Chapter 21

For a while the next day, I found myself sitting on the couch after helping myself to some cereal.  I watched television for a while, and I was stunned simply by the whole family structure since I've never really had a family.  The shows were a lot different from what I remember.  First of all, there were guys in the shows and the girls often went for them.  But in the episode of this show I was watching, the guy was clearly cheating on her.  This girl is so stupid to let that happen to her.  But she should be like me one day, not even giving guys the time of day.  Then if you do against your will, you would see right through to their rudeness.  What is with these girls?  Can't they see right through them?

Later, I heard Chamille come home since she was gone all morning.  "Hey Jez...I got some news for you."

"Where have you been?"

"Sorting out things with Brandy."

I shivered.  Not that name again.

"Oh no, why were you talking with her?"

"You know I have to.  I wouldn't if I didn't.  I can't suddenly stop talking to her.  Then she'd track me down and find you or something."

"Yeah, I guess we don't want that..." I found it hard to suck in my breath.

Chamille sat down and we were silent for a moment.  But I couldn't take it, I had to ask, "what did she say?"

"Look, Jezabelle...this is going to be hard to hear.  She doesn't care that you're gone."

I got confused.  She wanted me there and said I couldn't escape (and then I did?), and that I would have to answer some questions.  She kept me for years of my life, so why would she be fine with me missing like that?

"She doesn't know how you got away, but she's decided you aren't worth it anyway.  She knows that you hate guys and kids-she has confirmed it through the virtual reality program.  She says that's all she needs to know."

"So...then she could say that her experiment was a success..."  I hated the idea that the fact I hated kids and guys was implanted in me, but I would believe it whether she did it to me or not.  They're scummy!  Especially guys.  Who do they think they are?

"Yes.  But there was an ulterior movement, I could tell.  I have this inkling that she doesn't want you to have kids...and without you liking guys or kids, that's pretty unlikely."

I looked at her quizically.  "Why would she care?"

"You may have someone important relative in the future that does something that she's not so happy about.  And without you not having kids-that would never happen..."

"But who?"

"I have a hypothesis-but I'm not totally sure."

"Who is this lady, anyway?  What's her deal?  Who does she think she is messing with history?"

"Look, I'll tell you the story, alright.  This is what she really looks like.  Her real name is Leonora."

She took out a picture of her, and I just shivered.  My bones became cold.  She had red eyes, and white and purple hair-red eyes.  Her skin was a sickly off color, and she even had a black scab on her neck.

"My mind took this picture when I saw her in her room once at night.  She only changes to how she looks like at night because she doesn't want me to know what she looks like.  She doesn't even know that I saw her, even if it looks like she did."

Questions loomed in my head.

"I'm sorry.  I better start from the beginning.  In the future, genetic engineering is starting to become so advanced that certain people start illegally inserting genes into people's bodies.  It promises to make you live longer, to not get sick, to have sharper reflexes.  This was invented illegally, since it's against the law to tamper with people's genes, but some people are inserting them surgically to people illegally."

"What?!"

"Just hear me out.  I know it's unbelievable.  Anyway, these people that later were confirmed to have had their genes tampered with changed drastically in behavior.  You see, there were horrible side effects.  Victims skin changed color, and sometimes their eyes changed to a red color.  Other abilities began to take affect, and there are many.  One of them is shapeshifting...

So some of these beings went to some time machines, illegally of course since it's all restricted-to go back in time to cause one type of chaos or another.  Some of these beings had reasons, but most of them were just crazy.  Some of these cases are noted to be top priority because they have caused mass chaos in the form of wars, or famines, and many other hardships.  But some seem to cause little harm.  This is Leonora for you."

I continued to stare at her, bewildered.

"So...she looks like a vampire.  I'm confused.  Aren't those mythical?"  I've read my stories involving vampires, and she looks exactly like one.

"Yeah...you see, a lot of them were seen in their true form a long time ago where many of them like to cause havoc, and we do try to cover up the situation-but it never happens fully.  So some people still remember what these beings did, their abilities, and their looks.  So those legends are actually true.  They're just genetically modified people gone bad."

My mouth fell wide open.

"Yeah, I know.  It's bad. So most of those vampires are being dealt with by people like me who were sent in time to cover the situation up.  But because Leonora doesn't seem to be doing anything bad compared to many of the others...we have been told to wait this out for a long time.   We're not allowed to kill them-we're supposed to bring them back with us-after drugging them of course-and fix their genes."

"Oh my llama.  Oh my llama, oh my llama, oh my llama."

"Yes, exactly.  Then...in the future...genetic engineering got better..."

"How so?"

"Well-how about I lighten the mood a little bit..."

She took my hand, and we appeared as fast moving ghosts.

In a second, we were up high by a pond and trampoline.

"Here we are.  I figured I would lighten the mood a little bit..this is pretty serious stuff."

So we got on the trampoline and started to bounce.  Chamille continued her story.

"Now, in my future, genetic engineering is allowed on humans because it got perfected so well, and restrictions and rules were placed on these modifications.  For instance, they couldn't tamper with the longevity of people's lives, there being many reasons for it.  They have to be tested to make sure that a person's personality will stay intact.  The 'vampires' of the past changed their personality a lot in evil ways, but  this was changed later.  There are many other abilities these people with these modifications have including the type of teleportation I've been doing."

"So then you're-"

"Yes, I'm one of the genetically modified people.  But, lucky for me, I didn't have to pay for it because I work for the government, and I was assigned this task to deal with Leonora.  My guy friends came with me in case I failed."

I became really surprised.  If anything, I should be surprised about anything else, I shouldn't be surprised about Chamille being one of them.  I mean, I guess it would make sense...

"Wow."

"Yeah, it's also nice to have some moral support from them, too.  It's not like we're going to tell Leonora we're after her...lucky for us, she doesn't know much of the situation surrounding her fellow 'vampires'.  But, I'll give her some credit.  She's smarter than most and doesn't want to cause destruction just for the sake of doing it.  I feel she has some unspoken motives."

I decided to change the subject a little involving her teleportation skills.  "How does the teleporting work, exactly?"

She bounced, and took my hand.

Then, in less than a second we were staring at a waterfall.

"This is just below from where we were a second ago.  Isn't it lovely?"

I nodded, or at least I think I nodded.  She was touching my hand-and we were just floating in mid air.

"You're probably wondering how I'm doing this, right?"

I tried to say yes, but it just sounded funny.

"It has to do with teleportation itself.  See, this ability was sort of implanted in my genes...so simply by thinking about it, I can teleport, though I guess it's not exact teleportation.  Of course, you've experienced it, there's that lag time with going across the space to where I intend to be...but right now, I guess this is just being in mid teleportation?  I don't mean to be moving us.  So this way we can stay in mid-air, looking at the water fall."

The only thinking I could think to say was, "oh ma llama..."

"Yes, it was quite a miracle when I first got this procedure done, actually.  I had many days in which I was trained with my new abilities..and this is certainly one of the coolest.  This is how I took that picture of Leonora.  She couldn't see me at all.." 

Then suddenly, she brought us back to where we were on the trampoline, and took my hand.

"So, in order to temporarily get another to be with me-I just have to touch them and it works, and that may be obvious."

"That is so cool..."

"Yeah, but you get used to it.  Like you're used to the internet."

"Oh my llama, how I love the internet..."

"Yes!"

For a while, we decided not to discuss events including her being genetically modified, Leonora, or anything in our lives at all, but we just enjoyed jumping on the trampoline.

For a while, we didn't speak, and that's when I was thinking of the time when Pumell and I had jumped on the trampoline together in the zero gravity room.  Oh, that was so fun!  I loved being in zero gravity, even if it really was in my head.  Even if it was fake, which is was!  Oh, I want to jump on the walls again...

"What are you thinking about, Jez?"

"When I was doing this is zero gravity with Pumell, jumping on the trampoline..it was such a fun time, but I wish I wasn't with him, being a guy."

She frowned.  "Come on, I thought this would bring back positive memories for you involving the guy being in a positive light..."

"Well, he's not in a positive light, but the experience was amazing.  Knock him out and I'd consider it heaven."

"Oh, Jezabelle-Leonora is just so good..."

She touched me again, and we as ghosts lingered high above the trampoline, just as I remembered when I was jumping on the trampoline in that day.  I felt weightless drifting high in the sky-except feeling like a ghost is a weird feeling of nothingness, so I wasn't feeling any of the nausea, which I guess should be a good thing, but it seemed to take away from the experience.

"Isn't it beautiful, Jezabelle?"

"It's breathtaking.  We really live in a nice town.."

"Yes, we do."

"Why do you teleport everywhere?"

"Well, it's fun.  I guess I've never gotten over it...just like when a person rides down a big hill on a bike.  Everyone loves the adrenaline!  At least most people-so I still feel it like that."

"That's so awesome to hear it never wears away."

"It does not."

Then I let go from her hand and we were back to jumping on the trampoline.

"This is so epic-I really appreciate all this info you're giving me..."

"Yeah, I know.  It's probably overwhelming, right?  Well, I can always slow down or speed up, whatever you want.  It's up to you.  Considering your life-which I've been a viewer of, I apologize-I still don't know what you can take and what you can't for sure.  But I figured that you could take it..."

Though it was certainly overwhelming, I believed every word of it.  I felt like I could trust her...though it seemed like there was something she wasn't telling me.  I'll give her that, she'll reveal everything to me eventually.

"I want to show you something."

She touched my hand, and in a long instant, we were standing in front of a glass building.  I rubbed my eyes.  No...

"Um..."

"Yes, this is your lab from the moon.  I thought I'd program it in with a few obvious modifications.  When I realized you were becoming a very smart girl...I figured it would be an ideal hangout for you."

I practically hugged her-and do I ever hug people?  No.  It's not because I don't like touching people, I guess, but because I've never liked anyone enough to hug them (besides the obvious heartbreakers).

"And Leonora just went with it?"

"Yeah, she agreed that you would really like it...and she wanted you as happy as possible."

I looked down at the ground, frustrated.

Chamille held my head and looked in my eyes, "look, I would've brought you back if I could, Jez.  But I did the next best thing: I tried my best to make your life bearable and fun.  I couldn't change the certain, obvious things, but I did my best otherwise."

I smiled weakly, and nodded.  I couldn't possibly blame her.  It was that creepy vampire woman's fault.  Leonora.  Leonora!

Then we went to the third floor, and seeing it so similar from the one I remembered practically brought a tear to my eye.

"Thanks so much for this, Chamille.  At least my whole life wasn't a lie."

I looked over at the computers, and memories of those annoying people my age brought back memories.  I don't even remember their names.  It's unbelievable that they were apart of some intricate computer program!

"So I didn't only bring you here to reminisce, but I also wanted to get your DNA figured out with the chemistry lab set."

"What now?"

"I can figure out your DNA and I'll compare them to a whole file on hand-I have my connections with the government.  I may work in the future's government, but they still have their ways to give me 'ins' in this time."

"So, why would you do that exactly?"

"So we can figure out who your mom and dad are.  You want to know, of course?"

I nodded briskly.  I didn't even think there was still a chance to get at them if only...Leonora knew, I never thought of an ulterior plan.

"Let's get to work."   

We put on some lab coats and goggles, and Chamille told me what to stir and how to extract my DNA.  Eventually, we got it all in a little file that Chamille would compare with other DNA later.

"So, how did you get yourself hired by Leonora?  Surely she didn't have signs up saying 'need help to get girl in a virtual reality program.  I would like an assistant.'"

"She looked for resumes online, which we figured she would do.  Clyde and Reese did it first, and she didn't touch them, so I tried and she interviewed me on the computer first.  She wouldn't tell me anything about the job, though.  I just knew her name was Brandy-which my government knew was the name she was using.  I had no doubts it was hers.  Eventually she showed me her home, what she had planned.  You were already under, then.  She just wanted help, and to know how it was going directly...She can't read your mind, but she wanted me to talk with you through a chat whenever you wanted to talk with me.  Whenever you were on, you sent something to my phone.  I always have it with me, so that wasn't a problem."

My eyes widened, I've always wondered why she was always there.

"Look, there's something I haven't told you, and I think I owe it to you before we continue...I don't want to deceive you anymore."

I took a deep breath, getting ready to hear anything.