Beyond

She looked around to see if anyone was watching. Her lab, once filled with celebrated geniuses she was proud to call co-workers was now emptied by her own foolishness. Expensive gadgets, important files, sleek and white furniture were now flung into a rotting mess that not even the lab rats would enjoy. She sighed a breath and hoped this time, she could do it. Her stress was much more than a mental state; it defined her physical aspects. The blonde hair had darkened from her lack of hygiene and the vessels in her blue eyes had swollen. The lab coat was the same one she wore on the day of her destruction but she didn't care, it helped her remember, it helped her become determined to fix the mess she created.

Out of her pocket she drew a marker, pulled up her sleeve to reveal a markings of a familiar pattern. She violently shook the pen, hoping to awaken the dead ink, and began to write on her forearm "p70 x".
"I'm not giving up" she said to the empty room. "I promised you I won't. I promised them I'd come back." But she still stood there looking at the destroyed building and gently rubbed her teary eyes. "No, I'm not crying. The lack of water in my body prevents me anyway" she said to no one.
Finally she proceeded to lift a lobbed, flipped over desk with the last bit of her re-charged energy. As she lifted it upwards, a strange tab-like gadget fell onto the floor. It was blue, light, and thin enough that it was transparent. "Ah" she laughed. "Now why'd you run of like that"? It took a couple of math equations before she slid her fingertips across the tab, and tapped her index harshly. Then suddenly a great blue light burst through the white wall and swirled around to make an unusual, multi-toned circle. Again, she looked around to verify that no one was aware. Although the building and the city it was in, and most likely the country was isolated, her extra sense was telling her to beware. Once she clarified no one was around she stepped into the circle and in a spilt second, it vanished.

Somehow she ended up going nowhere. Just a blank white canvas was now her surroundings. "Where to next?" She asked. Suddenly her body jerked and her head suddenly moved back, a white mist lifted and flew out of her body, as if she was over-heated and giving off steam. The mist floated in the air and formed a figure of a human. It began to whisper in its own language, but she understood. "Can't I go back for a while? Let me just tell them what I'm doing they may be worried" she questioned. The whispering figure replied and her faced became strained with frustration. "I don't understand, it must be possible! Can't I just visit them?" Silence, was her answer, but she looked determined. "I can't do this anymore. This is a dictatorship! I didn't agree to any of this! We made a promise! Remember? When all this happened? You all promised me that I could go back!"

She was right, they did.

As a young girl she always had this extra sense, although it was seen as "child's-play". "Are you with your imaginary friends again?" Her mother would ask. Her replies where often the same, innocent answer. But one answer unnerved her parents. "No, they showed me something really scary, they said it was the future. You was not there, they wouldn't tell me what happened. But they told me that one day I will be on my own if I don't..." She looked down with her little innocent eyes. Her mother was not sure whether to be scared, anxious or neutral at this point "don't what honey?"
"Kill the right people".
Her mother’s face dropped with horror, at the age of 5 she didn't think she had any notion of death or murder. The little five year old ran into her mother’s arms and hugged her tightly. "I don't want to hurt anyone mommy, I don't! They told me not to tell anyone but I'm scared. Please don't leave me".

It was also these senses that influenced her and helped her become the scientist she hope she would be. Her vast knowledge was not through hard-wok and determination. It was given to her. Her mother said she was a "gifted" child with many talents. And she was. Her talents were gifted to her. She just never knew who to say thank you to. Everything came naturally to her. Her mother was so proud of having such a clever daughter. "Your father would be proud of you" she would always say. But deep down she never really felt lucky for having these "talents". One day before leaving home to go to Washington for college, a dread grew in her heart. "I don't want to go" she said to her mother. "Why, this is what you have always wanted" she told her daughter. She took her mothers hand, looked her in the eyes. "No, this is what they wanted"

All her life, she done what they wanted. What she wanted didn't matter to them. "I'm human" she would rationalise with them. "The thing that distinguishes from other species is free-will". But then they whispered something that questioned her existence.

"You're not human"

She sat and tried to cry. But no tears flew. And they never reacted. She is human. She has emotions, they don't. They don't understand the need for human affection. "I just want to see if they are okay". And again they never answered. She stood up violently and while swinging her arms with anger she shouted "Fine! If you want co-operate, I won't!" And she thumbed herself to the ground and lay with her hands over face. She always thought she was mature, but this behaviour took her back to her teenage years. The thought of her mother made her eyes swell with pain. "I remember" she said "on my 15th birthday, my mother got me a book. It was about a girl who could talk to ghosts. She wasn't a happy girl, she wasn't a sad girl. She seldom had emotions. My mother gave me this book to warm me of my interactions with you. But the girl in the book is different from me. She was in control. I never was, and I will never be. I wish I could explain this to my mother. I wish you could have explained it to my mother. But no matter what happened in my life, she was always there. She told me how to deal with my situations, with sympathy. But you, you treat me as a slave, you never consider my human emotions"
The misty figure flew around her with wild whispers. It gently lifted her up in the air and stood her up with full support and then placed the same transparent blue tab in front of her. "P71" the voices whispered.

She smiled. "P71" she repeated.