My Curse part 4

“Where did you get that voice recording?” I asked.1

“You dope! How could you fall for the whole ‘robot’ thing? I mean, come on! What kind of name is Lyx?” said the girl.2

“Well what are you really?” I asked.3

“I’m the recorded mind of Melissa Yun Xeman, one of your classmates at Riverton Middle School. The real Melissa’s father was a scientist here and she volunteered to undergo the mind cloning into these super suits. Now she has already lead a peaceful life and I never have to grow up, I would say that’s a win-win scenario!” she said.4

“Do you know what happened to the world since I was gone? Or were you lying about the year too?” I asked.5

“Not much, the world is in chaos, humans are at war with a hostile species and we are all facing imminent destruction,” replied Melissa.6

“Sounds like school all over,” I said.7

The projection of Melissa smiled.8

“Did, um, Alice?” I stuttered.9

The projection’s jaw dropped, “You liked Alice?”10

“Well it doesn’t matter now does it?” I said as I was trying to hold back tears.11

“I can’t find any records on Alice after the last day of eighth grade, sorry,” she said.12

“It’s okay, we were too different,” I said, trying to convince myself that.13

“She was really upset after what happened, she did care,” she said.14

I didn’t reply, my eyes were getting watery.15

The image of Melissa disappeared, leaving the inside of my helmet dark and lonely.16

I was now sitting in a type of car that ran on tracks, with two guards sitting on opposite sides of me. When the car came to a stop I was walking toward a large dome building, made of stone and not metal like all the others. I walked into the building everything was different, there were people everywhere, at desks typing on some odd-looking keyboards and looking at holographic screens. This was amazing, when I was a regular kid this stuff was only in movies like Star Wars. I was shocked at how quickly this came to a reality, well, quick for me.17

The two guards and I stepped onto a platform that ascended through the air to other floors at incredible speed. When the lift got to the top floor two doors opened into a large office with a desk quite some distance to the doors.18

Behind the desk was a chair, sitting in the chair was a man who was rather short and chubby with dark curly hair that wasn’t to his ears. He made some gesture and the guards at my sides stepped back onto the lift and closed the doors behind them.19

It was just me and him.20

“Well now, I suppose you must be rather confused so I will explain this to you simply and shortly. You are an experiment that was designed to create solutions to this ever pressing war, and you will do so cooperatively,” he said.21

“And if I don’t?” I asked.22

The man chuckled, “I’m sure you will find that you have nothing to gain now from betraying us.”23

“Who are you?” I asked.24

“Me? I am the man with all the answers you are looking for, and you will now get any unless you are a good animal,” he said.25

“Stop calling me that!” I roared.26

“I suppose you two have already met then,” he said.27

I was confused, what did he mean?28

“Indeed we have,” said a voice behind me.29

I turned around and I saw what was not possible, father was standing there.30

“How could you survive this long?” I asked with rage.31

“I downloaded my consciousness years ago into the Paladin mainframe, so I could see the day when all Vampires are dead!” he said.32

“Then why not kill me now?” I asked, trying to play my cards right.33

“You have uses and we will not let them go to waste,” he replied.34

There was a burst of golden light over on the right side of the dome and two figures were standing there, a man and a woman.35

The woman said, “Eric, come here!”36

My name, she knew my name! I ran over to them and ignored the alarms sounding. When I got close there was another flash and we were somewhere else, some small camp out in the woods.37

“Who are you?” I asked.38

“You don’t know us, but we know someone you might be familiar with,” said the man.39

I heard a rustling behind me, when I turned and saw my hope was restored. I was shocked but glad as well.40

“Eric, my you’ve gotten tall,” said Alice.41

I didn’t reply because I was too surprised.42

“What? You don’t remember me?” she said as she walked closer.43

She had gotten older; she looked like she was eighteen. Her hair hadn’t changed at all, and neither did her eyes.44

“Hello?” she said as she was banging her fist on my helmet.45

I caught her fist as it was on another swing and pulled her in for a hug.46

“Whoa!” she said, sounding surprised.47

She took a few steps back and said, “Well, you do remember me.”48

A holographic image of Melissa appeared and said, “Oh! It’s so romantic!”49

The man came up from behind and ripped the helmet off of my head.50

“Ow!” I said as I rubbed my neck.51

“All taken care of, that A.I. would have caused trouble for sure,” he said after he smashed the helmet into a rock.52

“How did you survive? It’s almost been two hundred and fifty years!” I asked.53

“I had a little help,” she said as she made a motion towards the two people who rescued me.54

“How did they help you?” I asked.55

“Well how did they rescue you?” she asked in reply.56

“That didn’t answer my question and also was maddeningly unhelpful,” I said.57

“They found me after you were rushed off to a ‘hospital’ and told me what was really going on. Eric, you aren’t human,” she put her hand over my gloved hand, not adding any comfort to what was just said.58