NightTide: The Girl With Red Eyes
Who Was I Before?

It was weird, these people didn’t expect anything from me. I wasn’t asked to do anything… They didn’t have me cuffed to the bed anymore but they did keep the window and door locked from the outside. I could sit up and get to the bathroom on my own now, granted I wasn’t walking for very long so I don’t think they need to be so worried about me escaping. Not that I’d try, I don’t want to get hurt again.

I did like the view out of the window though, I was used to seeing city streets but this was different I saw trees. There were birds flying in between the branches and I liked how many different colors they had. I wanted to keep watching the birds but it was starting to hurt standing up… I had to go lay back down on the bed.

Then the door slammed open and an obnoxious voice rang through. “Hey little shit, I have to bring you somewhere come with me!” It was Elizabeth, and she had a wheelchair.

I didn’t trust this. “You’re not going to try to kill me, are you?”

She sneered at me. “Do I look like I want my ribs shattered by Jessica, she’d beat the shit out of me if I killed a prisoner. Hopefully you learned your lesson though.” If what she said is true then I guess if I refuse I’ll get hurt and If I go with her I might get hurt as well… It might be better if I went with her.

I sat in the chair and she hurriedly started moving it, she seemed impatient. She was moving the chair quickly, it felt like she was jogging. Then she suddenly stopped and almost threw me from the chair. She opened a door turned the chair and walked in. I saw Jessica Keith and several other people, they were all sitting in chairs staring at a tv. It was about when they attacked… No, not the attack the people they killed there. They were reading off the names and the information they had on them… They killed a lot of people. I didn’t understand why but they were showing the scenes of where each one was killed, what did they get from this? Then I heard my name… Private First-Class Red, they said I voluntarily joined at 16 and that I was killed at 17 years old… I didn’t know I was 17 now. I watched the recording they had of Jessica punching me.

The reporter sounded shocked, “Oh my god. I think that’s enough for today.” The tv went to a black screen, someone turned it off.

A couple of the people high-fived each other and the walked out of the room, Jessica, Keith, and Elizabeth stayed in the room. Elizabeth was grinning, Keith seemed indifferent and Jessica let out a sigh of relief. “Good, they don’t know it was us. We should stay away from there for a while though, we don’t need anyone that remembers our faces calling us out of a crowd.” She stood from her chair and walked over to me. “They also think you’re dead, that means there won’t be any rescue teams for you. You’re a ghost now, no one else knows you’re here.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. “So?”

She smacked me, it hurt. “I guess you don’t grasp the situation you’re in then… You are hurt, as it stands now the only information you can provide for us is why the hell you look like me. Once that’s out of the way you won’t be of any use to us, what happens from there is up to you.” She patted my shoulder and walked out.

Elizabeth whispered something into my ear. “Once you’re not useful I’m going to make you my new pet. It’ll be the first semi-intelligent pet I’d ever had” I felt a chill go down my spine, she was far too happy about this!

Keith cleared his throat. “Elizabeth we’ve talked about this. You can’t use that as a threat.”

She was being snarky. “Oh, it’s not a threat. It’s a promise, she owes me a new pet and seeing as she doesn’t have anything to give me I’m going to take her.”

Keith sighed. “That’s, not how this works. Beside even if Jessica would let you do that there’s so many issues with this simply because of how similar those two look. It’d probably make Jessica uncomfortable.”

He wasn’t even worried about how I’d feel about the situation. “H-hey don’t I get a say in this?” They both looked at me and said no in a very cold manner.

I don’t like this situation, it made we want to try and get away but there’s no way I could. At least not yet.

That night wasn’t pleasant, I kept waking up sweating and breathing heavily. That didn’t help with the pain I still had in my ribs. It kept going on until the sun came up, I felt exhausted but couldn’t fall back asleep. I sat there for a while, I kept thinking about Kayla and Owen, I wanted to know how they were doing… There was a knock at the door and then it opened, Jessica walked in.

She seemed calmer than usual. “Hey Red… Dam, rough night? You look out of it.”

I didn’t know how I looked, I was too tired to care. “I couldn’t sleep…” My chest was hurting which was why I had my hand on it, it helped with the pain.

Jessica sat in the chair next to the bed, she was holding a clipboard. “So, the blood tests came back…” She was looking down. It was like she was debating something. “Dammit I don’t know what to do right now… Red I need to ask you a question.”

What did she want to ask me now? “What?”

She took a deep breath and seemed to calm down a little. “Do you want to go back to your friends?”

Why’d she even need to ask that. “Yes, why would you even ask that?”

She seemed disappointed. “That’s a problem then, we can’t take you back. It’s too much of a risk, I’m going to give you a choice. You can either work with us… if not we’ll probably have to send you off somewhere or in the worst case kill you. I don’t want more blood on my hands then is needed, if killing one person saves the lives of a few hundred then I’ll do it… Even if they don’t deserve it.”

I can’t go home… Even if she’s lying it’s not like I can do anything about, she could kill me with her bare hands if she wanted to. “That’s not really a choice, is it?”

She gave a weak laugh. “I guess it’s not, I’m sorry Red. We’ve dug up just about everything we can on you. You were just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. I feel bad for almost killing you now… Can you walk?”

Where’d this come from. “I can, but not for very long, it starts to hurt after a little bit.”

She got up and put her hand on my shoulder. “Hmm… do you want to help out here? It’s the only way I can guarantee you anything…”

I wasn’t sure what to say… It’s not like I have a choice. “I won’t say I want to, but if I don’t have any other choice then I guess I’ll try… It really doesn’t matter what I choose at this point.”

She nodded her head. “That’s good to hear. Now about this paper…” She didn’t say anything further she handed me the clipboard…

I didn’t know what it said, it was all foreign to me. “I don’t know what this is… I’m sorry I’m not able to read this.”

She sighed, “I guess I expected a little too much on this one then.” She took the clipboard from me and cleared her throat. “Look, I know were both just some strain of that NightTide stuff, but whoever we were before. They were sisters. That girls, the reason I’m alive now, I don’t want what she used to be to fall apart… I’m sure this is strange to ask and I don’t know if you knew who she was before you took over. But try to give her something for what she gave you, keep her family legacy alive. Their last names were Kraus. I’ve taken her last name in honor of who she was, will you do the same?”