More Than Imagined

Chapter 26

She didn't quite understand the charm of these playgrounds. They were just piles of painted rust inhabited by jubilant children. Just heaps of metal and dirt squared off from the rest of the world—untouched by the hand of reality.

She could not say the same for herself. Reality had taken her into its arms, groped and prodded and invaded until its presence permanently marred itself into her skin.

Perhaps it was the slides she couldn't admire—spiraled and long—like the frayed silk of her hair. Or the jungle gym that stood as tall as she did, posing a challenge for anyone who dared approach it. Maybe it was the sky, clear and blue—a reflection of her own eyes as she studied the children. It could be a number of things, really.

But as she looked on the playground and caught sight of a little girl, bright-eyed and even brighter grinned, she realized it was the freedom. The freedom that children of The Apex had been blessed with. The freedom people of such high a number took for granted. The freedom to never once have to worry about being captured. Experimented on. Violated.

Must be nice.

She delighted in the flurry of wind that blew the hem of her free-flowing dress to the sky, because it lured the eye of a man. A man who had made an unknown enemy. A man who had made himself a target.

He hoisted himself up on the swing set, pushing his daughter so high she almost snagged a piece of the sun in her tiny fingers.

But the man, with all the excitement of a dog in heat, snapped the chain of his daughter's swing to an abrupt stop when he saw her—motioning for her to go play with the other young Nines.

She suspected he was thinking of doing a little playing of his own.

He swaggered over to her carrying an unlit cigarette and overblown ego. She glanced to her left at the clear as day NO SMOKING sign plastered on the park gate and rolled her eyes.

They never do what's right.

He sidled up next to her. "Nice weather we're having," he puffed out around the butt of his cigarette.

"I thought for sure better small talk would exist by now."

He chuckled, the sound grating. "But it has been very nice weather for me. Gave me a little peek at something I thought I'd like."

She grimaced, unsurprised by the impudence of men of The Apex. Men who took from everyone, even their own people. He leaned a little closer into her space—the spicy stench of smoke clogging itself into her nose.

"That's definitely no way to talk to a lady," she played along, and the man wrapped an uninvited arm around her waist.

"Well..." he dragged, taking a final swig and blowing the aftermath into her face before dropping the cigarette to the ground. "There's only one reason a low number would show up in a family setting looking like this."

He rubbed the hem of her dress through fingers that had never seen a day of hard labor. The clothes she had her men steal off the corpse of that Three were proving to be quite the disguise.

"And by the state of these rags, you can't be much more than a Three." He gripped her waist tighter as he spoke. The stale of his breath made her eyes water.

"I guess that makes two of us then. Because there's only one type of man who would even dream of coming onto a lady when his daughter is playing just over there," she sighed, gently nudging against the hold that kept getting tighter on her waist. His hand gave enough for her to make a few slow steps away from him. He prowled behind her—eager.