One

CHAPTER ONE

I pass the cells of the facility. The walls are off-white and the brightness of the fluorescent lights hurt my eyes. The cold air fills my lungs and I shiver in my thin all-white uniform as I roam the halls, my footsteps echoing on the marble floor. Finally, I head to my destination. The room is dark, but I see the uniforms of my fellow doctors glowing slightly from the light coming from the window of the adjourning room. The window view is of another room. Like every other wall in this facility, the walls of the room are white. Each wall is cushioned with white foam boards and there was nothing else in the room. Empty, just like how my soul has been all these years. I see her sitting at the corner of the room, her arms wrapped around her folded legs, her white garment rippled around her, her soft blonde hair tousled around her shoulders. I stand, together with my co-workers, in the dark room, observing her behind the glass. She does not know that we are watching her, and I see her trimmed nails digging and scratching at her arm.

When the assembly of the doctors is complete, a slit on her door opens and a knife slides in. At the sight of the sharp object, she scrambles for it. She turns it and flips it over, examining its sharp edge and its gleaming blade. Slowly, she runs the blade down the palm of her hand and makes a clean cut. She fascinately watches as the blood drips down to the floor. She does not flinch, for the cut is so clean, she feels no pain.

I shiver, not from the cold, but at the sight of her blood streaking down her arm. I am grateful for the dark, for my comrades do not see my disgust at this experiment.

This facility is dedicated to discover new therapeutic cures for the mental obsessions of individuals. The Lotus, it is called, getting its name from Homer’s Odyssey written centuries ago. The tenants of this facility are no ordinary beings, but clones of the deceased and current mental patients. No patient is a normal being, but instead a carbon copy of another, their obsession programmed at birth.

After half an hour of observation, three men go into her room. Two hold her back as the other takes the knife away. She cries and struggles, but the men are too strong. Once the one carrying the knife goes out of the room, a doctor goes in to tend to her wounds. One by one, the doctors file out of the dark room. I stay behind and watch as they bandage her cuts and leaves. I watch as she softly sobs and scratches at the door. A few minutes later, the men come back to take her to her room; and I too leave, knowing that someone will clean the blood on the floor.

I jot down a few notes and glance at her credentials:

 

NAME: FOXTROT66

AGE: 15

GENDER: FEMALE

HEIGHT: 5’3’’

WEIGHT:

EYECOLOR: BLUE

HAIRCOLOR: BLUE

DATE CREATED: AUG. 9, 2030

 

Those are the basic things about her. Other details are about her health and dental records. The last page, the once I cringe to read, is about her Lotus, or obsession, in simpler terms:

 

Her fascination with blood and sharp shiny objects are similar to those of Case66. Case66’s past with the murder of her mother and father has greatly affected her mental state. Unfortunately, with Case66’s, a.k.a Brittany Werner, death on July 9, 2030, we were forced to create Foxtrot66 to continue further observation.

 

I will not torture myself by reading on to my observations of her. No, I will not… I head to her ivory cell; which I think is a prison, its color trying to compensate for the evil doing behind these walls. I head into her cell. She is not surprised, for she sees me often, for I am her doctor and friend. Sitting still on her bed, she does not look at me. I am not surprised by her behavior, for she is always like this whenever she is taken away from her Lotus.

She is as beautiful as I had remembered. Remembered not as Foxtrot66, but as Shannon Taylor. This 15-year-old being is a clone of Shannon, Mrs. Joseph Taylor, my wife.

. . .

The first time I met Shannon, I was 23 and she was 22-years-old. I married her two years later. We had been married for 3 years, and had one daughter, Katrina, on the second year. But then, she died the year after we had Katrina. She was murdered by a psychiatric patient who was able to escape The Lotus. Fifteen days after her death, a doctor from The Lotus called me, and asked me if Shannon could be cloned for an experiment. I was angry at first. How dare they ask me if they could clone my wife when it was one of their creations that had killed her? The day after I called back, telling them that I would agree if they made me the doctor of her clone. I was a psychiatrist, though not a well known one, but they needed a clone soon to continue observation. Reluctantly, they agreed. I made arrangements for Katrina to stay with my sister, and I packed my bags and moved in The Lotus. Katrina and my sister visit me often. Though Katrina doesn’t like the fact that I’m taking care of a clone of her mother, and for a fact that she is older by three years. I try to make Katrina know that I love her as a daughter. But she will never understand why I wanted to be F66’s doctor. I myself do not know why, but I know that I have to.

. . .

“You said they would let me keep it.” F66 said, snapping me out of my reminiscing and breaking the silence. “You said I could have it, but you made them take it away.”

I knew she was talking about the knife. “I said you could keep it. As long as you didn’t hurt yourself.”

“But it didn’t hurt, Joseph.” She said. She turned quiet and gently stroked the bandages on her hand with her fingers. Her eyes were glazed and she didn’t blink. I could tell that her mind was far away.

“I couldn’t help it.” she said. “It was so beautiful. I haven’t held one for a long time. I had to do it.”

I was silent. I saw her tracing circles on her palm.

“Joseph?” she said.

She always calls me by my first name. It always feels strange for me to hear my name coming from her lips, using the voice of my beloved Shannon.

“Why?” I whispered.

She looked up at me. At first I thought that she did not hear me. But then I heard her softly whisper: “I will find Patrick.”

Her words were full of hate. I could tell she was angry. Patrick was the man who killed Case66’s parents. When F66 was made, Case 66’s memories were implanted. Now she thinks that Case66’s memories are hers.

“You can’t get out of this facility.” I told her.

I could hear her sobbing again. I knelt down beside her and put my hand on her shoulder. Suddenly, she went down on her knees in front of me and her hands grabbed at my uniform.

“Help me, Joseph.” She cried. “Help me escape.”

This is not the first time she has begged me this. Other times I had told her that I couldn’t do what she asked of me. This time, I told her the same. She let go of my uniform and shouted.

“Get out!” she shouted and shoved me towards the door. “Get out! Get out!”

I go out of the room and press the code on the pad beside her door. Instantly, her shouts get cut off and the door locks. I sigh. I can’t observe her any further today, she was too angry. But by tomorrow I knew that her anger would subside, and she would forget everything about today. I head to my room, which is in another Section, to type in my report and submit it to the Head.

When I arrive, I sit down in front of my Messenger, an advanced computer that can use your typed message to create a hologram of yourself and dictate your message to whoever you sent it to. Messenger is used only in The Lotus. A voice greets me, a voice not from Messenger, but from above my head.

“Good afternoon Dr. Taylor.” The silky male voice said.

“Good afternoon DeXter.” I reply.

DeXter is a program that runs the whole facility. He is the Security, he is the Memory; he controls Messenger, and he is in charge of cloning Cases.

“You have one message today, Doctor. Do you want me to commence message?”

“Yes.”

A hologram appears in front of me. An actual sized human. There are no pixels on the figure, instead it looks like a solid object, like a real human being, and the only way you knew it was a hologram was that it had a circle of light around its feet.

“Doctor Taylor.” The hologram says. It is the hologram of a fellow doctor, one of the Superiors, one rank higher than mine. “I have sent you this message to inform you that the Head has assigned me to examine a Special Case. While I’m away to collect her, my Case here at The Lotus has no one to look after him. Both the Head and DeXter have recommended you to look after D24 while I am away. Sorry to bother you with this inconvenience, but the Head tells me that you only have one patient here at The Lotus, which is why I think you won’t be too busy. I hope you start soon, doctor. Time is ticking away.”

Reviews

[Shep]

Awesome story it kept me engaged wanting to read more which I will after this. But right now it looks like we need to discus comma modifiers. Modifiers consist of words that do not need a comma (and, or, as, so. Then, was) you may put it after these words to create a pause, but not before. Other than that I found very few mistakes. I have Emailed my findings in hope it helps. Sorry it took so along ,I am busy with my group Inked Pages were we fix each others writing plus review.

[clairvoyantmars]

this chapter shows the intimate relationship between Dr. Taylor and F66. it shows why the doctor acts this way with F66 because she is a link and a reminder of his past.