Prisoner

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

"Ugh, my life is absolute misery!"

"Oh, Levonia, I'm so sorry."

"Of all the artificials, why did I have to get stuck with him?"

I glanced up sideways to see three guardians standing at the head of the classroom, clustered together with looks of utter disgust as they glanced in my direction. Upon making eye contact, they all looked away quickly and hushed their voices as they continued to gossip like a bunch of fucking chickens.

At six in the morning, I woke up to Guardian Levonia snatching my arm up in a bruising grip and thrusting me from the bed to coldly inform me that she was going to take over as my personal guardian. She proceeded to drag my ass to class before throwing me at a desk and going to her friends to bitch and moan about the rotten awful shithead kid she got stuck with. I would've felt sorry for her, if I gave a shit.

I looked down at the bruise climbing my arm where my guardian had grabbed me. A funny purple and red with a dark center. I decided to use those colors in my coloring book as I scribbled frantically at the lines that meant absolutely nothing to me as a four-year-old.

"Stop that, you little brat," Guardian Levonia snarled, storming over to snatch me up by my arm again, giving me a violent shake, "You're not leaving enough crayons for the others! That's so incredibly selfish of you!" Furious, I stuck my tongue out at her, yanking at her grip and she gasped in a flurry of anger and settled for backhanding me so my head snapped back. Guardian Marie hurried over first while Guardian Ari watched with an open mouth.

"Levonia," Guardian Marie hissed, coming over to touch her arm, "Calm down. If the other guardians caught you, you know what would happen." Guardian Levonia sucked in sharp angry gasps, roughly letting go of my arm as I rubbed my cheek where she'd hit me.

"Besides," Marie muttered dryly as she cast me a disdainful sneer, "You don't know what he's capable of yet. You know there's something wrong with those artificials." Guardian Levonia glared at her, then down at me as I thrust my chin up defiantly. She curled her lip.

"That's it. I'm requesting reassignment," she snapped, shrugging her friend off and stepping away from me, "I can't take this anymore. He's such a fucking little monster. Look at him. He's hardly a child."

"They're all monsters," Guardian Marie snorted, then sighed, "And you know they won't reassign you again, not while your husband works in this sector. Just suck it up, hon. Besides, you could get lucky. He might not even survive puberty at the rate he's going." Meaning the other kids hated me as much as they did, because if it wasn't the guardians slapping me around, it was the other kids.

I narrowed my eyes and turned them on the other side of the room where the other kids were playing together. A couple caught me watching and smirked, turning to their friends to whisper and giggle.

Come at me, assholes.

And, of course, they did.

As soon as the guardians ducked out for a refill on their coffee, four older kids descended upon me and I ended up flat on my face, heaving for breath as I struggled to hoist myself up for another round. Blood poured from my nose and I was dizzy as fuck, but I wasn't going to give up. Not that easily. I pushed myself up on trembling arms, only for a foot to connect with my head and for a moment, I was sure I was dead. Everything went dark. Breathing grew more and more difficult until I was choking and realized I was choking on blood.

I heard the voices of the kids around me, all whispering and laughing, until someone's shout cut through the cacophony of delight. One second I was laying on the floor of the classroom and in the next, I was in the med room with Guardian Levonia frantically running around with me in her arms while Guardian Marie and Guardian Ari joined her in a flurry.