Chapter 54: Red Through Blue (2)
When the meal ends, Aston waits until the others leave before rising. The moment stretches. Then finally, I’m outside—on the streets.
I walk. Or rather, he walks, and I go along for the ride.
Before I move too far, I reflect. These people. This place. It’s so far removed from where I was first captured. The filth, the stench, the screaming—gone. Replaced with manicured streets, smooth stone, and gold-embellished buildings that glisten beneath towering lights.
Blues walk past me. No—not past me. Past him.
They don’t recognize the difference.
And maybe... maybe even I’m forgetting it too.
Who am I? This body walks like theirs. Stiff posture, frozen expressions. No wrinkle of joy. No crease of pain. A sea of blank masks.
But I watch. My eyes—his eyes—scan their faces. Some are handsome. Some aren’t. There are big noses, large bodies, crooked features—exceptions to their elegance. But overall, they’re too perfect. Too sterile. And far more refined than the blues I’ve seen on the sewerage, or the ones I’ve killed.
In my peripheral vision, I catch the occasional smile.
But they’re never for each other.
No. Those small, rare smirks curve only when their eyes fall on reds. On humans. On my people.