Andromeda

Chapter Six

The events of that day were on her mind for the rest of the evening. As the sun set over the rural horizon, Anna sat in her room in front of her vanity mirror, aimlessly running a brush through her hair. She was thinking about straightening it from its usually wavy style for her date with Jason. She could not help but smile every time she thought about it, and she often wondered what made her happier: Jason asking her out or how much it bothered Tamara that he was showing an interest in her.

She giggled at the thought but was distracted by what sounded like somebody pulling on the string to the attic door. Anna threw her brush down on the dresser and groaned in annoyance. “Go away, Abigail!”

Just then, the attic door was pulled down and the ladder extended. Anna rolled her eyes as her unwelcome visitor began climbing up.

“It’s just me, honey,” Lynn said as she appeared from below.

“Oh! Sorry, Mom,” Anna replied sheepishly.

Lynn walked over to sit on the end of Anna’s bed just across the attic from the vanity. “No need to be jumpy. I just want to talk.”

“I’m not jumpy.” Anna resumed brushing her hair, seemingly to no direction as though she was trying to distract from her own thoughts. “What’s up?”

Lynn let out a sigh. “You know the school called when you walked out of class today.”

Anna froze in the middle of her movements. She had not told her parents about her latest seizure despite their instruction to do so, and the guilt quickly came over her as Lynn addressed it.

“I haven’t told your father about it,” Lynn continued, sensing her discomfort, “but I would appreciate it if you’d talk to me right now.”

“I didn’t say anything because it wasn’t a big deal,” Anna lied, though she knew it was no use trying.

“Is that why I got a call from you at 2:07 pm?” Lynn responded, never shifting her calm demeanor.

Anna sighed as she set her brush back on the dresser. “I was just doing what you told me to do, but I promise it was nothing serious!”

“Anna, come on now. I may only have known you for a year, but I never taught you to lie.”

Anna spun around in her chair to face Lynn, frustration lighting up within her eyes. “Exactly. It’s been a year and you still won’t let this go.”

Lynn returned a look of confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s bad enough that I can’t stop these spasms from happening, but do you know how embarrassing it is when they happen in the middle of school?”

“That’s why we want to know these things,” Lynn replied. “So that we can one day stop them.”

“How? After all this time, what have you done to help?”

“You stopped this one on your own, didn’t you?”

Anna opened her mouth to respond, but was unable to find any words. What Lynn said was true, and she realized that she had stepped out of line just now. However, that did nothing for the fact that she was more stressed about the issue than ever.

“I guess so,” she muttered, lowering her head.

Lynn stood up and approached the dresser. “Look, I understand how you feel.”

“No you don’t!” Anna cried, jumping to her feet. “You don’t know how this feels! You don’t know what it’s like to be nobody!”

“You are not nobody,” Lynn countered sternly. “You are my daughter, Anna, regardless of how you came to us.”

“That’s not even my real name!” Anna screamed, tears forming in her eyes. “You gave it to me. I don’t know my real name! I have a real family out there somewhere that I’ll never know! You can’t possibly know what that’s like!”

“Anna,” Lynn tried to cut in.

“It’s not fair! All I want is to have a normal life, but I’m an outcast and everybody can see it no matter how hard I try to fit in!”

“Do you really believe that, Anna?” Lynn crossed her arms. “Is that what this boy thinks of you? Do you believe that’s what he thought when he asked you out on a date?” Once again, Anna was silent as she struggled to find a response. 

“Or maybe,” Lynn continued, “he saw what the rest of us have always seen: someone special. Someone who is destined for great things, even if she doesn’t believe it.” She stepped closer and placed a loving hand on Anna’s shoulder. “One day, all of this will make sense to you.”

Anna raised her head to look her into the eyes. “When?” she asked in little more than a whisper. “When will it all make sense? When will things change?”

Lynn thought for a moment before smiling and shrugging a shoulder. “Only you can discover that for yourself, and we will be right here beside you every step of the way.”

Her words put a smile on Anna’s face, even if it was not exactly what she was hoping to hear. Lynn pulled her into an embrace before bidding her goodnight and heading out of the attic, closing up the door behind her.

Anna lied on her bed for several hours and stared blankly up at the ceiling rafters. The questions gnawed at her at all times. Would everything make sense to her one day? Was she really destined for great things as Lynn believed? Anna knew she was just trying to help, but wondering about the future was almost as hard as the uncertainty of her past. As she tossed and turned in her bed, she tried to direct her mind onto other things, specifically Jason. Even if nothing else did the trick, she could always count on that to bring a little warmth to her heart as she drifted off to sleep.

Out of nowhere, a strange humming began to fill her ears. Anna was so groggy that she did not register it at first. A voice was speaking somewhere in the distance. She could not make out what it was saying amidst the incessant humming and her own exhaustion, but as each second ticked by, the voice grew louder and more audible. It was speaking a name.

“Andromeda.” Over and over again she heard it. “Andromeda. Can you hear me?” Anna shifted where she lied, still unable to open her eyes. “Where are you? Tell me where you are.”

At last, Anna managed to open her eyes. Her vision was blurry and she was unable to make out anything. The only thing she could see was a blinding white light in front of her eyes.

“Subject Nine,” she heard another voice speak up. Unlike the first voice which seemed to come from inside her, this one sounded as though somebody was standing over her. A hand pried her eye open, but the light suspended above her was so bright that she could barely make out the figure staring at her right in front of her face. She wanted to resist, but either she was too exhausted to move or her arms were bound at her side.

“Are you awake?” the figure addressed her. Anna had no control over herself as her head gave an affirming nod of its own accord. “Good. I need you to do everything I say as best you can. Can you tell me your name?”

Anna shook her head in response.

“Your name,” the voice continued, “is Andromeda. Do you understand?”

Anna nodded.

“Now open your eyes.”

Beyond her own command, Anna’s eyes opened wide. Her vision had improved enough to identify the lightsource above her as a fixture akin to a surgical light. She was barely able to scan around the environment but managed to make out several people surrounding her wearing white lab coats and surgical masks. A single itch deep in the back of her head was screaming at her that now was the time to panic, but it was heavily suppressed by an unseen force that seemed to exercise total control over her body and mind.

The man standing over her pointed a small light directly in front of her face. “Follow the light for me.” With his other hand holding her head in place, Anna’s eyes tracked the movement of the light with complete precision. “Visual response: normal.”

The light flicked off and the man handed it off. “Has the anesthesia taken full effect?”

Anna saw another white-dressed person, this one a woman, come into view. As her eyes tracked her every movement, she felt a series of light pokes in various places around her body like a fine, sharp object, yet no pain followed.

“Subject shows no response to prodding,” the woman said with the same indifferent tone.

“Good,” the man replied. “Insertion of the M-Gene is not going to be pleasant, but the anesthesia should help the subject suppress as much of the pain as possible.”

The same faint alarm was going off in her head again. What sort of pain they were talking about, she had no idea, but she was still unable to move or so much as think about resisting.

“Alright,” the man continued. “Turn her over.”

Just then, the bed she was lying on - or table, she could not be sure - began to rotate slowly until she was now facing the floor. It was at this moment that Anna realized she was being bound to the table by a series of tight restraints. It was no wonder she could not move.

“Prepare to inject,” she heard the man order.

There was a mechanical whirring sound that was followed by several more pokes against the flesh of her back as though many long needles had just been inserted along her spine. This was the harshest sensation she had felt so far, yet she never so much as winced due to the numbness throughout her body.

“Now,” the man said in a serious tone, “administer the gene.”

Something seemed to click in Anna’s brain. It was like deja vu. The voice in her head was screaming louder than ever, as if warning her that something very bad was about to happen.

Seconds later, a warm liquid began coursing through her veins from the needles in her back. It was almost soothing at first, but it quickly overwhelmed her nerves and she desperately wanted it to stop. Anna was breathing heavily. She was wide awake now and her heart was pounding against her chest. The warmth had spread to every corner of her body, from her toes all the way up to engulf her face. That was when it happened.

Anna’s eyes bulged when she was suddenly struck by the worst pain she had ever experienced in her life. It was like the needles stuck in her back began piercing every bone, every muscle, and every organ in her body all at the same time, but it did not end there. What followed was like a powerful electric shock jolting her from the inside. Whatever anesthesia was in her system seemed to vanish in an instant. Anna’s eyes clenched shut and she let out a bloodcurdling scream that filled the entire room. 

“Hold her!” the man exclaimed.

Several sets of hands were placed all over her body attempting to hold up against the table as though the restraints were no longer doing the trick. Anna’s muscles were tightening beyond her capacity to control them. There was so much pressure in her arms that she could not help but clench her hands into fists. The restraints around her arms were tearing against the force she was exerting. It was too much to bear. In Anna’s mind, there was only one thing she would accept in exchange for all this pain: death.

Then, all it once, everything stopped.

Anna’s eyes flew open and her ears were filled with the sound of her screams. She had regained full control of her body as she flipped over and fell onto the floor. She writhed and turned over to scan her surroundings. The first thing she noticed was that the surgical light was gone and she was now sitting in total darkness. Her panicked breathing continued until her eyes adjusted and she made out the faint light of the night sky coming through her bedroom window.

Anna pulled herself to feet, stumbling several times as they were almost too weak to support her in her shaken state. She reached around to feel her back where the array of needles had been, but all she felt was the cotton of her pajamas. Her heart was beating painfully, but she had finally realized that it was only a dream.

Or was it? she asked herself. She could not say what, but something about that experience felt entirely too real, as if she was reliving a memory rather than a figment of her imagination. Anna crawled back into her bed and wrapped her blanket around herself, which was now cold and soaked by her own sweat, but she did not mind. She could not stop herself from shaking, and it took her a moment to realize that her right arm was throbbing incessantly. She did everything she could to relax her mind, hoping that this was not going to induce another seizure. This was becoming too much to handle. It was yet another thing to add to the plethora of questions she was having about who she was, where she came from, and most importantly, what was wrong with her.