Chapter 17

The cold blue light flooded my senses when I opened my eyes.

“Farah… Xiaolian…”

“They are safe, Yuna.”

The voice of my aunt sent chills down my spine. I tried to turn to look at her, but my body wouldn’t obey, and a pang of fear shot through my chest. What had happened…? I gasped for air, but it felt like there was none.

“Relax, Yuna," she said softly, putting her hand on my forehead, and I shivered under her touch.

“Where are they…?”

“You really care about your friends."

She smiled and checked something on the tablet.

“They are waking up in the room next door.”

“What... what happened?”

“Oh, you woke up already?”

Madam Faber smiled as she appeared in my field of vision, and her voice filled me with dread.

“I always knew you were a strong girl."

I tried to move again, and I managed to slightly turn my head to the right, but the dizziness that followed and the wave of nausea that took over my body discouraged any future attempts.

“What... what is happening?”

“You were always so curious about everything."

My aunt smiled, and I shivered at the sound of her voice. It felt so familiar and calming.

“Farah told you everything already.”

My stomach turned into a knot, and I looked at my aunt with a sickening feeling spreading through my body. How did they know? They didn’t see us... Farah… Did she...? It couldn’t be. My aunt shook her head.

“She was a good friend. She tried to help you.”

But then, how…?

“Thanks to her help, this turned out better than we expected."

The voice of Madam Faber echoed in the room, and I felt a needle pressing into my arm. I screamed, but my aunt put her hand on my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile.

“She didn’t understand everything. Nothing bad will happen, no one will hurt you.”

Madam Faber appeared in my field of vision and smiled as she looked at me with her cold blue eyes.

“The last attempt was truly regrettable, but we’ve improved our process. That's what scientists do. Akane told me it was your dream to become one and work with her."

She gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder and looked at her tablet.

“The empathy bond Farah helped to create between you will make this process absolutely safe.”

“You will not disappear, I promise,” my aunt reassured me.

Suddenly, the room around me began to spin, and I screamed, only to realise that the table I was strapped to had tilted up, and I looked into a room full of some sort of machinery bathed in a cold neon light.

“Look, you are there. That is your consciousness. Reprinted."

She pointed to one of the machines.

"Perfect, immortal, pure. And there is a new body waiting for you… Did you really believe I would ever hurt you?”

No… No… I sobbed.

“You will not even remember it."

Madame Faber smiled as she began attaching electrodes to my body. No… I felt cold, and I tried to shake them off, but to my terror, I couldn’t move. A quiet sob escaped my mouth, and Madam Faber put her hand on my head and ruffled my hair.

“It won’t hurt, and when you are back, Farah will be waiting for you."

“Farah…”

“We can even make her love you more. I am sure you would like it."

She chuckled and attached something to my ankles.

“After the incident, she got really upset. Unfortunately, the memory alteration didn’t work well on her. She is a curious anomaly."

“How…how do you know what she told us?”

Something in me wanted to scream, but my body stayed calm and relaxed. What had they done to me...?

“Yuna, think. You can do better than this.”

My aunt gave me a disappointing look. The watches… I suddenly remembered the pain in my wrist where the watch had been before everything went black. Did they really...? One glance at Madame Faber confirmed my fears.

“They’ve gathered all sorts of information."

She smiled and lowered the table, and for a moment, I was blinded by the cold neon light pouring from the ceiling.

“Farah… Xiaolian…”

“Xiaolian is not real, don’t worry about her.”

“She is real... She is real! And the others too… Naomi… Sneha and… and…”

I broke into tears as I couldn’t remember her name… But she was real…

“Eun-Ji”

My aunt smiled and put something cold on my head.

“Don’t worry about them. They were just an empty echo of those who died. They weren’t real.”

“They are real…they are real to me…”

“Relax, Yuna, we are ready."

I glanced at her with rising horror. She smiled, and everything went black for a moment, and the veil of light tore open in front of me and pulled me inside. No….