Pandora

Part 1

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    Her scream penetrated through the air, her body straining as the chair rattled with her fierce efforts to wriggle herself free. She clenched her fists as she glared upon the large two-way mirror in front of her, the room was so bright it reflected her, unable to make out the figures behind the window.

   A metal device circled her head and the seat tilted mechanically, putting her at an angle to the room.

She had become the governments lab rat.

   The young girl yanked at the leather straps that gripped onto her wrists, as the electrical impulses flooded through her body in scrutinising pain. She emitted a piercing cry as she threw her head back, her vision flashing all sorts of colours.

   The pain temporarily subsided, but she felt her eyesight slipping, as if she was looking through a tainted glass. In front of her, a clock was wiring out of control, the hour handle dragging the minute handle, the gears unable to catch breath.

As she resisted foam formed at the lips and her eyes rolled back.

   In the end her body gave in, and silence struck the room, as her eyelids swiftly shut, and her body collapsed.

Ava

   Her eyes flickered open, she inhaled and gasped for breath, as if her body had been deprived of oxygen.

   In front of the girl, a familiar face leaned over her, crouching on the floor. Fair skin, almost milky white, as blonde strands cascaded over her shoulder, eyes a gun metal blue.

"Mum, what-"

   Her eyes scanned the area around her, she was laying on the cold laminated flooring, in a corridor, the walls were a creamy mustard colour, radiating warmth, in comparison to that room she had just been in.

"You passed out on the floor, you look very pale,"

   The mother gently caressed her cheek, holding the back of her hand against the girls cheek for a few seconds.

"You've got a slightly high temperature," she remarked, retracting her hand, still hovering over her daughter.

The girl pulled herself up, she was wearing an oversized t-shirt, drenched in what seemed like sweat.

"What happened? I was in a room, how did I get here?" The girls tone laced with panic as she vividly recalled the white room that had warded off all her senses.

"I was awoken by a loud crash, I ran out into the corridor and found you on the floor, you appeared to be sleep walking?" The mother rested her hand on her the girls shoulder.

"Ava, is everything okay? This isn't like you."

"Ye sorry mum, I'm fine, I'll head back to sleep." Ava brushed her mother's arm away gently, before giving her a warm, comforting smile.

   They parted ways, her mother making her way back to the upstairs bedroom, her body disappearing as she slipped behind the door. However, as Ava spun around, her eyes laid upon a sight before her.

    Her breath hitched, and her heart rate increased, pounding against her chest. Paralysed in her step, she was unable to bring her senses to light.

In front of Ava stood... another Ava.

    Her hair an ebony black, as if ink had spilled over her head and shoulders. Her dark emerald eyes bewitched, as she gazed at Ava. She stepped forward.

"Who are you?"

   This was just a hallucination, Ava ran the sentence repeatedly through head, there was no way she was seeing herself standing right in front of her. She must've still been half asleep, or a trick of a sleepy mind.

"Fear me not, I am a part of you." She had a thick, gravelly voice that seemed to be carried through the corridor.

   Ava clenched her jaw, and looked through the girl, attempting to block her out.

As in Ava's mind, she was just a figment of imagination.

She does not exist.

    She stepped forward, and forward Ava marched on towards the girl, towards her room which was at the end of this corridor.

   But instead of the girl disappearing as a figment of imagination would, she walked right into her, knocking her back.

   Ava stumbled over her feet, letting out a yelp of surprise, before looking back up at the girl, she had her arms crossed and looked at Ava in disbelief.

"What would walking into me achieve?"

"Y-you're real?" Ava gingerly stumbled back at the sudden realisation, this was not a figment of imagination, not a hallucination. She was wide awake, and before her stood a real girl that looked exactly like her.

"No I'm not real. But I'm real to you, as I'm a part of you as I mentioned earlier,"

  Ava pulled her hair back, as her eyebrows stitched together at that statement.

"But that's not important. What's important is that she is coming for you,"

"Who has come for me?" Ava flustered from all this, rubbed her temples as she kneeled down.

"The fact you exist here is a danger to humanity, as long as you're here, you'll cause paradox's, until our world leaks into yours. And with this earth will come to be annihilated." The girl explained, she stood sternly, her voice affirmative.

"Our world?" Ava glanced up, the overpowering feeling was resonating from the girl, and soon she realised, she wasn't dressed in ordinary clothes. Silk-white clothes draped over her body, wrapped in a golden garment as a belt that kept the dress together. It looked ancient.

"Yes our world, i cannot say anymore, I am a part of you, you're mind has put up walls, I cannot break them down on my own. But you need to run, they know of you." The girl turned around and strolled towards the bedroom, the white garment dragging behind her on the floor.

"Wait who's after me? I don't understand," Ava jogged towards the bedroom after the girl, but she was nowhere to be seen, she had vanished in thin air.

Pandora, is our name.

- end of part 1