You, Of All People

'After I was scarred, I spent quite some time in a hospital. I didn't speak. I was rolled out to take in the sights of the trees, the river flowing calmly, the birds chirping while perched on the branches. The wind blowing in the leaves, crickets chirping in the nighttime, the chatter of people walking past in the daytime while the sunlight hit my eyes. Truly, it was a beloved sight. One might call that inner peace.'

The hospital was located in a suburban state, Oregon, one made entirely for victims of Ground Zero's bombing. Secluded in the mountains, nestled into the trees, there sat the building. A stream of water led down from mother nature's roots, the sound of the running liquid, the wondrous sight of the emerald leaves moving with the wind, the chirping of the birds. The way their cheeks lovingly nestled against their offspring's, affixing themself into a nest, crumbs were thrown out from a pale hand to the grass floor. Blonde strands moving the wind, the way their wings guided their legs to the remnants, beaks protruding into them, he turned his head, locked into this wheelchair.

She was as beautiful as the rising sun, the same tint as its golden rays, yet her eyes were as dark as the night itself, as she turned her head, she grinned at him. The young man, at this time, couldn't help but weakly smile back, however, even the slightest appearance of a smirk lead his lips to fall into the same usual irritated cadence. Kelly seemed used to it, she just kept a soft smile over her lips, and looked down, admiring life in its smallest features. The way they, human beings, relied on such creatures for substance in their stomachs, the sight laid out before her, needless to say: simple yet beautiful.

As time passed, the sun started to set over the horizon, and she watched as the sky's bright azure tint was overshadowed by something anew. Reminiscent of a fiery coloration mixed with a pig's skin tone, she closed the popcorn bag her hand was previously digging into after throwing a final kernel within her mouth,

"We should head in, Cal," She proposed, hands in her pockets, now standing up from the bench.

As the bottom of her sneaker pushed out, driving onward so she could now face him, but as it stabbed into the ground once again, his voice reached to her ears so she could lock in place,

"Before we do... have I told you about my dream?" He questioned her, and she simply shook her head, silently declining, "Then, I believe this to be the right place and time to do so. Sit, please,"

She followed his instruction, taking him up on his offer, she popped open the chip bag once more, digging her hand within the insides, as she listened, she popped kernels into her mouth. Teeth chewing against the shells, salt embedding to her tongue, nevertheless, she enjoyed the taste and listened simultaneously,

"I wish to alter the framework of the world by any means necessary; ensure justice will be served to those responsible for the loss of those unfortunate lives. While neither side was truly righteous and the riots got out of hand to destroying local businesses, it goes beyond a shadow of a doubt that there were innocents there. My family didn't participate in the riots, my mother and father worked day and night to provide for my siblings. At that time, I was with my grandparents, already weak... the last thing I saw before the rubble crashed onto me was their burnt corpses before my eyes, charred to the bone with steam evaporating off their skeletons. So, I wish to tear down the Elite of this world and replace it with my own," Callum wholeheartedly put his entire soul into explaining his plan for the future of this world, to which Kelly was silent for the whole duration.

She just stood there and smiled, one not of mocking nature, but of admiration, as she turned her head to find his head turned upward, the white stars twinkling illuminating brightness reflecting into his red-eye's center. Kelly nodded to herself as her neck snapped her eyes downward to stare at her legs, sliding across the cut grass field so she could get behind the wheelchair,

"Your dream is an admirable one, Cal. It sounds impossible but... if you ever do make it happen, I'll be right there, beside you, to ensure it comes to fruition," Kelly encouraged, just friendly pecking his cheek on the exposed cheek, Rivers couldn't help but smile at the gesture.

As the night fell, he took this time as she strolled him inside the hospital's whereabouts. The blackness of that sky, scattered with whitened blobs all around, he chuckled gently and shook his head. The future was always moving, no one could tell what the endgame was for humanity, there was only one being granted with that infinite knowledge. And as the doors closed behind them both so the light from the moon's surface could shine against the exterior entrance, there was one response he thought of. One he could never let unleash from the inner workings of his cog-like mind continuously evermoving, but he allowed himself to think...

'I know.'

Sometime later, present-day...

A jacket's socket was filled as his scarred arm pushed through it, with one limb exposed, burnt to the bone, he grunted trying to just throw it over his shoulder with some added force. In the end, it took about two minutes for him to slide his right arm right into the other socket at just the right moment, leading Callum to exhale. Buttoning up the shirt, he stood up, deciding to ensure his fingers were making the correct movements, he gazed at himself in the mirror. While he was, for sure, toned, to some aspect, he couldn't avert his gaze from the apparent deformities spread throughout each chest's direction. So revolting where girls couldn't help but run the other direction from him, so disgusting that boys can't help but make themselves feel better by stealing his notes or cane.

Through it all, that smug smirk never faded from over his scarred lips, for that red-eye glowed with the animosity of a thousand burning suns. There was a singular ideal in these shark-infested waters, one thought that kept him afloat above their snouts. In a world like this, where strength is the true power, he was weak by all means of the word.

Bending his knees inward, he slid his thumb over his lip and hummed, single eye analyzing his rough features, Cal remembered a time of inner peace. Those golden leaves in the dead of spring, the way the snow fell outside those barred windows, the mixed summer air flowing between his strands of pale shade; how could he forget such a memorable time,

"Heh," He chuckled to himself at the sight of his mangled face, unable to withhold it any longer, one hand grabbed at the jacket, "Time to go,"

Step by step, destiny was being written down by a skeletal hand by the Fates. A future already having the path paved, all he had to do was step down the road to the eventual ascension of the Founder. As the coat settled over his back and shoulders, the sleeves flung out in the air, sunlight leaking onto his locks... he was just fast enough to wrap one hand around the knob leading outside. The second his sneakers were cushioned against the carpet, laces left out, they bounced momentarily to the atmosphere before gradually falling once again.

Shoe's bottoms skidding amongst the rug's silkiness, he turned his body to face the slumbering woman against the right to his dorm's entrance. Arms crossed, hair blonde tied into a ponytail, his hand reached to touch against her forehead, extending but a sole finger to flick! her forehead into awakening from her deep slumber.

Jerking her head forward, she grunted awake, eyes rapidly searching her whereabouts, Rivers still stood there, just examining her face leaning ahead,

"Sweet dreams, Kel?"

She chuckled nervously at the question, shaking her head at the query, she scratched at her neck with her nails digging just above the surface layer to feed into the urge,

"I didn't get much sleep, searched for your ass almost all night... you could imagine my defeat when I just found out you went to your dorm," She admitted with her eyelids shut over her dark-tinted pupils yet again, gaping her jaw from the former affixed position to yawn tiredly into the air,

"Who told you?" He asked her curiously, one eye sliding to the edge of its prison, she thought for a moment, ignoring the yawn from him that soon followed as a result of her unintentionally leading,

"An older woman that wore an all-black suit, she had short hair sorta like a tomboy- she sorta looked all goth," She answered with her eyes directed now at the ceiling, waving to students walking past with a hopeful smile,

"They say where they were goin'?" He pressed further, one hand brought up to his vision, the shape, the scars engraved into his palm; felt like nothing, he couldn't help but muffle a chortle as he stared downward,

"'They'? Huh... uh, I think they said something about driving to the cemetery, so she- they might already be there," She replied yet again, then turning to face him, lowly laughing, he shook his head; hair moving as his head slid, almost seamlessly,

"Trust me, Kel: they're not. Come. There's something I have to tell you," Callum demanded, tapping her shoulder with one hand, cane below the other, he guided himself down the halls.

Her eyes shaking at his confident limping, she turned her head side to side; how could he know if they'd be here or not? Then again, asking more questions in the back of her mind while she was already behind, she'd probably witness him leave her in the dust and vanish into a crowd. Jogging to catch up with him, the duo walked beside one another, before they exited the dorm hall.

They continued, each new step they took propelling Callum further downward to his future, an uprising always in sight never to be touched; the smell of the eventual summer in the air as addicting as chocolate's sweet taste, Kel couldn't help but admire the way the leaves moved attached to those branches. In a way, she was left behind, as she returned to reality, he'd vanished yet again, and she couldn't help but groan, watching a limp through the vast cloud of students, she ran ahead, meanwhile, he'd already reached the edge of campus.

Window sliding down to reveal Rizia in the driver seat, the duo shared a collective look as they pulled down their shades. Hand just about to pull the door open, Callum heard a familiar,

"Cal! Wait up!!! Right... right behind youuu!" Turning around, the window slid right up to shield their face, while Callum took to defusing the situation, now staring at her as she bent over catching her breath with her chest rising and deflating casually,

"Sorry 'bout this, Kelly, but I'm gonna have to leave for today... and the rest of the year. I've told you before, I have no interest in staying here if it doesn't affect my dream, and my purpose in life is not to stay around aimlessly moving to satisfy those above who put me in place to silence me further. My destiny lays outside yours, and unfortunately, this is the last time," Rivers wasted no time at all blabbering his mouth to tell her of her fate, a sharp end slicing that line tying them together if the former words he spouted before the end didn't make her heart shatter; then, sure enough, that climax did.

She couldn't even say anything, all those years she spent, aiding him the way she did, protecting, feeding, bathing. In the beginning, she was just a bratty teenager doing anything to get a paycheck, but as she stared to the ground, with tears forming at the verge of her eyeballs, she couldn't help but sob to her arms. Collapsing to her knees, Callum looked down at her, sliding around on his soles, he faced the car's passenger entrance, just turning his face enough that one eye socket could be visible… as he parted his lips to her one final time,

"Nothing's changed. I told you once, I will have my justice, no matter what. You should have known, I told you before… This is who I am. You, of all people. Goodbye, Miss," Callum's vocals held no tint of remorse, instead, as his hand grabbed the handle, he yanked open the door and sat his bottom right beside Rizia,

"Forward," He declared.

The car moved immediately after, the tires coming to a screeching acceleration, instructors and pupils on the field tended to the helper, Kelly silently begging for him to return; the memories they shared, the pure dream of a young boy. Had she been so blind to ignore the lengths he'd go to further support it? Was she so wrong in believing it to be a foolish fantasy more than a true determination in his heart? As his head leaned against the window, the streets turned blurry, the cars zooming past vanishing in the blink of an eye, Callum flashed back to those simple times. Times when he'd be stuck in that wheelchair without hope of ever using legs again; being there by her side, the very first time he'd ever told her that dream,

"Did it hurt?" They asked, eyes aimed forward, watching as the distance further downward closed swiftly,

"Hm?"

"What you did just now. Am I getting into something like that? Used for your benefit and then, if it came to it, I'd be thrown away if it supported your dream?" They interrogated once more, to which he looked to them, and exhaled through his nostrils; back of his head against the cushion, he closed both eyes.

"It didn't hurt, I did what I had to do. That's… all there is to it," He stuttered as he answered, one hand over his eyes, Rizia couldn't help but briefly take a glimpse at him, a sob silently peeked through his scarred fingers.

This was the price for his 'justice', so they faced forward and kept their eyes on the road… their lips didn't part, they just stared ahead to a distant destiny illuminating the road ahead. A future awaited them both, one that wouldn't be merciful no matter what kindness they'd offer, or how wonderful they'd treat others. Survival of the fittest, where rebellion meant extermination, you just keep moving forward.

After all, this was a story of justice...