[b]A home in Royal Park Months ago[/b] “Thomas? Come inside, sweetpea, dinner’s almost ready.” Thomas continued rocking on the swing, searching the dark sky for stars. Hannah stood halfway out of the sliding door on the deck, her face shadowed by the lights inside. The night was chilly this time of year, but not so much that he needed anything more than a sweater. The lights of the city drowned out the horizon in dull white, stretching in all directions until giving way to the void above him. No stars tonight. He went inside. Scott sat at the table in his work clothes, skimming through a puzzle book while Hannah finished dinner. He didn’t look away from his book when Thomas settled in next to him. “You’ve been spending a lot of time out there, Tommy. How about a telescope for your birthday?” Thomas shrugged, plucking at a bit of thread on his place mat. “That sounds good.” Maria scurried up from the couch and sat next to Thomas, kicking her legs in her chair. She perked up at the sound of the microwave beeping. “Mom, the corn’s done.” “Yes, baby, I’m getting it.” Maria leveled a smirk Thomas’s way. “You’re gonna get kidnapped if you stay outside too long.” Thomas frowned at the table, picking at the place mat more fervently. “No I’m not. We have a fence and lights, stop being stupid.” “I’m not being stupid, there’s a kid down our street who got kidnapped. He was on his porch and these guys came out of nowhere and grabbed him! Then they did stuff to him and gave him dog legs. Channel 10 was talking about it.” Thomas snapped up. “Mom, Maria’s being weird!” Scott finally dragged his attention away from his puzzles. “Kids, settle down. Nobody’s been kidnapped, Maria, this neighborhood’s one of the safest around.” Hannah set the bowl of corn on the table. “Well, for this city anyway.” Scott shifted in his seat, his brow furrowing. “Hannah, we’re barely even in the city. If some supervillain attacks the Whole Foods on the corner, then we’ll--” “--please Scott, let’s not talk about that again. I’m sorry for bringing it up, I just--” “--stop. It’s alright.” Scott offered his wife a tired smile, though it did not break the newfound tension. “Let’s just enjoy dinner, alright? Let’s pray.” Maria seemed blissfully unaware of how tightly her parents linked hands, and eagerly led them in prayer. “Dear Lord, please bless these gifts…” [b]Lost Haven outskirts Two months later[/b] “Oh god, just don’t hurt us!” GE-04 was getting tired of hearing the same thing from so many different faces. The humans could seem so dignified when she watched them from afar, toying with each other, asserting power through social subtleties that she couldn’t understand. But as soon as they saw how small they were, how easily they could be stripped of all power, every pretense crumbled away until all that was left was animalistic fear. That’s exactly what it was; a prey response. She’d wandered through the woods long enough to see it in every facet of Earth life: hawks eating mice, foxes eating rabbits, GE-04 ripping the doors off of people’s cars and mugging them. The prey this time was a couple with three children in the back seat. It was night, the only time GE-04 dared to wander freely through the countryside. She’d felt a familiar pang in her stomach, saw familiar lights poking through the trees by the road, and promptly stepped right in the car’s path. It had screeched to a halt, she approached, and now she stood on the passenger’s side, glaring through the hole where the car door used to be. The man continued to beg. “Please, my kids--j-just take whatever you want!” [color=4488cc]“Food.”[/color] She intoned impatiently. Her eyes rolled down to a bag in one of the children’s hands. Familiar. She reached into the car and jabbed her finger in its direction, much to the shrieks of the children. [color=4488cc]“Quiet! Give me that.”[/color] “M-my chips?” GE-04 growled and pointed again, then snatched the offered bag. [color=4488cc]“Water,”[/color] she said. At that point, the family glanced at each other in equal parts fear and confusion. The woman at the wheel timidly offered, “I h-have...my water bottle…” She gasped when GE-04 grabbed the metal bottle from the cupholder between the driver and passenger’s seats. [color=4488cc]“Do you have more?”[/color] GE-04 asked, clutching her meal to her chest. [color=4488cc]“I need more.”[/color] “Oh Christ. Laura, honey, get the bag from the gas station, it’s--okay, this is all we have. Please, p-please--” GE-04 ripped the bag from the man’s hands and stepped back. [color=4488cc]“Go.”[/color] She didn’t bother to stay and watch the car screech away, now occupied with bringing her spoils back to her hiding spot. It was an ugly little shed, leaning half against an old oak whose brown leaves kept it always shaded. GE-04 had to dip her head down to get through the creaky door, and was met with the same dusty bookshelf, bed frame and table she’d known for months. She’d organized a few little piles on the table, comprised of various leaves, rocks and food wrappers. They served as the only source of decoration, and she liked to stare at each rock and leaf and trace the veins and cracks of each with her fingers. She was getting better at handling the softness of the world around her, and didn’t crush as many rocks with a casual grip anymore. She plopped down on the metal bed frame, which squealed in protest. She set the bag of mystery food aside and focused on the chips, which had already been opened. As she ate, she watched the leaves outside the door rustle with the wind, shrouded in comforting darkness. This was her life now, she supposed. Whatever it had intended to become, she would never know. Yet her mind couldn’t help but wander. She wasn’t human, not like the humans that roamed the forest in their cars. Some humans were small. Tyler called them “children”, but she couldn’t discern their purpose beyond being small, noisy, and staunchly guarded by their “parents”. Well, their parents staunchly guarded them when faced with threats that couldn’t rip every last one of them apart without challenge. She had yet to kill a human firsthand, but she and the humans knew she was capable. She’d attempted it on her first night of existence, but one human had been armed, the other lucky. The police she was unsure about, as she hadn’t stayed long enough to survey the damage she’d caused. She couldn’t bring herself to care about their fates; they made their choice when they saw what she was. She prodded around the plastic bag, finished with her chips, and laid its contents out on the bed frame. A pouch of jerky she was sure to devour next, small bags of trail mix, more chips. She was getting tired of snack foods. The forest around her ugly little shack called to her, and beyond it, she could hear the faint cacophony of the city. The sounds themselves didn’t catch her ear, but the minds: whirring, panicking, droning on through their daily human processes. It would be deafening if not for the distance. She wondered if Tyler was out there somewhere, if he felt any more significant for giving someone like her some perception of the world she was forced into. Time had made her bitterness towards him less so. He was a human like the others, and she couldn’t much blame him for his cowardice. But she wiped her thoughts away--focusing on them made the distant noise worse. She drank the stolen water, ate the stolen jerky, and tried to fall asleep in a shack that was not made for her. Maybe, years ago, it served a purpose to some human. Every nail they hammered into the wood perhaps sated little dreams, one by one, until those dreams were forgotten, the wood left to rot. She traced a fingertip over a deep crag in the wall near her face. Maybe some human slept in the same spot she now lay. Where did they go? Maybe they would be happy to see her using the shed again. Maybe they wouldn’t panic and turn their minds to painful static, or run away, or shoot at her. She drifted to sleep, wondering after the things she’ll never know. [b]A home in Royal Park Three months ago[/b] “Please, honey, think this through! Where would we go?” Scott chased his wife through the halls of their well-styled home while she swung a suitcase wildly between rooms. “Anywhere but here, Scott! You’ve seen the news lately, this is no place to raise children!” “I have a stable job, we’re almost through the mortgage, and this neighborhood hasn’t been hit since--” “--since D-Day, Scott! When goddamn demons came out of goddamn nowhere and killed two people on our block while masked freaks wrecked the city! Now more freaks are--are killing people in the streets!” “Honey, please, think of Tommy and Maria. Moving states can have such an impact on them! You want them doing drugs or running off like their no-good--” Hannah whipped around, holding a single finger up to silence Scott. “--no, Scott. We agreed we would never mention [b]them[/b]. They’re out of Thomas and Maria’s lives now, do you want to give them another crisis to--oh!” She cut herself off upon seeing Thomas at the doorway to the foyer. She and Scott must have been yelling too loudly to hear the front door open. “H...how are you back from hockey, sweetpea?” “Liam’s mom drove me home.” Thomas set his hockey bag and ice skates down, eyeing the luggage Hannah was carrying. If he’d heard the details of their argument, he hid his reaction well. “Are we going on a trip for my birthday?” Hannah chewed on her lip, lost on how to respond. She looked to Scott, who quickly wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Well, we wanted it to be a surprise, but we’re going camping! Just packing for the cabin a little early.” He gave her a sideways squeeze. “Oooh!” Thomas ran up and hugged Scott, then Hannah when she dropped her suitcase. “Thank you so much! I’ve been reading about the different animals we have in this area. I bet I can print out a checklist and see if we can find them!” Hannah’s wide eyes quickly softened, for Thomas’ sake. “My little scientist. Just like your father.” Scott’s hand moved from Hannah’s shoulder to her back, rubbing it in soothing circles. “Well, I like to see myself as more of an environmental engineer. Those scientists are all talk.” He teasingly tousled Thomas’ hair, then loosened his work tie. “Alright, Tommy, you should get started on your homework.” Judging by the look his wife gave him, their argument was far from over.