Flawed Programs

Betrayal

Chapter 5

Betrayal

"Stop!" I screamed and jumped up to knock the control out of the student president's hand.

Kiiro went stiff and stopped screaming. He arched his back and opened his eyes wide then went limp and closed his eyes. I forgot about the controller and kneeled down by him.

"Kiiro? Kiiro!" I cried shaking his shoulder to find it completely limp. He had to be unconscious. Yeah, he has to only be unconscious. I cried harder as I realized he wasn't.

"He's not dead you know." The student president snapped irritably, "His program was dying and needed repairs or else he would be dead. I only sent the program to get fixed and for him to be placed in a new body."

"I don't care!" I yelled at him, "He would have been fine if you hadn't done something to him."

"I didn't do anything." He replied more calmly. He kneeled down and rolled the empty shell that was once Kiiro over. He used some mind trick to slice the shirt down the middle. "Look," he snapped as I looked away at his bone thin back.

I looked down to see his entire back exposed to the air. It was covered in horrible bruises and the shoulder blades looked as if they were a giant scab. The scab was raised like little hills and when he was touched cracked and blood trickled out. I sobbed at the horrible sight.

"That's why I sent him back. This body is too damaged for further use and needs to be replaced. Give it about two days and he should be back but he most likely won't remember you or the others. If he does he won't speak to you. And no matter what he will not be Kiiro anymore. He will have gone back to being Jett." I got the picture.

Kiiro would no longer be our friend when he got back. He would most likely see me as a stranger and avoid me. I wasn't happy but at least I'd get a chance to say goodbye.

He pressed some more buttons on the controller and the body dissolved into pixels and disappeared.

"This only works on programs. There's the final prof he was exactly what I told him he was." Xim said emotionlessly but somehow seemed more relaxed and relieved.

When I went home for the night I cried all the way home but all my tears dried up by the time I got home.

"I'm home," I called into the house with no emotion.

"Good, supper's almost ready." Mom said coming to greet me, "Where's Kiiro?" She asked.

I thought how to explain for a moment, "He went back to where he came from." I replied without meeting mom's eyes.

"You mean his memories came back?" She asked with a little bit of shock.

"Something like that. He went back to his home planet whether he wanted to or not. In their eyes his was just an experiment, a test. We just happened to get involved." My voice cracked and I ran upstairs before I started crying again. The whole house was depressed after that. We at least expected Kiiro to say goodbye before he left when he got his memories back.

"Kiiro," My voice squeaked as I tried to stuff all the pain into a dark corner of my hear and forget it. I tried to scold myself for getting too close to Kiiro when I knew the day would come when he would be taken away. I just hadn't expected it to be so fast and sudden.

I didn't go to the next day but the day after that I forced myself up and told myself to move on. It wasn't like Kiiro was dead. In fact he should be back today or tomorrow. Either way I wanted to be there to welcome him back.

In home room I sat down and was immediately peppered with questions from prez.

"You and Kiiro didn't come to school yesterday so I thought you two might have eloped." She whispered, "So where were you two yesterday."