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D-001: Dana
Dana was an infant when she died. The doctors hadn't gotten the formula right yet, and her body was more mold than human. She was disposed of quickly; they would just have to try again. Mercifully, she didn't feel any pain.
D-002: Dahlia
Dahlia knew nothing but pain. She screamed and screamed until her throat went dry, then all she could do was stare as the doctors swarmed her, taking notes and talking amongst themselves. She never learned language; her formative stages were taken up by constant agony.
The only time she felt relief was when they pumped her full of drugs and she drifted in and out of her hallucinations. In her dreams she felt no pain, but she could not conceive of a life in which she was not strapped to this bed.
She lived for less than a year. She watched as her skin turned gray and sloughed off her body. Her joints no longer moved like they were supposed to. She went blind a few weeks before her death, but she could still see in her head when they gave her the drugs she craved.
D-003: Darlene
Darlene was their first success. She could count, she could read, she could write, but most importantly she exhibited strong control over the mold.
The doctors brought her a man and told her to infect him. She made him her father, and then they made her kill him. They brought her more people and she turned them into molded monsters for her to play with. The doctors always seemed excited when she did this, and she was desperate for their approval.
But then she started coughing. At first, the doctors ignored this, but they became anxious when it didn’t go away. It was discovered that cross-contamination occurred when she was a fetus. They scapegoated one of the doctors and shot him in the head right in front of her. She cleaned up the body like a good little girl.
Nothing they did could save her. She died during a violent coughing fit after weeks of emergency medical treatment.
D-004: Dorothy
Dorothy was defective. She just could not do what Darlene did, and nobody could figure out why. They brought her a woman and told her to infect her, but the woman resisted Dorothy’s control. They killed the woman and tried again with someone new, but she just could not do it. Her face was red with frustration.
One of the doctors sighed and marked a big X on his clipboard. Another gave her a shot and she fell asleep, never to wake up.
D-005-7: Dolores, Diana, and Daniella
Dolores, Diana, and Daniella were created together, and they were inseparable. They cried if one of them was taken away for individual testing, so for the most part they stayed together. This was fine with the doctors, as they were incredibly powerful when working as a team.
Daniella was most skilled with mind control. When the doctors gave the girls a person to infect, the person always showed Daniella the most affection.
Dolores was most skilled with the mold itself. When the doctors had the girls kill someone, she was always the one to do it. With a flick of the wrist she could send a man flying or have him eaten alive by mold.
Diana was useless, but the other two girls were fiercely protective of her. Two doctors made the mistake of talking about putting her down within earshot, and Dolores and Daniella tore them to shreds. The other doctors were very excited by this demonstration of their abilities.
The girls knew Diana was anything but useless. She was level-headed, a peacemaker. When Dolores and Daniella got into arguments, Diana could talk them down. When Daniella got upset that the doctors killed their newest mommy, Diana comforted her. She was so kind and gentle, and Dolores swore she would always take care of her. She failed.
Dolores was on edge. She was sick of killing, sick of experiments, sick of needles, sick of being given mommies and daddies only for them to be taken away. Diana tried her hardest, but she just could not console her. She was becoming temperamental, even snapping at Diana one day. She apologized, but she was changing, becoming distant.The doctors whispered when they looked at her, furiously scribbling in their notes. She could feel the heat of their judgemental gaze even when she turned around.
Daniella returned from solo testing one day with tears in her eyes. Diana ran to her side, but Daniella pushed her away.
“I heard them talking. They’re making new girls. They’re going to get rid of us.”
“Get rid of us how,” Dolores whispered. It was not a question. She knew the answer. The doctors were going to kill them, and there was nothing they could do. There was no escape.
She lay awake that night. These doctors, these monsters, were going to kill them. They were going to kill brave Daniella and poor, sweet Diana. No, she decided. They would never get her sisters. She wouldn’t let them. She grabbed her pillow and walked silently to the bed next to her.
“Goodbye, Daniella. I love you.” She pressed the pillow against Daniella's face.
D-008: Doris
Doris was created alone; the doctors learned from their mistakes with D-005-7. She was another success, exhibiting great strength with the mold and proved a very capable asset. But one of the doctors had a breakthrough and created a new formula, more powerful than any they had ever tried, so Doris had to go.
E-001: Eveline
Eveline’s first memory was of Mia. She reached out to her with chubby baby arms, and Mia laughed and booped her nose. One of the doctors reprimanded Mia, but Eveline didn’t understand what she said; she couldn’t speak yet. Mia’s face became serious and she ignored Eveline’s pleas for attention.
Eveline’s second memory was of killing. A man lay on the floor in front of her, but he quickly disintegrated into the mold. The doctors were cheering. Two men in suits clinked their glasses against one another. The doctor she remembered from before approached Eveline and grabbed her cheeks roughly. Her nails dug into her skin. The woman turned Eveline’s head this way and that, examining her. She nodded approvingly and let Eveline go. Eveline’s hands immediately rose to her face to rub away the pain.
In Eveline's third memory, she was restrained to a hospital bed. She was screaming and struggling, but she couldn't remember why. She looked down and saw that her stomach was cut open, revealing the black mold that churned through her body like blood. Oh, that was it.
"Put her back under!" the doctor whose hands were inside her open wound ordered.
When did she learn how to speak? She wasn't able to contemplate this because unconsciousness hit her again like a train.
Her memories became clearer after this. She was now the size she would be from then on. She spent most of her time being poked and prodded at the lab. Her only comfort was when she was in her tiny cell, alone.
They fed her through a feeding tube at first, but when they decided that her digestive system had properly developed they let her eat in the form of meal shakes. Sometimes they would give her a treat when she killed someone. Treats were good; that meant that killing was good.
Mia was a frequent visitor of Eveline. She was nice, but distant. Eveline didn't know why, but she so badly craved Mia's approval. She held tight to the rare moments when Mia praised her.
The doctor from her memories was a frequent visitor, too. She was cold and always criticizing. She didn't talk to Eveline much, but when she disapproved of something Eveline did, someone usually got fired.
Eveline rarely disobeyed, but it wasn’t because she didn’t want to. The first time she rebelled was after a long day of experiments. They hooked her up to a machine and had her kill various animals: a snake, a pig, a dog. This time, they released a small cat into the room with her. Curiously, Eveline reached out to it, and it gently headbutted her hand. She stroked its soft body as it walked in circles around her, rubbing up against her legs.
Over the intercom, one of them told her to kill it. She ignored them. She sat down and the cat climbed up into her lap, rubbing its tail in her face. No human had ever shown her affection like this, and she didn’t realize how desperately she wanted to be held. The other animals they gave her were angry and scary. They were going to attack her, and she had to defend herself. This one was small and helpless… just like her. She wasn’t going to kill it.
The doctor repeated himself over the intercom. She ignored him again. This time, he barged into the room. He held a whistle up to his mouth and blew.
The noise was so shrill it felt like it pierced Eveline’s skull. She covered her ears, and found that they were wet. She brought one of her hands down and looked at it. It was covered in mold.
After a few seconds of the most intense pain she had ever experienced, it stopped. The man walked over to her, holding the whistle up threateningly. “Kill it.”
She obeyed, crying from both guilt and grief.
Once they were satisfied with her control of her powers, it was time to start training her to do her intended job.
A man sat across the table from Eveline. He opened a manilla folder and took out some photographs for her to look at.
“You’re very important, Eveline. Did you know that?”
She beamed with pride.
“When you go out into the field, you will be asked to infect certain targets and make them perform specific tasks. People will generally trust and try to help you because of your appearance as a little girl.”
He pushed a picture toward her. It showed a woman, a man, and a little girl who looked exactly like her. She did not remember taking this picture.
“Sometimes, you will need to be alone. Posing as a lost child will make people want to help you, allowing you to use them. But other times, a single child will be too conspicuous. Little girls usually do not walk streets alone. You will have to seek out a family unit and blend in with them to avoid suspicion.”
Family. She had never heard that word before, but somehow it was already in her brain. Most little girls had mommies and daddies. Most little girls weren’t alone.
“Do I have a family?”
“You will never have a family. You are not a little girl. You are a weapon.”
Her face contorted with rage and she stomped her foot. The man blew his whistle before she could even begin her temper tantrum.
Someone had the idea to introduce Eveline to coloring, and it was a huge hit. “Enrichment,” they called it. She wasn’t sure what that meant but at least she had something to do when she was in her cell. She drew a square with a triangle roof and a family with a mommy and a daddy and a little girl. But the little girl wasn’t her. It would never be her. She taped it to the wall above her bed.
The doctors brought Eveline a man and told her to infect him. She had done this plenty of times before, but she had a new idea this time.
“Will you be my daddy?” she asked.
“Yes,” he answered.
She pointed at one of the doctors. “Kill him.”
The man rushed at the doctor and pushed him to the ground. He started beating him, punching him over and over. The doctor reached for his colleagues and cried out for help, but they let it happen. After a few agonizing minutes, the man stood up, breathing heavily. He returned to Eveline. His hands were soaked in blood, and it had splattered all over his face.
One of the doctors blew the whistle, and Eveline clutched her head in pain. The doctors told her to kill the man. She didn’t want to, but she did it. She was afraid of what would happen if she refused.
Right before Eveline was supposed to go on her first mission, there was a break-in. The lab was on lockdown, and all of the doctors seemed afraid. She had never seen them like this before. A group of heavily armed men escorted her to the lowest floor of the bunker and shut her inside a tiny, cold room.
She sat on the hard floor, against the hard wall, for hours. She heard gunshots outside, sometimes too close for comfort, but she wasn't afraid. She was just bored. If only she had her crayons.
Eventually, the door opened and she was escorted back to her cell. Bodies littered the floor. One of her least favorite doctors was among them, the one who was especially rough with a needle. She couldn't help but smile.
Everyone was on edge after the raid. The doctors didn't give her any new people to infect, but she didn't really care. She had more time to herself.
Mia started coming around more. And this new guy, Alan. She'd seen him before, but he was one of the men in suits, not one of the doctors. He was annoying, but as long as she got to see Mia she would put up with him.
One day, while Eveline was coloring, Mia entered her room.
Eveline waved. “Hi!”
“Hi, Evie. I have some exciting news for you. We’re going to go on a trip.”
“Where are we going?”
“We’re taking a boat to another lab. It’ll take a little over a week to get there. Won’t that be fun?”
It did not sound fun, but Eveline was happy that she would get to spend time with Mia. “Yeah, I guess so. Is Alan coming?”
“Yes, he’s coming. I know you don’t like him, but try to put up with him. You don’t have to be around him the entire time.”
She shrugged and went back to coloring.
There were no experiments this week; everyone was too busy packing up the lab. She tried to ignore them because she didn’t want to get underfoot, but eventually her curiosity got the better of her. She walked over to where Alan was inspecting one of the crates, and she gasped when saw what was in it. There were two tiny, desiccated corpses lying among the styrofoam packing peanuts. She struggled to form words. “Wh… what are those?”
Alan looked at the corpses, then back at Eveline. “Those are your predecessors. They failed. Don’t fail, or you’ll end up like them.”
She gulped and nodded. She wanted to turn around, to leave, but she just could not tear her eyes away from the tiny bodies. She knew there were others like her, and she knew that they were dead. But seeing their bodies… this was different. She couldn’t fall asleep that night because whenever she closed her eyes she saw them again.
When it was time to go, a group of soldiers led Mia, Alan, and Eveline out of the lab and to the car. Eveline had never been outside before. She had to say, she didn't really like it. Water was falling from the sky and getting her all wet, which was uncomfortable.
She got into the car and they started their drive. The gentle rumble of the road lulled her to sleep almost immediately. She had no idea how long the trip was, because when Mia shook her awake they had already arrived at the harbor.
Water still poured from the sky as Eveline, Mia, and Alan boarded the ship. The captain escorted them to their quarters as crew members rushed this way and that. They seemed busy, but one of them stopped when he saw Eveline.
"Hi, kid! We don't get many of you around here. I'm Jim, what's your name?"
"Eveline," she said.
"How old–" he was cut off when Alan shot him a glare and pulled Eveline by the arm to follow him.
She turned around to wave goodbye, but he pulled her harder. He made sure Eveline noticed the whistle hanging around his neck. She shuddered at the thought of it, and followed him quickly and quietly.
They spent the night in their private quarters. Mia slept on the bed, Eveline slept on the couch, and Alan slept in a chair. She swore Alan was watching her every move.
The next morning, the captain offered to give them a tour of the ship. Eveline didn’t really care about most of it, to be honest. On a whim, she grabbed Mia’s hand. Mia stiffened, but allowed it. A few minutes later, though, she dropped it. Eveline was a little hurt, but she didn’t have time to think about it because the captain was leading them onto the deck.
As she left the cabin, she squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for the worst, but… it didn't come? She opened one eye and was overwhelmed by the brightest light she had ever seen. She shielded her eyes and looked up. The light was in the sky, and it was so beautiful. She didn't realize outside could change.
She laughed and ran to the railing. She looked down and saw water, as far as she could see. It was deep blue and it glittered like a jewel. She turned to Mia with a smile that lit up her whole face. Mia returned it.
Jim walked onto the deck and she waved at him. He waved back, but didn’t say hi. Stupid Alan. She just wanted to make a new friend.
For several days they sailed in clear skies. Eveline spent nearly all of her waking hours on the deck, basking in the sun and breathing the fresh air. Mia pointed out the dolphins jumping in the wake and she nearly cried from joy. This was the most free she had ever been in her entire life.
But then the storms came. The boat rocked violently and the cracks of thunder kept Eveline awake. She wasn’t allowed outside anymore.
Alan left the cabin to check with the captain. Mia and Eveline sat in silence until he came back and said, “The boat is dangerously off-course. We’re right in the middle of the hurricane, and it’s forcing us inland.” He opened up his laptop to try to send a message to the lab.
Mia seemed worried. “Outside changes sometimes. It’ll change back,” Eveline said, trying to cheer Mia up. Mia smiled, but there was no warmth behind it.
“Eveline, be quiet,” Alan said, staring intently at the computer screen.
“Maybe —”
“Eveline. I said be quiet ,” he snapped.
She threw her arms up in the air. “Ugh, I hate you!” She stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her. She stomped through the hallway and onto the deck. Water was falling again, of course, but she just wanted to be alone.
Eveline stood in the pouring rain, staring out at the dark clouds and watching lightning flash. If the boat was off-course, then maybe she would never have to go back to the lab. If it landed somewhere else, maybe she and Mia could escape and live in a house together…
Alan's heavy footsteps interrupted her thoughts. "Eveline, come inside. Now."
She was sick of him telling her what to do, and she didn't care anymore. She was never going back. "No."
She turned to look at him defiantly. He raised the whistle to his lips just as the boat jerked to the side. Alan slipped on the wet floor and the whistle went flying out of his hands. It rolled along the floor and Alan scrambled to catch it, but it fell into the ocean. He had a look of pure horror on his face.
"Alan!" shouted Mia, who had just walked onto the deck. She ran to his side and helped him up. "Are you alright?"
"He lost it," said Eveline.
"What?"
"He lost it!" she exclaimed. "You'll never tell me what to do ever again!"
"Eveline, calm down," he said.
"NO!"
Mold erupted out of the ground around her. She hurled it at Alan, and it snaked around his body. He screamed. Before she had the chance to finish him off, Mia pleaded with her.
"Eveline! Please, stop!"
Eveline hesitated. She didn't want to hurt Mia, or make her mad. It was enough time for Mia to drag Alan inside and out of reach. When Mia eventually came after her, she led her on a merry chase through the inner workings of the ship until she was cornered.
“Are you mad at me, Mommy?”
“No, Evie. I’m not mad. Wait… what did you call me?”
“I don’t wanna live at the lab anymore. I want a house! And I want you to be my mommy!”
"Okay, Evie. I’ll be your mommy. Just, just come back with me right now, okay?”
The voice in the back of Eveline’s head told her she was lying, but Eveline refused to believe it. Mia wanted to be her mommy! But she was not going to let her take her back to Alan. She ran away again, knowing Mia would follow.
“Evie, wait!”
Somewhere on the ship, Alan was limping, chasing after her. Did he not know that she was in his head, that she could sense his every movement? Wait… what was in that briefcase he was carrying? She didn’t see it in their room. He opened it and took something out, but then he collapsed to the ground, the infection spreading. When Mia rushed in a few minutes later she crouched next to him.
“How did you get here?”
“Where’s Evie?”
“She’s out of control.” That was a lie. She had never been more in control in her entire life.
“Well, it’s a good thing that I’m already dying.” Yes, it was.
He started coughing, and Mia held him to stabilize him. “Don’t say that.”
“She trusts you. That little bitch, she never trusted —”
SHUT UP! Eveline screamed in his head. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! She didn’t know what “bitch” meant, but she had heard some people call the mean lady doctor that word and she killed them for it.
“Okay, Evie, no! Evie, I didn’t mean to call you that!”
Yes you did! Alan was always so mean to her. He deserved to die. You’re the bitch, she said, and sped up the spread of the infection in his body.
“Eveline, stop! Stop this right now!” Mia commanded.
Eveline was heartbroken. Why didn’t Mia stand up for her? He was a bad, bad man. Mia didn’t love her, she realized. But wait. She could make Mia love her.
When she stopped sensing Alan through the mold she knew he was dead. She spread the mold to Mia, covering her with it. Now she could be her mommy for real.
“We’ll be together forever.”
The boat crashed, throwing them both into the water. She screamed as she fell, then blacked out when she hit her head on something on the way down.