I didn’t know what they wanted from me and now, I didn’t care.
“What can you tell us about her?” Agent Evans directed his question to Keanu…Agent Kai.
“I didn’t get any useful information about her past, but physically…” he blushed lightly. “She has a very strange birthmark.”
“Oh…where?” As though he had x-ray vision, Agent Evans narrowed his eyes and scanned my body.
“Umm…” Keanu paused then placed his pointer finger on the center of his chest.
A snicker from the other four agents elicited a swift and silencing glare from Agent Evans. “Show me.” He ordered Keanu.
Clearing his throat, Keanu approached me as I lay helpless on the cot. I turned my head sharply away from him as he tried to make eye contact. His eyes were filled with shame. If guilt had a smell, it was oozing from his pores.
Angry tears blurred my vision as he lifted up my shirt. Pushing my bra aside and uncovering my breasts, several of the agents gasped at the sight of my birthmark, or at least I hoped it was the mark they were gawking at.
A hot pain of embarrassment seared in my chest. I felt like a specimen, nothing more than animal ready to be dissected.
“I need to get a camera.” Agent Evans walked briskly from the cell.
With my breasts exposed, I could feel their eyes upon me. Keeping my face toward the far wall, I felt Keanu, who’d stayed by my side, pull my shirt down.
“Hey Kai.” The agent with blond hair heckled. “You fucked it didn’t you?”
It?!
My jaw dropped from the shock of his cruelty.
Keanu must have read my mind because he tensed and took a step closer to the cocky agent.
“Watch it Meyers!” His voice verged on anger.
“Enough!” Agent Evans snapped and glared at Agent Meyers as he walked back into the cell with camera in hand. “Everyone out…except you Kai.”
All four of the excused agents filed out the door while Keanu and Agents Evans proceeded to take pictures of my chest.
Keanu still attempted to catch my eye, but I would turn my face away in anger each time.
“Okay,” Agent Evans sighed after a few minutes of examining me, “Let’s go.”
“Sir?” Keanu’s voice cracked a little.
“Yes.”
“May I…untie her?”
My heart did an unwelcome skip with his request. Not turning to face Agent Evans, I held my breath as I waited for his answer.
“Yes, but be careful, she’s not likely to be very happy with you son.” Agent Evans shut the door behind him as he left us.
The mattress sunk beside me as Keanu sat down. His hip touched mine ever so slightly and I quashed the mild enjoyment of having gentle human contact again—especially his.
My entire body tensed as he leaned over me to untie my left hand. His warm breath tickled my neck as he slowly and carefully unraveled the strap. The Velcro released with a reluctant hiss as my hand was freed.
He paused for a moment as though anticipating my next move. I’m sure he was prepared for, and even expected, a punch or slap.
Ignoring my right hand for the moment, he moved to undo my feet. I hated that I loved the way his hands brushed up against the inside of my calves as he gently released me.
Remaining perfectly still, I refused to look at him. I’d forgotten up until now that my face was probably marred with dried blood from the sample session.
“Are you…okay?” His voice was hushed, laced with guilt and regret as he carefully untied my right hand.
My jaw clenched as I felt fresh tears well in my eyes. All the pain and persecution I’d endured over the last few days suddenly brimmed over.
“What the fuck do you think?!” Turning my head sharply in his direction, I yelled with more anger than I’d intended.
Flinching and moving away from my venomous glare, he stood and stared at me with sorrowful eyes.
“I’m sorry.” The sincerity in his voice was evident, but it did not deter my wrath.
“What the hell is going on?” Sitting up on the cot, I rubbed my wrists that had become raw from the Velcro straps. I pleaded with wide eyes as I looked at him.
“You really…don’t know?” Furrowing his brow, his eyes clouded with confusion.
“No! All I know is that I’ve been kidnapped, brutalized and treated like fucking lab rat!” Rubbing the top of my oozing head, I marched up to Keanu with my bloodied palm open and shoving it into his face, I waited for an explanation.
His handsome bronze face paled as he reluctantly observed the proof of my suffering. “I…thought you knew. We all…assumed…”
“What?! What did you assume?!” My voice was becoming shrill and I felt my knees get weak as days of exhaustion overwhelmed me. Catching me by the elbow before I fell, Keanu led me back to the cot.
After sitting down, I slapped his hand away. “Tell me!” I shrieked, my chest heaving with sobs.
“You mean to tell me that you really don’t know why you’re here? That you really don’t know?” Shock and disbelief consumed his voice as he rubbed his face with both his hands.
All energy had been sapped from my body, I hunched over, shaking my head from side to side. “No.” I whispered through the salty tears cascading onto my cracked lips.
Kneeling before me and placing his hands on both of my knees, Keanu sighed. His voice shook as he let the words that would change my life forever fall from his lips.
“Cassia…you’re not…human.”
Chapter 7
“DNA. Deoxyribonucleic Acid. The basic structure contains a double helix, forty-six chromosomes and several genetic markers shared by all humans.” Agent Evans sat across from me, his face somber. “You, Cassia, have none of the standard ‘human’ DNA attributes. Our scientists are still researching the samples to learn more, but as it stands, you do not have human DNA.”
“I don’t understand.” I stated, my voice echoing within the walls of a small conference room. Keanu had arranged for Agent Evans to talk to me. He’d apparently explained how I needed to know what was going on and he obviously believed me when I said that I had no idea.
“Your DNA has very…pronounced differences.” He paused as though reluctant to tell me, then continued. “Instead of a double helix…you have a triple helix. Instead of forty-six chromosomes, you only have twenty-six. All of which…in human understanding…is impossible.”
I could feel his uneasy stare on me as I soaked in all the information.
“It’s even too pronounced to be considered a mutation. Do you have any idea as to why your genetic make-up is so…alien?” His question was innocent enough, but implied so much.
Staring at the table and shaking my head, my entire body went numb. Glancing at my hands, I wondered how I could look so human if my genetic code had betrayed me so dramatically.
If I wasn’t human, what was I?
Except for the birthmark, I had every likeness of a human being and throughout my whole life, there’d never been any indication whatsoever that I wasn’t.
No special powers, no psychic ability…nothing that would make me remotely think I wasn’t human.
“Can I…go home?” I sounded like a small child and strangely, that’s how I felt. My world had been reborn into a nightmare, a world in which I didn’t belong anymore.
Taking a big breath in and exhaling, it appeared for a moment that Agent Evans was considering it. “No Cassia, I’m afraid not.” An odd flicker of concealment danced behind his eyes as he repeated his last statement. “I’m afraid not.”
Adjusting his black suit jacket, he turned and moved to leave the conference room. As the door closed behind him, I could see through the vertical sliver where the wall met the door. There was at least one guard…machine gun in hand.