Freak of Nature - By Julia Crane Page 0,19

held tightly to Kaitlyn’s hand, keeping it spread over her heart. “Crying doesn’t hurt. But when you cry, it’s because your heart does.”

“Your heart hurts for me?” Kaitlyn asked, puzzled. Though Quess’s strong grip was a little unsettling to her sensors, there was something deep inside her that reveled in the way her friend’s heart beat steadily; reveled in her warmth and kindness. That lump in her throat wouldn’t go away.

Quess just nodded as more tears filled her eyes.

“Let’s get back inside,” Kaitlyn said, still trying to process the information. She pulled away from Quess. “Maybe they are upgrading my slang vocabulary, and our conversations won’t be so perplexing.”

Quess broke into a laugh, a wonderful sound to Kaitlyn’s ears, but she stopped laughing as quickly as she started. “Are they really making you leave next week?”

“What? Where did you hear that?”

“I overheard my grandparents talking. They said that you were almost complete, and it was nearly time to hand you over to fulfill your destiny.”

“My destiny?” Kaitlyn felt like she couldn’t breathe. That was ridiculous; there was nothing blocking her airways.

As much as she disliked the compound, she didn’t want to leave. Where were they going to send her? She ran scenarios through her mind and came up empty. She had no idea. Her infinite source of knowledge couldn’t give her an answer.

And that was terrifying.

As much as she hated to admit it, she had come to enjoy her time with Professor Adams and his bushy eyebrows, Lucas well because he’s Lucas; even the nurse who never spoke a word to her. The daily routine with them made her feel almost normal.

She didn’t want to think about never seeing Quess or Lucas again. She couldn’t. Her mind rebelled at the thought. “There must be some kind of mistake.”

Quess didn’t bother to reply.

Kaitlyn pushed through the double doors. Lucas was sitting behind the desk in the large laboratory and stood up immediately when she walked through. He hit a stack of file folders with his hip, and the tower slid to the floor, papers exploding out. A vial crashed to the ground and splintered off into hundreds of shards.

“Well, that was graceful.” Lucas picked up a file from the floor.

“Is it true?” Kaitlyn demanded.

“Is what true?” Lucas asked, tearing his gaze away from the mess to her, his mouth slightly agape.

“Am I leaving the compound to go on assignment?”

Lucas looked away and wouldn’t meet her eye and instead, knelt and stuffed pages back into files.

Confirmation. Quess told her never to trust someone that won’t look you in the eyes. She felt like she was running, but she was standing still. Her body was revved up, even though she was rooted to the floor.

“Does it bother you? The thought of leaving?” Lucas asked, finally catching her gaze.

“It doesn’t matter to me.” Kaitlyn kept her voice level. “Will I return?”

Lucas’s expression changed and mirrored the look that had been on Quess’s face earlier before she had started crying. His heart hurts. In that moment, she knew she would never set foot on the compound again. Never see Lucas again. She wondered if they were going to send her on a suicide mission in order to shut down the project. She saw a movie about that once. Or maybe they would just hand her off to new owners. Kaitlyn didn’t know which idea sounded worse.

“We need to upgrade your hardware. I want to add facial expressions to your database that you can filter through to make conversations easier. It will help you react to situations if you know what emotion the person is feeling. You will eventually learn to mimic expressions as well.”

“Fine.” Kaitlyn resigned to accept whatever was coming her way. Of course, he wouldn’t tell her anything.

“Please take a seat.” Lucas nodded towards her seat, the white seat that she had spent far too much time sitting in.

Once she was seated, Lucas hesitated before he stepped forward. “Please turn to the side. This is going to be a large upgrade so you will be unconscious for seven minutes. Give or take a few seconds.”

Her body moved even though her mind told her not to. She hated that mechanics had so much control over her.

Slowly, he pulled the collar of her shirt down, exposing her shoulder blades. She trembled under his touch, or maybe it was his hand that was trembling. It was hard for her to tell the difference. She felt movement, heard the soft click. He gently removed a chip, set