He was lying on a burning pyre, hot coals beneath his back. Flames. Smoke. Blisters burbling across his skin. His leg and hand were gone, leaving stumps where the surgeons had attached his prostheses. Dead wires dangled from them. He tried to crawl but was as useless as an upended turtle. He reached out with his one hand, trying to drag his body from the fire, but the bed of coals stretched off into the horizon.He'd had this dream before, a hundred times. This time though, it was different.
Instead of being all alone, like usual, he was surrounded. Other crippled victims writhed among the coals, moaning, begging for water. They were all missing limbs. Some were nothing more than a head and a torso and a mouth, pleading. Dream shrank away from them, noticing bluish splotches on their skin. Their necks, their stump thighs, their shriveled wrists.
He saw Drista. Screaming. Accusing Dream. He had done this to her. He had brought the plague to their household. It was all his fault.
Dream opened his mouth to beg for forgiveness, but he stopped when he caught sight of his one good hand. His skin was covered in blue spots.
The fire began to melt the diseased skin away, revealing metal and wires beneath the flesh.
He met Drista's gaze again. His sister opened her mouth, but her voice sounded awkward, deep. "Ready the ratio detector, if you please."
The words hummed like bees in Dream's ears. His body jolted, but he couldn't move. His limbs were too heavy. The smell of smoke lingered in his nostrils, but the heat from the flames was dying away, leaving only his sore, burning back. Drista faded away. The pit of coals melted into the ground.
Green text scrolled along the bottom corner of Dream's vision.
Beyond the darkness, he heard the familiar rumble of android treads. Patches?
DIAGNOSTICS CHECK COMPLETE. ALL SYSTEMS STABILIZED. REBOOTING IN 3... 2... 1...
Something clattered above his head. The hum of electricity. Dream felt his fingers twitch, the closest thing to a flinch his body was capable of.
The darkness began to warm, a subtle crimson brightness beyond his eyelids.
He forced his eyes open, squinting into harsh fluorescents.
"Ah! Romeo awakens."
He shut his eyes again, let them adjust. He tried to bring his hand up to cover them, but something had him locked in place.
Panic raced along his nerves. He opened his eyes again and turned his head, straining to see who had spoken.
A mirror filled the wall. His own face stared wild-eyed back at him. His low ponytail was a mess: dull, tangled, in need of a wash. His skin was too pale, almost translucent, as if the voltage had drained him of more than energy.
They'd taken his gloves and his boots and rolled his pant legs up. He was not looking at a boy in the mirror. He was looking at a machine.
"How are you feeling, Mister, uhh... Mr. Almeida?" said a disembodied voice in an accent he couldn't pinpoint. British? Irish?
He wet his parched lips and craned his neck to peer at the android behind him. It was fidgeting with a small machine on a countertop, amid a dozen other machines. Medical equipment. Surgical toys. IVs. Needles. Dream realized he was attached to one of the machines by wired sensors on his chest and forehead.
A netscreen hung on the wall to his right, displaying his name and ID number. Otherwise the room was empty.
"If you will just hold still and cooperate, we won't take up too much of your time," said the voice.
YOU ARE READING
cinder || dnf
Fanfictionbased off of the lunar chronicles by marissa meyer book one dream is a lowly mechanic with a secret- he's part cyborg. his stepmother will stop at nothing to make his life miserable. what dream doesn't know, is there's something special about him...