I watch my feet move me to the bus stop.  It’s crowded as always, but I like it that way.  It’s much easier to be unknown.  We wait, packed together.
         Human animals.
         The white bus squeals towards us.  We stomp aboard, spreading more filth on the dripping bus.  It’s not dirt or mud, just a sort of industrial mix from the city.  I haven’t seen real dirt in a long time.  I find a seat next to no one, and rest for a while as the bus moves along the streets.  Doing it’s assigned task at it’s assigned time, the driver looks angry, depressed, and lonely.
         The bus stops, I depart, and walk the rest of the way to the apartment.  The block is dark and gray, the street signs read 45.  We don’t have a name.
          My apartment is 345, my bus stop 57, my school I.D. 422856.  I have become a maze of numbers, no one can find me.  I climb the stairs to the room, mother is probably there right now.  Plotting something, always planning ahead. I’ll see what today’s surprise is when I get inside.
         It takes five minutes to unlock the door.
         She is inside, on the couch, staring at something.  She hears me, turns ans smiles.  It’s that smile again.  Motherly and warm, dripping with honey.
         Always plotting.
         I have company tonight, she says.  I have to go to Dan’s house.
         Of course, sure, no problem, you have fun tonight.
         Dan used to love mother, just like many men.  Before me, before my father, Dan and mother were in love, planning to marry, until one day when things fell apart.
         All things fall apart.
         I put some clothes in a plastic grocery bag and two pieces of bread, and leave the room.  There are clicks behind me, mother is locking the door again.  I walk quickly down the stairs, the hallways are dangerous.  People have been killed here before.
         I stand at bus stop number 57, and wait.  It’s getting dark, I could be killed, or worse.  My life would be forced from my body by guns, knives, anything really.
         Anything can be a weapon.
         The bus comes, my death dreams are collapsed, and I depart for Dan’s house.

* * *

         Hello, hello Nikita, nice to see you again, Dan says with a surprised grin.  I am at his door.  Hi. Can I spend the night here tonight?  Mother has company again.
         His grin fades.
         Sure, sure, I know how she can be, he tries to say pleasantly, but his eyes looked pained.  I almost fell sorry for him.
         Dan lives in a rather large 2-bedroom apartment.  Why would one person need so much space? Well, I am not the only child mother has born.  There are currently two people with half her blood, myself, and my half-brother Blake.
         Sometimes I feel mother’s blood is poison in my veins, but my father’s is probably much worse than hers.
         I am made of poison.
         I set my bag of things on a coffee table, and walk over to the couch to make up my temporary bed.  I know where the extra sheets are, I’ve done this many times.  The clean sheets are smudged with my finger’s touch.  Finished with my one task, I look for Blake.  He always seemed to be a friend to me, as much as that’s possible anyway.  People have said that we look similar, but I deny it.  My hair is black, my eyes, green, and my skin smooth and pale, I don’t look much like mother, whose hair is blond and skin sort of tan,  so I probably look like that man I’ll never know, who is the other half of me.
         No, Blake resembles Dan quite closely, with dark brown hair and eyes, but his skin is also tan like mothers.
          The mixed up children of devils.
          I find Blake in his room, hunched over a small computer screen.  He can afford it because Dan works in a huge corporate office, earning average pay, and getting large bonuses when he kills off a smaller, rival company.  But life costs too much, and luxuries must be cheap.  So Blake is at a small, cheap computer screen, trying to play a game, and failing.
         “Hi” he says, looking up at me.
         Hey, what are you doing? What game is that?  I reply.  I am truly interested, because I don’t usually get to see the majority of technology that much, and it’s interesting how people can depend on it so.
         “It’s just the internet thing that won’t work, damn... and I really thought it would work this time.... oh well, so hi Nic, what do ya want to do?  You spending the night again?”
         “Yes, and I don’t know, how about...” I couldn’t think of anything.  Just then Dan chirps in.
         “Blake? Is that you in there? Didn’t I tell you to go to the store an hour ago??” Typical of Dan.  I wonder if all father’s are like this.
         “Guess we better go”
         “Guess we better”
         The store is at the end of the block.  It’s very small, only about 10 people can fit inside at a time, and it’s about to go out of business.  We walk in.  There are rows and rows of over-priced junk food, so Blake and I split up to look for the essentials Dan wanted.
         Bread is just about the most important thing in a human diet.  But there are many substitutes, ways to get around the fact that you have to eat the thing that doesn’t enthrall you, give some kick to an otherwise boring life.
         We are all searching for substitutes.
         I find a loaf of white, limp bread, and go off to find Blake and the beer he was going to get.  He is already at the counter, beer is not as rare as bread.  The cashier is probably in his 60's, and has a sort of permanent scowl on his face.  He growls and leers, unhappy at the thought of us, the scum, invading his store.  The store he’d worked at when he was just a scum, and built for 30 or 40 years just to have it taken away.  It’s the same story everywhere, just with different players.
         We leave, or at least try to, there’s a gun at the door, with a man attached to it.  The man is young, probably only 20 years old, and yet he seems older with the gun leading him around, to the cashier’s head, pointing to us and the register
         Showing his power.

Index           Characters          Previous          Genesis         Revelations    Genesis: Special Edition           Fan Fiction         Soundtrack