Fractured

Tick...Tock...Tick...Tock...

It’s more like BING, BANG, BING, BANG - at least to me it is. I crouch on the hard, cold cement floor in the fetal position, humming an old nursery rhyme to myself.

Hush little baby, don’t say a word,

Papa’s gonna buy you a mocking bird.

If that mocking bird don’t sing,

Papa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.

If that diamond ring turns brass,

Papa’s gonna buy you a looking glass.

If that looking glass gets broke,

Papa’s gonna buy you a billy goat.

If that billy goat don’t pull,

Papa’s gonna buy you a cart and bull.

If that cart and bull turn over,

Papa’s gonna buy you a dog named Rover.

If that dog named Rover don’t bark,

Papa’s gonna buy you a horse and cart.

If that horse and cart fall down,

You’ll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

And on and on like that. I don’t know what day it is...it’s been to long. It’s been several years since they took me away from my parents, my family...I barely remember them anyway. So why is it a big deal?

Because...that’s the only day I remember with clearly defined details, even at age three...or was it four?

I don’t...

I just...can’t...remember...

I remember playing in a sand box in the park, not a care in the world. Then a group of men in white suits, black pants, sun glasses, and fancy gear came up, one of them, with brown hair and - I noticed after he took off his sun-glasses - chocolate eyes, bent down and talked to me.

Gently...kindly...as if I was his best friend who had gone psychologically crazy, or something like that.

He wanted me to come with him. When I said no and said I don’t play with strangers, he flicked his hand. Two of them rushed over and grabbed me from both sides. I remember kicking and screaming my parents names:

“MOM! DAD! HELP ME!”

But no one did. I was alone. I saw a form, a flicker of light come after us, but I don’t remember it well, it’s almost as if I lost what it looked like, or the government forced it out of me. I remember hazy images of my parents faces...a hint of a smile...their love for me...but nothing else.

I guess when you’re put in a cell for years and experimented on, it starts to take a toll on you.

I don’t know why they experimented on me. I just know that they did. I don’t know why they took me from my family, but they did.

One thing I do know though, is that they have an enemy. One more powerful then they can comprehend, and they needed someone to defeat that enemy.

They’d tried several people, but none of them live long. For some reason, their genetic structure wasn’t very compatible as mine is. That’s why I’ve lived so long under their care, and why I can never leave. I’m an asset to them. I’m important. They need me.

And I’m the only one who can help.

From what I’ve been able to gather from my enhanced senses, is that they wanted to create something called a Karsatin because their enemy was one. My DNA seemed to be fit for the task, though I apparently had none of the abilities of a karsatin. At least not until they pumped something into my blood stream.

Now they have their monster, their creature...their karsatin. And I was the missing key.

The vibrations of feet ran up my bare feet and into my system, igniting my neurons and pulling me out of my revere.

Looking up at the door of my cell with my blue-purple eyes from underneath my super long bangs, I smiled. My slightly pointed teeth showing up before I forced them to disappear.

They had come for me...

I could feel them coming, I could hear their chatter: I was to be prepped and ready for the one thing I had been training and preparing for my entire existence in this hell hole.

My time to leave, my time to face the real world, had come...