Jared woke up with extreme back pain again. It wasn’t the usual crick in the spine he had on a day to day basis. Instead it was something stronger. It felt more like some kind of electric shock but was weak enough to be a cramp. Jared opened one eye then immediately closed it. He attempted to open it once more. This time, the eyelid refused to open and remained in place. No matter what he tried, nothing would get him to move. He was paralyzed and he didn’t know how.
“Mom? Dad?” he hummed loudly. There was no answer. He called again, “Mom? Dad?” Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jared could feel his eyelid slowly open. Someone or something was prying it open. A bright, white light shone into Jared’s eyes. This caused Jared to be blinded for a small two seconds or so. Jared attempted to close his eye but he remained the same way. He almost forgot he was still paralyzed.
“This is experiment 2261, right?” asked a feminine voice.
“Yes. We had just created him so he wont be awake for a while. Feel free to observe him.” replied a masculine voice.
The bright light suddenly went away and was replaced with a face of a sort. Jared felt like her remembered it from somewhere. The face was a man with many freckles that dotted his nose. His hair, from what Jared could see, was blonde on one side but brown on the other. His eyes were concealed by the glow of light that emitted from his glasses but Jared guessed his eyes were differently colored too.
“Why are his eyes that way?” asked the feminine voice.
“Well, when we were injecting the strands into his body, his eyes weren’t handling it well. So, we replaced them with fox eyes instead. We figured it would react better with the DNA.” replied the man.
“I see.”
The man’s head moved away from Jared’s view and was replaced with a new face. This face was the one of a woman’s. Her skin was paler than snow, her eyes were a mauve purple, and her hair was a dark black but dyed dark blue at the tips. She stood over Jared and shined the flashlight in his eyes.
“Hello?” Jared hummed.
The woman jumped back. “Hey, he’s awake!” she exclaimed.
“What?!” said the man, “That, that’s not possible!”
The woman let go of Jared’s eyelid as he heard them rush around the office, or whatever it was. Jared could feel somethings being yanked from his body. Perhaps they were IVs, but he couldn’t tell.
“2261. Are you there?” asked the woman in panic.
“Yeah.” he mumbled.
“Okay. We need you to stand up for us in a second. Can you do that?”
The beeping sound of a heart monitor slowly joined the footsteps. The beeping sounds were upbeat and consistent. Judging from his experience so far, the heart beat was most likely his.
“Am I dying?” he asked in a monotone voice.
“No. Just stand up when we tell you and you’ll be fine.” replied the man.
Jared took a deep breath as he listened to the man and woman rush around. He heard the heart monitor beeping faster by the second. Jared felt as the hands of the people gingerly lifted Jared’s head. After that, he could feel some sort of pressure being placed on his back.
“Okay 2261. Are you ready?” asked the man.
“Yes.”
The woman and man began to count down in unison. Jared pushed off of whatever was behind him. Only a few seconds later he found himself standing on all fours like a cat. He attempted to stand on two legs but they buckled before he could move.
“Okay, we’re good!” sighed the woman, “Can you open your eyes now?”
Jared stood on the ground and attempted to open his eyes. His eyelids were weak but slowly were able to open. However, only one eye opened. In that very moment was when Jared was able to finally open his eye. He looked around at the world he had seen. When he looked up, he saw the man and the woman towering over him. Left of him was a metal table with wheels on the bottom. On his right was the very table he was originally on. Engraved in it’s wooden surface was where his body originally lied, outlined in blood. Hanging from the ceiling of the facility were many wires and tubes that were once connected to Jared’s body. One of the tubes were filled with a silver liquid while another with lymph.
“Is your vision alright?” asked the man.
“It’s beautiful.” Jared thought out loud.
The man and woman bent down to Jared’s eye level and grinned. The woman placed her hand on Jared’s head and slowly moved it down the side of his face.
“You’re so beautiful,” she cried, “I wish you could last forever.”
Jared cocked his head to the side in confusion. “What do you mean? Who are you?”
The woman, in concern, turned towards the man with the look of fear in her eyes.
“Seth, he doesn’t remember us. What if he lost his memory?” the woman yelled.
“Mariposa, calm down. I’m sure he’s fine. He must be in shock or something.”
The man, Seth, leaned closer towards Jared. Now his glasses were less concealing towards his eye color. Seth’s eyes appeared to be cat-like to where one was green and the other was brown.
“Now 2261. Do you know my name?” Seth asked.
“Seth. That’s your name.”
“Okay. What is your name?”
“I don’t know.”
Seth turned to Mariposa. Mariposa stepped closer to Jared.
“Do you know who we are?” she asked.
“No.” replied Jared.
Mariposa placed her hand over her mouth.
“He doesn’t know who we are. There’s something wrong with him!”
Mariposa placed her arms around Jared lovingly. Jared, confused, looked up towards Seth.
“He can’t forget us, right? We’re too important for him to forget us! You remember us! You know us!”
Mariposa began to cry dramatically. Seth placed his hand on Mariposa’s back in attempt to comfort her.
“Hey, don’t cry about it. We can work with this.” Seth smiled.
“No we can’t. He wont be the same. He won’t be the same child we raised.”
“Yes he will. We just need to show him who he was. It’s going to be okay.”
“What if it isn’t, Seth?”
Jared looked at Mariposa’s face and then at Seth.
“Are y’all my mom and dad?” he asked.
Mariposa gasped. She looked at Jared then back at Seth.
“Did you just figure that out?” Seth asked.
Jared nodded.
“I guess he’s already learning. I told you everything would be okay.” Seth smirked.
Mariposa and Seth joined each other as they both embraced Jared lovingly. Jared,
without knowing what to do, he sat there with his hands at his sides and a blank expression. He didn’t know what was going on. He understood the people who surrounded him but didn’t understand where he was or what was happening. All he knew was that the people around were not his parents. For, if they were his parents, why is his name a number?
Science Fiction
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