Briany! Briany wake up!" My head throbs. I can't see right. Someone shakes me by the shoulders.
Eden. I push her away. "Get some water." She says to whoever sits next to me.
She eases a water bottle into my mouth. I choke it down. My throat hurts.
"What happened?" I look around. Everyone stares. Even Crispin and Rory are here.
"You started screaming like a baby goat." What's a goat?
"Where are we?" I look out the open door. The sky is navy blue with pink and purple peaking over the horizon. There are thick trees all around us.
"The campsite is about an hour away now. We'll be there before we know it." Crispin says. He smiles. "Toril, why don't you take a turn driving. I'm beat."
"Okay."
"I'll go. Rory needs his rest to." Shera volunteers. If I didn't know better, I'd say Toril and Shera liked each other.
"I won't disagree with that." Rory says. Already making himself comfortable in Shera's place.
Toril is about to close the door when Crispin's hand stops it. "I'll close it when we leave. She needs some fresh air." Toril nods and goes to the cab with Shera. The van starts up again. I sit up and pull my knees into my chest. Eden nudges me.
"Hey. Are you okay?" I can tell she doesn't know how to comfort me.
"Yeah. Yeah I'm fine." I run my fingers through my hair. I wish I cut it before I left yesterday. It's bound to get in the way. The thing is I don't really want to cut it. I've never cut it.
An awkward few seconds pass until Junis says,
"Can I braid your hair?" I jerk my head back. In unison with the closing van doors and the jerk of the gas being pushed.
"I guess." She immediately gets up and smiles brightly.
"Oh good. I love long hair. It's so pretty." She notices my weird look I give her. "You don't think it's pretty. Correction, you don't think you are pretty." I shake my head. She's right.
"I doesn't matter. Especially now." Junis sits on the other side of me and turns my back toward her.
"Bri, there is nothing more important than what you think about yourself. Especially now."
I can't help but notice the whisper of a smile on my face when she called me Bri. Do I have a nickname now? That's the first sign of acceptance. And for me. That matters a lot.
