One

Castor stood on the fringes of the playground and watched the other children with avid interest. The other children were running, skipping, chasing each other, climbing all over the playground equipment and generally having a good time. The longer Castor watched their play, the more jealous and angry he became. The last time he dared to wander into the playground and join the games of all of the other children, he’d gone back to the home with a busted lip and blood all down the front of his shirt. The other children had made their opinion of him quite clear.

No he was far too strange to be a part of them. Castor, like many of his kind, was born with many features that seemed to the normal human, strange. His skin was a light, olive drab, green tone and completely black eyes stared out from his round childish face. His black eyebrows had a slight arch to the ends of them and although he didn’t have the signature pointed ears that most children like himself had, it was obvious what he was. Castor was a child of experimentation; the offspring of a human parent and a Marliquin pollinator.

The Marliquin were a race of beings from a galaxy far away from the Milky Way Galaxy in which Earth resides. Over time and through their evolution the Marliquin developed an unfortunate genetic defect that does not allow them to reproduce. At first the Marliquin attempted to solve the problem by cloning each individual Marliquin and creating a new cloned being every time one individual died. This process worked for a few generations, however eventually this process began to fail them as well. So the Marliquin left their planets in the Lerith Tolm Galaxy and scoured the universe for beings with a suitable genetic code with which they could reproduce.

The Marliquin found a compatible race in humans. However, as with sexual reproduction, all offspring of a Marliquin and a human carries only half the genetic makeup of the dying race and half that of their human parent. The Marliquin have made a treaty with the governments of Earth so that in exchange for advances in technology in many fields such as medicine, agriculture, science, and even entertainment that they be allowed to find suitable humans for pollination and reproduction. Eventually, the Marliquin hope to find a process of reproducing via humans that creates a fully Marliquin child; that eventuality as of now is a long way off.

Unfortunately, the Marliquin did not anticipate the level of suspicion, hostility, and contempt that the general human public might have against these half-Marliquin, half-human children that they commonly called Demi-Humans, or Demis for short.

Which brings us back to the young Castor Troy standing on the fringes of the playground and staring longingly at the other children; both damning them and wishing he was one of them at the same time. They were oblivious to him standing there in his suffering; at least a first. One of the young boys who had been climbing the monkey bars turned to face Castor. A small crowd of other children did the same. Castor could see the other boy pointing directly at him and saying something to the other children around him.

Castor watched the children curiously, surprised that they even bothered to look his way; usually they ignored the young Demi as long as he stayed away from them at their play. As Castor pondered this change in situation the other boy wound his arm back and flung it forward in Castor’s direction; and then he did so a second time. Castor barely registered the danger he was in until the first grey rock flew past his face, grazing his left cheek painfully as it did so. The second rock caught him just above his right eyebrow and the force of the blow sent him sprawling backwards onto the mulch that littered the play area.

Castor howled and grabbed his eye as pain exploded like fire across his forehead. He could feel sticky, hot liquid seeping from under his fingers and running down the side of his face and his vision swam; but he clearly heard the laughter coming from the playground. Despite his condition Castor scrambled to his feet, grabbing the bloody rock by his shoe. Although he could barely make out the group of kids that surrounded the boy who threw the rock Castor let the rock fly back towards them.

“I HATE YOU ALL!” he screamed as the rock sailed to its mark. Castor didn’t stay long enough to find out if the rock hit the other boy, he took running in the other direction towards the chain link fence that surrounded both the playground and the field is sat in the middle of. He never looked back as his feet carried him closer to the fence, but he heard the shouts and the pounding of several pairs of feet that meant he was being chased.

His heart thudded in his chest and his breath came in ragged gasps, but Castor didn’t stop for a moment. He reached the fence and jumped, managing to latch onto it without falling. He climbed, pulling himself up and over the top of the fence. At the top his foot slipped and Castor plummeted to the ground on the other side. He felt a pain in his wrist, but otherwise, he was fine. He sat up to the sight of his incensed classmates shouting and banging on the fence.

“You’re going to pay for that you stupid Demi!” the boy who had thrown the rock was shouting at him. Castor could see the rage in his eyes, but he couldn’t help from angering him further. The young Demi stuck out his tongue at the boy, drawing from him a furious howl. Castor got up, brushed himself off and loped off into the woods that had grown to the fence line. He didn’t run anymore, there was no way any of those kids were brave enough to leave the school grounds and follow him. He was safe for now. He thanked the universe that it was Friday and he wouldn’t have to go back to school until Monday. He decided right then to enjoy the weekend as best he could because come Monday, he was dead.