Bleeding Color

How do you run?

That thought alone was what slammed into and made the world spin. He. Had. Loved. Her.

And I had killed her...

Vomit bubbled out of me, I gagged wrenching it onto the floor. It mixed with my blood, a horrendous sight that only served to make me throw up more. I was soon dry heaving as I dropped to my knees. The blood stopped flowing from my face, anything fueling the power extinguished by a terrible realization. I was no better than any of them. There were good people and bad people in the world and maybe Pitri was right and there were good Others and bad Others. But me, I was a wretched horrible person that had killed those I was supposed to save all because I decided I didn't like them. Just like they had tried to do to me.

A sickening crunch, caught my attention from within my wallowing. Beside me, Pitri crumbled to the ground. I shouted, moving to go to him when a crack echoed in my skull. A white flash flitted through my vision followed by a swarming black. I fell into my own vomit and blood, the smell overwhelming and burning as I pasted out.

It was dark when I woke up. I wasn't sure where I was or how long I had been out. The pounding in my head, attested to the stupidity of having let my guard down and also signified it couldn't have been too long or I would have healed. No more than a day for sure, given it was a head wound. I touched the bump, wincing. It was tender and large. They had definitely gotten me good. I frowned looking into the dark, my eyes adjusting with the black.

"Pitri?"

I moan answered me and I scrambled toward the sound, sloughing through an inch thick of much along the ground...at least I pretended it was muck.

"You okay?" I reached for him, a set of bars was dividing us. We were in some sort of holding cells.

"I'll live, I think anyway." I heard a shuffling as he sat up.

Fingers fumbled around my arm before finding my hand and lacing with it. A huge sense of relief flooded through me, I hadn't lost him. Though, that probably wouldn't matter much if we couldn't get out of here. My eyes scanned around again, taking in more detail with each round. We were in small maybe six by six foot cells. The ceiling was shortened, though it was on purpose because the ceiling outside the cells disappeared higher above us. However, even I was too tall to stand in here.

"We're not dead, I'll admit I'm surprised." Pitri mumbled.

"I'm more surprised they didn't tie us down or chain us. Do they really think these bars will hold?"

"Oh they'll hold." A light entered the darkness, making me squint and turn away from the source. I could still see the lieutenant from my peripherals when he stopped outside my cell, a couple white uniformers in tow.

He tapped the bars, rapping out a mocking tune. "These are made from forged rock of the gate, even you won't be able to get out of here Other."

"I'm not an Other." I hissed, anger and panic choking at my throat.

"Don't lie! We all saw what you did. We saw the color of your blood!"

"She's not lying." Pitri interrupted on my behalf.

"Shout up you traitor! You betrayed humanity for that thing! What is it? Pretty little Other promises to make all your dreams come true and you couldn't help yourself? Then again, maybe she's offering you something a bit more physical. Disgusting." He spit, hitting Pitri in the face.

I screamed, launching away from Pitri and at the bar. One hand stuck out, inches away from the lieutenant's throat. I was so close. Pitri stood up, not bothering to wipe off the saliva and came to stand beside me.

"We aren't the ones who turned on our own kind. We aren't the ones who slaughter and manipulate innocent considering them to be nothing more than cattle."

"I'll enjoy watching you die, but first you are going to suffer for what you did to Malia."

He turned, leaving us alone in the dark. I watched his back until it was gone, imaging stabbing it furiously. I slide down the bars into the muck, clinging to them. It was such a confusing and terrible world we lived in.

"I'm sorry Pitri, if I hadn't insisted on meeting humans this would have never happened."

"Don't be sorry, if anything I'm sorry for bringing you here." He leaned against the bars between us, reaching through for my hand again. I shifted to clasp it, my safety. "I should have known better."

I shook my head, tears beginning to fall down my face. It was such a horrible world, run by terrible things and nightmares that had no place belonging and there was nothing I could do about it. I was the worst savior ever.

"Alice?" His hand tightened in mine. "Why did you kill her?"

"I don't know. She was going to hurt you and had killed so many people. I...I just wanted her to know what it felt like, what she had done to those people."

"It wasn't right Alice. You understand that don't you?"

The darkness hid my features from him, his eyesight not to the level of mine in pure black. I was crying and conflicted. I didn't know what was right or wrong anymore. I had been told my whole life one way only to have it flipped over and swirled around and then spat back out in a pile of unidentifiable nonsense.

"All life is worth something Alice. It was wrong to kill Malia, just like it was wrong to kill the Leshy."

"If you say so..."

He sighed, giving up on the issue though I could tell it still bothered him.

"You really think this stuff is inescapable?"

I shrugged, not even bothering to try. I felt deflated and dejected. All I wanted to do was wallow in the dark. It reminded me of my hole, maybe I deserved to be in one and the world was trying to show that by repeatedly putting me in one. I closed my eyes, silent. Letting the thoughts envelope me in their entangling grasp, I deserved this.