Cyborg Heart

by Anna Lewis

  Before he can get the shot off, a dark figure drops from the fire escape above, landing on the shooter. There’s a jumble of limbs and screams and cracks. In a matter of seconds, both of the suited men lay still on the wet ground of the alley and the third figure is approaching me. It’s Zander.

  When he’s within a few feet of me, he says, “Why the hell did you leave the apartment?”

  “I…” I can’t answer the question. I know the answer, but it seems so stupid now. I want to protect my baby, but I wasn’t doing such a good job of that by sneaking away. Without him, the man that I tried to escape from, I’d be the one unmoving on the ground. “Who are those men?”

  “I’ll explain when we get back inside,” Zander says, grabbing my arm. “Come on.”

  As we fast walk back to his apartment, thousands of questions flood my mind. The one that seems to keep making an appearance is how I managed to run so gracefully and how I took out that man. I never played a sport in my entire life and the idea of going to the gym has never even entered my mind. I know myself and I know that those things that I was able to do were not just an adrenaline rush.

  We pass by a few people on our way back; each one unable to take their eyes of off Zander. They look at him as if he’s some god or something. I mean, yes, he’s unlike anything that I’ve ever seen before, but to stare? I guess I’m a little biased though, I just wouldn’t want to feed his ego.

  When we reach his apartment, he tells me to sit on the same barstool that I sat on just two or so hours ago. He disappears into one of the rooms and when he reappears, he’s carrying a large duffel bag full of stuff. I can’t see what’s in the bag, but it looks heavy. He drops it by my feet and sits in the stool across from me.

  “Before I tell you anything else, love,” he begins, his voice taking on a serious tone that I haven’t heard from him before, “you have to promise to never run away from me again.”

  “I promise.” I do promise. I see now that he’s truly here to protect me, something I shouldn’t have taken for granted. I almost lost not only my own life, but also my baby’s. “I promise.”

  “Those men that you saw, they’re with the government. Your people have known about my race for a long time now and they’ve been trying to rid themselves of us. We’re used to that and they’re usually easily avoided. But the last time we were here was about nine hundred years ago, when your technology was a lot more…primitive.”

  “What did you expect? Nine hundred years is a long time to develop,” I say. “We weren’t going to stay useless forever.”

  “The idea of nine hundred years to you isn’t the same for me. My people live for thousands of years. Nine hundred years to us is like your childhood,” Zander says, running his hands through his hair. “We forgot to check for hostile developments before we came and now we’re paying for it.”

  “Thousands of years?” I ask, amazed. My dad was always so interested in this kind of stuff. He believed that we’ve been visited by aliens since before the ancient Egyptians or the Mayans. He would tell me stories about how our technology comes from other worlds, other times even. I loved hearing about these stories because they made me believe that there was something bigger going on in the universe. But now that they’re all turning out to be true and even grander than I expected, my mind is having a hard time understanding them. “How old are you?”

  “I promise I’m no pedophile,” Zander says with a laugh. “I’m nearly two thousand years old.”

  I just look at him, deep into his eyes. He’s seen so much, learned so much, done so much. He holds more time within him than nearly all of humanity’s recorded history. I feel like I’m looking into the past as I fall deeper and deeper into his eyes.

  “I know I’m beautiful,” he says, breaking me from my admiration. “But staring is rude.”

  “Two thousand years,” I say, amazed. “Did you come to Earth the last time your people came?”

  “I was only a child then,” Zander says. “Only those that are ready to produce offspring get to make the journey.”

  “So your family comes to Earth and you all have kids for the next generation?”

  “No, that’s not how it works.” He pauses and looks down at his hands. “The offspring of Earthlings and of my people, the Harkens, are sterile. They live only half as long as Harkens, but they burn twice as bright. They’re our healers, teachers, fighters. They’re of the highest people on Hark, the most revered. To have one in your family is a wonderful gift and the royal families like to keep them around, which is why I and the rest of my fleet have come on this expedition. The older generation of hybrids are dying off and it’s time to refuel our planet with them. And I guess your people are tired of mine coming and going as we please.”

  “This is all so much,” I say. Everything that he is telling me is shattering everything that I thought I knew about my world, about the universe. I’ve always had a fascination with the stars, but I’d never thought they’d come to visit me. I’ll never say it aloud, but I’m scared. “I can’t do this.”

  “But you have to do this. Not for you or me, but for our child. I know you didn’t ask for this and I’m sorry that I put this on you, but it’s been done and there’s no going back now,” Zander says, again, putting his hands on my knees. He’s staring at me, eyes digging deep inside of me. “I too like to admire beauty.”

  I can feel my cheeks turn red and I let my face drop from his view. He grabs my chin and lifts my head until we’re at eye level again. “We have to leave, Eliana.”

  I’ve watched enough movies to know what the hunted do: they run. Zander adds a few more items into the duffel bag and then we’re out the door. We take a different elevator this time, one that requires a key to enter. The bottom button on the panel is marked with a single “G” and Zander presses that button.

  The doors open and I’m looking at millions of dollars. Rolls Royce, Mercedes, and BMW are just a few brands that fill the massive garage. I’ve never even seen some of these cars.

  “Some of the biggest names in New York City live here,” Zander explains as we walk past cars worth more than my entire family. “And with big names comes big money, that’s a universal truth.”

  Zander leads me to the passenger side of a white Mercedes and opens the door for me. After shutting my door, he throws the duffel bag in the back seat and then gets into the driver’s seat.

  “Nice car,” I say. “Are you a big name?”

  Zander starts the car and floors it out of the parking space. As we leave the garage, he says, “You could say that.”

  Even in New York City, there’s a time when the streets are pretty much empty, and right now is that time. Reaching speeds close to one hundred miles per hour, we dart through the city like a bullet. He ignores red lights when possible and stops when not. I find myself holding onto the door handle for stability.

  “Do you have cars on your planet?” I ask, wondering where he learned to drive.

  “No,” he says, smirking at me. “But I’ve been on Earth for nearly a year, so I’ve had plenty of time to learn.”

  The buildings around us start to get smaller as we leave the city’s center, and after an hour, we leave the city behind.

  ***

  After about an hour of driving, Zander pulls off the empty highway and parks near a decrepit building. The roof sags and the walls struggle to remain upright. The whole scene seems to have been copy and pasted from a horror movie.

  Zander walks away from the building toward a large empty field. He beckons for me to follow and I do. I’m not sure what business he has in an unkempt corn field, but I don’t question him until he sits on the ground.

  “Is something wrong?” I ask, standing above him.

  He smiles up at me and says, “Nothing’s wrong. I want to take you somewhere.” He reads the confused look on my face and continues, “I can take you to one of my favorite places on my planet. It’s similar to what I showed you at back in New York, but this is hyp
er-realistic. We can move about and interact with the projection.”

  He pats on the ground in front of him and I sit. He takes out a small vile of clear liquid from his backpack and holds it out to me. “This will alter your perception of time for a while. We can spend as long as we want in the projection when only mere seconds will pass in reality.” The drink is sweet, almost like strawberries.

  Zander removes a small metallic rod about the size of a finger and says, “We use this little guy to take another person into our minds. The device works with our memories and corrects any imperfections, creating an almost infallible recreation.”

  I’m amazed at how such a seemingly ordinary object can produce a perfect dream world. There’s so much I want to ask, but I’m too eager to see it in action to let the questions out. “I’m ready.”

  “Eager, huh?” he laughs. “When I turn it on, I’m going to be as good as dead to you from out here. Just wait until it starts to glow and then you grab the other end. Simple?”

  “I got it,” I say.

  Zander looks at me for a few seconds before he smirks. He presses the button on the rod. I expect it to start spinning at crazy speeds or something of that nature, but it looks the same. Zander’s eyes are closed, though. I say his name, but he doesn’t show the slightest movement in response. It’d be so easy for me to run away right now, but I don’t. I know now that he’s here for my protection. I’d be a pure fool to run away from that.

  The rod suddenly bursts with lights of all color. It’s truly unlike anything that I’ve seen before. It’s almost like a million tiny little movies are playing on and around the rod. They must be his memories. I wish I could see the individual memories, but they’re all blurring into wild wisps of light.

  I grab the other end of the rod and I’m whisked away through a tunnel of his memories. I’m moving by them too fast to make out anything specific. I’m whirling through streaks of color and light.

  And then I’m standing face to face with Zander.

  “Look around, love.”

  I do a full turn, taking in the wondrous beauty around me. We’re standing on a small sand island, but one that is unlike anything on Earth. The sand beneath our feet is a light pink and gives off a slight glow. The twin suns are setting on the horizon, throwing pinks and purples and oranges across the sky. There doesn’t seem to be any other land masses in sight. The waters are a brilliant blue, calm and steady. There are trees that look a lot like palm trees scattered about the island, each one as tall as a five-story building. This is a true paradise.

  “This is wonderful,” I say when I look back to Zander.

  “I found this place about fifty years ago. I don’t think anyone else knows about it. I come here when I want an escape from everything.” He looks around and I can see the love he has for the island clearly on his face.

  “Is every place on your planet perfect? The forest, the cliff, and now this? I can’t believe that such a world exists.”

  Zander takes my hand and pulls me toward the water. The warm sand, the wind, the smell of the ocean, it all feels so real. As we walk, I notice that I’m wearing a bikini. “Is the bikini from your mind as well?”

  He doesn’t look back at me, but his fingers tighten around mine.

  When we reach the waterline, Zander sits in the sand. The water gently rushes over his toes. I sit next to him and I’m stunned at how authentic the water feels against my feet. Zander is still holding my hand and he brushes his thumb along mine. “Beautiful,” he says.

  “Yeah it is.”

  “I was talking about you.” I look to him just as his eyes start to glow. My eyes widen and he says, “Yeah, they do this at night here.”

  It becomes official in this moment; he is the most breath-taking creature that I’ve ever laid eyes on. I could sit here with him forever. I know it sounds rash, but it’s the truth. Everything about this moment just feels right.

  “What do you want most in the world?” Zander asks. “Or I guess I should say in the universe.”

  I’m taken aback by his question. Not because I don’t know the answer, but because he asked the question. It’s such a loaded one, so deep. “I want to talk with my father one last time.”

  “You know, this machine can do that for you.”

  I shake my head. “No, I don’t want to speak to my projection of him. I know it’s not possible, but I just want the real one back for a bit. I’ve accepted his death, but I wish he could have known that there was more out there beyond our planet.”

  “Eliana,” Zander begins, squeezing my hand. “Do you feel the water on our feet? The air against our skin? The sand beneath us?”

  I nod.

  “Your father is in all of those. When living beings die, our souls are absorbed back into the universe. We become everything when we become nothing. Your father and all of our loved ones are with us at all times, just in a different way. That’s why the wind sometimes leads us to left toward our future love, or why someone’s car might breakdown which in turn saves them from the fatal pileup on the highway. My people have learned to avoid death by listening to what the universe has to tell us. Your father assists in every beat of your heart.”

  I feel a tear slide down my cheek. Zander pulls me into a passionate kiss. When we pull away, we’re sitting in the empty field. “Thank you.”

  “No problem, love.”

  We talk for a bit longer before heading back to the car. I pay attention to every beat of my heart as we walk back. As soon as we start back on our path, my eyes fall shut.

  A sharp pain in my stomach wakes me from my nap. I don’t want to show Zander my pain, but I can’t help it. I grab my stomach and tiny moan escapes my lips.

  “She senses me,” Zander says, looking at my stomach. “As I sense her.”

  “She?” I say, my voice wavering. “A girl?”

  “Yes,” Zander says with a genuine smile. His hair shines in the light from the rising sun. “We’re connected, she and I. Much like you are with her. Have you been noticing anything weird happening with you?”

  “Yeah,” I say, thinking back to the man that had a not-so-nice meeting with my foot. “I have.”

  “She’s changing you. Every second that she’s inside of you, you’re getting stronger. It’ll only become more drastic.”

  The pain dies down but my hands don’t leave my belly. Just so slightly I can tell that there’s some growth underneath my hands. It’s true, my daughter is inside of me, my special alien daughter.

  “Where are we going?” I ask, looking out onto the empty freeway.

  “Boston.”

  “What’s in Bos—” Before I can finish, my stomach flips. I’m overcome with the worst sickness that I’ve ever felt. My entire being is encompassed in nausea and hurt. I let out a loud scream as my head falls between my knees.

  “Eliana?!” I hear Zander scream. His voice sounds distant, like we’re no longer just inches from each other. “Are you alright?”

  The car slows and eventually comes to a complete stop. I hear his door open and then mine does the same. One of his hands rests on my back, rubbing back and forth. “1-10?”

  “What?” I half-scream. My vision blurs from the tears that are filling my eyes.

  “One a scale of 1-10, how bad is the pain?”

  Eleven, I think. “Eight.”

  “You need real sleep,” Zander says before closing my door. When he’s back behind the wheel he says, “we’ll stop for a few hours at a motel. You can get some quality sleep.”

  Sleep actually sounds amazing, and the thought of it eases the discomfort in my stomach. Before sitting up, I wipe the tears from my face. I sit up to find Zander staring at me. He wipes at my cheek and says, “You missed one.”

  Up until this very moment, I haven’t thought of Zander in a romantic way. I’ve noticed his seemingly flawless physique and his beautiful face, but I never really felt the foreign feeling that I’m feeling right now as his alien eyes stare into my ordinary o
nes. In movies, he’d kiss me right now, but since this is just my life, he turns and pulls the car off of the shoulder.

  We drive for another ten minutes until we exit the freeway. There’s a dingy motel near the exit and Zander pulls into the parking lot. He tells me to wait in the car when he goes to get a room. He returns with a key and as he gets the duffel bag from the back seat, he says, “Let’s get some sleep, love.”

  As I walk behind him, my body screams with exhaustion. I fight through the pain as we take the steps up to the second level. I thank the heavens when Zander finally stops at a door and opens it. The room is dark and the bed doesn’t look too appealing, but I’m more excited than I’ve been in a long time to sleep. I fall onto the mattress and immediately I’m being pulled into darkness. The bed bounces again and I open my eyes to see Zander, shirtless, laying next to me.

  “You couldn’t have gotten a room with two beds?” I ask, sitting up.

  “I could have,” Zander says, sprawling across the bed. I try to keep my eyes from his abs, but my instincts take over. They look as if he’s been living inside of 24 Hour Fitness or something. Suddenly, he jumps at me and wraps his huge arms around me. He twists me so that I’m straddling him as he lies on the bed. “But then I couldn’t have done this.”

  With our eyes still locked, he lifts his head until our lips touch. It’s a small peck at first, but soon we’re both fully engaged. His lips, his smell, everything about him is so perfect. I feel so worry free as we intertwine our limbs. His hands are in my hair and then they’re at the hem of my shirt, lifting.

  I push him away with lightning speed. I turn away and hop off the bed. “I have to shower.”

  I close myself inside the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I look at myself in the mirror; my hair is knotted in multiple places, my face yearns for a washing, and my clothes are stained beyond repair. I haven’t been with someone in six months and my appearance doesn’t make that easier to overcome. I haven’t let anyone see that side of me in so long and I’m scared to do it again. But I’ve also forgotten how bad I’ve wanted it. I’ve been so caught up in school that I’ve lost myself.