“Nine. Zero. Seven. Nine. Zero. Seven! Nine! Zero! Seven! NineZeroSevenNineZeroSevenNineZeroSeven…!”
Her voice, loud and shrill, wracked my brain. My hands reached for the wall behind me, scratching at the paint in a desperate attempt to get away from her. Her voice only grew more panicked as the seconds went by. How could I have ever told Alden he was making this up? Something was definitely wrong with this woman!
“Mom!” Alden’s forcibly calm tone cut through the chaos, his hands reaching for her shoulders. “Mom, calm down, please!”
Her words had become intelligible as she tried to pull away from him. She squirmed in his grip, head thrashing back and forth violently. Alden began to steer her toward the bedroom, mumbling soft words of comfort. Nonetheless, he looked like a deer in headlights as he shooed her off. Guilt twisted in my stomach as the four of us watched the mother-son duo disappear into the neighboring room.
“Is she…?” My voice was hoarse, the words wary to even escape my mouth.
“Usually like that?” Craven, who even looked a little rattled, shook out his shoulders as though he could erase the memory. “No, she’s not.”
“She’s usually just pretty quiet,” Link sat down beside Fickle, giving her a teasing nuggie. Her eyes, which were wide and slightly shaken, relaxed as he wrapped an arm around her and shook her humorously. “Ya alright there, Strawberry? Ya’re looking at a little droopy around the edges. Don’t let Alden’s momma scare ya; she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”
She nodded softly, though she seemed unconvinced. Link pulled her closer and began muttering soft comments that made her giggle.
Craven’s lip curled as he glared at the exchange, though he quickly turned his focus to me. “See what we meant? She’s really messed up.”
Messed up was an understatement! That woman was…she was…I didn’t even know how to describe it. It was awful. To think the terrified creature I’d just seen was the same smiling woman in those photos made me sick. I had to lean against the wall to prevent myself from toppling over.
After a few moments, Alden reappeared, quickly shutting the door behind him. Shaking out his sleeves, he turned to face us, a soft, apologetic smile on his face.
“I apologize for that outburst. I never would’ve anticipated your presence to disturb her so much.”
“Why’s she so frightened of me?” The words slipped out before I could think.
“Why do ya think she’s frightened of ya?” Link leaned one arm on Fickle’s shoulder, tilting forward to look at me. “Ya’re family did awful things to her. She probably-”
“But I never did anything.” My hands shook as the reality that my family, and by extension, I, had ruined a life so precious. How many more had we destroyed in our quest for power? “I don’t even know her! Why did she seem so afraid?”
I felt like a helpless child begging their mother for an explanation as to why the world was the way it was. Though we were the same age, they seemed so much older, so much more experienced than I. They stared down at me, gazes surprised and brows raised. It must be odd, seeing an animal such as myself lashing out in a desperate attempt to hold on to the only world he knows. I’m sure I looked pathetic.
“Your family kept her on a strict diet of fear for several months,” Alden shuffled his feet. “Sometimes, in her sleep, she’ll cry out that she doesn’t want to see those awful images of your family ruining everything again. It’s the only time she ever says anything they didn’t program in her. I don’t know what exactly they showed her, but whatever it was, you were a part of it, whether you knew it or not.”
“But I’ve never done anything wrong!”
“It doesn’t matter!” Craven snapped irritably, glaring down at me like an irritating puppy. “It doesn’t matter what you did and didn’t do. The moment the technology became smart enough to generate images of whatever the user wanted was the moment our fates were sealed. As long as there’s a video of you doing it, they can accuse you of whatever you want and use it for however they please.”
My heart dropped into my stomach. What kinds of videos had they been feeding that woman? Did she even see me when she looked at me, or did she see some creature, some villain my parents had constructed with my body? What were my parents building behind my back? What shoes did they expect me to fill? My mind swam with dozens upon dozens of questions, bile running up my throat as my head spun.
“Brash, it’s probably best you head home.” Alden’s pink eyes were warm in the sea of colors around me. “I think our point has been more than proven. We’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”
I barely formulated a response.
“Yeah…Okay.”
