Mining In Space

When those plants grew tall and flowered and hung heavy with plump red fruit, she wouldn't taste a single bite. 

…If she tried, her body would choke and burn… Normal food was dead to her forever.

She was a parasite living on stolen blood.

'I don't belong in a garden,' she thought, her fingers digging into the seams of her trousers as a quiet bitter loneliness whispered from some dark corner of her mind.

Then she looked at Camila.

She saw the way she was smiling through her tears, her bronze face shining with hope, the heavy shadow of death finally lifted off the room... and the sting in her chest slowly dissolved into something soft and warm that curved her lips into a tiny fragile smile behind her bangs.

'It doesn't matter,' she decided, watching the girl who had hugged her in the armory. 'I don't need to eat them. As long as Camila is smiling, as long as they can eat and breathe... I'll tear apart anything that tries to hurt this room.'