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#Post#: 151--------------------------------------------------
Stuck on a rooftop
By: Overlord529 Date: November 11, 2014, 3:15 pm
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It took about three minutes for her to stop crying. I sat there
watching her the entire time. Her hair was a mess, tussled from
the run up the side of the skyscraper, but she made no attempt
to tidy it. I think she was still in shock.
The two of us sat in silence on the roof of the towering
building. I didn't know who the woman was, but I had brought her
here. Sometimes I threw people from tall heights like this to
see what kind of distance I could get, but this time I decided
to try something different; I was going to strike up a
conversation.
It was proving harder than I had imagined.
"I brought you up here to talk to you," I started clumsily.
Anything to end the awkward silence.
The woman lifted her head, still shaking and sobbing gently. Her
back was pressed up against the wall of the roof access door
structure. She looked at me with confusion and after a while
asked, "Why me?"
I really didn't have a good reason for her. 'Wrong place wrong
time' would just belittle what she was going through. "You
caught my eye. You seemed afraid."
"I was afraid." Her response was slow and measured, betraying
her incredulity. "Afraid that you'll kill me."
"I still might," I pointed out without thinking.
She looked like she might start crying again briefly, but then
said in a quiet voice, "Yeah..."
I winced at the resignation in her voice. This wasn't working as
I'd hoped. "Look, I didn't bring you up here to threaten you."
"Then why did you bring me here?" A hint of hysteria crept into
her question.
"I don't know! Okay? I don't..." My frustration matched her
panic. I sighed and stood. "Maybe I should just get it over
with."
As soon as I did, the woman jumped to her feet too. She held her
hands out placatingly. "No! No. You don't need to do that. You
had a reason for bringing me up here, what is it? Do you... need
to... talk about something?"
I couldn't help but scoff. "This is pathetic. I've killed
thousands of other people just like you, without a second
thought. And yet here I am, looking for some sign of...
connection. I want to know if there's anything human in me left.
If I even can feel anymore, or if it's all just a ruse."
She looked thoughtful, contemplative, almost scheming. I could
see the gears in her head turning. She was trying to come up
with a plan to keep herself alive, something to say that would
prolong the inevitable or maybe even earn her a way out of this.
She finally spoke a moment before I made up my mind to toss her
off the building and be done with it. "Do you feel sorry for the
people you've killed?"
I shook my head once and sat back down on the roof's edge,
looking at the street far below. "No. I don't think so. But part
of me wishes I did. I try to put myself in their shoes, and all
I can feel is contempt. So many people going about their lives,
convinced of their own importance." I glanced back at her and
shrugged. "I have the ability to show them just how wrong they
are. How little they truly mean."
A flicker of horror crossed her face but it was soon replaced by
grim understanding. "But when you show them, they die. You're
not helping anyone; nobody learns anything." Her tone grew in
strength until it almost became accusatory. I glared at her but
she met my gaze without flinching, and my respect for her rose.
"I learn it," I practically growled. "I've had to learn it every
day since I woke up. Everyone I meet looks at me with distrust
and hate. Like I'm a nuisance for interrupting their routines,
for disrupting their pleasant lives. My own sister pulls away
from me in fear." The thought of Dana flinching back from my
offered hug tightened my hands into fists. I watched my knuckles
turn white and my arms shake with rage until my vision blurred.
My voice sounded raspy to my ears when I spoke. "If humanity has
rejected me, why shouldn't I reject it?"
The sound of fabric sliding on brick told me the woman was
moving along the wall towards me. She didn't step forward
though- probably still too afraid. "Humanity hasn't rejected
you: you just haven't given it a reason to trust you yet.
Everywhere you go, bloodshed and infection follows. The news
shows stories of all kinds of horrib-"
"Yeah!" I stood up from the ledge and yelled at her. "I've done
all kinds of horrible. Horrible is my middle name. I'm just a
horrible, horrible guy!" Anger and sarcasm blended together and
burst out of me, like I couldn't even control them. I felt
winded, and weirdly hollow. Even though my words weren't
directed at her, the woman cowered against the wall. The tension
between us hung in the air for a few moments until I shook my
head and turned around, looking out over the city. "Is that
really all that's left? I'm seen as the bad guy so I become the
bad guy?"
"I-it doesn't have t-to be that way." The sudden stuttering
matched the desperation in her plea, as though she was worried
she was losing her chance. "You can do a lot of good with your
abilities. You can help people."
"Why would I help them?"
"I don't know, why would you?" She repeated my question as
though I knew the answer and was playing dumb. Before I could
interject she continued on. "What do you want? What are you
looking for?"
Now there was something I knew. Maybe even the only thing I
knew. "I'm going to find the people who did this to me, and then
I'm going to make them pay."
"So you're looking for revenge?" she quickly retorted. Her
dismissive manner set off a nerve.
"I'm looking for some goddamn justice! Nobody seems to care
about me! I was killed, brought back to life in some fucked up
experiment, and then hunted like an animal. And no one bats an
eye. That makes them just as guilty."
"And after you've killed everyone who's 'guilty'? What then?
When you're standing at the top of an empty, burning city,
knowing that 'justice' has been served, how are you going to
feel?"
"I won't." The answer was obvious, no matter how hesitant I was
to admit it. "I won't feel a thing."
Her pleas for mercy began before I even touched her and declined
to mindless screaming by the time I dropped her off the edge of
the building. It wasn't personal, I told myself. She knew too
much about me to be left alive.
And there was no way I could consume her: then I'd never be able
to forget the look of betrayal in her eyes.
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