constructive feedback is highly sort after. this not a final piece (more like a ruff draft) so there maybe some grammar/spelling issues, however i am really looking for feedback on how the story sounds, flows and feels to you.
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Professor Adam Arberight sat in a large leather chair which under normal circumstance would have felt comfortable, but during these sessions Adam doubted if there was anything that could have made him feel comfortable. He had already set the small digital camera to record, as requested, he placed it along with its stand besides him too his left so it could see and capture everything Adam observed. He removed his own personal audio recorder from the breast pocket of his white lab coat and placed it on the small wooden table in front of him; he preferred to have his own copy on hand for when he needed it. Across the wooden table, perched opposite Adam on a leather chair of her own sat Origin.
Adam kept his gaze away from Origin and focused on the clip board in his hands, he knew it was unprofessional, knew that eye contact could be a powerful tool when trying to build trust with a patience, but he wouldn’t subject himself to those eyes if he didn’t have to. Due to years of being a trained professional in the field of human behaviour when he spoke, Adam managed to keep his voice calm, comforting and most importantly neutral, all at the same time.
“We’re just going to start off with our usual memory check and see if you have remembered anything new since our last session together”, he said with his eyes still facing downward towards the notes in his tightly clenched hands. “Do you remember where you were born?”. Origin paused, as she always did when Adam asked his routine questions. When Adam had first started these sessions with Origin he had thought the pause that regularly occurred between her answers was due to her trying to recall on her forgotten memories, but as time went on and Adam asked the same questions at the start of every session he received the same exact pause; no longer, no shorter. He then began to wondered if those pauses were forged, her way of being polite before she answered his routine questions with her routine answer.
“No”, she answered softly. Her voice like ice cold water being through in his face, he forced down the temptationt to look up at her, but he willed his eyes to stay in place and kept his voice level.
“Do you know how old you age?”.
Pause.
“No”.
“Do you know where you came from?”.
Pause.
“No”.
“How long were you travelling?”.
Pause.
“I don’t know”.
Adam’s right hand slowly recorded all her answers down on paper, he struggle to keep his hand steady. For every answer Adam had felt a fresh wave of icy water slapping him across the face, sharp and fierce. He could feel his stomach twist and turn as he fought against the rising tide of his emotions that raided the walls of reasons and logic that protected his mind. Pushing back the raging force of his feelings behind closed iron doors, Adam maintained his outward professional appearance as he took a deep breath which came out more ragged then he would have liked. Reluctantly he asked another question, but decided to ask one which was more open ended,
“How did you get here?”. No pause came this time to Adam surprise, instead he heard the sound of quiet soft laughter playfully treading the air between them. The sound of Origin’s laughter struck Adam’s chest harder than any physical blow could have, he knew that laughter and it did not belong to her. He had meet that laughter years ago, had fallen in love with it, had hoped to grow old with it, but now, that laughter was no longer apart of his life.
“You brought me here, remember?”, she said. Origin’s voice was playful and kind and yet her words stung at Adam bitterly. She was trying to be clever, dodging the question; hoping to coax him into a conversation maybe even start a bit of banter between them, but the more she talked with her stolen voice the more Adam’s heart ached. It was his job though, a job he may have inflicted upon himself, but his job never the less and he was determined to see it through. Ignoring her question and looking up from his notes only as far as the table that separated them he said,
“Earth. How did you get to earth? Not the research facility”. Origin paused again before answering, but something told Adam that this pause wasn’t due to politeness, but rather her disappointment at not being able to entice him into talking freely with her.
“I don’t know”, the voice she use came out quiet and almost sounded hurt. Even though Adam knew it was illogical he felt guilt swallow him, he wanted to coddle Origin, tell her how sorry he was. Instead he bite down on his tongue to restrain himself, not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to distract himself from his urges.
Its not her. It doesn’t matter how much she sounds like her, how much she laughs like her. Its not her.
“Why won’t you look at me?”. The question left Adam defenceless; he couldn’t answer it while the digital camera was recording, even though it couldn’t see him it could still record what he said and turning the camera off was out of the question as well, that would only lead to the board asking for an explanation later. Panic and frustration broke out through Adam, she had trapped him and left him one way out; her way out and he cursed her for it. The worst of it was Origin already knew why he kept his eyes away from her, she knew why it hurt him so much to look at her and yet she had left him with no other choose.
Slowly, Adam lifted his vision from the table between them to where Origins white gown ended above her bare feet, on the side of her right foot was a small black dot of a mole that Adam had hoped he wouldn’t find there; Origin really had tried to steal every detail about her, no matter how small. Adam quickly let his eye search the rest of Origin’s body; along her covered shins, over the bend of her small knees, past the full curves of her waist. Even with the cotton gown on he knew he would find a large birth mark on Origin’s right thigh, he doubted the mole was the only detail she had taken. Adam could feel his rib cage shudder at the pounding of his heart and could hear the sound of blood roaring in his ears as his eyes climbed the folds of white cotton past her chest where it ended at her neck. He lingered at there for a while, trying to build up the courage he seemed to need just rise those two extra inches to her face.
Eager to be done with it and worried that if he waited any longer he might loose his nerve, Adam raised his eyes to the face that had haunted him for years. Familiar plump red lips pulled back to meet his gaze with a tender smile, creamy white skin lifted against high cheek bones revealing the hidden dipoles of her heart shaped face that Adam had found so striking when he had first seen them all those years ago. It was only when he saw those eyes did his composer break, those wondrous eyes that captivated him like no others could. Too Adam those eyes where every shade of crystal blue; dark and light swirling around one another in a never ending dance that sinked down into the deep depths of her dark pupils. Too Adam, those eyes were love.
Hannah.
The flood gates of his emotions that he had tried so desperately to keep at bay buckled under the pressure, Adam could feel tears begin to brim in his eyes but he refused to let them fall, refused to allow himself to become lost in a illusion that just wasn’t real. Origin is not Hannah. Hannah is dead.
He tore his eyes away from Origin’s and began to focus on the details that shouldn’t exist, there weren’t many but there were some and Adam clung to them as if they were his only life line keeping him from falling into an abyss he wasn’t sure he would climb out of. The silky raven black hair was too long, although Adam had wished she would grow it out Hannah had always kept it short, never dipping below her shoulders. Where as Origin’s long flowing hair wrapped all the way around the curves of her waist. The was no scare on Origin’s left thumb from when Hannah had accidentally cut herself with a kitchen knife and there was no signs of her ears ever being pierced.
It was those details that Kept Adam from loosing himself every time he came face to face with Origin, those small imperfection that allowed him to do the job he had been hired to do and find the answers to questions that haunted his sleep.
“I’m sorry. I was just comparing your answers to some of our earlier sessions this week”. The lie was a solid, anyone listening in their conversation would have no reason not to believe him, but the look in Origin’s eyes said she knew, she always knew.
