by CS Patra
At fourteen, she had just entered high school and felt like a small fish in this big pond full of older people. Even her own classmates seemed older than she was. She was barely five foot tall and always looked too thin despite eating enough. At school, she felt very lonely. Everyone already had found their friends while she was still looking. It hurt to eat lunch all by herself. She didn't have anyone she could talk to. It wasn't until after school that she was able to find people that she could relate to. That happened only when she went to all her piano, violin, and gymnastics lessons. There, she had fellow students and teammates that she could depend on. Those were the places she felt like she was at home.
It wasn't that she had a bad life. She was the youngest of five girls and their parents did the best they could to raise them. Misty did feel a bit like an overachiever, but it worked for her. She was smart, talented, and athletic. It made her appear a little intimidating to others and that was probably why no one really wanted to hang out with her. They all thought she was too good for them.
Then again, nobody really knew what it was like to be Misty Zeng. On the outside, she was the overachiever. Inside, she was a complete mess of a person who didn't know what she wanted to be. She had no idea what she wanted to study when she went to college. She didn't know what she wanted to do once she was out of it. She knew that it would be hard to be a professional musician. She had to be damned good at this. Even still, it was a shot in the dark to make a living out of it. As for gymnastics, there would be a time when she would leave the gym for good. Making the Olympics for this seemed out of her reach. If, by some miracle, she got to go to any Olympic games, chances were high she would not win. She was not good enough to play with all the big girls and certainly not good enough to win medals.
I'm just not my sisters. She thought. They are the ones who could make it big, not me.
Misty always felt like she was in the shadows of her sisters. All four of them were older than her and they were talented in their own ways. She also had her strengths, but they were something special. Everything they did stood out and people fell in love with them. They were always good in school, they were talented musically, they were athletic, and they got along with everyone. Misty was the only one that was considered a loner. She didn't have too many friends in school and was too shy to talk to anyone.
That was a part of the reason why she took up rhythmic gymnastics. It wasn't like typical artistic gymnastics. Here, she wasn't practicing on bars, beam, and vault. She was mostly on the floor using a hoop, ball, clubs, or a ribbon. There were dance elements to rhythmic gymnastics. Girls who practiced this had to be graceful while using their various props. Misty was very good using the ball and clubs as a prop, but the hoop and ribbon often gave her some trouble. Still, she practiced hard every day and did the best she could. Being out on the floor was the one time that she truly felt free. No one was out there to tell her what to do. As long as she hit her routine, she was a star.
The note came to her as she was leaving piano practice. Like her sisters, Misty was also made to take piano and violin lessons. She was decent in both of them, but not like her family was. She practiced hard in both, but always felt restricted for some reason. She had to follow the notes correctly or they would come out wrong. She couldn't forget about the many times that she had screwed up a performance by hitting a bum note. It was always too embarrassing to think about. As she was leaving, her teacher gave her a letter.
"This came for you. I found it in my mailbox," she said. "Continue to practice what we've done today, Misty."
"Yes, ma'am." Misty nodded, making her way out of the house. She wanted to be far from the house to read this. She couldn't recognize the handwriting on the envelope and there was no address on it.
She read it out loud. "Come tonight to the underground tunnel. Do not question this message. I assure you there is a reason for everything. Trust no one. Perfect humans. Project 99. Everything is a lie. Keep this in mind."
None of it made an ounce of sense to her. The note wasn't signed, but it sounded urgent. It didn't tell her that she couldn't tell anyone else. The only person she wanted to tell was her older sister, Annie. She was trustworthy and she could probably figure out what the message was really about. Annie was also very good at puzzles and figuring out cryptic messages. She wanted to be a detective or a mortician one day, because she wanted to solve crimes. She wanted to figure out why and how people died. This note would probably be a piece of cake for her.
Once Annie came to pick her up, she told her all about the note. Misty kept looking at her sister as she read the note to herself. "They never signed it so I don't know if someone's playing a trick on me."
"You sure it's for you?" Annie asked. "Maybe it was meant for another Misty."
"I'm the only Misty that takes piano lessons here. My teacher didn't tell me where the note came from either." Misty explained. "Is there anything you can figure out from this?"
"The paper feels unusual to me." Annie noted, feeling the corners of the note. "I've seen paper like this before. It came from a place called the Bradley Institute."
"What's that?"
"It must be some lab or something." Annie murmured. "A friend of mine worked there before and she used to bring back notepads and pens from it. I remember flipped through them and she even gave me a notepad once. I bet that's where this came from."
"You sure about that?" Misty asked.
"I'm almost positive. I can even show you the same pad that I have at home."
Misty was confused as to why this Bradley Institute was sending her a message. She was even more confused about the Project 99 and perfect human part in the note. This was the first time she was ever hearing about any of them. She didn't even know if she could go to the underground tunnel. There was a small arena where people held tiny competitions. Tonight, there was a battle of the bots and that was something she had no interest in.
"Why does someone want me to go there?" she asked herself. "What does that have to do with me?"
While Annie did her detective work, Misty decided to look up a few things that were in the note. She first did a search on Project 99 and a lot of links came up. It was linked to the Bradley Institute, which did not shock her at all. According to some of the articles, it was a birthing center where people went to get pregnant. It still didn't make sense what this had to do with her. Why did she need to care about a birthing center? What was she supposed to see at the battle of bots? What did all of these things have in common?
"I'm getting nowhere." She murmured, turning off her computer. Clearly, she was missing something. This was where Annie needed to come in. She went over to her sister's room. "I came up with nothing."
"Well, I might have come up with what you're looking for. You wanted to know about that strange note you got, right?" Annie asked.
"That's right. Did you find something?"
"I found some information about a Dr. Evan Chang. I did some research on the Bradley Institute and he used to work there some time ago," she said. "I looked him up, but it turns out he committed suicide thirteen years ago. He and his wife, Jenna, apparently worked on some project a long time ago. It was called the Perfect Human Project."
"Perfect Human Project?" Misty repeated. "That sounds pretty disturbing. What does that have to do with me though?"
"I'm not sure, but you should be careful. The underground tunnel is a place where people have those robot battles. I don't know why you would be needed over there." Annie murmured. “I don’t know what that has to do with the Bradley Institute. I also looked up Project 99 and it led to so many different links. I’m not sure any of them is the right one.”
"Maybe you should come with me." Misty suggested. "If it's not as safe as you say, it would be better if I had someone by my side."
Annie looked worried, but she knew that Misty had a good point. "All right, I'll escort you. If it doesn't seem like anything is going down, we'll go home."
"I don't know. There's only one way to find out and that's to go to this place. I wonder who we'll meet and if they can help put this together." Annie said. "We better be careful."
“What time does the battle actually start?”
“They usually begin around eight at night so we can have dinner and then head off. I’ll tell Mom and Dad that I’m taking you to the mall or something.” Annie decided. “That way, they won’t be suspicious of anything. Keep that note with you as well. I don’t want them finding it.”
“Right.”
They went through with their plan as promised. At dinner, Annie told their parents that she was taking Misty to buy a new dress. Though their mother questioned why they were going now, she allowed them to leave as long as they came back by ten. The battle probably wouldn’t take very long so that was something they could do.
“We’ll be back before you know it.” Misty promised.
“All right,” her mother agreed. “Make sure you come back by curfew. You have school tomorrow.”
“We will.”
Annie knew exactly where this place was and didn’t take long to find a parking spot. It was crowded for a small place. The underground tunnel was small, but it was alive with sounds and lights galore. This was a place that was open to everyone, yet most people didn't know about it. Here was where people came to fight their creations and try to become the next champion. It was a Battle of the Bots so Misty couldn't understand why she was asked to come here. She really didn't care to see robots trying to destroy each other. There must have been something else that was important. What was really supposed to happen here? All she knew was that she was supposed to here. There was no mention of who she was supposed to see or what they were really doing.
"This doesn't look like my place," she told her sister. "I think we should go home."
"Hold on. We just got here. Maybe we have to wait until the show actually starts." Annie suggested. "Will you at least sit through one battle? If it doesn't look like anything is happening, then we will go home. Does that sound fair?"
"I suppose so." Misty said. "Okay, we can sit for one battle. If it gets boring and no one shows up to explain anything, I'm leaving."
The lights went dim at that moment and everyone cheered. Annie motioned Misty to sit down and she leaned back in her chair. She was hungry all of a sudden. She had no idea if this place gave snacks away like they did in ball games.
“You know, after all of this, do you think we can grab a bite to eat?” Misty asked.
Annie frowned at her. “You just had some dinner. How are you hungry again?”
“I don’t know.” Misty murmured. “I also need to go to the bathroom. However, I don’t want to leave my seat until something happens.”
As if on cue, someone spoke up over the intercom. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Battle of Bots #99! Today, we are going to see the Crusher versus the Annihilator! Who will advance to the next round? Find out in about five minutes!"
“Five minutes, huh? I think that will be enough time for me to go to the bathroom and back.” Misty decided, getting up and excusing herself. “Keep my seat warm for me.”
Annie rolled her eyes. “Be back quickly.”
Misty felt a little sick as she ran into the bathroom. She had a bad feeling that something was going to happen. As she made her way into a stall, she looked down in her underwear and realized why she felt weird. Her period had come. It had stained her underwear a little bit, but not enough to seep through her pants. She groaned and grabbed some toilet paper that she could turn into a makeshift pad. Like an idiot, she had forgotten to put pads in her purse.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid.” She cursed herself out. Once she was done, she got out the stall and saw a little vending machine that sold condoms, medicine, and tampons. She had never used a tampon in her life, but it would be a lot better than this makeshift pad. Her period was only going to get worse from here on out. She might as well try to use the tampon. Finding a quarter, she bought one and decided to see if it would work.
Having never used one before, it was a little painful to put in. She wasn’t even sure if she had done it right, but it was inside. It was a little uncomfortable to walk around with it, but she could deal with this for an hour. On the way, she would ask Annie if they could stop by the drugstore and pick up some pads. She was not expecting her period at this point and had no idea why it had come. It wasn’t supposed to show for another two weeks.
As she made her way back to her seat, she passed by a man that looked like he was soaking wet. She stared at him for a second and tried to figure out how that could be. It wasn’t raining at all. There was no water anywhere except for the water fountains. She couldn’t understand who this was or what he was planning to do.
Five minutes later, she wished she had stopped him. She wished she had asked him what was wrong.
Five minutes later, she wished she could have stopped him from killing himself.
Chapter 5 – Ash
Ash was contemplating going to the arena tonight. He still couldn’t figure out how that woman came into the house if no one saw her. He looked over the surveillance tapes ten times, yet she was in none of them. The security guards hadn’t seen her come in. His parents had no idea what he was talking about. No one had broken in and he felt confused. Still, that was the least of his problems right now. He was just thinking about what she had told him. He didn’t know what to do.
“Everything is a lie,” he murmured. “I don’t even have a clue what that is supposed to mean.”
He puttered away in his room for a few hours, trying to come up with some new inventions. His parents wanted him to come down when the new shipment of wine arrived. He had to lie and tell them that he was studying. He had no desire to deal with the other half of the family business. His parents had tried to strike a deal with him in the past. If he didn't want to be a doctor, at least he could take over the wine business. Ash, however, had no interest in doing that either. He was not a business oriented person, no matter how he dressed. He wasn't old enough to drink wine yet and certainly not old enough to run a business. Even if he was of age, he didn't want anything to do with it.
"Why can't you guys understand? I'm not a businessman." He told them. "I don't know a thing about running a business. Even if I did, I wouldn't be interested in this."
"You don't have to worry about not knowing anything, Ashton. I will teach you everything," his father had said. "As for not caring, you say that about everything. You don't care anytime I mention anything. You never have interest in anything I want you to have interest in."
"That's because you have never asked me how I feel about something." Ash pointed out. "You never ask what I want to do. You just assume that I am happy taking over without realizing I have my own desires."
"That is fine, Ashton. It's all right to have your own dreams and desires," his mother said. "We just need someone to take care of things here too. You're all we have left. Think about that for a second."
He always hated it when they said he was all they had left. He didn't want to be the one with all the burdens. It was already hard enough being in Harrison's shadow. Once his brother died, things only got worse between the family. They didn't get closer at all. Instead, it pulled them further apart. He ultimately gave up fighting with his parents and decided to talk to the one person he could trust; Carolina Maldonado.
Carolina had been his girlfriend for the past two years. They had started dating when they were fourteen. Even though Ash graduated high school at that point, he never wanted to date an older girl. He told Carolina that he would be waiting for her until the very end. Right now, she was back in high school while he was studying in college. The two of them had to talk via Skype now, because they were far away. He had moved back to be
closer to home while she moved to the other side of the country. Still, she did the best she could to spend time with him. She was there when he needed her the most. Right now was one of those times.
"Hey, Carolina." He greeted once she came up on screen. "I hope you're having a better time in California than I am having over here."
“Well, California’s nice.” Carolina admitted. “It’s warm as hell and I know we’re kinda in the middle of the afternoon while it’s evening for you. I just got back home from school. How about you?”
“I’m trying to study and I can’t,” he sighed. “I’m not too worried about my homework or tests. I know I’ll pass them easily. It’s just other things.”
"What's wrong, Ash?" she asked. "You seem gloomier than normal."
Ash sighed. "I'm sorry. I just... there have been weird things happening lately. I've been questioning a lot of stuff."
"Like what?"
