by Andrew Peed
I made my way up to the second level of the house and to Alice’s office. I wondered why she needed to take more scans after only a few days. My headaches were becoming farther apart, and less intense.
I checked unmarked doors as I walked down the hallway on the right side of the second floor before coming to Alice’s office. Every door until her office was an identical bedroom each fully equipped with its own bathroom.
I walked into her office which was quite large. There were three hospital beds across the back wall and several different diagnosis tools littered the room including a large cat scanner. There was another room, in the back with a large window and an open door. Alice sat behind her desk in the room engrossed in her computer screen with her back to the window.
I walked over to the window and knocked, “Alice.” I said trying to pull her attention away from the computer.
“Ah, Grace!” She got up and closed the program window.
“Alrick told me that you wanted me to come up for a few more scans.” I said putting my hands in my pockets.
“If you are willing, I would like to do a few scans of your brain. I was keeping weekly scans of your parents before they were killed.” She said starting to collect a number of tools from her office.
“I had a few scans taken while I was with The Last Line. How are you going to take the scans? Doctor Z had a device that they had stolen from Aurora and modified on their own.” I asked.
“I have one that was built by AdvaGen. Designed by a woman named Dalia Alon who’s began to work for Aurora after they acquired your father’s company.” She explained.
“I see.” I said, “I guess that I am alright with you taking a few scans.”
“Excellent.” She said pulling a chair from her office, “Please, sit.”
I did as I was instructed. Alice rolled next to where I sat. She placed all of her tools down on a table and then she returned to her office. She returned with a metal case that she placed on the table. She opened the locks and removed the device.
She placed the device it on my head then removed a tablet computer from the case.
“Alright, I am going to ask a series of control questions.”
I nodded slightly, but the device was much heavier than the one that Doctor Z had used.
“First question; what is the nature of your ability?”
“I have the ability to manipulate fire and heat. The people at Aurora called my ability Pyrokinetics.”
“Second question; how long have you been able to use your ability or when did you obtain your ability.”
“I have been able to use my abilities for around three months, give or take.”
“Have you had any pain directly associated with the use of your abilities?”
“Sometimes when I use my abilities for extended periods of time, I tend to have head pain.”
“Alright, now that I have neutral scans, please use your abilities.”
I held out my hand, conjured a small ball of flame to hover a few inches from my palm. I slowly changed the magnitude of the flame by progressing from the cool yellow flames to the ridiculous heat of the white flames.
When she was satisfied with the results of the scans she turned the heavy device off and removed it from my head. I was exhausted and my neck was killing me.
“Alright I think that will be all that I need to begin constructing a file on your normal brainwave activity.” She smiled.
I turned to leave the office rubbing my sore neck but stopped and thought for a moment. I turned to ask Alice a question.
“My father left instructions with Alrick to access the computer system. He said that I would know the password, that I would be able to remember it, but honestly I don’t have a clue. I was wondering if there was any device lying around that would help me navigate my memories. Things are a little jumbled up in my head because they gave me a drug a short time ago to take down any mental blocks that I had developed over the years.” I explained.
“The only device that I know of that could allow you to navigate your memories requires access to your father’s mainframe, and if you had access to that you wouldn’t have the problem in the first place.”
“Oh well, I guess that it was worth a shot.” I shrugged and turned again to leave.
“There is a less scientific way but it could be very dangerous.” She said turning to her office and opened up a program on her computer.
“And what would that be?” I asked, going to the doorway and trying to watch what she was doing on the computer screens. The different windows were moving far too fast for my eyes to be able to follow.
“We can put you into a coma.”
“And what? Hope for the best?”
“No, no. I can tune the kinetic brain wave inducer to stimulate the parts of your brain that are responsible for memories.” She explained.
“How well will it work?” I asked worried about some of the memories that I had already relived on my own.
“About a fifty-fifty shot.” She began to blaze through equations at lightening speeds.
“Well, I guess that we can give it a shot.” I left her in her office.
I walked back down the hall the way I came. I went back to the room that I had awakened in that morning. I went into the bathroom and cleaned up before going to bed.
The bed was huge and extremely comfortable, but it still took me a few minutes to get to sleep. My mind didn’t want to slow down.
Chapter 28: Sister
I fought to stay asleep for at least eight hours. I hadn’t had steady sleep in as far back as I could remember. I was getting plenty of it, but most of the time it was an exhaustion fueled mini coma. I got up a few times in the night to wash my face with cold water and turn the air in the room down. Each room had self contained environmental controls.
I turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. There was nothing on that I wanted to watch. I passed a documentary on the Aurora Corporation and the good that they were doing all over the world. The entire media universe spent millions or more on building Aurora up to some kind of Godsend.
When the sun was pushing its way into the room, I decided that I would shower and then visit Alice hoping that she was ready to get on with this experiment.
I met Alrick in the hallway when I left my room.
“How is it that you are always right there when I get out and about?” I walked past him down the hall.
“I monitor your sleep patterns and the whole house is set up with motion tracking.”
“Sorry I asked.” I laughed.
“Do you require anything?”
“No thank you. I’m going to see Alice.”
He nodded and walked the other way.
I knocked on Alice’s office door this time instead of just busting into the room.
“Come on in.” she said muffled.
I couldn’t see Alice when I entered the room but I immediately noticed a new machine in the center of the room. It stretched from the floor to the ceiling with a chair suspended in the center of a large metal ring. I looked in the office and checked the supply closets at the back, but Alice was nowhere to be found.
“Down here.” She called from under the new machine. I looked to see an access panel in the floor below where bundles of wires as thick as my arm were running up into the bottom of the chair. Alice’s face was covered in grease.
“What’s up?” I knelt next to the access panel in the floor.
“I’m almost ready.” She pulled herself back up into the room. “I had to get some equipment out of storage but this configuration should allow me to successfully stimulate the memory portion of your brain.” She explained. She walked over to her desk and picked up a tablet computer. She showed me a design of three different machines that were wired together. It was a massive extrapolation on the word Jerry-rig.
“Is it safe?” I looked down in the hole. A metal cylinder about the size of my torso pulsated with blue lights like a slow heart beat.
“I could run some simulations.” She said looking down at her tablet.
“No, no let’s just get this over with.” I was torn between not wanting to wait and not wanting to know the truth of the danger.
“Ok then, let’s get started.” She cleared her tools off of the chair and motioned for me to sit.
I sat down and tried to think about anything but the fact that this device might fry my brain. Alice reached up and flipped a switch above my head. A small ring lowered over my head and began to rotate.
Bolts of energy began arching from the ring to my head but there wasn’t any pain. “The ring will support your head once you have lost consciousness.” Alice walked around the machine and checking things off on a digital check list.
“Noted.” I took a deep breath.
She retrieved a syringe and a small vial from a nearby table. She filled the needle and slid up my sleeve. “This will take just a few minutes to kick in. You need to keep your mind on finding what you are looking for; it may be difficult to determine if you have fallen asleep or not.” She found a vein, stuck the needle in, and emptied the concoction into my blood stream.
I gave her a thumbs up when she pulled out the needle and stepped back, “I hope this works.”
“There is a very good chance it will work.” She pressed a button on her tablet. The large metal ring around the chair began to spin around me slowly at first, but faster, and then faster.
I watched the ring as long as I could but I started to feel sick to my stomach so I closed my eyes.
Moments passed and I wondered when things would start to happen or when I could just open my eyes without having to see the spinning.
I decided that it wasn’t going to work and the drug that Alice had given had not been strong enough.
~//~
When I opened my eyes I was in another world. Everything around me was completely destroyed. Fires burned around me in all directions. The large ring was still spinning but a section was missing. It had begun to slow and then finally it stopped.
I pulled the small ring from my head and climbed out of the chair. I took a look around the ruins and walked slowly through the halls. I obviously wasn’t remembering something because last I had checked I had not experienced the apocalypse.
I sat down on a crumbling wall and picked up a handful of ash.
“This isn’t going to help me.” I said to no one in particular. My voice echoed around me in all directions.
A girl peeked at me from behind a wall. I didn’t know the girl off the top of my head but she seemed somehow familiar.
“Hey, little girl!” I yelled jumping up and running after her.
I chased her through the maze of the building that didn’t resemble the house at all. I tried to keep up with her, but she was so fast that I started to lose her even as I called out for her.
I stumbled and tripped on the charred bricks on the ground. I fell throwing my arms out in front of me, but I didn’t hit that ground. I went through it and flipped over onto my back, making contact with a wooden floor.
“Son of a bitch.” I said standing and rubbing the back of my head.
“You shouldn’t say things like that.” A man said behind me.
“I’m sorry…” I said turning but I realized that the man wasn’t talking to me. He was knelt down beside a young girl.
The man was my father.
“But daddy I don’t want a sister!” the girl said stomping her foot.
“Baby doll I know we all wanted a little brother, but we should be happy that we are getting a little sister.” He said tussling her hair.
The little girl was me.
My father stood. We all walked into the room. My mother, who was very pregnant, was sitting next to a fireplace. She had been crying.
“Now go and apologize to your mother.” My father said patting the little me on the shoulder.
I walked around and sat on the floor to watch the scene. The younger me hung her head and walked up to our mother. She stood next to our mother trying not to look her in the eyes.
“I’m sorry for what I said, mommy. I hope I have fun with my new sister.”
“Thank you dear.” Our mom said leaning down and giving the younger me a hug, she sniffled, and wiped her eyes.
I couldn’t help but wonder why I was remembering all of this and not something that could be useful.
Chapter 29: Isabella
The dream seemed to have frozen around me. My mother, father, and the young me remained completely still. I stood from the floor and walked out of the room. Down the hall I came to a staircase that led into the main sitting room. As I took the steps one at a time, the walls aged and faded before my eyes.
Outside of a nearby window I could see snow falling in sheets and I could hear a fire roaring nearby. I followed the noise into the living room. My mother and father sat on a couch across from a young man that seemed somewhat familiar.
“Joseph, I think that you are making a bad decision. Your father and my father have been doing business for forty years and their fathers forty years before that. Why are you ending the partnership between our companies?” The young man said with an angry smile on his face that was obviously forced.
“The Scott family has gone downhill from the time that your father took over Aurora. Your projects are getting closer and closer to the lines that I will not cross and you wonder why I want to end our partnership James?” My father said standing. He began to pace around the room.
“Despite your obvious slant on my family name that can be forgiven, I have no idea what projects you are worried about.” James leaned back in his chair.
My mother kept out of the conversation but I could see she was disgusted just being in the same room with James.
“Don’t play games with me James. I have taps on your data network, the same as you have on mine, and I have been monitoring all of your progress. I am terrified to think what you plan to accomplish with these things that you are creating.” My father said.
James stood, and sighed deeply, “I’m sorry that you feel this way. You know that this is bigger than both of us, and those above us… They want things done a certain way.”
“I think you should leave.” My mother said finally speaking up.
James took a few steps towards my father, and stopped close to his face challenging him. The two men were exactly the same height.
“Sooner rather than later I will control your company. I will do anything that it takes.” James almost growled.
“Over my dead body.” My father growled back.
A noise near the stair caught everyone’s attention. We all turned the see the younger me at the bottom of the stairs watching what was happening.
“Isabella get your sister and get into bed.” My father said pointing up stairs.
The little me looked confused, much like I did when my father said the wrong name, but she walked away.
“Such a beautiful daughter, it would be a shame if she fell into the hands of the terrible Aurora Corporation.” James said turning to the front door. I heard the slam of the door.
I followed behind the younger me up the stairs back to the second floor of the house. I stumbled over a dead man’s body in the hallway and prayed that I was in a new memory.
I knelt down and looked at the man’s body. It was no one that I knew, some random Aurora soldier wearing armor that I hadn’t seen yet a familiar patch on his shoulder gave him away. Two men turned the corner; my father and another man that looked strange. His skin was a light grey color and most of his features were smooth to the point that they looked unnatural.
“I caught him trying to move through the shadows silently. There was a point zero, zero one noise variance. Unfortunately father, I was forced the kill him.” The weird looking man said.
I wondered why this man called my father, father.
“Don’t worry Jack, you did the right thing. They are trying the take Grace and Isabella.” My father said.
My head started to hurt from all of the new, weird, information. I rubbed my neck trying to get at the pain.
“What would you like me to do with him?” Jack asked.
“Let’s get rid of the body. A grave by the lake should do. I think it is time for me to take the plan into action to get the girls out of here. I hope that they can find a safer life. I hope that they can get sufficiently lost in the system.” My father said.
Jack knelt down and scooped up the dead body with no effort.
My father opened the door next the where the body lay. Inside the room slept Isabella. I could see the sadness and the age in my father that he was going to have to let us go.
The world began to shake.
I could feel myself losing the dream.
I still didn’t know anything.
~//~
My eyes burst opened and I was surrounded by flames. Not my hottest but they were hot. I made them vanish. I saw Alice standing outside of the large spinning ring taking notes on her tablet.
“What happened?” I pushed myself up on the chair and watched the ring slow.
“You have been out for about three hours and about a quarter of the way in, you burst into flames.” She said helping me out of the machine, she handed me a robe.
“What exactly was the large ring for?”
“It is a magnetic restrictor to keep you from sleep walking. It also projects an electromagnetic shield, that thankfully held your flames; much hotter though and you would have melted everything.” She showed me a place on the edge of the ring that had begun to melt.
“I wonder why I did that. None of the dreams threatened me.” I scratched my head.
“What did you see?” Alice asked.
“A few things, first a little girl running through rubble… Then a young me being scolded for saying something mean to my mother while she was pregnant with Isabella. The next was my father having an argument with James Scott, that raises more questions, and sending me to my room, but he called me Isabella. The last memory was my father and someone named Jack finding a dead body in the hallway outside of Isabella’s bedroom.” I explained leaning on the nearest wall.