S4, E8 | The Blade One Wields Toward a Turned Back

> Wednesday, 30th November 2039 <

Her face flushed of colour other than her rosy red cheeks and puffy eyes, Sophie stands just feet away from the entrance to the commons area, unable to move as every inch of her muscles tense up and refuse her freedom. Unsure of how to react beside standing in the middle of two tables, Andrew stands with his hands at his sides as his face wells up with similar emotions, his mind retaining the hesitancy to address the girl whilst fighting off his urges to approach.

Unable to control the quivering of her lip, Sophie looks at her father before finding the strength to redirect her face toward the woman who’d accompanied him, her face filling up with similar disposition. “I’m...” Andrew mutters, setting his sights toward the ground at his feet as his hands tuck themselves away into his back pockets, the demeanour he wears changing from the uncertainty over what to do, and shifting into the reservation of someone scared to make the first move.

Pressing his lips together before hurriedly parting them, only to return them to the warm embrace of each other once more and repeat the process, Andrew fails to speak before watching his eldest offspring take a lone step forward. Eyes taking toward her feet, the father’s eyes eventually lift toward Sophie’s face, watching her body as it struggles to take another step forward, attempting to break out of the grasp of consternation that wishes to keep her at bay.

One after another, the inmate’s advancing steps cut the space between her father and herself shorter, each second bringing another foot of distance that once stood between them to the distant past as she ventures forward. Becoming more confident in her stride with each progression of her walk, Sophie’s breaths become less controllable as her father’s face further soaks in salty sobs.

“I’m...” Andrew whimpers again, turning his head toward the right as his daughter continues her journey across the room, reluctant to welcome the girl out of disappointment in himself. Letting the tension in her arms fall aside as her legs begin confidently picking up their pace, Sophie lets her reservations fall aside as she closes the distance, throwing her arms forward as she walks into the man.

“I’m...” Andrew sighs again, pressing his eyes shut and squeezing the droplets from the cusps of his lids as his daughter’s arms wrap around him, her head pressing against his chest as he pulls her close, returning her gesture as his lips fall to the woman’s head. Blubbering like a small child returning home after being lost in the forest, the reconciled father crumbles into the woman’s arms as their emotions well to the surface together, reunited in conditions less than favourable, but in a way neither had expected to one day be possible.

“...so sorry” he finishes, pressing his daughter’s body against his own with as much force as he can manage, only outdone by the girl’s desire to openly sob into his arms, the defiant strength she’d taken since entering the walls of the prison in the name of survival melting away like butter as her heart travels back to the family it belongs to.

= Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and his entity of Pacer1 from the start of Season 1 onwards =

“Where are mom and dad?” Galen queries, handing his coat off to his sister as they step through the door, returning to an empty home as the girl places the car keys in a bowl near the home’s entrance. “They went on a little trip somewhere” Liv responds, hanging the nylon jacket on a nearby hook as her brother traipses into the living room, spinning in circles as he throws his hands out at either side.

“Are they bringing us back anything?” Galen questions back, standing on one foot as he spins like an uncoordinated ballerina, prompting his sister to hurry to his side and put an end to his childish rotation. “I don’t know what kind of trip they went on. I’m sure they’ll bring us back a souvenir if it was somewhere fun” Liv reassures, picking the boy up and carrying him over to the couch, where she places him down and kneels to the ground.

“Derby is coming over to hang out with us tonight, alright?” Liv questions, pressing her hands to either side of her younger brother’s hips to keep him in place, not wanting to afford him the chance at climbing down and sending himself into a spiral of sickness once more. “We’ll pick out a movie, order a pizza and stay in for the night, okay?” she follows up, breaking down the simple evening in a way she hopes the boy has no complaints with.

“Can we go to where mom and dad went?” Galen queries, looking toward the ground whilst pressing the tip of his thumb between his teeth, the limb he nibbles on being quickly pulled free from his chompers by his older sister. “I don’t know where mom and dad went. We can’t go where they are because I don’t know how to get there” Liv responds, continuing to look her brother in the eyes to prevent him from looking away, “we’re gonna stay here tonight and have fun watching a movie, okay?”

Nodding quietly, Galen watches his sister pat his knees as she looks toward the knapsack at the side of the room, trying to figure out what her parents would do in her shoes at the moment. “Do you have any homework?” Liv questions aloud, watching her sibling again nod in silence, affording her the chance to step away and return to her feet, “go take your homework upstairs and do it, okay? If you need me, just call out and I'll help.”

Nodding without a word for a third and final time, Galen pushes himself off the chesterfield’s centre cushion and hurries his little legs across the room, his shoes tapping against the hardwood floors with each prance as he reclaims his backpack, climbing the stairs with it in tow as his sister watches on.

For the next three hours, the daylight beyond the home’s windows begins to die with the rest of the day that it marks with whatever warmth it can offer in its mid-winter state. Returning from the bathroom with her brother in tow and a towel wrapped around his head, Liv strolls through the upstairs hallway and ventures towards the boy’s room as her wrist begins to vibrate with the device at the base of her hand.

“Yeah?” she wonders aloud, using her free hand to swipe the green icon on her watch’s screen before dropping her lower jaw, affording her ear a louder and more clear sound of the voice on the other end of the line. “I’ll be leaving my place in about an hour to head to yours. Is it alright if I stay over?” Derby remarks, climbing up the stairs from her own home’s lower level to the upstairs corridor her bedroom lies near the end of, “if we’re watching a movie and eating a pizza, I don’t want to be doing another twenty minute drive to get home.”

“I don’t even know if my parents are coming home tonight” Liv responds, setting her brother down before closing the door, “they’d be able to stay wherever they are for about a week without issue with what they left me here with. If they’ve got a problem with you staying over, they should have told me more than what they did.”

“I like how this new confidence looks on you, Liv. It’s a good thing you and Dylan didn’t work out, ‘cause I know a couple of guys who’d find it hot as fuck” Derby jokes, stepping into her room as they share a subdued laugh. “I’ll see you when you get here” Liv responds, brushing past the comment in favour of attending to her duties for the evening, passing the briefest of departing words toward her friend before swiping her wrist through the air.

“Let’s get you in your pyjamas, buddy” Liv proclaims, picking a blue, outer space-inspired onesie from the nearby dresser before returning to her sibling’s side, running the towel over his wet hair again to dry it as best as manageable. Applauding, Galen steps into the attire and allows for his sister to button it up before hurrying for the door at her behest, watched on with a smile by the girl that drapes the towel over her arm, having done enough service to the family for one day.

Whilst her brother rests his head on her lap, Liv’s eyes take toward the television screen across the room, the slim remote that goes to it hanging from her index finger and thumb as her arm rests against the sofa’s back. Turning their backs toward each other, the characters in the black and white film begin walking in opposite directions with pistols drawn, a squint carried in their eyes as they traipse across the sand that they kick into the air, counting each movement forward as they approach the number twenty.

Intrigued by the film thus far, the girl rests her head against the cushion that her back sinks into with one leg draped over the other, the thigh of it used as a pillow for her brother’s sleepy head. Watching as the characters draw toward the penultimate number, Liv’s free hand sinks into the chesterfield, her attention grasped by the declaration of the final number that precedes their quick turn, the draw of their weapons held toward the other and firing at the same time.

Firing off, the pair of bullets rip through the barrel of their revolvers and graze the duelers opposite each other, though their aftermath loses the viewer entirely at the sound of a thud outside the home. Veering her eyes past the television and toward the window overlooking the home’s front yard, Liv reclaims full possession of the remote and pauses the film just as another shot is about to be taken, sentencing the home to a silence that affords her a momentary glimpse into the chaos outside.

Squinting as she goes onto alert, Liv gently lifts her brother’s head off her leg and springs off the couch, approaching the vantage point of the elevated windowsill with an eye held toward the front of the home. “Galen, go to your room!” she hurriedly remarks, turning her back to the sight of a figure concealing themselves within the darkness as they climb off a knocked over garbage bin with a flashlight in hand.

Turning off the television, Liv hurries to the front door and locks its deadbolt and doorknob before turning on the living room’s light, hearing a pair of footsteps hurry up the front porch and attempt to turn the knob. Met with an impact resisting their force, the curious individual beyond the home’s entry slams their side into the structure to no avail, earning a grunt of frustration that precedes their angered punch at the metal entrance.

“Who is-?” Galen inquires, climbing off the couch with a frightened tone of voice before jumping back at the sound of a second, angry strike at the separation between his sister and the aggravated figure on the other side. “Go to your room now!” Liv hisses, pointing toward the staircase that her scared brother soon takes off running toward, “get under your bed and don’t come out unless I tell you to!”

Slamming their shoulder into the door once more, the apparent intruder fails to see any success for a second time, earning a growl of frustration as he pulls away. “The police are on their way! You’re not getting in!” Liv proclaims, knowing the stranger on the other side to be able to hear her, the comments that she issues doing little to satisfy the person keen on entering by force.

Slamming the palm of the hand against the metal barricade, the forceful stranger skids their running shoes against the stone front patio and descends the stairs once more, running off into the night in a way that leaves Liv curious as to whether or not they’ve gone for good. Stepping away from the home’s front passageway, the girl inspects the entrance without being able to hear anything directly opposite it, hesitant to buy into the idea that they’ve truly left for good.

Pulling up her watch, Liv takes her face toward the display and quickly ventures toward her friend’s contact, waiting for an answer as she continues to look at the front door with reluctance. “Yo, you’ve got Derby!” the girl proclaims, leaning back in her seat with one leg sitting atop the dashboard, the sole of her running shoe pressing against the plastic divider between it and the steering wheel’s base, “I’m not that far aw-”

“Derby, I need you to be careful when you pull up here” Liv warns, interrupting her friend’s seemingly high spirits in the name of looking out for her safety, “someone just tried to break into my house and I don’t know if they’re still ar-”

Interrupting herself as she leaps back in a sudden fright, Liv watches a heavy stone fly through the living room window and smash into the back of the television set, sending it crashing to the floor amidst multiple shards of broken glass. “Liv, what the fuck is happening over there!?” Derby proclaims, hearing the crystal-clear sound of the surprising impact and the brief yelp of shock that her friend immediately reacts with.

“They just broke the fucking window!” Liv shouts, stammering back into the wall before heading up the staircase, running with every ounce of speed she can muster, “call the police and don’t come in the house!” Leaving her remarks at that, the fleeing resident swipes her arm through the air whilst her friend suddenly takes to sitting upright in the car, calling her friend’s name to no response before watching the call come to a sudden end, leaving her with only marching orders and fear to act on.

|

“He saw your interview. Apparently, he saw it a few times” Elaine explains, taking one of the inmate’s hands into her own whilst her husband does the same with the other. “A few times is an understatement” Andrew corrects, looking toward the girl’s hands as they sit within those that he couples around them, shaking his head at the idea that it’s as simple as proposed, “I played it on repeat throughout the entire night. I’ve practically memorised half of it by heart at this rate.”

Letting her own eyes fall toward the table’s surface, Sophie’s face is reclaimed by the man’s continued comments, his grasp on her hands squeezing slightly tighter whilst he does. “It was one of those things where you couldn’t stop listening to it even though each new listen broke your heart more and more the longer it went on” Andrew confesses, unable to look up at the girl that sits in his literal reach, his sorrowful and emotional demeanour mixing with a hint of self-displeasure.

“I didn’t mean to upset you” Sophie responds with a faint whisper, hanging her head once more as the man looks up at her, grasping her hands more firmly with reassurance as she looks back toward him. “It’s not you that upset me, Soph’” Andrew responds, locking eyes with the girl in a way that- at first- prompts him to fall silent, the hesitancy to say anything only lasting for a few seconds before it’s broken by the parting of his lips.

Thinking twice before speaking, Andrew lets his head hang whilst his daughter watches on, unsure of what the end of his sentence was meant to be before the man’s focus shifts to his side. “Can you give us a second alone, dear?” he requests, looking toward his wife, who immediately nods in agreement before stepping away from the table, her eyes looking around the room in search of a quiet place before Darnell’s voice lures her toward him.

“The visitor booths are empty. We’ll give them a minute or two in private” the man remarks, stepping away from the side of the room to usher the woman behind the plexiglass divider. Appreciative, Sophie and Andrew nod toward the man as he ventures back, leaving the entrance between the commons area and the secluded sector open just a few inches, going against his professional duties to allow the low-risk inmate the privilege of a quiet moment alone.

Given the floor to themselves, the father and daughter remain within silence as the man pauses, taking a moment to collect his thoughts and close his eyes, letting a long, quiet breath leave through his lips. “Hearing you say that the only person you had to blame was yourself is what upset me” Andrew remarks, continuing to hang his head as the sight of just his daughter’s now pair of hands sitting within his own, the lack of her face within his view making it easier for him to speak openly.

Letting her eyes fall as she presses her bottom lip between her teeth, Sophie feels her chest grow heavy before she lets out a deep exhale, freeing it of some of the weight that it takes on. “I’ve had a long time to come to terms with what I did in here” she confesses, watching the man’s head shake as he continues to avert his eyes, though the lack of his sight does little to dissuade her from prolonging her speech, “I needed to stop making excuses and own up to the fact that I’m here because I-”

“You’re here because I’m sick” Andrew interjects, confessing as he breaks his line of sight from the woman’s hands within his own and stares at her eyes, watching a look of surprise and confusion take shape in her furrowed brows. His lips forming a frown, the man shakes his head in refusal once more as his head stiffens upright, his face levelling with that of his daughter’s face as his shoulders tense up.

“The impulses that you got... That plague... The thing that drove you to do what you did because you felt like you had no other choice...” Andrew admits, remaining firm in his posture as he speaks whilst his daughter looks on, “...you didn’t get it from your mother. You got it from me.”

Leaning back slightly, Sophie’s head takes on a bow of disbelief toward the man’s hands as they remain calmly resting around her own, trying to process her father’s comments as he continues to speak. “I don’t know a lot about it. I just know that it makes you irrational in moments where you need to be anything other than irrational. A fight or flight response kicks in and you just do what you need to so you can survive” Andrew continues to speak, keeping his voice low as the girl looks back at him.

“It’s like you’re pitted against a danger that you can’t see and your back is against the wall... but you’ve got a knife in hand” he furthers, trying to break it down in a way that makes enough sense to not seem like nonsensical jabber, “all you know to do in that moment is to start swinging when their back is turned.”

“I’m... I...” Sophie stammers, shaking her head as she looks back to her hands, gently attempting to pull them from the man’s reach, only for her efforts to be calmly thwarted. “Try to act like what I’m saying isn’t as insane as it is. I don’t want your mother and the security guy to think that something’s off” Andrew warns, passing a glance toward the onlooking duo sitting behind the pane of glass that had separated him from his daughter on the day that he’d disowned her.

“I don’t understand” Sophie whispers, easing her demeanour in hopes that it’ll be believable enough to not raise concern, “I thought it was mom that was sick.” Nodding, Andrew looks toward the table with his teeth pressing together as he sways his head from one shoulder to the other. “Neither of us were entirely well put together” he concedes, making a point to clarify the difference, “I kept it together after I got out of a bad situation, but Morgan had... Well, her issues weren’t really helped by a change in scenery to put it lightly.”

“How do you know this?” the inmate suddenly inquires, looking at her father’s eyes as she leans in, relaxing her hands to allow more comfort in the possession that they fall into, “did you get diagnosed or something?” Looking the girl in the eyes at first, Andrew’s face falls still like a statue’s as he takes in the question, unsure of how to answer before deciding to dive feet-first into the unknowns that he’s opened Pandora's box to explore.

“Because I killed my mother not long after you were born” he confesses, surprising the inmate enough for her hands to go cold, a chill running down her spine beneath the texture of her beige jumpsuit, a frost-like stillness falling upon the length of her body like a corpse buried beneath the weight of an avalanche.

“My father tried to murder me for a life insurance policy I’d put in their name while your mother was in therapy. Like a rehab for some of her illnesses” Andrew clarifies, making it a point to explain himself beyond doubt whilst his daughter continues to listen. “He took me out into the woods to hunt for deer, but I figured out what he was doing. I shot him before he could pull the trigger and went back home” he furthers, running down the events as if they were items on a shopping list.

“I walked in the door and my mother thought that I was him. She asked if he’d made it look like an accident and...” Andrew explains, watching his daughter’s eyes take a judgmentally-bewildered stare as he pauses, seeing no point in falling short of the recollection’s conclusion now that he’s voiced the most enthralling part, “...I just lost it.”

Keeping her head straight, Sophie’s eyes fall to the table and the blurry reflection of herself that is presented within its surface, sitting with the information for a moment before feeling the man’s hands press against the backs of her hands tighter. “I thought that you wouldn’t have to suffer the same thing if I just gave you a normal life. What I said to you the last time I was here was more me feeling like a complete failure than anything else” Andrew concludes, “I had to put you behind me if I had any chance at giving Liv a chance to live a life of her own.”

|

Racing up the stairs, Liv dashes toward the end of the hallway, passing the bathroom along her journey without being able to see anything through the darkness, her eyes advancing into the vast space of nothing without certainty over what resides within it. Beyond the washroom, her eyes take toward the various open doors within the passageway before settling on the building’s home office, carrying herself inside before attempting to close the door.

Thinking twice, Liv gasps as her hands wrap around the knob, her back turned toward the larger room as her eyebrows furrow, going along with the thought that she takes into her mind. With little time to act, she bites into her bottom lip and turns the knob’s lock before stepping back into the hallway, locking the door from the inside and shutting it before advancing the way she’d come.

Drifting her head into her brother’s room, she crouches toward the ground as the sound of boots stepping upon broken glass begins to emanate from the level below. “Shhh!” she whispers, pressing one finger against her lips as she looks her brother in the eyes, his hands covering his mouth as he nods silently, watching as his older sister climbs back to her feet and takes off running.

Muting her footsteps as best as she can, the girl wears a frightened scowl as she comes face to face with the bathroom once more, hearing the intruder make for the staircase and take the first step upward. With no other option now, Liv enters the desolate room and stands as flat against the wall as she can, letting the door close as far against her body as her torso will allow it.

Covering everything below the bridge of his nose with a black mask, the strange man entering a home that isn’t his makes it to the second level of the home, flashing his light down toward the other end of the hallway without moving at first. Squinting, he looks toward each door before spotting the lone entrance shut from his view, letting out a deep breath as he begins approaching it.

Staying put, Liv braces as if she were seconds away from being hit by a car, looking into the mirror directly opposite her as the flashlight’s luminosity grows brighter, closing in on her room before carrying forward with the rest of the invader’s figure. Keeping as quiet as she can manage to be, the girl lets out a rolling breath through her ‘O-shaped’ lips as she listens to the footsteps carry forward.

Relieving herself of the sucked-in breath, the girl emerges from behind the door and continues to stand within the veil of darkness that covers the bathroom as she listens to a shoulder slam into the office’s entrance, attempting to cave it inward as the apparent target of his frustrations wraps her hands around whatever they can find. Readying herself, Liv keeps her breaths quiet as she listens to the man’s weight throw itself into the door twice before pulling back for a third attempt.

Grunting, the stranger’s shoulder slams into the door for a third time to the sound of raucous, provoking Liv into action as she pulls her weight forward. Dashing out of the bathroom fast like a cheetah and silently like a stealthful lion, she pushes herself off the wall and takes toward the staircase, pressing her rear end to the top of the bannister whilst holding on for dear life.

As if it were a slide, the wooden railing acts like a slide that the escape-artist takes all the way back to ground level, her feet colliding with the floor as silently as she’d stayed within the bathroom in favour of climbing down the creaky stairs with hopes of outrunning the slaughter she’s yet to know for certain is in store or out of consideration.

Covered by nothing more than socks, Liv sprints into the kitchen and purposefully rips a cabinet out from the kitchen counter, leaping back as it flies from the furniture and slams into the ground with a heavy collision. To the sound of clattering metal, a variety of kitchen tools dance across the ground with ear-shattering resonance, making her presence clear to the man one level above as she jumps over the scattered remains.

Having frustratedly pulled out of the home office and carried back, the intruder stops at one of the few rooms with a light already on, flashing his bulb into the cosy confines in the same moment that the sound of chaos rings out from the kitchen below. Widening, the intruder’s eyes take toward the way he’d come before his feet begin racing for it, unaware of the tears that begin streaming down Galen’s face beneath the bed his flashlight had just shone upon.

Each stair passed without issue, the culprit of unknown motivation looks around the living room before turning toward the kitchen, finding the mess left behind just laying in the middle of the floor without attendance. Spotting the sight of disruption, the stranger begins hurrying forward before thinking better of his actions, putting on a display of reservation as he slows his progression, becoming sceptical of the scene that lays ahead of the dividing wall between the common’s area and the apparent hotbed of activity.

Sitting on the floor with a knife in her hand behind the kitchen’s central island, Liv stares at the entrance to the patio that she’d purposefully opened, allowing the chill of winter air spill into the kitchen as she waits for the man to advance. “Olivia...” a deep, purposefully-altered voice calls out, earning a widening of her sights as her careful squint is replaced with a concerned and caught off-guard suspicion.

“I know you’re here alone” the man remarks, stepping forward with his flashlight dancing around the room, immediately taking toward the first corner that he rounds when stepping into the kitchen, clearing it of her presence before noticing the open door. Shaking his head in disapproval, the intruder lowers his shoulders and drops his attempt at frightening the soul hiding from him, taking the backdoor’s opening to be a sign of her premature escape.

“Fuck” he sighs beneath his breath, lowering his flashlight as he advances upon the back of the room, marching beyond the kitchen’s isle and through the patio door. Watching on as she keeps to herself, Liv looks toward the uncertain figure with eyes of rage as he takes no notice of her, continuing onward as she quietly pushes herself off the ground.

Embracing the winter air, the man lifts the hood of his black jacket over the top of his head, concealing everything other than his eyes as he steps onto the patio. Seeing this gesture and taking no care in it, Liv follows after the man only a few steps behind, the knife in her hand pointing its blade toward his back as she closes in. Making toward the steps, the intruder shakes his head without pleasure at the unfinished deed he’d arrived to take part in before spinning around without warning, refusing to follow through on his departure as his target falls within sight.

Stopping in her tracks, Liv’s judgement suddenly loses the dense fog that had covered it as she comes only eye-to-eye with her aggressor, their bodies facing each other’s as they both come to a screeching halt. Deepening her grasp of the knife, the nineteen year old girl readies herself for a defence as the man opposite her looks toward the blade, returning his sight toward her before again setting his focus upon the weapon.

“Are you gonna do something with that?” the intruder questions aloud, almost challenging the girl to advance upon him in the obviously-fake, low-scaled tone. Feeling the air’s crisp chill touch her skin like a passionate lover, Liv looks toward the weapon for a brief moment before clenching her teeth and flaring her nostrils, almost daring herself to follow through on her efforts as she takes one step forward.

In an instant, her thoughts of bloodlust fall aside as the distant sound of sirens begins firing through the air, closing in on their target as both souls take notice. Grunting as his face takes on a sour expression beneath the facial covering, the intruder turns away and quickly leaps down the few steps to ground level, returning his boots to the home’s grassy patches as he looks back at the subject of his transgressions.

“I’ll be seeing you around, Olivia” the man warns in his fake reflection, watching as she remains on-guard where he’d left her, the knife pointing toward the direction that he retreats toward, vanishing into the woods at the end of the backyard before spilling into wherever he feels will give him the best chance at getting away.

Unable to avert her eyes from his disappearing figure, Liv stands in place with one foot farther ahead than the other, her eyes following his cloaked disguise into the darkness before losing track of it through the trees. Suddenly taking toward the knife, the girl’s eyes follow it as she leaps back, cleaning her palm of its presence as she lets go, hearing it dance across the hardwood structure before coming to a stop at the top-most step.

Breathing heavily, the girl looks toward her own palm as it shakes with a tremor, horrified at the sight she’d just witnessed. Catching her ear the louder that it grows, the approaching police sirens close in on Liv’s home and provoke her into resetting her attention, trying to clear her mind of the horrors that she’d both nearly suffered and nearly committed as she steps back, passing a final glance toward the woods as she re-enters the home, making for the front as the cold air grows steady.

== Generation Alpha ==