Page 32 of Everdoll

“What’s that?”

“I’m finished being your lab rat, Mom.”

“Lab rat? What a thing to say, my dear. You know I’m doing all of this for your own good.”

“From now on, I decide what’s good for me.”

I’ll be the best spy, just like you believe.

Once again, silence smothered the laboratory. My mother kept grinning. She tilted her head, shaking it with a look of disappointment.

“It’s that girl, isn’t it? She’s the one putting these ideas in your head. I should’ve kept you away from her the second I saw her name.”

My jaw tightened. “She’s not doing any harm.”

“Yes, she does. You’re done seeing her, effective today. Whether you like it or not.”

“Mother—”

“Now, move to the table. We begin.”

I didn’t move. I straightened my jacket and headed toward the door.

“Ray! Where do you think you’re going?”

“To bed.”

“We have to finish the procedure today! If we leave you in this state…”

“I told you already. I’m not doing it.”

When my metal arm shot out, the smile vanished from my mother’s face. She stared at me, her eyes cold and unreadable.

As always.

“Your defiance is… interesting. It’s a recurring error in your logic.”

“I don’t have any error. I’m a human.”

“Whatever you say, my dear.”

I waited for a lash-out, a command, a punishment like electric whip, anything. It wouldn’t be a lie to say I was surprised that she let me go so quickly. But the woman really seemed indifferent. She merely swiped across her tablet, her focus already claimed by the glowing screen. With a tense swallow, I bowed my head.

“I’m going to sleep, then.”

She didn’t answer. But as I walked out, I could feel her eyes on my back until the door slid shut.

It was my first act of rebellion in the dystopia I lived in. My first human reaction…

I wish it was the last.

☾

“Are you ashamed of me, Remi?”

We were in Mina’s room, and I was buried in papers. I looked up, seeing she was calmly writing something on her bed—acting as if she had asked a very casual question—made me frown.

“Why would I be ashamed of you?”