May 19th

Scarlett

“And that’s how Mr. Campbell wanted to divide his estate. I know it’s a tough time for all of you. Remember, the biggest thing you three got from him, was his love, not his money,” the lawyer explained as he handed me and my siblings a slip of paper. He sighed before getting up and taking his suitcase. He walked out the door, leaving the three of us to discuss our inheritance. We were in my father’s old mansion in Atlanta, since we all agreed it had more significance than the small house he got in Liberty.

Amanda, wearing her typical biker attire, looked at me and growled, “Don’t be smug with me! We all know you were father’s little princess before becoming his lapdog!”

I held my hands up and shouted, “Amanda, don’t start this now! Our father just died four days ago! He wouldn’t want us to immediately break apart as a family over this!” With that said, I stood up and walked up to Arthur.

He was just staring out the window. His eyes seemed empty as they gazed into the abyss. “Are you okay?” I asked as I placed a hand on his shoulder. He was a bit taller than me, but not by much.

“This is the end of our family, isn’t it?” he asked before he turned to look at me. He pointed to Amanda and said, “Our sister here isn’t too keen on hanging around us anymore. I don’t care to hang around high society and its filthy decadence anymore. And then there’s you. You look ready to head back to space on any excuse. Not that I blame you. I, honestly, think it’d be cool to be a foxperson, but society doesn’t think so. There’s no place for you on Earth. As for me, I’m tired of everything. The world is unfair, and I was born one of the benefactors of that unfair system. You wouldn’t understand the guilt I bear from that. I try to absolve it by distancing myself, but everyone pulls me back in.”

“I’m sorry,” I said before handing him a copy of the pamphlet. “There’s an initiative to leave Earth and colonize a new world. Perhaps one that promises a fairer tomorrow. Think about it, you can create the utopia you always wanted,” I offered, conveniently hiding the fact that I was really concerned about his safety. If I told him it was because a mad general was going to start a nuclear war, he would get himself killed trying to stop it.

“I’ll think about it,” he replied as he continued staring out the window. I decided to leave him to his own devices. He had become awfully broody, but it wasn’t too much of a problem. Honestly, I’ve become more melancholic ever since I was abducted. While some of it was due to outgrowing my childhood personality and gaining my adulthood one, my experiences only made it worse. I was fortunate to find Quentin. He got me out of that state and accepted me as a true friend at first before accepting me as his love.

I stood by the door of my old bedroom and sighed. It was time to remember my past. I opened the door and froze as nostalgia washed over me. Memories of a past life. One where I was normal and a baseline human. I could see pictures of my childhood self all over the walls with my old bed underneath them. I even saw my old princess costume. It was funny how girly I once was. I remembered obsessing over fashion and make-up. Unlike now, where I only cared on important occasions, I used to have Mom paint my nails every time I went out in public and needed my hair done to keep me from throwing a fit. Now that I thought about it, being Dad’s “little princess” was probably a backhanded compliment.

I picked up the picture of the three of us at Adventure Zone Amusement Park. Amanda was in the middle, trying to act cool, while I was as excited as ever. Arthur, meanwhile, gave a shark grin at the camera. A tear came to my mind as I recollected those moments. There was a lot of time I was never able to have with my family. Even if I was still mutated, I’d go back and spend all the time I could with my family. My childhood was cut short.

My introspective moment was cut short when I heard metal being drawn from a sheath. I spun around and gasped. Amanda was tossing a knife in her hand as she was looking at me with a smirk. “Tell me, Scarlett, how much would stores pay for a human-sized fox fur coat?” Amanda mockingly asked before throwing her knife at me.

I sidestepped out of the way, causing the knife to harmlessly embed itself in the wall. “Amanda, what the hell? We’re mourning our father’s death, and you want to add another to that list?” I asked as I held my fists out. I had to be careful. My psionic powers gave me superstrength. If I hit her a little too hard, I could kill her. I didn’t want to take the risk.

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She pulled out another knife and laughed. “My entire life, I had to listen to Dad obsessing over you! He would say, ‘Scarlett was such an angel. I wish she could return home and bring light back into my life.’ Are you ready to be one? Just kidding, beasts don’t have souls!” She threw another knife at me.

When I moved to dodge the knife, I felt something stab my shoulder. I looked down to see Amanda sending me a creepy smile as she tried to drag the blade down. Fortunately for me, I was able to grab her wrist and twist it.

I underestimated my own strength as a crack greeted my ears. When I let go, she scrambled back while clutching her arm. “You broke my wrist, you stupid animal!” she screamed.

I pulled the knife out of my shoulder and tossed it to the ground. Blood droplets fell from the wound making me hear them hit something. When I looked down, I noticed that they were falling on the picture I was holding earlier. The picture’s glass cover was shattered with blood landing over the pictures of us.

Amanda tried to charge at me, but I just quickly sidestepped and held my leg out. And through a stroke of luck, she ran into my leg and tripped. As she fell to the ground, I picked up the shattered picture and walked to the door.

I was about to close the door behind me when I heard Amanda say, “Don’t think you can run away from me! I’ll hunt you down and slay you! You are an animal pretending to be human! One day, it’s all going to fall down.”

I turned to face her. She tried to pick herself up, but both hands were too injured to support her weight. She had hatred and rage in her eyes as she looked at me. I sighed and closed my eyes. “Amanda, we all know that isn’t the true reason you tried to kill me. When we reunited, you treated me like a human being. I’m still a human. You’re just trying to justify your actions to yourself,” I said before opening them. “It’s for the money, isn’t it?”

Amanda growled at me before grabbing the knife with her functional hand. She threw it with all the force she could muster. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t enough for it to reach me. I stepped on the knife’s handle and asked, “What is it, Amanda? I want to know!”

She glared at me and shouted, “You stole Dad’s love from me! Even when you were gone, you continued to haunt me! I wanted you back because I believed he’d get over you, but I was wrong! I want you out of my life, Scarlett! I wish you were dead!”

I sighed as I looked at the family portrait. I then looked at Amanda and tossed a copy of the pamphlet at her. “I don’t want you to die, so listen to me. The government launched the Ark Initiative to evacuate Americans off-world before the oncoming nuclear war. I want you to take one of the flights and live. I gave a copy to Mom, but she insisted on staying. Now then, you can choose to go tens of lightyears away from me and never have to see my face again,” I said before closing the door.

When I reached my car, I decided to call 911. I told them about Amanda and then hung up when they asked me to drive her to the hospital. She had enough money to pay the medical bills.

As I started driving back to Liberty, I dialed Quentin on the phone. When he answered, I said, “I took every bit of inheritance that I could. I’ll drop it off at the launch site before returning home to pack up the remaining things.”

“Did you convince your family to go?” he asked. I sighed as I knew it might’ve been a lost cause. I could kidnap them to go, but it wouldn’t be right. They were people and had the right to choose.

“I told them about it. Arthur is probably going, Amanda, I’m uncertain about, and Mom is probably staying,” I told him as I stared at the road. The foothills of the Appalachians were scenic, but I sighed. There wouldn’t be much beauty there soon. I was upset that Quentin wasn’t able to talk the general out of it, but I knew it wasn’t his fault. General Morris was committed to his horrible plan, and nothing was going to dissuade him.

“Everyone on my side is leaving with us. They are mostly packed up and getting everything ready won’t take long,” Quentin replied before chuckling. “The funny thing is that we’re going back to space just a year after returning to Earth.”

“Yeah,” I sighed as I looked out the windshield. Traffic was starting to pick up in these parts, obviously from the Ark Initiative. Ours was supposed to be the first to launch out of Tennessee. It was supposed to carry ten million people on a flight to a nearby world. There were precautions in case the planet we landed on was a lifeless one, though it was still mostly a death sentence.

As I pondered about life, Quentin interjected, “Scarlett, don’t be so down. We’ll make it through this like we went through everything before now. And one day, we’ll raise a family together. We just need to get off this planet. And wasn’t it humanity that was the most important part about Earth?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see it. “Yes, mostly my family. If I’m lucky, I’ll at least have my brother with me. Amanda… I’ll tell you about what she did once I get home.”

“Hopefully he comes along. It’s always nice to have more familiar faces. Especially your family. I’m sorry that not all of them could come.”

“Quentin, don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault,” I replied as traffic got heavier. As I came to a stop, I added, “Besides, it’s not like Amanda wants to see me ever again.”

“I seriously doubt it. You never wronged her. Unless she has serious issues, she’ll regret her choice. I just hope the two of you can reconcile.”

“I wish we could. Our emotional distance was already miles apart. Now we’re going to be lightyears apart.”