Torriqual

Don't Get

• 
  

• The Awakening

  The darkness melted into a screaming white light. What had been a dreamless sleep morphed into the buzz of machinery and the quiet chattering of excited voices. She wanted to scream, to tell them to shut up. She was too tired. Far too tired. Then a voice,
  
  "Open your eyes, angel. We need to go home now."
  
  She wanted to protest, but her tongue was having trouble awakening from the anesthesia. Her stomach heaved, threatened to expel its contents, and a mask was slapped over her face. After a few moments of oxygen, her nausea faded and she felt someone lifting her to her feet. Slowly, her vision cleared. Dark splotches became blobs that became shapes that became clear objects. She looked up into the face of her father as he ushered her down a bright hallway. Her feet didn't quite work yet and the world kept tipping sideways. She was allowed no delay, that older hand tugging her straight and forcing her awkward steps to quicken.
  
  "Papa, my rabbit!"
  
  The teen panicked and tried to turn and run back down the way they'd come. Surely she'd left her favorite stuffed rabbit in that cold, buzzing room. It was one of the few things that gave her comfort when they took her to the surgical room. But those older hands finally grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder and began to run, just as the first screams followed the first shots. The man uttered a curse and skidded around a corner. They were almost there.
  
  The girl rose her head to watch the dark clothed men coming after them, and though it was loud, she couldn't help but think the sparks their bullets made against the walls were beautiful. She smiled and the small red light that had so carefully been placed on her forehead dropped to the ground. Her nose wrinkled at the foul words one man screamed at the man who'd put his gun down over such an innocent grin.
  
  They were in what she figured was a giant garage then. She liked it there, with the smell of gasoline and the darkness. She wanted to stay, but the man kept running. He stopped only to bar the door then he was moving again, to the huge, partially opened hangar door. He put her on her feet then and crouched down to look into those bright green eyes.
  
  His shaking fingertips lifted to touch the bald patch on the right side of her head, silently counting the thick staples that he'd fashioned to keep the skin over his daughters skull. Then they twisted affectionately in those red tresses that were the exact same shade as his.
  
  "I love you, Torriqual," he told her, swiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. He couldn't look at her when she gazed up at him so inquisitively. Instead he stood and straightened, ignoring the angry shouts from the other side of the barred door.
  
  "Execute Operation Organic Keeper," he said quietly, his voice cracking. "Delete shut-down memories."
  
  The girl's eyes went dead as the older man whispered prayers that the two lab bred minds hadn't died during transplant, or had been devoured by the main consciousness. But then:
  
  "Shut-down memories forgotten. Organic Keeper is active."
  
  The old man was torn between joy at his success and fear at the horror he'd injected into his daughter. But now, now she'd be protected. His fingertips touched her shoulders lightly as he spoke in quiet, rushed tones.
  
  "Keeper, run home. Find mother and tell her she must get you and your brothers somewhere safe."
  
  She tilted her head to the side, blinking a few times as she tried to suppress the main mind. Her brows kitted and tears began to fall down her cheeks,
  
  "Torriqual is afraid, I can't make her move," the girl uttered in a quiet panic, her form shivering.
  
  "You have to. This is what we conditioned you for, remember? You know how to work the nerves, you know how to control her breath, you know how to make her sleep soundly."
  
  Suddenly a shot pierced the darkness, and with a heavy thud, her father hit the ground. Her head tipped, confused. Why was he on the floor? She was so entranced by the red that slowly started to spread, that she didn't notice the red dot of a guns scope upon her. The sound was deafening when the gun went off, but the pain that hit her did not match it. She'd been shoved to the floor. The flash of red hair that was in her face as she peered up from the ground was mistaken almost for her father. But, it was one of the boys from the experiment. Keeper did not know his name, but she felt Torri trying to wake for him. Instead of allowing it, keeper tried to hear his panicked words over the noise that suddenly erupted through the room as men flooded it. She followed the boys gestures instead, toward the partially open door.
  
  She bit her lip and nodded, finally managing to turn herself toward the open door. She gave one backward glance to give the boy a small nod before she took off running, sliding through the small opening effortlessly. She did not look back when it slammed closed not long behind her,even if Torri screamed deep in the dark room of her mind for her friend. She did not look back when, several minutes later, the entire complex went up in flames. No, she was just a nineteen year old girl, running home to her mother.

• Parameters

  An hour of running and the girl made it to her family's country home, wheat slapping at her legs as she cut through the field. She ran passed the little pond her younger brothers were playing beside. But she stopped a few feet away from them when she felt the small rock strike her head, and the vicious little taunt,
  
  "Torri, your hair looks stupid."
  
  The laughter that followed was deafening. Her hands slammed over her ears to keep them out, but their voices crawled inside her mind like worms. There was a moment, were the anger and sadness triggered a preloaded sequence. The Keeper knew right away, when her mind fired off those lab-learned orders that the parameters had been set too low, but she could not stop it from happening, she was still so new. She wasn't given time to adjust to life within a body.
  
  "Guardian, Initiate protocol 7-4-3-8" she uttered quietly
  
  There was a snapping when the Keeper allowed herself to slip away, a change that rushed through her cerebellum. Her muscles were ordered to function a different way, balance was readjusted. The girls eyes were cold when she turned to watch the boys, who had stopped laughing.
  
  "Stop being weird, Torri."
  
  She moved. She moved like a vicious cat, all sinew and cold calculation. She moved like a storm, raging through the forest. Before they could blink, each boy was in the water, held by the wrists. She almost calmed, when their shock made the air quiet. Keeper had almost been able to return and stop the process. But then they started to scream, and Guardian screamed with them.
  But soon, Guardian was the only one left screaming. She looked to the water. It was dark and still, though she could make out the faint glow of the pale wrists she'd been holding onto. Then they got closer, and closer. As the bodies rose, she began screaming again.
  
  Screams which finally brought Mother running.
  
  When the older woman finally reached the pond, she found her daughter standing, staring blankly toward the middle of the water.
  "Torriqual, what's wrong, honey?" she asked, breathlessly
  Slowly her eyes followed the child's. It took a few moments for her to register what she was looking at, but when she did, cold terror exploded within her. Without thought, she began screaming and knocked the girl aside as she jumped in, aiming to swim out to the dark things floating on the water. Torri's hands balled into fists, watching a trickle of blood ooze down her leg from the shove. The coldness sparked back into those dark green eyes.
  
  She stood for hours, watching the three dark lumps circle around the pond. She stood until the sun melted and the stars began to glow. They knew Torri had seen it all, the fragile girl witnessing it as if she'd done it herself. They also knew they were not strong enough yet to let her know of their existence, just as they had not been strong enough to hide their terrible actions from her. She would have to suffer, at least for a little while. Finally, the Keeper slid herself back in full control and she walked into the nearby woods, disappearing from her hometown like a ghost.