Through Glass(71)

No, now was not the time.

I looked away from the angry crowd to the filtered light that flowed through the massive glass ceiling above us, where I assumed hundreds of stadium lights filled the sky with light, keeping these people safe. I wished they would shine the light on me, I would step out into it and show everyone here that I wasn’t dangerous. That I was still human.

Even if only for a little while longer.

I knew that wouldn’t work, stepping into the light. After all, I hadn’t turned into ash with the light that I had walked through or from the light that filtered over everything, but they didn’t seem to care. They were content to take their anger and pain and loss out on one person. Someone who was practically human. I am not sure I could fault them for that.

Because they saw me as a monster. As much as I distrusted Abran and as little as I knew Bridget, I knew they were right. I wasn’t who I was all those years ago. I was changing. I just wasn’t sure I was changing the way they meant.

I looked at the ceiling as Travis led me to a lone chair in the middle of the open floor. The metal chair was full of scuffs and small dents, as if they had dug it out of a dumpster. I would have assumed that was exactly what they had done, but the floor looked the same. Large holes pockmarked the space around it and small, faded green stains littered over the linoleum, as though someone had tried to clean something that just wouldn’t come out.

I stared at the chair as Travis led me toward it, sure I was missing something. My heart thumped once in dread as I turned to him in question, but he only looked straight ahead, his jaw clenched tightly.

The members of my procession had gone, leaving only my brother to lead me to my fate.

I felt like a bird on display; set to be chained in front of a crowd and made to dance, to squawk and to do tricks.

It was then I realized what this building was. The commons area of a high school. I wasn’t sure what high school, but the design was almost identical to the one I had attended all those years ago.

“I won’t be far,” Travis whispered as he helped me to sit, his fingers moving to attach the shackles around my wrists to the chain that was connected to the floor.

I gulped as he spun the lock. Even if I had a chance or a hope at escape he had taken that away from me now.

Travis paused, his body hovering before me as his fingers dropped the heavy lock to the ground. I met his eyes, my body laboring to keep my breathing even with the look he was giving me. He looked at me as if he was saying good-bye, like he was sorry. I felt everything freeze together. I had expected a trial, but Travis looked at me as though this was my final stop.

It would be now that he would slip me the key, a pin to pick the lock, a gun, my rail, anything, but he just looked at me. The fear behind his eyes grew before he pressed his lips against my forehead and walked away.

Travis moved through the crowd toward a large table where Abran and several other people sat. They looked down at me with so much anger and hatred it only seemed to fuel my own. They were the heads of Azul. What I hadn’t expected was for Travis to take his place amongst them. He slid into an empty seat on the left hand side of Abran, his eyes hooded and sad as he looked down at me.

He was one of them. One of the leaders of the only humans left to fight. I wished he had told me—said something—but I knew why he hadn’t. Even with his place of power, he hadn’t been able to do anything.

He was the only one who cared.

The screams increased as I was left alone, more and more objects beginning to fly toward me now that I was left alone and unprotected.

Bread rolls, potatoes, broken pieces of wood. They all flew through the air at me, some sliding against the floor to land at my feet, even more smacking hard against my already pained body. The holes in the floor, the once red blood stains, they suddenly made sense. I could hear the laughs, the screams and the anger; the sounds all washed over me as attack after attack came.

They didn’t care if they made me bleed, it would only take the loss of all my blood to change me. Even then, I would be the same to them as I was now. A monster.

One after another, the rudimentary weapons smacked against my skin, pelting me with what felt like rocks, which I am sure some of them were. I pulled against the chains as I tried to move away from the assault, my hands jerking as I pulled at them repeatedly. I grit my teeth as I pulled, the chains not so much as budging.

I tried to cower into myself, to shield my body, but I couldn’t get low enough. I couldn’t hide. They merely hit the top of my head and shoulders instead of my face and chest. The laughter and jeers from the crowd only increased. I was trapped here, exposed for their gruesome game.

I clenched my teeth together in an attempt to keep the scream inside—to keep the pain trapped inside of me—but I couldn’t keep it in and before long, I felt the wet tears stream down my cheeks, the yell of tortured pain broke from my lips.

I shielded my face as I looked through my fingers, the line of the leaders laughing as they watched the spectacle, all except my brother who held his head in his hands, his fingers clawing through his hair.

I had thought this was a trial to decide my fate, to decide if I should be killed. Two sides arguing a case to be determined by a higher authority. I had held onto the thought of a fair trial even though somewhere inside I had known better. My fate had already been decided. It didn’t matter if they hurt me, if they made me bleed. They were going to turn me into a monster anyway. I felt the rocks hit against my father’s leather jacket, against the toes of his work boots, until they stopped, the crowd’s shouts increasing as their ammo had been extinguished.