Of Monsters and Humanity: The Genesis

Chapter 60 - Terra

Two days before....

I laid the dress out on my bed, placing the black lace fabric around the fit of the torso. It was such a beautiful thing, with the cut just below the shoulders, the perfect patterns and outlines of flowers, and the fit just right for my figure. I loved it, truly.

"You're lucky that you have your prom dress already," Flora Mae had said earlier when I brought it out of hiding in my closet, and before she left to go back home. "I haven't even started looking."

I didn't want to lie to her, no matter how strange my behavior would be instead. I had pressed my lips into a fine line and nodded, then looked back down at the dress to distract from the conversation.

When we first started high school, Flora Mae and I vowed to go to our senior prom together if we didn't already find dates. Damian, at that point, hadn't asked her. In fact, he might have been too old to take her anyway. He was a sophomore in college, his life set out for medicine and a professional practice. Though I knew that he truly cared for Flora Mae, I also knew that prom didn't quite suit his tastes.

I didn't ever stop to think that I wouldn't go to prom. I mean, sure, I had thought about going in the first place. Even with my entire high school knowing of who I was, I still wanted to go. For Flora Mae, and for my grandparents who wanted pictures. They didn't have very many pictures of me in the house anymore. After I ran away from my father, they disposed of almost all pictures of me when I was a child. They thought that it would trigger memories of the abuse. Instead, they took new ones of me. One when I got my acceptance letter to Bowling Green State University, a couple of me buying books for college (and I admittedly looked very annoyed in them, but I wished that I cherished that time with them), and few with Flora Mae. Years had passed in those photographs, and I had grown through them. Though there was always one distinct feature: my eyes. They were always the same. No matter if I was smiling with Flora Mae or glaring at my grandparents for taking a picture of me in the middle of a bookstore, my eyes were always the same.

The empty, past-stricken, hollow eyes were always the same.

The day before was Christmas. Flora Mae and I cooked a vegan Christmas dinner for two and exchanged gifts. Though I wouldn't call myself anything close to a believer in Christ (I mean.... How could I? If I had to hear one more pastor say that my abuse was God's way of making me stronger, I would just have to set a church on fire.), but Flora Mae was. She never really pushed her beliefs on me, but she did ask if it was okay to say a prayer at dinner. She did, and her thanks made me shed a tear. I couldn't stand lying to her. And I couldn't stand being in Project X. It was like they molded a whole different Terra to walk around while the other one was held captive at the facility. When it was my turn to be gracious to the good Lord, I thanked Him for Flora Mae, my grandparents, Damian, and Xander. In my head, I also said a silent thanks to Agent Byligan and Dr. Fahim.

After dinner, Flora Mae gifted me a brand new set of acrylic paints, canvases, a mug, and some tea. I also got her a mug and tea, but I had painted a portrait of her to exchange. I had been working on it for months. It was her with a bare shoulders, her purple hair voluptuous and free from the everyday faux-hawk that she put it in. She had a twinkle in her hazel eyes, and her silver septum piercing was replaced with a gold one. Small gold antlers sprouted from her purple locks and she looked at the viewer of the painting with full lips and a surprised expression.

"Terra.... This is so beautiful. Thank you," she whispered as she pulled me in for a tight hug.

I hugged her back, but held her closer to me. I didn't let go for several seconds, even when I could tell that she thought that I would pull away. I buried my face in her soft purple hair and smelled her skin. Wanting to remember her, I held her close to my heart and tried to feed off of her strength and innocence. Warm tears cascaded down my cheeks.