Patient Zero

My fingertips traced the rough texture of the window edges, 12 years I've been here. Thousands of times I've come back to stare through this window with fresh scars, fresh memories of hell I couldn't escape.

It's funny how every day of my time here I've wished to run away, yet as I stare through this window one last time, I find myself hesitating.

The facility will be shut down today. All memories and files of my 'treatment' will be burnt and discarded to ensure I'm never tracked down for my abilities. Jensen says I'm his pride and joy, his best and most elegant creation.

I don't believe him.

I was born, not created. I remember it.

Still, it's hard to deny he's had some part in my life, no matter how cruel.

When I look up from the window, he's there, holding my suitcases with a dopey smile stuck on his face for me.

"Ready to go?"

I walked to the small, dusted mirror beside my single bed and really looked at myself for the first time in a while.

I had smooth, pale skin. Eyebrows that curved in swooping arches over my eyes and a small button like nose. These features would not turn heads, or make anyone look twice; they were normal, plain even. The only interesting thing about me were my eyes. The black of the pupil was surrounded by a ring of jagged silver fire swallowed by sapphire blue.

And finally, my hair, short cut to my nose length, shaved around the sides and back with streaks of blue accompanying the black shade of my hair.

Looking back to Jensen, my eyes washed over my old bedroom, the colourless walls, the empty space I occupied for years and my only real comfort, an old boardgame stacked into the corner.

"Mhm." I finally replied, moving to take the damaged game and slot it in my bag.

Walking through the now empty halls of my home only brought the attention more to the hole in my heart, why would I miss it here?

Arriving at the front door I stepped out and felt the rush of colours from the wind, sky and ground, my eyes threatening to water before I made it to the car. Often in life, I have been called strong. Though I know they mean it as a compliment my heart sinks and there is a wave of sadness in my soul when I hear it. For what I show is a forced resiliency, a way I've had to be my entire life just to survive.

But now, I felt no strength as I left the only place id ever called home.