We are the Enhanced

αríчα

So I updated my profile. What do you think?

You can see there that I had a revelation: Moonwalker is the term Michael Jackson used to describe walking backwards. *Facepalm. Facepalm. Facepalm.* Haha, oops. No, that's not what I meant. Not an avid Jackson fan, sorry. I prefer Imagine Dragons, Clean Bandit, and Meghan Trainer. (I don't think I spelled her last name right but spellcheck won't let me spell it any other way...)
No, I meant it as 'Astronomy Enthusiast' or something. Failed at that. Well, enjoy your story, and I beg you, don't be a silent reader, tell me what you think.

Shoutout to Creator_Of_Truth because they're awesome and commented on this book, so, just know you're awesome, Creation, keep doing what you're doing.

That's all for now, folks.

Charlotte was right. It was easy to invade her. Ariya didn't like it.

All weekend, something had been wrong with her. She'd felt miserable, and there were voices. That was the scary part. They whispered, wanting to be heard. Ariya tried her best not to listen. They sounded like her family; she could hear her brother's ideas about all things toddler, but when she looked over, his mouth was still. Her father was reading the paper out loud, but when she'd looked over to tell him, politely of course, to shut up, he too, had his mouth shut.

Bewildered and overwhelmed by the new noise, Ariya had gone upstairs and slept. As soon as her family was out of sight, the noise faded. She'd sighed.

The same thing happened Monday. It didn't happen all day, just in bursts, but there was so much more of it, the amplitude of the phenomenon, from so many people at school, was horrendous.

She didn't have any friends, none she felt comfortable talking about this to, anyways, and didn't even think of mentioning it to her parents, certain they'd laugh.

Then she remembered the girl on the plane. Charlotte, she remembered. That was the other thing. Everything, absolutely everything, was coming back to her. Every memory she'd ever made. Little random memories that had been lost forever were coming back to the surface, back from as early as when she was three.

Her mom stood by her. Ariya felt something on her chin. Food, she realized, using her tongue to lick it up. Yuck. Mom had fed her eggs. She made a face and cried.

The memory from when she was so young came back like it was from yesterday. Many more followed suit.

She made up her mind to call Charlotte. Just one problem. Ariya realized she hadn't put the girl's contact in her phone, only written it on her arm. It had long since faded. But she realized the memory hadn't.

Tentative and reluctant for reasons she didn't understand, Ariya reached for the memory from the plane. It came so easily...

And there was Charlotte's number. She plugged it in and called the girl, told her about her situation, and heard the frightened response. I'll be the new kid at your school tomorrow. And the cryptic warning. Don't give in to what?

Then, Tuesday, the girl showed up, just as she'd said. And she'd dragged Ariya to the girls room for those horrible few minutes.

"C'mon," she said, "I know you're trying not to invade me. Just do it. Answers, Ri."

It was true. The sensation had come back. She could hear Charlotte muttering incomprehensibly yet her mouth didn't move.

"What have I gotten myself into," Ariya muttered before concentrating on, as Charlotte said, 'invading' her.