Simplicity

In this, as in all things, there are laws to obey.
I. Never leave her alone.
II. Never touch her.
III. Remember your place at all times.
IV. Never let her go.
In this, as in all things, the laws seem only to be made, to be broken.

I'm locked in. I'm their experiment. They want to find out what will set me off. Find out what will destroy me.
Sick men.
All of them, in pale green, watching, waiting for me to make a mistake. They say I'm a danger. How can I be dangerous? I'm simply myself.

The bell has rung. I sneak through the dark hallways. I'm late. I'm scared. Please don't see me. Please don't notice as I creep into the room.
I'm silent, slipping through the rows of students already arrayed. They were on time.
The teacher's back is to me. She's scraping at the board with her chalk. The screeching makes my ears burn, but my inhuman classmates can't hear it the way I do.
I'm halfway to my seat when she turns around, frowning.
<>
Late? Faintly voiced in my head is the acceptance of that. I'm late.
But louder than my accepting voice is the one denying it.
Late?
My books fall from hands suddenly too limp to hold them. The room is dark with the curtains drawn across the windows. But there is enough light for dilated eyes to see by.
Desks cringe away from me. I hurl a chair towards the front of the room, and the others cower. They've all heard about me, of course. They all know what I am. They've all heard the same warnings.
Don't antagonize. Don't get too close.
But how many of them ever listened to those warnings? Like everything else, they were surprised when I broke.
Hiding away in the back of the room, terrified, that's what they are now.
She's standing in front of them, and it's pathetic to see the uncertainty and fear etched on her face.
Afraid of little me?
Dammit – I'll give you something to be afraid of.
The darkness breaks when one of the others wrenches a window open and screams out it. Not a minute later, the sirens are wailing.
The class stares at me like I'm going to kill them all. Can't say the thought hasn't crossed my mind.
But the sirens – they're starting up a chase again.
I should have known.
I drop the chair and the clatter breaks the strained silence as my feet carry me out the door; I don't pause to look back. I don't need to see their fear to taste it.

The glass windows that open to the outside form one whole section of the wall. A fake potted plant rests beside the soda machine, both of them by the wall perpendicular to the door.
I take my refuge between them, waiting for whoever my pursuer is.
I know some of them. Most of them. They know me. They created me. They ought to know me. But more than that, some of them care about me.
Curled up behind the plant, I can barely see the door or windows, but I can hear just fine.
I wait, listen for the gentle thud of booted feet on the ground, waiting for the slight creak heralding the opening of the door.
They will come for me, I know.
They always do.
Things would be simpler if I just crawled back, but I'm not built for subservient behavior.
I am my own god.
The door opens, crackling on its hinges. One of them comes in, leaving the door partial ajar behind himself. I know it's a male from his movements: sharp, hard. It's the motion of a being that never had anything to fear from someone stronger.
He takes to the center of the room, sweeping his gaze around. The black signature pressed into the pale green material of his uniform brands him as new.
I can expect perfection or overconfidence. Judging by his quick once-over, I'd say he's going to be the overconfident type.
I won't need to work to keep myself concealed, but…where's the fun in that?
Come after me. I'll keep you locked up in pretty silver chains. All the other prisoners will be jealous of your rich cell.
Come with me.
I will kill you.
He makes as if to leave, and I laugh aloud at his stupidity. Maybe I would have found him attractive…
But not now.
He turns when I laugh, but he is by the door and I'm already out the window, dancing across the thick, green sea.
Come, chase me! Come after me. I promise it will be the last thing you do. So, come, won't you?
The grass is hard to run through. It catches at my legs, tangles about my ankles. Cuts, sharp bladed.
I dare a glance back, only to see he is gaining. But not for long.
I let my footing fail, let the grass drag me down.
Then he is on top of me, surprised at my vanishing trick, and even more astonished when I tumble him as well.
He falls heavily. Hands catch at my shirt as I scramble for my feet.

Clothing is useless to me. Now it holds me back. I slip out, leave it in his hands and continue on my way. The forest beckons.

The trail is well worn and easy to follow. By accident, I stumble upon a group with a teacher examining tree leaves. One of them shrieks in surprise as I go by.
So I have been seen.
Not my intention to be sure, but hardly surprising, considering.
The path I follow is set to bring me to the canyon gorge, and before that, the lake.
Somehow, he is there before me, blocking the path. How he knew…
But it matters not at all. I step around him, smile disarmingly. So charming. Let him think me innocent, naive. Let him think me sweet.
He pulls his helmet off and stretches out a hand to me.
Idiot.
No one takes his helmet off around me. He runs the risk of going blind.
His hand is outstretched, bare of its glove.
Twice more an imbecile.
I let him come closer. My feet are in the water, and that's all I need to be safe.
He'll never catch me in the lake.
They can never find me in my own element. It's only when I'm trapped in the air when they have any hold over me.
His hand brushes against my bare shoulder.
Brazen, burning.
His skin is hot to the touch. Not mere warmth. Not pleasantly chilled. Hot.
I pull back, wondering if he has branded me.
The open water of the lake calls to me as I wade out deeper. He watches, helpless.
Come follow me. I can't promise you will live through the chase. No one has yet. I can't promise you will catch me. No one ever could. But, still… Who can resist a challenge?
I glance back to shore. His green protection has been stripped away, leaving…him.
Pale, except not. Smaller than the alien suit would lead one to believe.
He strips off his shirt and wades deeper.
Follows me.
I laugh and disappear.
Come find me!
I come close underwater and surface.
Near enough to see. Too far to touch.
<>
His hand is stretched out to me still, as if he is begging me to touch him, to confirm my own humanity. But I am not human.
Catch me. Bend me to your will.
Under again, twisting closer, feeling the surprise when my body brushes against bare legs.
And I slip away to surface beyond reach once more.
Touch me, will you? Wish to touch, caress… It will undo you.
The intensity of the canyon is calling to me, waiting for me. I cannot bother with a backward look. I dive under, only to surface so far away – further than he could know. We are worlds apart.

The sirens are still wailing, crying their warning. Children be wary! Dangerdangerdanger. Children be wary!
But the harsh waters of the canyon gorge beckon.
Shush, shush. They whisper secrets, meant to be heard in secret, kept in silence.
With the shrikes as a gentle background hum, I plunge into the icy waters. Let them claim me. The kayaks will be here soon, bent on catching me. Until I'm exhausted, they won't.
Doesn't stop them from trying anyway.

The first pair comes hurtling around the bend, side by side.
Come and catch me. I know you can't. I know my freedom irks you all. I know you fear me when I walk without chains to restrict my movements.
Come, catch me then. Bind me to your will. Force me. Restrict my uncontained movements. Trap me, if you can. If you dare.
They overshoot when I dive underwater. It's the same script each time. They back paddle wildly, trying to correct the error that never should have happened. I come up to breathe, and then dive again. I'm only playing against the clock now, and we all know it.
Water is my element, the raging river is my blood, but even so, there is only so long I can stay under. Only so long I can deprive this body of oxygen before it rebels against me and forces me to the surface. Where they'll catch me.
There is a way out of the gorge up a sheer cliff face. I've never tried it before – never opted to leave the water prematurely. But… It is something new.
Something I've never tried.
Something unexpected.
While the kayaks twist in their death throes in the river, I strike out for the cliff; I will climb it or perish in the attempt.
Though, really, ?I'll never actually mange to die. It's programmed into me – an insane, reckless drive to stay alive no matter what. I'm a prisoner to my own instincts.

The rocks bit e into my hands as I hang, dangling over open space, mere inches from my intended destination. Never to reach it, because I can't let go without falling.
So close…and yet I might be on the other side of the world.
<>
It's him again, bare hand extended through the rest of him is safely encased again in that suit that makes them all the same. His hand clutches around my wrist, burning with heat. Then he hauls me over the lip of the cliff into his arms.
Arms tightly wrapped around me, as if I am precious. The feeling is one of being restrained. I can't stand bonds. I fight.
<>
I don't freeze like he does at that voice. I fight harder. I know that voice. I know to fear that voice, because it bodes no good for anyone.
Let me go!
Two sets of hands are pulling me away from him, and suddenly his stranglehold is so much more appealing when contrasted with the icy grips of my newest captors.
I tear his hand trying to hold on.
Vaguely I can hear his yelps of pain. It doesn't matter. Nothing matters anymore. I'm trapped again. Caught.
I howl my fury.

Trapped. The fuzzy, freakish feeling of being locked away where no one can save me. It'll drive me mad, past insanity. It's why I'm fighting already though I'm barely awake. Protesting captors. Cage builders.
Let me go!
Coupled with twisted thrashing, bleating panic, choked exclamations of anger and pain.
< That's his voice, tired and broken beyond anyone's ability to repair.
Hands release their grip only to reappear. I'm trapped. Trapped. Dying inside myself.
Back off.
Let. Me. Go.

My hands are coated with something sticky, metallic… I can't see it. Too dark. But I can smell it. Maybe they're gone. Maybe I broke free?
Light floods the area and I cower back, blinking away the sudden brightness.
The air is icy, driving daggers though my skin. Against the backdrop of bright light stand silhouettes, outlined in brilliance.
I'm cold, so cold. Too frozen to move away from you. Reach out and touch me like you're longing to. Burn away my frozen shell, until no ice is left to protect me.
Try to touch me. Try to save me. Go on. Just try.
They come towards me, slowly, faces, bodies shrouded in shadows still.
My eyes begin to adjust slowly. I can see them. I can smell them. I can feel the heat from their acid bodies.
They are all male. All carrying themselves with the addictive nature of sin. I feel the desire to touch, be vulnerable. I need to be touched. To be held so close I lose track of who I am.
Used, even abused, until there is no record that I ever existed. I have to forget myself, get lost in the physical being of someone beyond me.
Make me forget. Help me lose myself. Rip my insides apart to find out how I'm made. Put me back together with pieces of you tangled in me. Just so I won't forget. Will never forget.
They won't come close enough, won't consent to touch me, to slit my mind. Blank it, so nothing is left.
I'll have to do it for myself. Because, these that only want the best for me have forgotten exactly what it is that I am.
Shattered, shredded, pieced together fragments of too much air and not enough substance. It's what I've become.
They won't let me out from here.
They're afraid that I'll escape again.
Afraid that this time, I'll mean it. They can't handle that. They won't let me go. So I guess it's up to me. I have to take my freedom into my own hands.

White-hot blindness, cutting through to illuminate the sinless darkness. Bringing that agony, the fire that is my only proof I'm still alive. Cutting through my chest and gut, writhing. Twisting.
I am an animal, screaming in pain, fighting my holders. They can't stop me this time. I won't let them.
Green hands in alien suits touch me.
They chill fevered skin, icy to feel on my bared body.
I shredded the last remnants of my so-called humanity when they pronounced me gone. Exposed skin to the freezing temperatures, hoping for an end. Slowly the heat rose, denying my finish. Then it wasn't mere warmth but fire, burning me up instead of freezing. Scaling until my skin blistered and cracked.
But now…
Cage builders! Soul killers! Let. Me. Go.

All the defiance in the world can only go so far. Eventually there' always a point when you have to give in, give up.
I at long last, have found that point. There is the blessed darkness, come to save me from a raging light. I will be free from this madness.

It's in our orders. She cannot be let go.
No…recall the orders. She's been though enough.