josie
december 2110
"Jo!" A cry cut through the chilling air. Hands grabbed my shoulders, and my vision that was blinded with a bright whiteness started to shake with disgust again. The corners of my vision began to rapidly fill with a black void. I felt their hands reaching for me from below, the hands of the dead longing to dig their claws into my skin and bones again— an uncomfortable ache pulsed through my body and brain and I shrieked.
I threw off the hands and started to kick away their eager grasps. I opened my mouth wide open but couldn't let any sound out. I pounded at their gaping faces, an ugly revolting fear creeping throughout my skin—
"Jo! Stop! It's me! Memo!"
Air flooded my lungs and I gasped. Colors and angles filled my eyes and I felt cloth in between my clenched fingers. I looked down and saw myself on top of Memo, gripping his shirt. I blinked at him. Sensations were still coming back to me— the dry coldness of the air, the humming of the hovercars nearby, the musty smell of rotting city bins. I recognized relief replacing the fear on Memo's face as we both realized I was coming back to reality again.
"I-I'm sorry!" I jumped off of Memo in a scurry and helped him stand up. "I don- I'm not- wait-" Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as I gritted my teeth and fiercely brushed off the dirt from Memo's clothes. "I didn't mean to hit you," I whispered furiously through my clenched jaw.
"Hey, it's okay." Memo's warm low voice reached me like cloudy sunlight. I looked up to his smiling face. He looked a little sad, but tried to hide it with a wink. "C'mon, can't risk those brainless princesas—" I glanced at the stream of hovercars racing down the street; thankfully nobody seemed to be looking out their windows— "catching sight of us here. Otherwise, it'd look like you were… hitting on me, eh? Can't have them get the wrong picture."
I laughed as he led me down a dark alleyway. "You sure wish they caught us getting all flustered by each other, huh?" The sound of the hovercars drowned out and got replaced with the sound of our shoes hitting the wet pavement.
Memo smirked. "Nah, or else all my jealous girlfriends would bring war upon you. Also, hurry up, slowpoke, stop slowing down."
I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. Let's just hurry up and get married already, sweetheart."
He cringed and hit my shoulder playfully with a laugh. "Don't call me sweetheart. That doesn't sound like you, ew. Just call me pendejo or something like the usual."
I snorted loudly before his hand covered my mouth suddenly. He darted to the left and took me with him, and we crouched behind a pile of wooden cradles. Memo looked out with narrowed eyes. I looked through the holes of the wooden cradles myself, but couldn't see or sense anyone.
"...Memo?" I tugged on his sleeve. "What's wrong?"
Memo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I'm just paranoid. Were you being followed, Jo? Are you- are you hurt?"
"What?" Memo helped me stand up and I looked over myself. "N-no…"
I looked back up at Memo's horror-stricken face. He was staring at my left leg. "Jo… is your leg… twisted?"
I looked down again. "What do you mean—" I cut off as soon as I saw what he was looking at. My left kneecap was facing to the left, a white bone sticking out right beneath it, and my foot facing back. I looked at it in shock. "Uh, um…"
"Does it hurt!?" he screeched. I frowned and reached up to cover his mouth. He shivered and leaned from one side to the other, shaking his arms out. "Why does it… look like that… all messed up…" his mumbles sent a humid warmth and vibrations against my palm.
"Noo, Memo." I let out a laugh. "It doesn't hurt at all!"
Memo stared at me in disbelief. I let my hand fall down to my side. "Jeez, Josephine… I saw you limping towards me on the sidewalk… no, you were dragging your leg… all I could focus on was your dazed face because I knew—"
"Well, Guillermo," I interrupted hastily, "maybe it does hurt a little. Let's hurry and get inside before any Pirates catch us."
"Let me carry you at least." I opened my mouth to object but he shook his head, frowning. "It would be faster that way. You're just a child, anyway."
"WUT—"
He picked me up in one sweep and started to run deeper into the dark. I pounded at his back and flailed my one working leg. "DUDE. I'm literally two weeks older than you!!"
"jO. shUt up for once and let me hold you. I'm going to drop you if you keep moving."
I clamped my mouth shut and wrinkled my nose. "Hmph! Two weeks…"
As he ran carrying me, I thought it over a little. My leg didn't hurt at all. I felt like it did the moment it got twisted, though… but after that, all that was left was the hurt in my chest. Memories were starting to trickle into my head one by one; Kaiden launching the attack on me, several of my classmates pinning me down, hitting me, taunting me… an anger so red filled every breath inside me, but instantly evaporated the moment I remembered the taste of them. Their ear entrails, their salty blood, the slight crunch of their insides. The screams that spiced up the chilling air.
I squeezed my eyes closed and held on tight to Memo.
I wanted to
disappear.
"She said it hurt a little."
"I was just kidding." I rolled my eyes. "So leave me alone. I'll put it back together somehow." I hopped down from the table and put my entire weight on my right leg. My left foot crumpled on contact with the floor. I winced. "I must look crippled, huh…?"
"Are you sure you don't feel any pain, mi lunita?"
"Yes, yes. I don't want to see any of your damned faces."
I caught Enzo giving Memo that knowing look. "She's going through that phase, you know. Where she thinks it's cool to be by herself alone, listening to those old rock bands… "
Memo sighed in response.
I glared at Enzo. "But!" Enzo interrupted before I could say anything. His eyes narrowed in dark concentration. "Knowing you, you should've been able to heal enough to the point where it looks normal on the outside, at least. Why is your bone sticking out still?"
I looked down at my ruined leg. "That's weird, huh… I remember it hurt at first, but then things got fuzzy, and I kind of remember attacking them…"
The boy's face before I ripped him apart was burned clearly in my head.
"Still, you're lucky you can heal so fast, and now that you can't heal, you don't even feel any pain. You must be some sort of mutant after all, but like a weird type, because I mean, you're Jo— "
I whacked him in the head. "I'm completely human, all right! Sure, I'm a little weird!"
"Josephine…" I looked at Enzo. He looked back at me eerily serious. "It was your classmates that attacked you? Do you know why?"
Chills raced up my spine. "I'm not sure," I mumbled, "it was all so quick, I couldn't believe they would try to hurt me—"
"They did hurt you. They touched you. They expected you to rot and die there, all crippled." His eyes darkened to a murky green. "I'm going to rip their hearts out slowly, one by one."
"I'll be coming along," Memo added.
I looked at them— their faces completely changed. They were scarily quiet, still, and calm. It felt like they were looming over me, like beasts made of shadows, ready to take down anything in their path.
I laughed nervously. "Wait! Well, I guess I already did that."
They stopped. "What?" they said simultaneously.
I grimaced and leaned back on the table, gripping the cold metal with my hands. "I feel disgusted thinking back to it, but after they twisted my leg, they started to walk away, and I… I killed them."
It was so naive of me for not defending myself properly. To think the dance show was the priority… because I didn't realize the seriousness of the situation enough, I ended up killing them.
They stayed quiet for a little after that. Then, Memo piped up and turned to Enzo. "When I found her walking down the street, she had that dazed hollow look, the type when she's returning from that crazy mode."
"The one where her nails and ears grow long and she has fangs?"
"Yeah, when Jo becomes like Satan herself. She moves incredibly fast, and her voice is like several voices patched up together."
"Ahh, that Jo… it is quite fascinating when she becomes like that."
I'm right here… I coughed into my fist.
Enzo glanced at me. "It does make me wonder…" Enzo and Memo turned to me. "Josephine, you said it hurt normally at first, but once you became… crazy, you didn't feel any pain?"
I swallowed. My throat was so dry. "Yeah, that's true."
"Perhaps going psycho takes away the pain from any injuries you've sustained earlier. That's a useful feature, that way in your psycho mode, you don't have any pain holding you back. But in return, you can't heal normally from those injuries. Here, hold still."
Enzo swiped at my neck, and in a flash, I felt a sharp pain at the base of my throat. I touched my throat, but felt nothing. No jagged fold in my skin, no warm wetness of my blood. I already healed… yet my left leg remained twisted.
Memo narrowed his eyes. "Which means… it might take a while to heal your leg, Jo."
My eyes widened.
Which meant…
I couldn't dance.