Author's Note:
There's a hint of incest between the twins here. I didn't tag it such because it's both only implied and fleeting. I warn you here in case even that is beyond the pale for you.
*****
Everything was so beautiful. Rainbows layered upon themselves and the bands of color entwined like the double helix of DNA and they climbed and weaved through the gaps created by the others. It was endlessly fascinating and relaxing and Kayley could look at it forever. The only problem for her just now was the border of otherness that existed around her. It was just a fringe, really, and it was something she thought she could ignore.
The lights were there and she could keep diving in and almost swimming with them, but that fringe was fussing with her happy. Knowing it was there was enough. There shouldn't be anything but the peace and the rainbows. With some internal effort, she looked to the borders around the well of happy that seemed to change as she moved. Maybe it was a new pattern. Maybe it'd be something entertaining too if she focused on it. The view changed as she moved her head back and forth. The pattern was nowhere near as fun as the rainbows that teased and seduced her to get her to come back.
So come back she did. For, she had no idea how long, she just breathed and let herself feel the taste of the excitement that mixed with contentment like when she was very little before it all went so wrong when Kayley would be at the park and try to see how high the swing could take her. Still, the border gnawed at her. Maybe if she knew what it was for sure she could forget about it.
She examined the pattern, moving her head with some agitation at first, mostly just angry at that fringe for existing and hoped that she could shake it loose. When that failed she took stock of it. Lines and color formed their own patterns, and there was something familiar about them if she looked hard enough. She caught sight of something familiar..bright silver and curved over a basin. Kayley struggled for the word and she finally pulled up "faucet." She was somewhere else. The world was not a tapestry of rainbows, though that would have been nice to slip back to.
No. Yes, but no. Where the fuck am I?
Now that her mind was trying to find new patterns in the periphery using the one thing she recognized she found other bits. Color and lines? Cabinets. Light overhead. White and silver and well-lit told her she was somewhere clinical which left her a little bewildered and afraid, which, in turn, made the spectacle a glance away all the more tempting. She gave it one and the happy after the rush of fear was almost overwhelming.
No,
she said, scolding herself,
that's what they want.
Turning her head side to side, taking stock of what she could, she could feel the smooth leather of the wide chair on either side of her and that her wrists were bound to it. She spent the next minute bringing the side of her head down on either side of the chair as hard as she could manage in an effort to dislodge the device strapped to her head. As a pleasant side effect the thrashing helped clear her mind a little. She heard the static-like sounds of the velcro straps that kept it to her head pulling away from one another as the left side of the headset or whatever it was lifted enough so that she could see the room.
It was indeed some sort of clinical room. Black counter tops, white cabinets, with black handles and gleaming silver fixtures dominated and the overhead light burned eyes used to soft happy rainbows. Kayley closed her eyes from it and the stinging that it bought with it after she looked down and made out the canvas straps that secured her to the chair, gnawing on the gold buckles like a wild animal. She didn't even think about the 'how' of why she was where she was. It didn't matter and there was no reason to dwell on it.
I'm here. I don't wanna be here. I'm getting out.
She snarled as she made some headway, pulling up the left strap what felt like too little at a time. Finally, it gave way and she pulled it free enough to get her hand out.
The other hand followed and she pulled the rainbow maker from her head and tossed it to the wall, feeling some satisfaction at the aural twinkle of the cracking and shattering of thin metal and plastic. That was one obstacle down. Next, she focused on the door at the other end of the room. It was steel painted white with a square window for those passing by to peer in.
She looked out and, seeing no one began rifling through the drawers in the room, looking through the medical equipment and various office supplies trying to find things that she might use on the lock. Selecting some medical equipment that seemed to fit the bill she dropped to her knees and went to work manipulating the pins inside the lock. She didn't know how much time she might have before whoever might happen by, but if she worried about it too much right now she'd screw up the lock.
If they come they'll just zap me again anyway and it's over so don't worry about it. Work.
The tip of Kayley's tongue poked from the right side of her mouth without her thinking about it as her long fingers felt their way through the process. Feeling the last pin push into place she turned the knob. Before pulling it open, she looked both ways as far as the little window would let her and opened it. The instant she stepped out she felt their presence and jumped when she turned to the right to see Rebecca and the clones waiting.
Samuels was leaning uncharacteristically casually against the white wall, arms crossed with a genuine grin on her face. "I like you, Kayley, very much. I've been watching you for a bit now," she added, pointing to the cameras above them.
Fear died to be replaced by anger and frustration."Who the hell are you and where the hell am I?"
"I'm Doctor Rebecca Samuels, and the facility I run is where the hell you are."
"Where is here?"
"Where you are." She straightened and decided to accede to the glare that hoped to cut through her that in so many ways reminded her of her own. "Still in the city."
"What happened?" She thought back on it, trying to answer her own question, "I remember...Carlos belting me, then glass shattering, then...happy. Stupid happy." She pieced those together with earlier in the night while Samuels looked at her with curiosity and a look that was no less than honest encouragement. "The clones counting out thirty bills without looking and picking up Carlos like a bitch and just...holding him there." Her eyes done dancing as she processed her own memories, she returned Samuels' curiosity, "Do you make robots or something?"
Naturally analytical and logical, even likely without education. Wonderful.
"I don't. I would actually consider what I do a bit more complicated and delicate, though I respect serious work among those seeking AI and to put that into an android form. I don't mean to nitpick, it's just that I tend to see robots as different from androids as the usual intention for an android is to pass as a person."
She stopped herself from further rambling with the wave of a hand as, on occasion, particularly when it came to science she could happily drone on. "I don't make robots or androids."
Kayley tensed looking down the hall behind her wondering where she could run even if the Amazonian clones let her which she doubted, "What did you bring me here for?"