Already Dead

Already Dead
E. M. Areson

Standing outside the theater looking at the posters made Adrienne want to be sick. Superhero movies were popular this year, they had been popular for the past twenty years, but now she knew. Hundreds of thousands would flood theaters just like this all over the world. Yet, in many ways, they were liars, unknowing hypocrites. They idolized their heroes; aliens, accidents, dark souls, saviors, the flawed, the near perfect, all accepted.

“Shame they don’t treat us like that.” She looked down as a little tear leaked out.

Nard took her hand in his, under the fake skin she could feel his cybernetic hand. He looked so normal with his charming green eyes and black hair. Not like she did, under the hoodie she was unnatural. Unlike Nard, she had been normal once. She had gone to the movies with friends, attended school, and had a family. Now, all that was gone. Nothing was left but to hide from the Agency for Protecting Personal Security or A.P.P.S. before they found her and locked her away with all the other ‘Freaks’.

“It’s not their fault, people just don’t except those different from them. I’m only eight percent organic. You have a scare that glows and lets you move objects with your mind. Other people can’t understand,” Nard didn’t say all he was thinking. She knew he envied her for the time before her accident; he’d spent all the life he could remember on the run.

“I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining. It’s just… they call us freaks, they call them heroes. It doesn’t seem right,” She leaned her head against his shoulder.

He smiled and kissed her forehead, “One day maybe they will. All I know is no matter what they say; you’re no Freak to me.”

“You’re not a Freak either. So, what if you’re not that organic; you still have a soul. Isn’t that what really makes us human or not?”

“Maybe. I do know that you’re a lot prettier than half those heroes.”

Adrienne stood straight and looked at his eyes. “Only one of them is a girl.”

Nard looked closer at the poster and gulped, “To be fair, that one guy looks like a girl in bad light… Cause of the long hair.”

“If I didn’t like you so much I’d slap you,” She crossed her arms in mock stubbornness.

“Yeah, but if I got mad and left who would you get out of trouble all the time?” He pulled her into his arms and they hugged tenderly. “I don’t know how I kept it, up running and escaping, for so long without you. One day we’ll find one of the safe-havens. Can you picture it? A whole city filled with Freaks in hiding. Safe and living near-normal lives.”

She put her ear to his chest and listened to the mechanical noise of gears ticking, so faint she knew it was imagined, “Sounds great. A place freaks could have lives…and families.”

“It’s impossible. You know, that right?” He stepped back a little. “You glow from a big cut on your torso and I’m barely organic. Even if the cut wasn’t an issue, me not being flesh is.”

“I know. I just though…you spent your childhood in hiding. There’s bound to be other kids like that out there,” She looked at the ground. “Besides. A family can be just two.”

He smiled, “Would you marry me?”

“Right now, if I could,” she looked up and saw her own love reflected in his eyes.

“Then why don’t we?”

“We’re not even legally considered alive anymore. My family has a grave site for me. Don’t you think that would raise questions?”

He laughed, “Do heroes always play by government rules?”

She smiled, “No, what’d you have in mind?”

“We elope. Get a pastor from somewhere to do our vows and call it what you want. That’ll be good enough for me. So, what do you say, will you marry me?”

“Yes, I will. Who says to Freaks can’t be happy in hiding?”

To the world they were dead. However, it simply didn’t matter. They were freaks. Outcast from the world and hidden from the government, yet they were happy. They kissed, blissfully ignorant of how the block was too quiet. The buildings too dark. Not caring that a few pedestrians stared. Their kiss ended and the cut on Adrienne’s chest glowed so bright it showed through her shirt. That was all they needed as proof. The guns were pulled out, the fake Interpol officers, in reality, A.P.P.S. officers, came out from every corner and the couple was surrounded.

The next day the theater owner was greeted by nothing out of the ordinary save a few strange scrapes in the concrete, knocked over trash cans and a strange stain under the poster for the newest superhero movie. He washed off the stain, righted the trash cans and made a note to leave on more lights tonight. After that, he never thought a thing of it. To the world, Adrienne and Nard were already dead. 

Photo by Vuitton Lim