Her Mind Stolen, Her Body Transformed
By Steven Nicholas Jones
Some journeys seem tame, unrealistic and cold. This one in fact is far from it, with the sun glaring down from above and the footsteps of kids running around, we begin to see happiness rise. But in this case it’s the opposite. With it being one of the hottest days in history. It wasn’t really good for a school day with angsty teens walking around and in class. Most of them though loved it, but for one freshman it would be the day that changed everything, either for the good or for the bad. When lunch started, a group of men in black and grey suits walk through the schoolyard and into the headmaster’s office with a black leather-bound briefcase. Those of the students that were near the school gates, stood still and intensely stared at the men, all whispering to each other “I wonder what they are doing here, kind of scary looking.” As the men kept walking with their head stuck in one position looking forward and in sync with each other, storm into the school doors and straight to Mr. Davidson's office.
The first thing they ask the head of school for is to speak with one of their students ‘Makayla.’ As Makayla was heading down the hallway to go outside for lunch, a voice came through the intercom calling for her to come to the headmaster’s office. She stopped in her stride and panicked for a second, thinking to herself, what could that be about, as she hasn’t done anything wrong. When she turned around and walked towards the office, she noticed a short, twitchy man with a brown leather bag, perpetrating like mad standing outside the office. As they locked eyes, this man stood up straight and took a step towards Makayla, “hi there, are you Makayla?" she nodded in confusion, to how he knew her name and stayed silent. He told her that he was her assigned lawyer and needs to talk to her. As he was about to open his mouth, the headmaster walked out, a bit heated and then asked them both to come in. They spoke urgently and intently, the men got into the information slowly, so that the young girl would understand. They mentioned to her that she would soon be given a briefcase and letter that was left to her. Makayla was very surprised, why would she be given a briefcase because she knows all of her family are still alive, this really confused her “Why a briefcase, who’s it from and why me and what’s in it?” she said.
The group of men that were standing heavily around her, which could be seen as intimidating, were also confused, they didn't realize that she doesn't know her real family or that she’s adopted. They began to talk very vaguely about the information towards her, with increased frustration from the headmaster which lead him to finally stick up for his young student “don’t worry Makayla, would you like your guardian’s present? I don’t know why, but this sorry excuse of a lawyer didn’t reach out to your guardians first?” Makayla has a hard decision to make now, whether she should bring in her parents into this or not, but in the end, she chose to keep this to herself and see what all this was about and she decided to jam it into her locker until the end of the day.
Five hours later, after an intense physical education class, where the heat was almost melting the entire group, everyone slowly dragged themselves into the changing room and just dropped down on to the stools. All the girls were laughing and taking the modern day selfie together. Makayla found that all to cringe-worthy, but maybe that was down to her anxiety and social awkwardness. As everyone started to get ready to go into the showers, Makayla, snuck out without changing from her P.E kit. The thought of going into the showers was terrifying for her, ever since she read the fiction book, “Blood Comes From Everywhere” by Jasmine Britten, which tells a story about a deadly virus, that latches on to the membranes, inside the body after kissing or of the application of saliva transferred from one body to the next. The blood vessels multiply and expand, similar to a nosebleed, but the blood travels all over the body and releases is self out of every orifice. It’s a very serious disease that is incurable and extremely painful. Which by the description itself is one terrifying tale and that just put her off ever going into a school shower. But then again that wasn’t the only reason.
As she got away, Makayla quickly got her stuff from her locker and just moved as fast as she could to get out of the school. She couldn’t wait to look through the suitcase that she received from the lawyer earlier that day. When that foot stepped over the school barrier into the real world, there was a sigh of relief, no commitments, just her self and the open world. The idea was to take her secret shortcut for a more relaxed and quiet journey, which would be good in the unbearable weather conditions. Thirty minutes go by and Makayla ends up on a hill, overlooking the town. She heads over to the rotting wooden seat, cemented to the top of the hill, all alone. She sits down and takes a deep breath whilst looking towards the horizon, as the bright orange beast in the sky glares down at her with extreme heat. The sun eventually starts to descend in the distance. The young girl lifted up her legs and crossed them to get comfy, as she then started to open the briefcase. She laid it down on her lap and began to open it; her body began to shake a little as the unknown grew larger and larger. Inside the case were a lot of documents, detailed sketches and colorings and even recordings. As she ruffled through the layers of paper, she found at the bottom a series of photographs of random people working on some machinery. In each picture were two consistent figures of a male and a female, Makayla didn’t really understand or sense anything, but looking at them she couldn’t help but see an uncanny resemblance. The other information in the case, are birth certificates of a child, correspondence, bank statements, bank accounts and copies of some adoption papers.
With confusion growing upon the young girl's mind, she had picked up the adoption papers and had a closer look. The papers revealed that she was actually adopted, which gave her a big shock. She couldn’t believe it. Would this be fake or real, it was hard to tell and either way Makayla had to find out the truth from her parents. As she put the files and images back into the briefcase, a tear fell down her rose-red cheek. To make things worse, she still had the pictures of her real parents, folded up in her left hand. This has been burned into her mind forever. She can never forget what she learned today.
Her father is the typical white American, with long straight dark brown hair. He has a large build and a respected junior inventor, who deals with advanced technology, he’s considered to be far beyond his time. Her mother was quite the opposite, she was Indian born, but grew up in America since the age of three, because her parents wanted the American dream. She is also a very keen advocate of the LGBT community in her respected constituency, but her main passion is painting and she uses this skill in her main job of being a world-renowned psychiatrist. That was up until her disappearance, which shook the world. She’s believed to be alive or dead.
After reading about her biological parents, Makayla burst out in tears. She lifted up the briefcase; and heard a small noise moving around in a secret compartment. As she searched for the opening, she felt a slight crease in the upper right corner where you could see a gap, she slipped her finger into the hole and rang her finger across and opened it. It turned out to be a small square box, which almost resembled an engagement ring. Makayla opened it and found within an earpiece, which was rather strange in her eyes, why would someone hide that. When everything was put back in the case and locked up, she had decided to head back home, as it began to get dark.
Makayla arrived back home, and as she stepped through the front door with her hands trembling, because of the thought of confronting her supposed parents, she took a deep breath and forced herself into the living room. As she guessed they were both there waiting for her, with extremely angry looks on their faces. It crossed her mind about how long they had been waiting and planning out what they were going to say, but I don't think even she realized how deep this was going to go.
"Where have you been, we have waited for hours," said Terry, her adoptive father. Makayla paused and looked at the ground, she didn’t want to argue or talk, so she stayed silent. Terry spoke again “we received a phone call from your headmaster today, telling us that lawyers came to visit you in school, without consent from us.” Terry’s voice grew “now tell us, what he spoke to you about and what was the deal with the suitcase, right now young lady!” This startled Makayla because she has never heard Terry this angry before, this had got her a bit frustrated. So she got annoyed and snapped back at Terry;
"How dare you speak to me like that, and don't call me young lady, I'm not a child. I can make my own decisions and it wasn't my fault, the lawyers tried calling you first, but there wasn't any answer, so don't put all your anger on me. They waited for confirmation from you both, so they decided to come straight to me, as it was important."
Makayla began getting emotional at this point, so she decided to ignore them and run upstairs to her room, but before she could move, her foster parents got extremely mad and the anger within them burst out, “DON’T YOU DARE TALK TO US LIKE THAT, WE ARE YOUR PARENTS! You either give us that briefcase and tell us what is in it or we will make you, and you do not want to see what we will do to you if you don't give it up right now!" This was not a good decision from the parents, and it didn’t sound good for Makayla either.
Before they could get a hold of the girl, she ran as fast as she could, straight to her bedroom and slammed the door. She grabbed as many things as she could and blocked the door so it couldn’t be open. This prompted some heavy kicking from the father; it was traumatizing, to say the least.
"Don't think you can hide away in there forever, I will get my hands on you and that briefcase." Shouted Diana, the foster mum. They gave up eventually and went downstairs to wait and put a movie on.
Makayla was scared to the bone, never had she been shaking so much in her entire life. It was a moment she would never forget. The girl had never seen her parents act like that before, it was like they were completely different people, this had to be one of the weirdest days yet. She sat there for hours contemplating why they wanted the briefcase so badly, what was so important? And is it really worth the hassle…. Around 3 am, Makayla, chose to open the case again and try to figure out the importance of it, but nothing popped out to her, except for the letter and the earpiece. She placed the earpiece to one side because she didn't really want to stick something in her ear, without cleaning it first. Then she opened the letter to have a better read of it.
“Dear child,
If you are reading this, then the time has come for you to receive this gift, for your 18th birthday, but if you manage to receive it before then, then something is about to go wrong and I am so sorry for that. Firstly though, your Father and I want to say we are so sorry for not being there with you to watch you grow up and have a life. You mean the world to us and that's why we created a device for you, just in case something like this did happen. If you open the small box that's waiting for you, in the case, you will see it's an earpiece, but not just any earpiece, it’s a brand new invention we created, it’s a console to hold an artificial intelligence. I and your father created a system that we implemented into the coding software that would allow us to transfer our consciousness into the device itself, so we could live on in memory and guide you and be there for you.
Then something bad happened, our partners and best friends turned on us, they were undercover and broke our hearts, they tried to steal the software from us, but we wouldn't give in to them and went on the run. Eventually, we finished the device, and sadly I don't know if it works yet, because I haven't tested it. Hopefully, you can when the right time comes. Once again, I am sorry about not being there, I’m your mother, and it’s my right. I don’t know what happened to your dad, he handed me the case and told me to run. He never made it back.
Please take care of yourself. You may be still in my belly right now, but by the time you read this, you will be all grown up. I just want to let you know how much I love you with all my heart; you mean the world to me. Be strong and take care.
Lots and lots and lots of love your mum. xxx
Makayla broke down in tears. Even though she never knew her real mum, she could feel the undying love and care in her writing. It just tore her heart. Then she took a closer look of the earpiece, it was rather chunky, as it was created back in the 90’s but the overall style was very slick and clean, which had a small, neon blue light, running across the device. Very cyberpunk. It’s also very easy to hide if you have long hair, so that was a plus.
Unfortunately, the earpiece wasn't working, but there was a slot in the device that could be connected to something. It was also a wireless and self-charging machine, which was strange because it’s around twenty-two years old and the technology wasn’t around back then. Which may confirm just how ahead of his time Makayla’s father was.
As it was really late, Makayla decided to pack everything up and head to sleep. Luckily it was the weekend, which gives the girl time to do some digging into the earpiece in a quiet and secluded area. The plan is to sneak out of the house before everyone wakes up and find a spot and see how exactly the device works.
Six hours later. At around nine o’clock in the morning. The foster parents are usually still asleep at this time on a Saturday. They don't normally get up until lunchtime, but after last night, who knows what they are doing. So Makayla had to be very cautious not to wake anyone up, and before she had to head out, she remembered about all the heavy things she threw in front of the door “oh crap, I forgot about this” she sighed and began to move everything. Then as it was all done and the door opened, thus began the slow and silent footsteps of the young girl. As she moved farther away from her room, she stood still and had a listen to her surroundings to hear any movement or talking, but everything was very quiet and you know what that means.
As she moved again, she noticed a strange object on the wall that hasn’t always been there; she took a closer look at it. It turned out to be a small wireless camera and it seemed to be recording and moving side-to-side watching her. This worried Makayla, she was about to head down the stairs, she noticed a dark shadow walking slow and heavy up the stairs, it was obviously the footstep's of a large male, it was almost like a slow-motion scene, it was that nerve-wracking.
Then in the midst of the tension growing, Makayla saw an opening in the toilet, someone had left the overly large bathroom window open, so she thought to her self, "screw it, I'm going for it" and ran as fast as she could and dived right out the window, onto the ledge that was outside.
“Quick, she’s getting away, catch her,” someone shouted from inside. Makayla began to rush, these people from inside the house, burst through the doors and windows and started chasing her. Thing’s were getting out of control, so she continued to run as fast as she could. The sweat was pouring off her forehead, she had never run this fast before, but she had the advantage of knowing the area and got away.
Meanwhile back at the house, Terry and Diana were talking to each other inside the hidden room they have, connected to their closet. Within that closet, were cameras, television screens, computers, files, books, and even an agent they employed to monitor Makayla. They had been trying to figure out what they are going to do next. With twenty-three years of information to look at, they had loads of ideas, they could use to try and convince or capture Makayla. Now that Makayla had gotten away, for now, Terry and Diana decided to go back and check her room, to see if she had left any evidence or any trace to where she might have gone.
This brought them to a sketchbook hidden under her bed. It was filled with character sketches, storyboards, and other doodles, but there was one thing that stood out to both of them. It was a large tree in the woods that had very large roots and a deep pit that was depicted in the drawing, so they got a search team together and gave them the new intel, on what to look for in the woods. Diana began to reminisce and this brought her attention to Makayla’s necklace.
“Hey Terry, does Makayla still have that necklace we got her a few years back?” Terry nodded “yeah I think she does” he replied.
Their minds clicked, they had remembered that there was a tracker within it.
"Hun, this is bringing way to many memories back. It’s almost like seventeen years ago, all over again.” Terry stated. He was referring back to when Makayla’s real parents went missing. But they were to busy to reminisce about the past, so they headed back to the house to check if the tracker was still active, which for them was extremely lucky. They then decided to get suited up and join the search.
Seventeen years ago, both Terry and Diana were relatively new at they jobs and they had been having lunch with their best friends Anjali and Richard, which was a very rare double date for the four of them. It was in one of the most ridiculous and cheapest restaurants going. Some would believe it was for children. It was called ‘The Cuddly Bear’ which was a strange name for a 24-7 restaurant. It was very popular. The meals they had on the menu were ‘The Mega Black Bear Milkshake and The Double Polar Bear Burger with large Bear Cub Fries,' This was just the main meal, just imagine what the other food would be called.
You could already tell that it was the most popular meal in the restaurant. All four of them went for the same meal, but Anjali decided to have ‘The Big Foot Barrel’ which was a fifteen-inch glass of root beer. If you drink it down in one mouthful, she would win the entire table free ‘Big Foots' that only one person per table could enter. She took that challenge with so much bravado and confidence that she set a house record with a landslide, which gave her the first spot on their wall.
Little did they know, that this would be their last meal together as friends. It was all laugh and games up until Terry mentioned Richard's work "So how is the project coming along?" This shocked both Richard and Anjali because it was top secret and a personal project that only both of them knew about.
"What do you mean Terry, I'm not working on anything right now. Why would you bring that up? Said Richard, the laughter began from Terry and a smirk from Diana "Oh Rich, don't play coy with me, my bosses have been watching you for the past six years. It’s a shame this has to end this way, please don’t make this harder than it needs to be, tell us about project A.I.W.D (Artificial Intelligence Wireless Device)” said Terry.
Tension grew, the atmosphere around the table, got really tense. Richard with his heated face and Anjali with her shocked expression just stopped at looked at each other and could sense, something wasn't right, to which they decided to stand up and slowly start heading out. But as Anjali was about to stand, Terry grabbed her wrist with extreme force and held it tightly, like she was bound to chains and getting ready to hear it snap.
The traumatizing look on her face enraged Richard “get your damn hands of her or you will wish you never touched her. Look I have no idea what you think I am doing, but don’t you ever come near us again. I am so shocked by you guys I loved you both. We are going now, so if you ever want to speak to us again, you better stop with this charade.” Said Richard with huge disappointment and anger.
Diana burst out into laughter, "I'm sorry guys, but you aren't going anywhere until you tell us everything about that project and this time I'm not being nice. You better sit down now, or in your case Richard, if you don't, I have a special room in my office, that's just waiting for Anjali and me! She won't be yours by the time I’m finished.” Said Diana with a big grin and taunting eyes. Terry with his shocked gaze was not expecting that from her, he had no idea Diana was that powerful and confident. He respected her from that moment.
After this threat, Richard punched Terry and ripped his hand from Anjali’s wrist, as they both ran out of ‘The Cuddly Bear' in tears and shock, hoping they wouldn't be following them. When they escaped, the only place they could do was to their house, and when they got there, they quickly, picked up all of the documents and designs for the A.I.W.D and any other household items that were meaningful and went deep into hiding. By the time Terry and Diana arrived at the house, it had already been emptied. All that was left were the essentials like sofa's, chairs, tables, food and stuff like that. "Shit," they both said, "grab what you can and let's see if they left anything behind that will could be of any use." Said Diana.
Eventually, after an hour, they found something that had been left behind. It was a letter relating to a warehouse, it had a postcode that was ‘BN1.’ This was linked to an area in the United Kingdom, which was on the outskirts of Brighton. This was a major clue left behind "We will find them love and we will get that device. I swear to it,” said Terry.
Nine months and twenty-seven days later Anjali and Richard were talking by a set of curved computer screens. It had been hours and hours of work that just seemed like it would never end, but out of nowhere Richard jumped out of his chair in huge excitement “Oh my god!” Anjali we have done it we actually got the coding and algorithm right, everything has synced together perfectly. Would you be a dear and strap the neural device on my forehead and begin the process." Although Anjali was happy it worked, she seems a little concerned "are you sure it works Rich? I don't want you hurting yourself!" Richard reassured her everything is fine, she smiled and placed the device on his head. "Be still Rich, try not to move and just relax, the calibration process will begin shortly.” Said Anjali.
An hour into the process it was around fifty percent. The speed was taking unusually long, but as things seem quiet and dull, a sudden noise arose from outside the building. At first, they shrugged it off and ignored it, but then there was another noise, this gave Richard a very uneasy feeling, he realized something was wrong.
"Hun, I think it's them, they have tracked us down somehow. But we are at eighty percent now, so not long, it should be done, before anything happens, just need a few more minutes.” Said Richard, in a soft and silent tone.
Anjali stood up, to see outside. As she opened a panel that was pinned to a window, she noticed the building was surrounded by what looked to be highly trained agents. They were all strapped in highly advanced military gear that wasn’t on the market yet. She then proceeded to run towards the single computer next to the front gate and set off a range of explosions that were hidden under crates and boxes in front of the building. This slightly injured some agents, but with their new military gear, the explosions meant nothing, they just stood inside all of the explosions and waited for it to pass. But this did open some cracks in the floor, which took out half of the agents.
Then both Terry and Diana charged at the door once all the traps had stopped working. They began shooting the keypad that was at the gate to try and break it down, but nothing happened so they place some C4 on it and blew the door open. Because they didn't want to ruin any of the equipment and documents, they decided against smoke grenades and just swarmed the place. As they stormed in Anjali attacked both Terry and Diana, by firstly taking out Terry, by kicking his kneecap and then sliding over the desk to use a Tomoe Nage, which is a Sacrifice throw, mainly used in Judo. This means she would put herself under Diana and then uses her momentum to flip her over and put her in a neck lock. Before she could commit to ending Diana, Terry threw a chair at Anjali, knocking her off and disrupting the fight. He then pulled out a gun and pointed it right at Richard, and as Anjali attempted to get up and stop him, He pulled the trigger and ended the life of his former friend Rich.
A shrieking scream came from Anjali “NOOOOOOOOOOOO.” The distress and emotion overpowered her, without a clear thought in her mind, she didn't realize that the transfer had finished. Their project worked, but that changed when she saw Terry limping over to him. She then picked up the chair that he had previously thrown at her, and tossed it as hard as she could, which evidently got him in the same kneecap. Anjali rushed over to the computer and saw the process had finished, pulled off the device and picked up whatever paperwork she could and started running as fast as possible, even with bullets coming from Diana. Which one bullet hit her in the upper tricep. Anjali made it to the long corridor and took a breather. Then as she was taking a breath, she heard a taunt from Diana coming from within the computer lab.
“Anj, if you can hear me, I will keep my promise I told to Richard, back in the restaurant, if you don’t come back now and surrender, you will be mine. I am looking forward to our time we are going to have together. Your nightmare awaits.”
A loud and creepy laugh was followed Anjali down the corridor, as she was escaping. It was following her like it was a poltergeist getting ready to attack. Before it could reach her, Anjali dived out the fire exit and managed to get away without a trace.
Some days later Anjali went to the American embassy in Nine Elms, London, to meet up with a friend, who’s a lawyer. She handed him a briefcase and two envelopes, which one was for him explaining everything that was going down. A sigh of relief came from her, she couldn’t believe that she managed to get the device away safely after all the tweaking and amendments that needed to be done. Anjali now relaxed, began walking out of the embassy slowly, but before she could do so, someone grabbed her arm, that someone turned out to be Diana in disguise. Before she could scream, Diana placed her hand over her mouth and said “oh you are mine now, I did warn you” and proceeded to chuckle.
Time had passed since the murder and abduction of Richard and Anjali. All over the news, they both live on. What was shown on there was Richard’s face and images of the murder scene. With a tip-off from Anjali's Lawyer friend, they placed her all over the news, stating that she’s missing and related to Richard’s crime scene. If anyone has seen her, please let the local police know.
Back, in the Present day. Makayla found the perfect spot in the forest. A hidden crevice under the roots of an abnormally large tree, it was surrounded by thick, green and healthy bushes that no one could see through. As she took a closer look, it seemed to be an old abandoned badger nest. Inside had rotting bones; little paw prints and what seemed to be dried blood that was from a while back. After the inspection to see if the nest was clear to hang out in, she made her self-comfortable whilst crossing her legs and leant back onto the slightly moist mudded wall.
When she began to set everything up, she noticed a light shining on her briefcase, Makayla looked up and noticed a gap in the ceiling, it was a grey cloudy sky that she could tell it was about to start snowing heavily. Makayla just fell back to the wall and reflected on her life as she gazed upon the emptiness of the sky.
She then took a second to take it all in and sighed, as she got ready to reveal the secrets of her past and see what exactly this device does. With a gentle touch, she picked it up and slid it on to her ear, when she did a voice appeared as by magic. The device turned itself on as soon as it touched the back of her ear. “Hello, can anyone hear me?” said the device, Makayla had a surprised face, thinking to herself, "what the hell is this?" but the device continued to act confused as if it didn't know it was a machine.
Then she replied “Hi I’m Makayla, who are you?” to which the device replied “what do you mean who am I? I’m Richard.” But the girl was still confused, she didn’t know how to react, she tried to explain the best that she could, to the device that it was an earpiece with artificial intelligence.
With surprise, Richard replied, “Oh my god, it worked, the transfer completed before they got to me." But then he clicked on how this random stranger got a hold of the device and asked the girl. She responded in a sensitive manner
“How can I explain what I know? A lawyer handed me a briefcase yesterday that is supposedly from my real mother. It came with a letter explaining everything that you both created. Whatever you have done, you are my father.”
A tear came to Makayla’s eye. Richard went silent, with shock, he realized then, that this was his child and that his wife is gone. Richard replied, “I am so sorry you have become involved. We didn’t mean for this to happen and if you are my child, then what year is it?” The year is 2017 explained Makayla, this destroyed Richard’s emotion. He couldn’t believe how long it’s been. “Oh man, seventeen years in darkness, not knowing what was happening and missing my child growing up. I’m seriously sorry, do you know what happened to your mother?” but Makayla didn't, she tried her best to give everything she knew, but it just wasn't enough, she asked Richard what exactly this device is for and why he created it.
“Where do I start? Firstly it’s called the A.I.W.D, which stands for ‘Artificial Intelligence Wireless Device’ it was designed to be the everyday companion for people who don’t have friends and struggle with everyday life, its essentially a friend, or maybe a pathway to a creepy relationship tool, but if that help's people cope with everyday life and be happy, then why not. It’s their life. But if it got into the wrong hands then, I think you are old enough to think what people would do with this kind of technology. Eternal life without death, unstoppable A.I technology that could wipe out countries, the list could go on.”
Makayla liked the idea; it would help with today’s problems with the rise of depression and mental illness. Richard continued to speak,
“Although we stopped believing in it for a while, your mother and I came up with an algorithm that would build it's self up with time and perfect itself, but the only way it would work and not get out of control was to transfer one's consciousness into the device. That's when we knew one of us would have to give everything up and it worked. But from what it seems, it was your mother that didn't make it.”
Richard tried to cry, but because he hasn't got a living from it wouldn’t work for him anymore, so any emotion that was once there is now gone. He then went silent and just waited to hear back from Makayla. She did wonder what had happened back then and what forced them to take such drastic actions. He replied to her saying that his so-called best friends turned out to be working for a third party. They tried to take away their project, but they escaped. After nine months they found them and the rest was history.
When all these memories coming back to him, he remembered what his former friend Diana said to Anjali "She won't be yours by the time I'm finished;" he didn't mention this to Makayla, but he did warn her that she needs to be careful. His plan was to then give all the information she needs to either keep this device for her self or replicate it for everyone else around the world. “The choice is yours,” he mentioned. This was her parent’s dream, not hers, could she live up to the destiny that awaits her.
“I may not be there physically to show you how I feel, but consciously I love you my so…” said Richard before getting cut off. “STOP” Makayla shouted, she couldn’t let him finish that sentence because, one, she couldn’t believe that she’s actually speaking to her real father, two, this was real and three, well, this was the hardest part,
"Dad there's something I need to tell you before I let you finish that sentence, I want you to know that this is very hard for me and I need you to understand. But I’m not a boy anymore; I have felt uncomfortable for so long about whom I was. A few years ago I knew what my path was leading to, I just knew that being a woman is who I was meant to be, I never asked for this.” Said Makayla breaking down in tears, with her hand’s pressed up against her eyes.
"Oh darling, I don't care whether you are a boy or a girl, I helped create you, you are my child and I love you more than anything, whoever you choose to be, I will be there and follow your decision until the end. I love you." He said calmly. "So what do I call you then?" she chuckled "ah yes, I forgot, you can call me Makayla" a chuckle also came from Richard "what a lovely name, your mother would have loved it." He said with love.
From this moment, the connection between them was growing. This lead to the device she had in her ear, grow tighter. She was comfortable enough to feel that this was all legit and actually real, they both continued to talk about the history of the device and the mechanics behind it and what really happened, but this got on to the topic of a programmer named Jamie. She was the third designer that no one knew about apart from Richard and Anjali. He then told Makayla to find out where she is and that he will help track her down because Jamie will be able to help develop the software to be better and expand.
When they finished talking, noises were coming from a distance that was getting closer to the den. Richard grew anxious “what was that?” then Makayla explained to him that her foster parents were chasing her because they want this device, to which he asked her what their names were and she told him that they are called Terry and Diana. Richard went silent for a second and told her that they are frauds, that they were the ones that killed him. Makayla then forced her self not to lose her temper finding out everything about her foster parents was the truth.
Now that everything made sense, she had to stay as still as possible because there were about a dozen footsteps walking above, which was a good sign, as nobody noticed the big hole under the tree. A few moments later, the area was clear, Makayla popped her head out to double check it was. When she crawled out of the hole, Richard used a program within the device that connected to Makayla ‘Optic Nerve’ which she didn’t feel or even notice. With this, he had control of both the eyes and the brain to which he used a visual mapping system, a bit like what you see on the Internet for directions. She could see this as if it was a virtual reality game. “This is awesome, how did you do this,” she said with excitement, but he ignored that and told her to follow the blue line, this would lead her right to Jamie’s place.
Meanwhile back in the woods, Terry, Diana and the other agent’s were still looking for the girl and the device. “Come on everyone, get your arses moving and find them quick. Our boss is expecting results this time.” Said Terry in frustration and anger, as he was about to let loose on a fellow agent, he was interrupted, "boss there's movement back in the opposite direction, that's got to be her?" Everyone stopped what he or she were doing and rushed back in the direction of Makayla, by the time they got there, the girl had vanished. “Look around guys, try to see where she was hiding and see if there was anything left behind.” Said Diana.
While searching the area, one of the agents found a hole in the ground that lead under a tree, in there were footprints, and the briefcase, but the agent told Terry and Diana that the device was gone. Terry punched the tree with the side of his hand, whilst everyone packed up. They headed back to main headquarters. When they arrived the team unpacked and settled down, but as they were setting everything in the office, Makayla turned up on their cameras in town.
The surveillance team started to track her movements across town, to see where she was heading. The longer it was taking, the more they started to recognize the area she was heading into. The agent in charge of the cameras let out a big gasp “I know exactly where she’s going!” the agent called in the boss Terry and explained to him where Makayla was heading. A team meeting was called and they chose to set up a quick response unit to get to Jamie’s place. When they left, something strange started happening to the cameras on every street that was following Makayla, the lights would turn red and then suddenly began to turn off one by one.
Something or someone has hacked into the security grid in the city and is controlling everything. Whoever it is, they don't want us following the girl. Terry took a seat to try and reflect on what was happening, and then the one thing he forgot about was the device. It dawned on him that she was` using it. He stood very intensely and ordered everyone to get that girl and stop at nothing. It was now a high priority mission.
Makayla starts sprinting as fast as she could; the response team got there in minutes and caught up with her. As she doesn’t know the area very well, the agents began to outsmart her at every movement. Richard was trying his best to guide Makayla through the streets, as best as he could. But the response team kept getting that one step closer, the one thing they had, that the response team didn’t, was Richard’s intellect. Richard planned a route that would mean the girl would have to jump through a worn down window inside a warehouse and hide for a bit. He then amplified Makayla’s voice box without notifying her, so he used this to make running noises coming from the other side of the street. This worked by using an eco system around the surrounding alleyways.
Once they got away, they turned back and headed into the right location for Jamie's apartment. Richard had traveled into the Internet and hacked his way into the organization Terry and Diana work for. He then changed the location to Jamie’s living arrangements and kept the new location to himself and Makayla. As she walked up towards the empty apartment complex, there was only one flat that was lit up. Coming from within was very loud, music, which sounded like metal/dubstep, very catchy.
Makayla tried knocking, but because the bass was so strong, Jamie couldn’t hear the knocking, so she let herself in. Which was a very bad idea, because Jamie wasn’t alone; she was a bit preoccupied with another woman.
She didn’t see anything specific, just really loud and embarrassing moans. As the music turned off, Jamie appeared out of her bedroom and saw a strange girl in her apartment. She wasn’t happy about Makayla letting her self in, “what the fu*k, who the hell are you?” she said with intense anger, which shook Makayla a little bit. Jamie rushed to her, with her toned skinny figure, and tattoos of nude gothic women and lettering, which seemed like it was related to witchcraft. Her hair was white as snow with one black streak along it and had what seemed to be cerulean like lipstick that was rubbed all over her mouth, what was left of it anyway.
Jamie grabbed Makayla's hoddie and pulled her close up to her and before she could yell, Makayla mentioned Richard’s name “Richard sent me, my father needs your help.” She then pulled up her hair and showed Jamie the earpiece and she recognized it right away. In awe of what she had just seen, Jamie had a closer look and plugged in a cable and connected it to her modded computer. When she did, Richard’s voice popped up on screen “Hi Jamie, it’s been awhile. Firstly, I want you to install that program we were working on which was the ‘A.E.P’ (Advanced Eco Program)” he said in an almost strange neutral tone and Jamie had a look on her face which was surprised. “But why, you know what that will do, I cant” Richard then reassured her that it’s fine, nothing bad will happen, so she followed through and installed it, to which he thanked Jamie for.
Whilst they were talking Makayla noticed a light that was hovering around outside, it was a helicopter. It shone the light at the apartment they were in, “We have to go now, they found us” she said to Richard who was on the modded computer. Then Jamie unplugged him and said goodbye. As she was leaving, Jamie wrote something in a letter and handed it to her, but didn’t say anything physically; she just put her finger on her lips. Makayla looked at the note and it said,
"Don't trust Richard, be careful hun. Try and get the earpiece off as fast as you can, it's not safe." – Jamie
She couldn’t figure out why Jamie would leave her a note like this, she couldn’t stay to ask her. Makayla rushed down the stairs and out the door, when she got there, the area was surrounded by dozens of agents, cars, and two helicopters. Right in the middle of it all was Terry and Diana waiting. They looked extremely smug.
Makayla froze, her body couldn’t move, it was like something was holding her back. The tensions grew high and nothing could surpass that feeling. Everyone was watching in silence, Jamie and her girlfriend were looking through her window, and all the guns were pointed towards Makayla. “Why are you doing this, you are supposed to be my parents, my guardians?” she screamed out, but they laughed,
"Ha-ha, we never wanted you, what we want is in your ear. That device is all we ever wanted. You were just a tool we could use until the right day came. Believe it or not, we are the good guys, all we want to do is lock up that device before Richard does anything stupid. It's your parents who are the bad guys. Why don't you ask them both?" said Diana.
“Is this true dad?” Makayla asked with curiosity, she was already feeling skeptical after the note from Jamie as well, so she demanded the truth from him, but he wasn't sounding truthful, he was hiding something.
"Look love, the reason why I built this device, was to help the world move on, its supposed to be a stepping stone for something bigger, if we can control peoples emotions and actions, we could stop so many crimes, rapes, terrorist attacks, racism, they can conform to the government. It's the only way the world can save itself." Said Richard, but Makayla wasn’t having that, “You want to control people, take away their rights like myself, who has chosen to be someone that I feel like I was supposed to be. That is so wrong on many levels.” Makayla grew angry and emotional, she tried to pull off the device, but it wouldn’t come off.
She felt around the ear and could feel that it had embedded itself into her skin and bone. She tried asking Richard why it wouldn’t come off, there was no answer from him, but then Diana interrupted her,
“Makayla hun, give us the device and we will spare you your life? And if you need further convincing, there’s something we have brought for you.” Terry opened the car door and pulled someone out. Makayla didn’t recognize this person until a voice spoke in her ear; Richard shouted out “Anjali” this confirmed that it was Makayla’s real mother. She looks completely drained and worn out, her hair was starting to turn grey, her body anorexic, the bones were even showing badly. Diana even had a collar around Anjali’s neck with a lead coming off it.
“She’s been a good pet your mother, she’s given us loads of information, leads and we have even had some fun times together, but now this is your last chance, give us the device.” Said Diana, whilst stroking Anjali’s hair softly. Anjali had been tortured and dominated by Diana for so many years that, her mind had been twisted to think she is her owner. There was no way for her mind to return back to normal.
Makayla once again told them she cant give them the device. As she said this, Terry pulled out his gun and shot Anjali in the back of the head, which shocked both Makayla and Diana, especially Diana because even though she might not show it, she grew close to Anjali, maybe even fell in love. She got very angry and so did Richard, he lost control and started to hurt Makayla, with his program that Jamie installed. It had grown faster than expected, which meant he could now do whatever he wanted.
As everything felt like it was going into slow motion, the agents started to move in on Makayla, but Richard tuned in to every electrical outlet in the area. That included the cars, mobiles and so on, beginning to overheat them, that meant they would eventually explode. After a few minutes of all the explosions and power cuts, nearly everyone had been killed, the only people still alive where Terry and Diana, they were laying on the floor in agony with shrapnel and burn marks over them.
Both tried to get up as best as they could but saw Makayla was walking over to them. She looked different, the closer she got to them; the more visible it was to see that she was carrying a handgun in her right hand. The arm lifted up, with a very creepy grin added to the horror of the former foster parents. They tried to plead with her to spare their lives, two bullets emerged and the bodies fell to the floor.
Out of no-where screams started coming from Makayla, her hands filled with blood, were flailing all around, even grabbing her head shouting “Stop, Stop, Please” Makayla froze once again, her body stuck in the upright position was staring at the floor, she fell silent. The body changed, it shined like it was metallic or plastic. In the background Jamie was still watching from her window, in shock, she shouted down to Makayla asking if she was all right, but no answer. The stiff body of the girl turned around and stared right up at the window looking into Jamie’s eyes with a big grin, and luminescent white glowing eyes. Her body had completely transformed. Makayla was gone, but someone or something else remained...
The End?
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