Talia

I woke up to see that guard man next to me on this fluffy thing I was laying on. I was in these hot, even fluffier things. He was snoring loudly beside me. I didn’t know where I was and was very confused. I tossed the thing off me, that I now know are blankets off and got up. I felt a little off on my feet and tripped. The guard man didn’t even move. He was a heavy sleeper. I got up and went to the door. I turned this thing, I think it was called a knob. The door in the room I was kept in didn’t have a knob but the guard man told me that most doors did have them. To open a door with a knob I have to turn it with my wrist. So I followed what he said and to my surprise it opened. 

I walked out and saw a lot of stuff all over the place. Then I heard another person moving around the house fast. Her heart was racing. I wondered who that person was. Where were we? I went around looking at stuff as I went. I walked towards a thing I remember was called a window. The sun had just started rising and I could see everything outside. I couldn’t stop staring. There was so much to look at. I had never seen it before. I always wanted to see it. The outside world was always so unfamiliar to me. All of a sudden I heard the heartbeat get really close and felt eyes on my back. I turned around and saw this sweaty looking woman. She said I’m sorry if I startled you. She asked what’s your name? I said I think 504F. 

She looked a bit taken aback. Oh has your father not told you your real name yet? I looked a bit confused then the stuff from last night started to really come back. I said oh I did something bad and then I woke up here. She said oh so he didn’t get time to explain I said no not really. I know he’s my dad. He tried to protect me from this but failed. Where am i? She said oh well I’m your mother’s sister. My name is Alicia. It's nice to meet you. I heard a grunt behind me and he said Talia. Nice to meet you Talia.

 I looked at him and he said your mom named you that before she passed away. I was never allowed to share that or the fact that I was your father to you. I nodded and said I like that name. I said can I go out there? He smiled and said in a few we are packing up and leaving here soon. I said why and he responded with those people are still after you. They will look for us until they take you out of the picture. Alicia hit him upside the head and said don’t make the kid afraid. I said hey guard man you never gave me your name and why did she hit you? He chuckled and said well I’d like you to call me dad. But my name is Billy. I said oh so I can call you dad? Is that what I’m supposed to do? He said well most children call their moms and dad, mom and dad. But I know you're not used to that so you can call me Billy. I said I can call you dad. 

Anyway, why did she hit you? He sighed and said because she thought I was going to scare you. I said oh ok and I told her he’s the only one who was always honest. I knew he’d keep me safe. I don’t mind it, it helps me be more prepared. Like before a hard experiment he’ll explain to me what’s going to happen and that it will be painful. He would tell me afterwards he would stay with me to calm me. He would play games with me. He would always make sure I was ok. But he always told me the truth. I knew that because I can hear when people lie. Alicia said what do you mean? I shrugged and said people’s heart beats change when they lie. He is always steady. He never lies to me. Even when he was scared of me for a moment. His heart rate stayed steady as he answered my questions. He looked annoyed at the lady. She said wow that’s an interesting talent. I said oh ok I didn’t know that was odd. 

She smiled softly and said do you want something to eat? I nodded and said yeah. She pointed to some things sitting around the floor. She said take a seat. So I sat on the floor. She said you can sit on the chairs, you don’t need to sit on the floor. I said oh what does a chair look like? She pointed to the thing with four wooden legs. She sat down in it to demonstrate. I said oh ok why do you need chairs? She said so you can sit and eat at a table. She took out something and passed me one. It looked yummy. I was used to these food pill things. They were nasty and never kept me full for very long. But it was supposedly everything I needed to survive in pill form. I asked what is this? She again looked surprised and said it’s a sandwich. I took a bite out of it and it was the best thing I had ever had. I had two of them. She pulled my dad to the side and said she really knows nothing about the outside world. He shook his head and said not really. I wasn’t allowed to really talk to her about that. I wanted to tell her badly but I wasn’t allowed to give her fantasies of leaving. My dad really doesn’t realize I can hear very well. So I realized I had a lot to learn in order to function outside like a normal person. 

After we ate we got into a thing they called a car. But I wanted to be able to move freely outside. Dad said it was too dangerous in this area and so I listened. I got in the car thing that moved very fast. We got to this place called a bank and they went into the building one at a time. They came out with this stuff called money. Then we took a ride to a car shop. For some reason we couldn’t keep this car even though it seemed perfectly fine. We got to this car shop and got a very bland car. It was nice enough on the inside and comfortable. They paid a lot of that money for the car and a few license plate things. Then we put all our stuff in the new car and were on the road again. It was really interesting how the outside worked. There was a lot I didn’t know. Like what I was sleeping on was a bed and I was under some blankets. I think it will take getting used to sitting on a chair and eating food on a table. We were in the car for hours and it was just as boring as it was in that room alone. But it was nice to be out of that room. 

We left the car shop at one pm and didn’t stop until five. We went to get food and ate in the car. We had something called chicken with fries. It was really good. Everything I was trying was really good. It was a little overwhelming. After we got food we met up with this weird looking man. He gave my dad a set of keys. Then we came up to a nice looking building. We went up a lot of things called stairs. I didn’t have the energy to make it up to all of them. I was still very tired from last night. Dad had to pick me up to get me to our floor. There were five door things on this floor. We were in door 4F. 

He unlocked the door with the key and opened the door. We all walked in with some of the stuff from the car. Both of them told me to start taking stuff out of the bags and they would be back with more stuff. So I started doing that. Soon after they came back with more stuff. They helped unpack and we settled in. It was a nice small place. But it had a lot of windows and it was high up which looked cool. I sat on this fluffy bouncy thing called a couch. Dad sat next to me and said so what do you think of this place? I smiled and said it’s nice. Do you think we can go out tomorrow? He said do you want to take a walk? I said yeah sure I’d like to find out what that is too. He laughed and said well that would be nice. Then I asked but can you tell me about mom and why I was taken away from you? What happened? He sighed and said I knew this would come up. He told me everything. Alicia hit him upside the head again, concerned for me. But I didn’t understand why. 

After he finished his explanation I said so those people are bad people? He said yeah I didn’t realize how bad they were until I met your mom. I never agreed with their practices but I never knew how bad they were either. When I met your mother I fell for her immediately. She was the kindest, strongest woman I had ever met. I would visit her multiple times a week. Every time we’d go for a walk I’d learn more about her and what she was going through. She was one of the lower class test subjects at the time. She had minimal freedom. She was going through some of the more risky experiments. After she told me what her purpose at that facility was, I went to my father who had a lot of power. I asked him to raise her status if he couldn’t just remove her. Instead we negotiated and came to an agreement. She was allowed to live with me as long as she came to any call. She would be needed and she had to come no matter what her previous engagement was. We both agreed and she was allowed to leave with me. 

We lived our life happily and free from their grips for the most part. We were together for about three years before she got pregnant with you. But she was needed at least once a week to maintain the order a year before her death. 

She wound up being the strongest of their experiments. Some of the experiments went berserk and she was called in to terminate them being she was the only one who could. When her abilities truly manifested she told me they don’t belong to me. They belong to someone else. She told me she was always a failed experiment. She told me she didn’t have long to live. I didn’t want to believe that. But she was always right. Those experiments killed her; you were the one who had the abilities. You shared your strength with her. You kept her alive that extra year. I would have had a year less time with her if you weren’t around. He was tearing up and Alicia looked upset as well but didn’t hit him this time. 

I said dad can you train me? He looked confused and said what do you mean? I said they won’t stop coming after us. They want me dead. I need to know how to use my powers to protect us don’t I. Plus I want to stop them from doing this. It’s not right. He said hey that’s a very big fight. You can’t take that on when you're too young. This is bigger than you think. I said it is because it’s been my life. I don’t think anything can be bigger than that to me. He sighed and said you're right it’s been all of our lives. It’s all we know is being controlled by them in one way or another. I’ll train you and I’ll make sure I’m just as strong. We will do this together. If we are taking them down we do it together. You hear me kid, I'm with you no matter what. I nodded and smiled. I was ready.