Hidden Worlds

by Kristie Cook

  “All right, are you guys ready to go?” Hailey asked.

  Allie turned away from the window. “What, already? I haven’t even had a chance to enjoy the view.”

  I leaned over close to her. “You think this is a good view? Oh, just you wait.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You sure about this, Levi? You know there is no turning back, right?” Owen looked at me, trying to avoid catching Allie’s eye.

  “Absolutely.” I smiled.

  Jared pushed out his chair. “Well, then, let’s get going. It’s supposed to rain later tonight.”

  “Why does the rain matter?” Allie’s face appeared to be a mix of nerves and excitement. I really hoped the excitement won over.

  “Are you ready to find out just how far the rabbit hole goes, sweetheart?” I reached out a hand to her. She needed to come with me willingly.

  “Rabbit hole?” She seemed to hesitate. “Umm, sure?”

  She put her hand in my mine. I led her through the crowd, and past the elevators. Jared took the lead, and we walked into the stairwell. She turned to look at me once more before starting up the stairs.

  We were about halfway up when she finally questioned our destination. “Okay, why are we going to the roof?”

  She was frightened, and I wanted to fix everything for her. The problem was I couldn’t give her any easy answers. “No more questions.” I tried to calm both of us.

  “But—”

  I gently pressed the palm of my hand into her back, hoping it had an effect on her. Touching her in anyway set me simultaneously on fire and put me at ease. “No more questions.”

  “It’s all right. We’re not taking you up there to kill you.” Hailey laughed. Great. Because that didn’t sound creepy.

  Allie let out a deep breath. “Fine.”

  We walked up the remaining stairs and into the muggy night. The lights of the city reflected off the water. This was it. No turning back. I used her moment of distraction to pull off my shirt. My friends did the same. Hailey pulled off her sweater so she was just in a tank top.

  I moved behind Allie and wrapped my arms around her waist.

  She struggled against me so I loosened my hold. I let out a slow deep breath.

  “What the hell …” she trailed off as she backed away from me. Her eyes widened.

  I tried to keep my voice as soothing as possible. “Now don’t freak out. I promised you I wouldn’t hurt you, and I always keep my promises.”

  “Are you guys in a cult or something? Because if you are, I’m really not interested. I won’t tell anyone anything, but if you don’t mind, I’m leaving.” She crossed her arms protectively.

  “Chill out!” Jared yelled as his eyes changed to black. He was already transforming. He was the one who needed to stay calm.

  I glared at him. “Don’t talk to her like that.”

  He nodded, understanding the warning in my command. His eyes slowly returned to normal.

  Hailey took a few steps toward Allie. I let her. Maybe a female would put her more at ease. “We’re not a cult. It’s more like a very special society.” That was probably a good way to put it.

  “A special society?” Allie’s thoughts were clear on her face. She thought we were high or psychotic.

  “Maybe it would be better if we just showed her.” Owen smiled at her, and I appreciated him trying to help even though I knew he didn’t support my decision. “You were sure you wanted this Levi, so there is no turning back.”

  He walked over to the edge of the building and raised a hand in a small wave before taking a backwards step and disappearing from sight.

  “Oh my god! What the hell? Did he just kill himself?” Allie started shaking and crying. I wanted to reach out for her, but I wanted to let everyone go first.

  “Owen’s fine,” Hailey said before jumping off with Jared right behind her.

  Allie closed her eyes. I moved behind her again and wrapped her up in my arms. Her warm body fit perfectly against my bare chest.

  “You said you wanted an adventure.” I tightened my hold.

  I let myself transform, reveling in the familiar feel of my large black wings extending from my back. I felt a wave of strength roll over me as I prepared to jump. I’d never flown with someone in my arms before, and Allie wasn’t just anyone. She was everyone.

  I stepped off.

  I could tell she still had her eyes closed. Her body was so tense. She needed to see that everything was going to be okay. “Open your eyes,” I whispered.

  She let out the tiniest start of a scream before going silent. I continued our decent and then leveled us out just above the water. Part one was over. If she accepted me, wings and all, I may have found my mate. If she didn’t, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. In the deepest part of my heart and soul, I knew there was no one else for me.

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  Julia Crane

  Prologue

  A loud beep startled Kaitlyn awake. Feeling drossy, her eyes fluttered open. Where was she? As panic began to rise throughout her body, it was quickly suppressed and suddenly she felt calm. Euphoric almost. As if nothing could bother her. It was a nice feeling. Her cortisol and serotonin levels were now at their optimum levels.

  Someone was coming down the hallway.

  Before the door swung open she heard the muffled sound of footsteps approaching. Tilting her head to the side, she looked up and saw a young man with dark brown, wavy hair and clear blue eyes walk through the door. He looked familiar but she wasn’t sure why. Something about the man made her heart feel like it was expanding inside of her.

  “Kaitlyn, you’re awake.”

  Kaitlyn? Who was Kaitlyn? Her name was Kaitlyn? Why didn’t that resonate within her? The name sounded foreign. Wrong.

  She pushed herself up to sitting and looked around the white sterile room. It was large and a television hung on the wall. What was she doing in a hospital? There were electrodes attached to the side of her head and an IV was stuck in her hand. Seven different machines were hooked up to her. Monitoring her biorhythms.

  “Where am I?”

  The young man sat down on a rolling chair and pulled it closer to her bed side. She could smell his aftershave, it was made of amber, clary sage and sea weed. Why did she know this? “You were in an accident.”

  Kaitlyn stared blankly back at the stranger. “An accident?”

  “You don’t recall anything?”

  She shook her head no. Strangely, she felt no pain. Nothing. An odd thought crossed her mind. Blank was how she felt.

  As she reached forward to grab the water off the tray her sleeve pulled up. She nearly screamed when she saw the teal stripe running up her arm, but somehow she managed to control herself. Once again the sense of calm washed over her. Maybe this was all a dream.

  Her hand didn’t even shake as she grabbed the water. She took a sip, but didn’t utter a word about what she’d seen. Why wasn’t this man surprised? He didn’t find it strange, the fact that her arms had plastic imbedded in them? Was it something to do with the accident? Why couldn’t she recall anything about her past? If she tried to concentrate she was met with a mental brick wall. There was nothing there other than useless facts.

  “Who are you?”

  The side of his lip quirked up. “Lucas, I’ve been watching over you while you recovered.”

  Recovered. How long had she been there? “We’ve met before?”

  A strange look crossed his face. “You don’t recall meeting me prior to this?”

  “No.” Of course she didn’t recall or she wouldn’t have asked his name.

  “Maybe that’s a good thing,” he muttered under his breath.

  She had to get out of there. This was all too bizarre. “Can I go home now?”

  He sat up straighter. “Home? Do you know where your home is?”

  Restin
g her head against the pillow she searched her mind for any glimpse of where she came from but there was nothing.

  “Do I have amnesia?” she asked, her voice stilted. As if she was just learning to talk. The sound annoyed her for some reason.

  He ignored her question. “So you don’t recall anything at all?”

  Frustrated she shook her head. “Nothing.”

  “Do you feel like you could walk?”

  She didn’t answer. She didn’t feel like anything at all. That’s not true. She felt contained. Controlled.

  Reaching over he removed the sticky pads from the sides of her head. Automatically the machine went crazy beeping. The young man reached over and turned it off. With his help, she slid her legs to the side until they were hanging off the bed. Even her legs had the teal stripe. Yes, this had to be a dream. It was the only thing that made sense. She was dreaming and she would wake up wherever she came from.

  He looped one of his strong arms around her waist and lifted her up as if she weighed nothing. As soon as her feet hit the ground her knees buckled beneath her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t seem to bear the weight of her body. It was as if she was made of rubber.

  “It’s okay, Kaitlyn. We’ll try again later. I must have messed something up with the coding.” He was saying calm words, but she could sense the frustration in them.

  “Coding?” What did that mean?

  Gently he set her back on the bed and pulled the blankets up, covering her legs. His skin brushed hers and her body seemed to rev up for the lack of a better word. She liked the feeling. At least it was better than the calm nothingness.

  “I’ll get to work on this.” He grabbed the clipboard off the table and wrote a few notes before turning to leave.

  When the door shut behind him a sense of loss flooded her. She wanted to yell and tell him to come back. That she didn’t want to be alone, but it was too late. He was already gone.

  A few moments later a couple of nurses came into the room. They averted their eyes as if they didn’t want to look directly at her. With expert hands they quickly replaced the electrodes, placing them back on her head before turning the machine back on.

  “Poor girl,” one of them said in a hushed tone.

  “Mary, it’s none of our business. We don’t get paid to think or feel sorry for anyone.”

  “Just look at her. She’s a shell of a human. It’s frightening. I swear this project has been keeping me up at night. It’s just not right.”

  What did that even mean? A shell of a human? Why wasn’t she freaking out more? Something kept her from speaking to the nurses. Even though she had so many questions running through her mind. She wanted to sit back and observe, see if she could piece everything together on her own.

  “Dr. Harrington is going to go to hell for what he’s done to this girl.”

  The other woman shot the woman a warning look. “You hush your mouth. For all you know they have this room wired with cameras. You’re going to lose your job and then where will you be? Broke that’s where.”

  Who was Dr. Harrington and why would he be going to hell?

  It was strange the way the women never talked directly to her. They spoke as if she wasn’t even there. Once they were done with their straightening up they hurried out of the room. As if they couldn’t get out of there quick enough.

  Kaitlyn stared up at the ceiling. Kaitlyn. The name rolled around in her mind for a while, but it didn’t seem right. Amnesia. She had amnesia and teal parts on her body. Lucas said something about coding. Coding was for computers. Why could she remember that but not where she was from? Did she have parents? Brothers or sisters? Did she care? Shouldn’t she? Her mind was racing a mile a minute.

  Something was very wrong.

  A few hours later the door opened and in walked Lucas. He looked tired. His hair was sticking up all over and his clothes were rumbled, a coffee stain stood out on the white lab coat.

  Grabbing the clipboard off the wall, he walked closer and peered down at her. “Kaitlyn, it’s me Lucas.”

  She studied his face but didn’t reply. Of course it was Lucas. He was the only one that actually talked to her.

  He sighed and banged the clipboard against his leg in frustration. “You don’t remember me?”

  “I remember.”

  His handsome face lit up. “Oh, that’s great news.”

  It made her happy that he was happy, but she kept her face still. She wasn’t sure why. It was almost as if she had no control over it. In her mind she wanted to smile, but her face wasn’t cooperating.

  “I tweaked some things. Let’s try this again.”

  She tossed the blankets to the side and swung her legs over the mattress again. Her mind wanted her to stand up, but she just sat there waiting for his help. His fingers wrapped around her waist, she could feel the warmth of him through her nightgown. 98.6 temperature. Heart rate 72.

  The touch of his skin on hers felt good. He pulled her to her feet and she wobbled a bit as she got used to the weight of herself. Hesitantly, she took a step forward. It was a bit shaky at first. The weight felt unfamiliar.

  “This is great!” Lucas grinned back at her. “You’re doing great.”

  Once she felt like she had enough balance, she pulled away from him and walked across the room towards the door. Each step her balance improved and her confidence grew. Suddenly, she felt like she could run. Run forever and not stop.

  As if he could sense her thoughts. Lucas grabbed her by the arm and turned her back towards the bed. “I think that’s enough for today. Harrington is going to be ecstatic. We can start progressing your programing now.”

  “Programing?”

  “Yes, yes. I’ve got so much to do. You really did great today Kaitlyn. This is the break we have been waiting for.” He leaned down and kissed the top of her forehead in his excitement.

  After making sure she was settled back into the bed Lucas took off in a hurry.

  Her fingertips rested on her forehead. She could still feel the lingering effects of his lips on her. It was a strange sensation. It was obvious by the way he ran off that he hadn’t expected a reaction from her.

  Everything was starting to fall into place. Flinging the covers to the side, Kaitlyn ran her fingers down the teal line. It was made of a flexible thin plastic. What am I?

  Her memory may have escaped her, but she knew for sure she wasn’t normal. She wasn’t like the people that came into her room.

  Why did she know things like body temperature or how many tiles were on the ceiling? Or how many seconds there were in a year? All kinds of useless facts were scrambling around in her brain. If she sat back and closed her eyes, she could imagine all the internal parts that were keeping her alive. Mechanical parts.

  The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. She wasn’t a human. They had turned her into a robot. That’s why Lucas kept talking about programing and coding. That’s why the nurses said Harrington was going to hell. He must have been the mastermind behind all of this.

  At the edge of her mind, she knew she should be terrified of that realization, but the fear didn’t come. It felt as if she was watching everything from a distance. Like it was happening to someone else and not herself.

  Chapter One

  Turning a corner, Kaitlyn caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror. Seventeen years old. Long, dark hair and grey eyes. At least her face hadn’t been marred by the accident, or the upgrades since.

  Unfortunately, the rest of her body had not been so lucky.

  Half-human, half-machine. She didn’t quite fit into either world. I’m an abomination, she thought, her shoulders slumping. After tearing her eyes away from her reflection in the mirror, she continued to trudge down the stark hallway.

  The only sound was the squeaking of her sneakers on the tiles. Everything—the walls, the cold tiles underfoot, even the trash cans—were sterile and white. If she never saw a white wall again, it would be too soon. The harsh lighting of the corr
idor often reminded her of a different bright light, the one that had ended her human life and began this stage of … existence, if it could be called that.

  After they brought her back from the brink of death, the IFICS staff told her she should be grateful. However, they didn’t know what it was like being prodded and probed, having no future or past. If only she hadn’t checked the “donate body to science” option on her driver’s license, then she wouldn’t be in this situation. Although, if it weren’t for IFICS—she still didn’t know what the acronym stood for—she would probably be dead. Sometimes, she wondered which was worse.

  At least she no longer needed an escort to get to the treatment room. That had been annoying, considering they’d replaced a section of her brain with a computer that learned far faster than any human’s. In the early days, while her new body acclimated with the machinery, her weakness made it necessary for her to rely on them for everything. It had humiliated her.

  Footsteps echoed in the distance behind her. Her sensors kicked in, analyzing the sound of the steps and the length of the stride. She knew who it was before she heard his voice, and waited for his familiar greeting.

  “Kaitlyn,” Lucas greeted her, the same way he did every morning.

  “Lucas.”

  If she still had a real heart, it surely would have skipped a beat or two. Lucas was the only thing in her crazy world that made getting out of bed worthwhile. He made her feel, even though the professor and his team said it wasn’t possible. At least she thought it was feelings, and not just electrical charges pulsing through her system. Isn’t that what happens in the human body anyway? Kaitlyn asked herself. Human emotions and reactions were nothing more than synapses firing, telling the brain what to do. For Kaitlyn, though, they weren’t as strong anymore—the ghosts of feelings, just beyond her reach, but she knew they were there, and she knew she had them for Lucas—good feelings.

  Without another word, he fell into step beside him in the white corridor. A part of her longed to connect with him, but fear kept her quiet. She had overheard enough to know if it became known that she still had thoughts and feelings of her own, they would quickly be erased. Her only friend, Quess, had confirmed it. She guarded what was left of her mind too much to give it away, even if Lucas did make her body hum.