Humanity Read Online Free Page A

comfortably against
my tree, staring him down as he wiped his hands and knife clean on a rag.
    “That’s unfortunate,” he replied amiably,
sticking the knife in his pocket and reclining backward. “I was truly hoping
you’d be more reasonable.”
    I didn’t grace his comment with an
answer, focusing instead on how nice it would feel to strangle him. The fire
cracked, and darkness settled. When I was certain he wouldn’t see in the
shadows cast by the fire, I pulled the bracelet from my shirtsleeve, grasping
it in my hands and finally allowing a few tears to trickle out. The sound of
the fire was soothing, but not soothing enough to push away the ache in my
chest as I recognized that, if my parents were still alive, we would by lying
together now, my hand grasped in Mom’s, and Dad’s arm wrapped around her.
    Slowly, though, before I truly recognized
I was doing so, I fell asleep.

 
    Chapter 3
    The sun beat against my eyelids, and I
squeezed them more tightly shut to block out the light, my fist crushing the
object in my hand. My eyes felt heavy, worn, sore. I floated between the states
of sleep and wakefulness, my mother’s face dancing in front of me.
    I heard the crunch of boots near my head,
and reality came flooding back.
    My eyes were sore because I’d cried as I
fell asleep, missing the feel of Mom’s hand in mine. The object I was crushing
in my fist was the silver and blue bracelet, her last token of affection for
me. The crunch of boot was almost assuredly her escaping murderer.
    I jumped to my feet, shoving the bracelet
back up my arm and looking around for a glimpse of him.
    The fire was a dead pile of ashes now,
and the man was just beyond that, disappearing into the trees.
    I ran to catch up with him.
    “You left without me!” I accused.
    He rolled his eyes. “I have a skinny
teenaged girl on my tail trying to kill me, and you think I’m just going to sit
around and wait for her to wake up?”
    “But I thought you enjoyed my company.”
    “To an extent. It’s bad for morale to be
glared at all the time by your sole companion. I’m not going out of my way to
let you tag along; I’m not that lonely. Though I did appreciate you not trying to steal my knife and kill me in
my sleep last night.”
    His last words were like a knock to the
head. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I was so exhausted after the big meal, and
had just wanted to lay down, and had been missing my parents’ presence so much.
. .
    “Though now that I’m mentioning it, don’t
try it. I’m a light sleeper; it’s a good way to get yourself strangled.”
    I grunted, annoyed.
    After a moment, though, I couldn’t help
asking. “What’s on the agenda today?” Maybe if I knew what the day held in
store for me, I’d be able to see my opening in advance – the opening I needed
to kill him.
    “That’s none of your business, is it?
It’s my agenda, and, even if you’re tagging
along, it’s still my agenda. Be
careful. I might just kill you out of annoyance at this rate.”
    I blew my bangs out of my face. It wasn’t
like I wanted to come along. But I
couldn’t just let him walk free, either.
    We fell into silence. What did end up being on the agenda involved
washing some more at the stream, bathroom breaks, and what seemed like random
circle walking, though I knew he was probably just checking that the area was
safe. I gave him some space after he made the comment about my presence being
annoying, but I was always a short stone’s throw away from him. He cooked some
more meat and let me have some. He cleaned the knife. We did some more circle
walking. We settled back in at the fire.
    “The meat’ll only be good for another
twelve hours or so,” I remarked, leaning against the trunk of a tree and
watching him.
    “You don’t blink much, do you?” he asked,
glancing at me before looking back up at the canopy. Staring.
    “Are we moving on tomorrow? Going
somewhere else?”
    “Why? You need to tell someone