by Patra, CS
He got inside the back seat of the car and pushed his backpack to the side. His father noticed this as he was backing out. “What do you have in there, son?”
“Um, I brought some books along to study,” Ash lied. “I don’t want to get bored.”
“Just talk to someone, Ash. It won’t hurt you. You might learn something from someone else.”
Ash sighed. “Dad, I try that all the time. It’s hard being sixteen. I’m not an adult and I’m too old to be a kid. Everyone still thinks I’m too young to understand anything when I’m not.”
Dr. Blackwell seemed to understand what his son was saying. “I know you have a difficult time. You’re at that age where you don’t know where you belong. You’re not adult and you’re not a child. It makes it harder when you’re a genius, right?”
Ash was surprised to hear this. This was the first time his father actually spoke to him in this way. “Yeah, that’s exactly it. I just don’t feel like I belong anywhere.”
“You will.” Dr. Blackwell promised. “Son, I know your mother and I can get tough on you. You’re all we have left and we just want the best for you. We know what you’re capable of. We want the whole world to know that too. That’s why we push you in certain directions. Do you get that?”
Ash nodded. “I get that. I know you’re only doing what you feel is best.”
They couldn’t continue the conversation because his mother got in at that time. They drove off and Ash wondered if he could ask some questions. He wanted to know more about his past. He wanted to know what made them want to go through this. They were both in his good graces now. He could probably get them to open up about some things.
“Mom? Dad?” He began.
“What is it, Ashton?” His mother asked.
“Um…I was wondering how much you know about our client,” he began, easing into everything. “Have you ever met them before?”
“We have. We’ve done business in the past. You were much younger so you probably wouldn’t remember. They are a pretty good client. They’ve got a lot of secrets though.”
“A lot of secrets? Like what?”
“Well, if we knew, it wouldn’t be a secret.” His father replied, causing Ash to roll his eyes. “They’re an interesting group. Get to know them.”
He was so glad his father had said that because that was exactly what he had planned. Everything was set up when Dr. Chang came over to them. By now, Jackie’s mouth had healed up though it was still sore. She pretended like everything was okay.
“Hi, I’m sorry it took me some time to get here. It was hard to get away from the crowd. Everyone has questions for me tonight.” Dr. Chang said. “I trust that everything is going well so far.”
“Everything is good,” Ash nodded. “Thank you for meeting us.”
“My pleasure. Shall we head down to my office?”
“Yes, please.” Jackie agreed, taking the lead. “We promise we won’t take much of your time.”
Ash took a deep breath and followed the two of them down a long hallway. This was it. This was going to be a moment that would expose this institute or it would screw them over. He quickly sent a text to Misty to let her know what was happening.
[We’re ending this tonight. Good luck in your recital. I’ll send you a link to the video.]
After a minute, she replied back to him.
[Thanks. Patty’s here in the front row. Get me a picture of their faces when you screw them over. Gotta go <3 ]
He smirked at the little heart on the end of the message. For some reason, Misty always ended every one of her messages with those things. It didn’t matter who she sent them to. He put the phone away and kept walking. Misty was going to be safe for tonight. It was a shame she wasn’t going to witness the fireworks but she would have time afterwards.
“Are you okay?” Jackie asked, reverting to Spanish. Dr. Chang wasn’t too far from them and she wanted to be able to speak freely. “You look a little tense.”
“Yes. This hallway doesn’t seem to end. Where is she taking us?”
This caught Dr. Chang’s attention. “You speak fluent Spanish?”
“I speak a lot of languages though I’m rusty in some of them. I don’t get the opportunity to speak certain languages,” Ash explained. “My parents deal with people from all over the world. I’ve learned a lot over the years.”
“I know.” She stopped and turned to look at him. “You are one of our miracle babies. You were so tiny when you were born and no one even knew if you would survive.”
“You were at my birth?”
“Yes, I saw your birth as well as Misty’s. Hers was relatively normal but your mother was having a hard time with you.” She began walking again and finally reached a door on the left. “We had to monitor you closely. There were times where your mother almost died and we had to bring her back to life. She was in labor for so long. When you were finally born, we didn’t think you would survive the night. That’s why you’re a miracle.”
Ash nodded, feeling a little guilty. He wondered why no one ever talked about his birth in the family. Now it all made sense. His mother didn’t want to be reminded about a time where she almost died. He began to understand why his parents resented him a little. He hated the fact that he nearly killed his mother. While he didn’t always like them or agree with anything they said, he did have some love for his parents. He didn’t want to cause them pain.
“Here we are!” Dr. Chang opened the door to her office. “Sorry it took so long. I have no idea why they placed me back here. Go ahead and have a seat. Can I get you guys anything to drink? Water or a soda perhaps? I can also brew some coffee.”
“I think we’re fine, thanks.” Jackie said, sitting down. “You okay, Ash?”
“Yes, I’m fine. I don’t need anything.” He sat down next to Jackie and took a deep breath. “I’m glad you’re willing to meet with us in private.”
“Of course. I would never deny you a chance to talk to me. I know it seems like you can’t get through but you can. In fact, take a business card.” She pointed to the cards on her desk. Jackie picked one up and looked it. “It’s got my phone number and email address on it. You can contact at any time of the day and I will respond as fast as possible.”
Ash took a card and stared at it. Something about the flowers around the edge of it made him feel sick. They were desperately trying to hide all the dark secrets of this organization. He pocketed the card and tried to keep a straight face. Everything was going to be recorded right now. When he was ready, it would go viral.
He had never really been inside of Dr. Chang’s office before and he was a little intimidated. This was much bigger than his bedroom. He wondered what she did with all the room. The only things in it were her computer, chair, a mirror, and a plant in the corner. He looked around to see if there were any cameras hidden in this place. If there were, he couldn’t see them with his naked eye. He tried to get comfortable in his chair as Dr. Chang paced around the room. His eye fell on one bottle with the word ‘Sulatin’ written on it. He had no idea what that could be but it didn’t look like an energy drink. He made sure to remember the name and look it up later.
“I know about what happened in the parking lot,” she began. “They should never have cornered you like that. At the same time, you shouldn’t have been rummaging through our trash either. I assure you that you won’t find very much in it. We have garbage around. See, I even have a garbage can.” She pulled out her can from under her desk. “There’s not much in here but wrappers and napkins. It’s nothing to be alarmed with.”
“That still doesn’t give you a right to try and draw anything from me.” Ash pointed out. “What would you want with my bone marrow anyway?”
“Your genes are very special. I think you already know that. However, no one had the right to take anything from you. Rest assured that the guilty party will be held responsible.”
“Well, that’s a good thing,” Jackie said. “I still don’t know why the
y tried to torture him like that. Surely, you could have just questioned him.”
“You’re right. We should have asked questions first. However, I wanted to know what you wanted to find out here. What did you think we’d be hiding from you?”
“I know you’re hiding the truth. You say that we’re perfect but I don’t feel that way. I feel like you want to control us.”
“Control you?” Dr. Chang looked horrified at that. “Why on earth would you say that?”
“Can you explain what this is?” Ash held up the tiny wire that had been in his gum. Dr. Chang looked as though she had been slapped across the face. ”It fell out when I lost my tooth. I suppose I can thank your goons for one thing. I would never have found this without them knocking me to the ground.”
“That leads me to my question; where the hell is my little monitor?” Jackie asked. “I know you put one in me too. You put one in all of us.”
Dr. Chang didn’t seem to acknowledge her question. She kept staring at the wire in Ash’s hand. “Yours fell out? That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“Well, it did. Not only that, I saw my serial number. I found my profile on your website,” Ash smirked. “I know I’m not the only one you are keeping tabs.”
“He’s right.” Jackie was quick to pipe in. She didn’t want Ash to do all the confronting. “I saw the profiles on the other girls that committed suicide. I know all about Margaret, Jannika, and Ingrid. I know they were a part of us too and you used to monitor them. Now where the hell is the wire in my body?”
Dr. Chang stiffened up. “I don’t know, Jackie. I was not the one who implanted them in you. That was done when you were still a baby. They aren’t supposed to come out even if you do lose your teeth.” She looked at the side of Jackie’s face and realized that something had happened. “You were trying to pull yours out, weren’t you? You were digging away at your gums in hopes to getting it out?”
Ash looked over at her. “Is that true?”
Jackie touched the side of her face. “I can’t lie. After you lost yours, I was desperate to lose mine too. I was willing to go through all the pain.”
“You can’t do that, Jackie.” Dr. Chang said. “All you’ll do is cause yourself some unnecessary pain.”
“I hate to admit it, but she’s right. You can’t hurt yourself without knowing where it is,” Ash said. Then he turned to Dr. Chang. “Well, if you’re not the one who did this, then who is responsible? Who is trying to spy on us?”
“It was most likely done by one of our doctors. We weren’t trying to spy on you. We monitor you for health reasons. You have your asthma, right?” He nodded. “I know it’s been a problem for you since you were a child. You’ve been suffering from it.”
“So you were trying to see when I had an asthma attack?” He didn’t believe this. “If that’s true, why the hell didn’t you do anything about it? Why didn’t you ever try to cure me?”
“I told you before. You were a miracle child. Your asthma isn’t typical. We’re still trying to find a cure for it. We were just glad you managed to survive. No one thought you would live to see your first birthday and look at you now! You’ve made it to sixteen even with your asthma. You’ve become a beautiful, intelligent young man over the years. I could say the same about all of you. Look at you, Jackie. I don’t see an experiment in front of me. I see a woman who has accomplished so much in such a short time. You are an inspiration to the world.”
“Well, I don’t feel like an inspiration.” Jackie said. “I don’t feel perfect. I feel like a monster now and that the worst is yet to come. How do I get rid of that feeling?”
“You have to believe you aren’t a monster. Yes, you are different but you are human. You are just perfect humans. You were made to be perfection. What’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that but…” She trailed off. “I just want to be normal. I don’t want to be someone’s lab rat.”
“I wish you wouldn’t think of yourself as that. We’re not here to experiment on you, Jackie. You’re not a lab rat. You are special,” she said. “There’s a reason why all of you are sterile. It isn’t that we don’t trust you. It’s just that…it’s better this way. You’ll see what I mean soon enough.”
Ash looked over at Jackie and thought about what she wanted. He began to understand why she had tried to find her tracker and remove it. She felt like she was under a microscope. Maybe she was a perfect human by their definition but she didn’t feel that way. She didn’t feel special and nothing Dr. Chang said convinced her that she was.
“What about you, Ash? How do you feel about this?” Dr. Chang asked.
Ash took a deep breath. “Honestly, I don’t know what to make of it. I’ve been dealing with the aftermath of my brother’s death for the past few years. My family is trying to pick up the pieces and move on. I never wanted to be perfect either. I just wanted to be happy doing my own thing. I wanted to be my own person. I never asked for any of this.”
“No one ever asks for this life, Ash. I know you feel like your entire world has been shattered but it hasn’t. You just know more than you did before. It may change how you look at things but it shouldn’t change you.” She looked at both of them. “I hope that eases some of the tension for you. You’re worth it, okay? Don’t think less than that.”
Jackie nodded and got out of her chair. “Thank you.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. Live your lives to the fullest and put this behind you. The past is gone.” Dr. Chang reminded them. “Do you need help getting out the hallway?”
“I think we’ll manage. Thank you for your time.” Ash said.
He waited until she had closed the door before grabbing Jackie’s hand and dragging her down the hall. “Come on! I don’t want you to miss a second of this!”
“Whoa, slow down! I’m wearing heels!” Jackie tried to stop herself. “I can’t keep up with you!”
“Well, try to,” Ash smirked. “We’re going to see some fireworks soon.”
He was certain of that as well. Tonight, everything was going down.
Chapter 23 – Pam
Pam kept looking at the camera and her heart felt like stopping. They were both sitting inside of Dr. Chang’s office. She didn’t look terrifying but that was because she was lying through her teeth. She knew very well what was going on behind these walls. She probably approved of all these experiments. She was just the face of the company, but she gave the final word.
“You don’t think she’s got a gun, do you?” Pam asked. “What if she shoots them?”
“You think she’s crazy enough to do that?” Crystal asked. “Dr. Chang doesn’t want blood on her hands. She knows people are out here. She doesn’t want to cause a commotion.”
“Can you stop fretting, Pam? You’re making me nervous,” Ren said.
“I’m trying, honey, but I can’t help it. I keep waiting for something to go wrong,” Pam sighed, watching the video. “It doesn’t look like there’s anyone waiting to jump them but I’m scared. I don’t know what they planned.”
“Well, we can take them down,” Doug said. “If Nik was able to take down those guys in alleyway, we can probably do the same.”
“Once again, I have no idea how I did that,” Nikhil said. “I can’t guarantee it will happen again.”
“Still, it proves one thing. We have more inside of us than we realized.”
The conversations seemed to be going well but Pam was feeling a sense of dread inside. Ash’s plan was going to set off some fireworks like he planned. However, there was something else around the corner. There was something that was going to put a dash through all their plans. Her only hope was that Misty was still at her recital. These people could still monitor her. If Patty was there like she planned to be, they could do something horrible.
“Try to relax, Pam.” Crystal told her. “Misty’s a smart girl and Patty’s tough. If anyone tries anything, they’ll be able to pull through.”
“I trust you, but I’ve still got a bad feeling,” Pam said. “You saw how Dr. Chang reacted when Ash pulled out his wire. She was surprised at first but she regained her composure quickly. It’s like she knows she doesn’t have much to lose.”
“Not yet but she will.” Ren promised her. “The storm hasn’t even started yet. Once we put a dent in them, we’ll try to handle the other places. I want to start with that place in Rose Hill. It looks pretty desolate to me.”
“Yeah, it looks that way but I doubt it is,” Doug said. “I’m sure we’ll find someone that will explain everything to us.”
“Are you sure? I doubt they’re going to welcome us with open arms.” Nikhil said. “No, we’ve got to be smarter than that. We have to sneak into the town and act like we’re here for a visit. We have to act like we’re normal. I know we’re not but it’s the best we can do.”
Pam looked down at her phone and saw a message come from Ash.
[Check out social media. It’s up.]
“Did you guys get the same message?” She held up her phone.
“I most certainly did and I’m checking all my social media platforms now.” Ren said. “Oh…Oh, shit! I didn’t think he would ever put this up!”
“What is it?” Crystal asked, looking over Ren’s shoulder. The video was not of the meeting but a slide show of all the deformed experiments. Ash had already put this together before he came in and was waiting on the right moment. “Holy…how did he get all those photos? Did you loan him some?”
“Well, he did ask to see them so I gave him a flash drive and…” Ren sighed. “Oh, God. I should have seen this one coming.”
“So what was all the other stuff about? Was he trying to find more things to blackmail her with?” Pam asked.
“I guess so.” Doug said, staring at his phone. “My kids are all texting me at the same time! They apparently saw the video and are asking me if any of this true! I don’t know what to tell them!”
“Hold off on answering loved ones right now,” Crystal suggested, watching as the screens around them changed. Instead of the usual welcome message, Ash’s video was playing on it. “Oh my God, what the hell?! It’s everywhere now! When did he have time to do this?!”
