My New Reality

I awaken into a much less bright room. The ceiling seems more normal, not hospital at all. I turn my head to see a room which is not my own, who’s house am I in? I begin trying to get up, a jolt of soreness runs across my entire body. It feels like all my muscles haven’t been used in forever, gosh how long was I in that hospital for!?
I’m able to pull myself off from under the covers and slide off the bed onto my feet. I stand up, wobbling a little as I find my balance. I stare at my feet, they seem different, smaller. I then notice my attire, at first I think it’s a hospital gown, but it seems more like a nightgown? With some focus I’m able to stretch myself out enough to find walking easy enough again. I look around the bedroom I’ve found myself in, it’s pretty empty, like someone hasn’t lived here in a long time. I go over to the door, turning the handle to open it, it clicks but doesn’t open. Instead a loud beep tone plays and a red light lights up above the door. I wonder what that means?
Without any way to leave the room I return to looking at its contents. There is a shelf with many empty shelves, some have small trinkets like a marble or a weathered flower petal, small things that meant something to the person who placed them there. One of the shelves has a few dusty books: A Bible, A copy of The Metamorphosis, a few cook books featuring receipts for cakes from around the globe, and a copy of The Moustache. Their pages are yellowed, and the condition shows they’ve been well read by someone.
I found a closet which holds an assortment of clothes. From pants in many sizes, to dresses and coats. There are a few shoe boxes which hold shoes barely worn, others seem well loved. They seem to mostly be girl’s clothes, although the sizes are all over the place. Perhaps this is a guest room and they are storing lots of old clothes and items in here. I turn to leave the closet, there is a mirror hanging on the inside of the door, it reflects a reflection of someone I do not know.
Before I can begin to emotionally deal with what I am seeing, the door to the bedroom clicks open and someone enters. I quickly step out of the closet and see it’s Doctor Mac, so that dream was real.
“Oh! Look at you, up and on your feet already! Most girls don’t get up and moving till at least their second day so consider yourself ahead of the curve already!” She smiles at me warmly, she seems genuinely proud of me.
I try to ask her what is going on, but no words leave my throat. I feel most desperate as I try harder and harder to make any sort of sound. Doctor Mac puts her hand out and places a finger on my lips. She brushes stray hair from out of my face as she smiles. “I’m afraid you aren’t able to talk, and I don’t think you ever will. I’m sorry.”
I feel more panicked, like I’m about to hyperventilate. She shushes me trying to calm me down, “Come here, let’s have a seat on your bed, we have some things we need to discuss.”
I try to pull her hand towards the closet mirror, pointing at it trying to get her to understand I need her to explain what I was seeing. “Yes sweetie, that is part of what we need to talk about.”
I release my struggle to pull at her, following her lead over to the bed. She sits down on the bed before me, placing down a bag she was carrying, then patting the spot beside her. I take my seat and she smiles again. “The first thing on today’s agenda, and don’t worry there isn’t much for this first day!” She semi laughs to herself, “We need to give you a new name.”
But what about my old name!? I don’t want a new name! I shake my head furiously. She places a hand on my head and pets me, “Calm down dear, now don’t you not remember your old name, right?” I nod reluctantly. “See? We can’t just not give you a name! MG 4671 has no ring to it, that’s your MGI designation internally, don’t worry you don’t need to memorize that it really means nothing to anyone but the doctors and scientists.”
I tilt my head trying to ask what any of that means. “Oh dear! Uh, we can get to the MGI in a minute, sorry. This is my first time taking the lead with one of you so forgive me if I share too much too early. Let’s get back to giving you a name, you want a name don’t you?”
I bit my lip before I give in and shrug, accepting I did need a name for the time being. “How about I just give you a name, and then bam it’s done with and we can move onto the more pressing issue on your mind, that sounds okay?”
I roll my head from one side to another. “Let me just hit you with it and then we can gauge your reaction.” I stare awaiting her idea. “Sophia.” I stare more, looking into her eyes which shake only slightly, as my gut sinks I understand what I saw in the mirror was true.
“Yes, Sophia-” She pulls out a hand mirror from her bag. “How about we look at our reflections.”The face I saw in the mirror is in this one too, I can only stare as the face stares back at me. “It’s been shown that tracing our details can help you get more accustomed to what has happened.” She places her pointer on my face, she runs it over my eyes, “Two lovely eyes, with better vision than before.” She runs her finger down to my lips, “Look how soft your lips are now.” I touch my lips, I don’t remember their feeling before, perhaps they hadn’t felt like this before? “And look here, freckles! Did you have these before?” I shake my head, tears have begun to form in my eyes.
Doctor Mac stops pointing at my features and wraps her arm around me pulling me into a hug. “There there, don’t cry. We can take a break from that.” I sniffle, holding back tears. “How about we talk about something else exciting. Let’s talk about MGI and your new life under them!”
I look up to her, tears dripping down my cheek as I continue sniffling. “Okay, MGI or as you might recognize it Magical Girl Initiative, it’s a world government sponsored program which creates the Magical Girls that fight off the Spawn of our planet’s invaders and such.” She squeezed me tighter, “And as of yesterday you are officially our newest brave fighter who’s going to be protecting the world! Isn’t that so wonderful?”
Magical girls? Me? But, but.. I’m a- “You entered into a cocoon state, this is only associated with the Spawn creation process, but surprise it’s also how we get magical girls!” She looked at me expecting something, perhaps surprise or excitement, I was still crying and so she moved on. “You see only boys can be infected with the Magical Girl variant of the infection, so that’s how you ended up how you did.” She paused, “Unfortunately this next part is a tad sad, think you can handle it Sophia? Or should we hold off till another time?” I was still crying so she must have taken that to mean hold off, she moved on to something else. “And here’s something really exciting! Do you know Elemental Guardian Vontavia?”
I nodded. Who didn’t know them, they were basically the most popular magical girl team of our time. Led by the mysterious Guardian Black who wielded shadows, there was also Guardian Splash, Guardian Gust, and Guardian Pebble. They had a tv program, merchandise across all mediums, and of course concerts where they would perform musical recreations of some of their battles.
“Well, just like them you are going to harbor some sort of guardian ability! We won’t know right away, it might take a few days for it to manifest or be discovered, but once you’re ready and it’s known MGI will assign you to a team! A whole built in friend group just like that! Isn’t that great Sophia?”
I wiped my tears out from my eyes. Powers did sound cool, at least I would get that. “Now I don’t wanna get your hopes up that Vontavia is on the table, see MGI breaks their teams into different rank levels, and so based on what power you manifest they’ll decide what rank level you belong in. But right now the possibilities are endless so keep on dreaming!”
I reach my hand out for Doctor Mac’s, she allows me to take her hand, I had thought of a way to communicate what I wanted. I began slowly spelling out my message on her palm. “C.A.N.I” She pulled her hand back, “Oh I see, my apologies I brought you a notebook and a pencil to communicate with until we think of a better solution, I should have pulled that out when I got here.” Yeah, yeah you should have. I rolled my eyes while she grabbed the notebook.
“Here you go, write away!” She smiled while handing me the paper. I quickly scribbled down my question. “CAN I SEE MY FAMILY?”
Her expression dropped slightly. She shook her head, “I’m sorry sweetie, but no you can’t.” I felt more tears swell in me. “But only because there’s no family for you to go back to! See, you died! Well, on paper you did at least.” She hugged me again, “They already mourned your death sweetie, and even if you stood right in front of them they wouldn’t recognize you anymore as you are now. It’s better if you just look forward to your new family here at MGI!”
They wouldn’t recognize me, I don’t recognize me, this is so cruel. I have no one anymore, this infection has taken everything I ever had or could have been from me. I should have died, if I had at least then I could have died the person I once was. Now, I'm Sophia. I turn the page and write a new message, “WHY DOES SPAWN INFECT MAKE SOME MAGICAL GIRL?”
Doctor Mac looked at me, she seemed to be weighing out her answer choices. “I’m not sure if there is any harm in you knowing that, I’ll call your reaction a learning moment for my next time. The reason the infection you got caused you to become a Magical Girl is because that’s what the scientists at MGI wanted it to do?”
MGI made it!? I quickly scribbled down my next message, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN?”
“Well when the Spawn first appeared we needed some way to combat them, we couldn’t eliminate the infection, so we modified the infection the best we could. By making a strand that wouldn’t transform the infected into Spawn, then all we had to do was just collect any MGI infected patients and here we are!"
“YOU INFECT US?” I hold up.
“I wouldn’t say we did, no. The Spawn’s creators did it really, we just mixed our own strand in with theirs once you’re already infected. It’s not even a guarantee it works, pretty low odds honestly, but on average among all the Spawn one or two magical girls pops up a day.” She shook her head, “Then of those that are created it isn’t a guarantee all of them will survive, tons come out of the cocoon deformed or wrong. Point is, you should consider yourself pretty lucky to get this far already!
I try to scribble more down but Doctor Mac stops me, “I think that’s enough for now, let’s have you get some more rest today.” She got up from the bed walking towards the door, “Tomorrow we can get started on teaching you how to dress yourself as well as see if we can’t get your powers sorted out!” She waves goodbye and is out the door, the lock clicking behind her as she leaves. I’m left sitting on my bed alone again. “I can dress myself.” Is the first thing I think about.
I end up rolling back into bed under the covers, it’s not like I have much else to do. I even end up passing out cuddling my notebook, falling into a deep sleep. In my dreams I’m back to normal and back in my old life. I sleep with a smile on my face.