Lost King Nightime - The Broken Soul

Chapter 1

"'Then the man with the withered, twisted, and broken arms and crept behind her and' . . . oh." I stopped right before the intersection of Wishing Anchor and Phyllis Trane Avenue. Zachariah was a couple of inches ahead of me. He'd quickly stopped, noticing my pause. "Something wrong?"

This book was on the floor of one of my favorite libraries downtown. The cover and the other pages inside were just simple, old, stained sheets of paper. It looked like a little kid made a book and forgot it there. I would've asked the librarian about where it came from, but no one really talks to me, so I just borrowed it. I'll make sure to turn it in as soon as I'm done, since the library's one of the paths on the way to my house. The book ... when I picked it up, it gave me a slight chill that made my back arch. Well, I've already read half the books in the library, so I wasn't just going to stop there. With no one to talk to, books were my escape. So what if I skip an amazing story? It's like ignoring their calls to people waiting to tell them something just grand. Without books, I'd be-

"LOOK OUT!"

The sudden smell of car exhaust filled my nose as the head lights of a car enveloped me, making my last memory bright. I could taste the blood just in the back of my throat and felt the last sensation in my fingertips before they became completely numb.

"Patients' been given ten milligrams of meperidine"

There were a couple of other sentences going across the room, but very few I could make out, with that high frequency disturbing every other sound and thought, slowly becoming louder. After a while, it was finally silent. Nothing.

Then I felt something hovering over me. Like a presence. I waited a while to open my eyes.

The whole time I could feel my eyes just sticking to my eyelids. When I could only slightly open my eyes, there was a man in a white lab coat over me, his eyes encased in black goggle-like glasses, the tight wrinkles at the edges of his face, and his brown dyed tufts of hair tracing his light forehead.

I could feel his cold breath escape his mouth and just barely travel to the surface of my skin "Number 5142225 is responsive . ." He opens my eyelids more, revealing the other dried halves of my eyes to hover a flashlight over it. It hurt a little, but only for a quick second.

" . . eyes dilated, both the superior and inferior rec-ti are slightly irritated. Other than that small matter, this transplant has been a success."

Looking to my sides, there'd been even more scientist surrounding me. Between the crowd were shelves of medicine and species that I didn't even think existed. They looked so realistic, yet so fake.

My eyes swerve around the room, still unsure of what to do. Then I see . . . my body? It's lying there, covered in nothing but a white sheet, eyes gently shut. Let's see . . . the white long hair for a much younger body? Yeah, no doubt. It's definitely me. So if that's supposed to be me, am I someone else? I stare closely at the scientist's pitch black goggles to reveal my reflection. In the tiny flat spheres, shows my pale face, and short pure black hair. And my eyes, well those huge orbs practically lit up my pale face. The rims of my pupils were a deep shade of orange and toward the center was more of a golden yellow surrounding the curved and straight pupils. I definitely look younger. Maybe . . . 6, just turning 7? I can't say I know for sure. As I said, I haven't exactly been good with talking to people, least of all, a child.

"How many subjects have failed?" a soft, yet stern voice was standing next to me, suddenly bringing back my attention. I reflexively blink my eyes, realizing I'd stopped (blinking) for a while, just staring into my reflection, and still in udder silence.

"What about the current subject? Surely, some sort of interaction or reaction has happened. Well, I need to see this for myself finally."

The voice came with a woman, dark blue hair etching the sides of her face, abdomen and her open lab coat. Her face was polished with light blush and red lipstick that made her lips bright and glasses that adjusted to her lavender eyes. She cleared her throat, gestured for a few to move out of her way, and finally spoke "You're awake. Is there anything that feels different or out of the ordinary?"

She slowly peers over my frozen body. My throat closed while I attempted to make out words, and without intention, my eyes slowly began to water. "I . . . want to . . go . . h-ome" For some reason, this was only thing I could tell her, regardless of what I actually wanted to say until my throat dried shut and pain began building in my lungs. "I see you're in pain right now" She gently placed her hand on my head and began to pet me. "Don't worry; we'll be sure to give you medication." It hadn't been too long before a needle was placed on the inner side of my elbow and the mellow liquid passed through. I began to feel drowsy and other sounds began to fade out completely. The final word I heard, that trailed off . . .

"...soon..."