“Where you gonna run?” the voice was harsh. I let out a painful cry as he grabbed my wrists and pinned them together in a tight grip.
I could feel my heart throbbing inside my chest as my breathing became more rapid, more shallow.
“You won’t get away with this.” I cringed at the words.
Like that classic threat would stop him.
“Please”, I whispered brokenly as I struggled to break free.
I felt something cold glide across my waist, trailing towards my neck. He leaned forward, pressing the tip of the knife into my skin.
His smile is the last thing I see before I feel excruciating pain.
The very next moment I let out a muffled scream. I open my eyes and find myself on my bed, drenched in sweat.
I sighed and pulled the blanket all the way up to my chin and stared at the ceiling. This has been happening for a long time now, the flashes of my memories from before the accident. But today was different. If it wasn’t for the clear skin on my neck, I would’ve believed that it was real. I rubbed my forehead trying to fight back an approaching migraine.
Unable to go back to sleep, I get out of the bed cautiously without trying to wake my mom up.
Ever since the accident that I have no memories of, my parents have been spending a lot of time with me.
As I walk towards the kitchen, I see light spilling from underneath the gap of the storage door.
I open the door to switch the light off but to my surprise, instead of a small empty room I find a highly developed lab with all sorts of scientific equipment that you’d probably find in the sci-fi movies.
This room felt very familiar. All of a sudden a memory was banging at the back of my mind increasing my pre-existing headache.
I lay on the floor as I look up at my mother.
“I’m sorry, you can’t know.” She says with an apologetic look on her face.
My eyebrows furrowed in concentration. I try to recall but I can’t seem to remember more than that.
Somehow, I was here before.
As I look around the room, my eyes fall on what looked like a huge cylindrical glass container filled with a liquid in the corner.
My heart leaps out of my chest when I observe something or rather someone inside the glass.
Everything in me begged to turn back but the part of me that was dying with curiosity forced me to walk towards it.
When I’m close enough, a shocked gasp leaves my lips and I clap my hand over my mouth. I continue to stare at it in mute shock, unable to comprehend what I was seeing.
It was me. She looked exactly like me.
The only thing differentiating us was the scar that ran across her neck.
This couldn’t be right. It’s the exact same spot, just like in my nightmare.
‘How is this possible?’
I slowly start backing away and turn around, frantically looking around the room in an attempt to find something that would probably explain all this.
All I could find were a lot of papers that appeared to be connected to genetics and human anatomy from all the diagrams and a few words that I could recognize.
My eyes land on a book placed on top of one of the computer desks. As I take the book and open it, I realized that these are short diary entries.
I flip through the pages and read random entries.
March 24, 2018
After years of research and failed experiments, Robert and I successfully create a genetically lab-made human. We’re yet to give her a name. For now, we’d call her Subject M. She looks just like our daughter.
August 15, 2018
It has been a month since we lost Emily. In a desperate attempt to bring our daughter back to life, we transferred all her memories into M. The world does not know about her death. We covered it up as an accident.
December 15, 2018
M has positively responded to all trials conducted. I thought this would be easy. But every day, I am only reminded of Emily’s death. M loves reading books just like her. It’s been five months, we still couldn’t find out who killed her.
January 20, 2019
Maybe I was doing all of this because of the guilt of not spending enough time with Emily. In hopes of having a second chance with her, I successfully erased M’s memories of her being here. According to the world, she’s been in a coma for a year.
April 30, 2019
She seems to be adjusting to the real world, better than I had expected. My only concern is her dreams.
Every day she remembers a new memory from Emily’s life. It was our only chance at finding the person who killed my daughter.
It all made sense. The things I had dreamed of, it all happened. I lift my head and look at her. I knew my parents were geneticists who worked for the government. But this was something else. I flip to the last entry and I was surprised to see that it was a recent one.
December 27, 2019
Robert always forgets to seal the door. Emily somehow managed to find the lab but I erased her memories. As far as I have observed, she still hasn’t remembered her death.
‘Okay wait. What?’
I suddenly feel a prick at the back of my neck. It wasn’t painful but I could feel myself getting dizzy almost instantly. I took a deep breath and tried to keep my eyes open. In front of me stands my mother. I
try to call out for her but I couldn’t make a sound. My vision slowly starts flooding with darkness as I
crumple to the floor.
Just before I completely lose my consciousness, I feel a soft caress on my cheek. I see her apologetic face and in my head, her words repeat.
“I’m sorry.”
Altered DNA and create genetically lab-made human fetus to make doppelgangers to probably work as
spies for the government.
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