Disclaimer:  I do not own any of these characters and am just playing around with them.

Beta Read by my cat Jerry.

Annie

The sound of footfalls filled his ears on the cool April afternoon long before he saw who made them.  He didn’t have to look to know who it was, for there was only one person who would come around the house that way to see him.  His heart raced with nervousness and excitement as he anticipated her arrival.  He focused on his notebook and what he was writing, trying not to appear like he noticed the approaching visitor.  He wasn’t supposed to talk to her anyway.

“Kyle.”  The young woman called as she walked through the tall, glass French doors leading to the patio.  Her footfalls were more pronounced on the dark marble floor.  She’d just arrived with her mother, just like all the other times.  Kyle eyed her warily from where he sat before returning his gaze to his work.

“Hi Annie.”  He said cautiously, before looking around for Raines or sweepers.

Kyle had another friend at the Centre whom he wasn’t supposed to talk with, Jarod.  They’d found ways to talk to each other and see one another when they weren’t running simulations and being watched.  He’d been punished severely once his infarction was discovered.  He could only imagine the punishment he’d be dealt if he were caught with Raines daughter.

She had long, light brown hair, which framed her thin face and green eyes.  She had a wistful smile and mischief in those eyes as she approached him and slid the notebook out from beneath his fingers.  She glanced over it and frowned.

She didn’t like the things Raines made him do and he didn’t understand why.  She sighed and then looked back at him and smiled wan.

“Do you want to go for a walk?”  She smiled.  Kyle lowered his gaze to his notebook and took it back.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”  He replied.  She rolled her eyes and grabbed the notebook from his hand and dropped it on the table.  She took his hand and then tugged it until he reluctantly rose to his feet.

He looked down at her face.  He’d grown a little taller than her each time he saw her.  She smiled and pulled him toward the doorway.

“Come on.”  She said and he followed her.

They walked across the porch and down the stairs to the yard.  They crossed the yard to a clump of trees and bushes where Annie tugged at his wrist harder to lead him in.  Once within the foliage Annie sat in the grass and yanked his wrist so that he would sit beside her.

Kyle looked about for sweepers and Annie rolled her eyes at him before she grabbed his pale face in her hands.  She turned his head to face him and giggled a little before she began to kiss him.

He’d loved Annie.  All he had of her were his memories, dreams, and her voice within him.  She’d made him happy.  She’d shown him that he could care about someone.

Kyle sat in his cell and gazed at a picture he’d drawn of the long dead girl he’d cared so much for.  She’d been gone for ten years.

He knew deep inside that he’d been responsible for her death.  She died ten days after the sweepers had discovered them together.  He carried the guilt within him and turned that guilt and hurt to rage when he needed it.

She’d given him hope before she was taken from him forever.  He remembered lying with her, the smell of her hair and the soft touch of her skin as she weaved fantastic tales.

“I’m going to get my license and then I’m going to take you from this place.”  She’d smiled.  Kyle shook his head.

“They won’t let me go.  Besides, where would we go?”  He said and then had stroked her face.  She beamed at him.

“We could go and find your family.”  She said cheerfully.  He shook his head.

“I don’t have any family, my parents died.”  He’d said defensively.

“Yes you do.  My mother told me you do.  She said they were still alive.  She even told me how to get to them.”  She’d gushed.  She kissed him as he looked at her in bewilderment.  He’d pulled her close and kissed her again.

That was when the sweepers had come.  They’d dragged the two of them back into the Dragon House where Raines beat him.  He never saw Annie again.  He was told two weeks later, in the depths of the Centre, that she’d been murdered.

He blamed himself, but he also blamed Raines.  He’d learned not to put his faith in a man so evil that he’d murdered his own child.  When Raines came to visit him, he always resented what he’d seen of the man in his daughter.

He breathed a heavy sigh and ran his thumb over the face in the drawing before he hung it on the wall over his bunk where he could always see her.

To Be Continued…

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