Kim turned around and continued towards her car.
He heaved an exasperated sigh. “Kim, please don’t drive. You’re upset right now. Just stay for a few hours, okay?”
Kim cursed at him as she swung the car door open with one hand and slid into the driver’s seat. After turning on the ignition, she shifted the automatic transmission into reverse and tried backing out of the driveway, but her foggy vision and distracted thoughts failed to account for the mailbox and a glancing blow knocked it from its base, toppling the entire construct and sending it smashing down onto the concrete sidewalk.
She gritted her teeth while pivoting the car back onto the street. A few neighbors had peeked through their windows while an old woman opened her door and stared at what Kim had done, but she was beyond caring now.
Kim blared the horn while pressing her foot down on the accelerator. Her car barreled out of the neighborhood and quickly went out of sight.
5
ITS FIRST SENSATIONS of awareness was of a blinding white light, followed by instances of pain. The nonstop agony of being cut open from time to time was excruciating, and it would let out a scream, hoping the discomfort would stop, but to no avail.
When its vision cleared for the first time, the tormentors had become visible. It could see that they were looking at it too, with their own eyes. In time the painful things had stopped for a while, and they allowed it to move around, but only within the confines of the habitat. From then on, the agony would only happen sporadically, and it both feared and anticipated the next time it would occur. It soon realized the bad thing only happened whenever the others were around.
Trying to get past the barriers proved daunting, and its efforts to explore and expand its territory were rewarded by more pain. The ones always dressed in black were the worst, but it soon learned those types would only react violently when it tried to venture out too far, or if it attempted to fight back against the others.
The ones in white were somewhat less painful during their encounters. It seemed these others were the ones in charge, for they would gesture at the ones in black to cease the pain if the latter group had inflicted too much.
One of them had long black hair. It took some time for it to realize that this particular one was the leader. Every time this one would gesture or utter something, the others obeyed.
It tried to reach out to that one, but there was no response. Even though it didn’t know how to communicate with them, it had begun to learn. The ones in white would show it symbols through the transparent but solid walls as it swam around the habitat. Sometimes they would wait until it surfaced to sit on one of the rocks before they decided to communicate with it.
In time it learned a few words and what they meant. Men. Women. Human. Animal. Beast. Taught itself to differentiate between the two genders. It seemed all of the ones in black were men, while the overall leader in white was a woman.
More words were learned. Love. Pain. Food. Water. Land. It began to realize its own capabilities. They called it amphibious, for it could live both in the water and on land. They labeled it as carnivorous, for it could only eat meat.
It learned the concept of time too. It could soon tell when these people, as they called themselves, would be coming in to study it further. Their moments spent with it seemed precise, and it could soon predict whenever they were coming or going. When these others allowed it to sleep or play, then the hated ones in black were usually not in the vicinity.
The concept of love was particularly interesting, because it supposedly meant the absence of pain. After it had grasped the abstract of independent thought, it began an internal debate within itself. Why am I being hurt whenever they’re around? Why do I feel love only when I am by myself? Is it perhaps because they hate me? They seem to inflict pain even when I follow what they ask of me, why is that?
Of course, even though it was learning all it could, it never let them realize what it could really do. There was no trust, for it felt no love for any of them, since everything they did always ended in pain. Sure, it would sometimes make them think it was learning a little of what they taught, but it kept most of the achievements hidden, for it didn’t want them to know that it could understand every word they said, even a bit of the writing they would do, or the signs that pointed to where the exit was. When it learned how the machinery worked, it knew its time would come soon.
It quickly realized these people were weak. They could not live in the water like it could. The others had very fragile bodies, for when it saw one of the ones in black hurt himself when he fell into the water, and it could see that just a simple fall would damage them severely. It knew then that these people could easily be like the food animals they threw into the habitat for it to feed on.
Thoughts began to form in its mind. Do they inflict pain on me because they know I am the stronger one? Do they hurt me because they are scared of what I might do to them? Do they do all these things because they do not love me?
In time it learned to hate them all. It waited for an opportunity. Both for vengeance, and to feed. If it could hurt them easily, perhaps they would at last feel what it felt. Yes, I will stalk them like the prey I feed on. If I am the stronger one, then they must taste like the fish, like the cow, and the chickens they give for me to kill and eat. I will taste their flesh too.
When the blinding lights suddenly turned dark, it knew the time had finally come. There was a switch inside the inner gate, and it knew how to open the door. The screaming began not long afterwards, when it gleefully hunted them all down while staying in the shadows.
It continued to expand its territory. The place of pain had been small compared to the endless tunnels and other habitats it found. Soon enough it discovered an infinite expanse of water beyond the land, and new thoughts began to enter its mind. This is my territory now.
6
CATHY PARKED THE CAR just behind the chain-link fence that led out to the soccer field. The sun had not yet begun to set, and the glare had stung her eyes when she got off the freeway. Closing the car door behind her, she realized that her young son was sitting beside Coach Boffman on a high row of old wooden bleachers, and that the other kids had already gone.
Putting on a strained smile, Cathy made her way towards the pair. “I’m sorry for being late, Coach. My husband was supposed to pick him up an hour ago, but he’s stuck in the office, as usual.”
Boffman nodded while adjusting his sunglasses, and held out his hand. “No problem, Mrs. Dirkse. I don’t mind waiting.”
Cathy shook the coach’s hand before looking down at Scott. “How did everything go today, Scotty?”
Unlike the rest of the family, Scott was blond, for he looked like his grandfather. The twelve-year-old looked down at the ground and said nothing, remaining seated on the old wooden bench.
Cathy began to sense something was wrong. She stooped forward to make eye contact, but the boy kept his spectacled gaze on the grassy pitch. “You okay, Scotty?”
Boffman sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck. “There was a… minor incident today.”
She looked back up at him. “What happened?”
“Scotty here got tangled up with another kid as the ball was passed to him,” he said. “The other boy is a bit of a hothead, and he kneed Scotty in the stomach.”