Cursed by Humanity

1 - Awake

"AHHHH!!!!" I scream, in a panic.

The face above me is absolutely demonic. All I can see are its big eyes. A little too big. Huge black pupils, with a thin golden iris. The white of its eyes is just too white, blindingly white, almost glowing, like a blank screen.

Those horrible eyes widen even further, and the face disappears, exposing my eyes to the bright light again. I squeeze them shut tightly. I want to jump up, and run, but I can only move my face. I'm so confused. Where am I? What's happening? Did they bring me back? Who are these strange, alien-looking people?

I hear the voice of a woman, speaking words I don't know. She sounds angry. My heart is beating out of my chest, my stomach turning, my breathing heavy. She's angry. Angry at me? What's going to happen to me?

I hear a man's voice respond, sounding annoyed. Another sound follows, like a door swishing open, and then, silence.

Suddenly I feel the surface beneath me moving. The upper half is raising, pushing me to a sitting position.

"I'm so sorry you've had such a horrible waking up. Mazdok gave you quite a fright, I could see. He must look so strange to you. I assure you, everything will be alright."

My breath is sticking in my throat. English?

"You can open your eyes now, you know. I'm sure you'll find it much more pleasant, now that you're not looking straight into a light source," she chuckles.

I open my eyes. The room is blindingly white, as white as those eyes. The walls are white, the chair is white, and there are no decorations to be seen. Everything is white, but the strange woman to my left.

I still flinch a little, taking her in. Her skin is golden, not like a golden tan, but truly the color of gold. Her hair is strange, all different colored strands, mostly a mix of red and orange, with little bits of yellow and blue, tied back into a bun. Her eyes are just as strange as the other face's eyes were, but her iris is lavender, not gold. She's tall, very tall, perhaps seven feet tall. Her figure is somewhat obscured by her long light blue lab coat, but from what I can see, other than that, she looks strangely . . . human.

"What are you?" I murmur, then gasp, slapping my hand over my mouth. Did I just say that out loud?!

She laughs again, smiling at me. Her lips are a rose gold color, and her teeth are just as white as her outer eyes and these horribly bright walls.

"I was born and raised on the moon Arion, so you could say I'm Arionian." She tilts her head at me. "But it's a bit more complicated than that."

"What . . . what year is this?" My hands are shaking, the fog in my head is clearing. I can finally move a little more, think rationally enough to ask the right questions.

For a moment, she is quiet. Dread forms a hard rock in my stomach.

"It's been a little more than ten thousand Earth years since you were frozen," she finally answers.

I can't breathe. Ten thousand years?! What the hell?!

She's speaking again, but I'm not listening. There's . . . there's five times more distance between my birth and this time period than my birth and Jesus!

I vaguely register that she's still speaking, but I can't get over this. Ten thousand years! Ten thousand years before my birth, had pottery even been invented?

A golden hand is waving in front of my face. I flinch, blinking hard. "Sorry," I mumble, forcing my eyes back to her strange face.

She smiles sympathetically. "It's a lot to process. I can't imagine being in your shoes right now."

Am I really processing it though? I think I'd be freaking out a lot more if I was really processing this fully. When the reality of this hits, I'm probably going to have a mental breakdown. I take a deep breath. Might as well learn as much as I can right now. "Tell me more. You say you're from a different planet. Are you an alien?"

"Moon," she corrects. "I suppose you could consider me an alien. No one in my family has lived on Earth for generations. But I am a descendant of your people."

"So you evolved to be like this, is that it?" I gesture up and down at her body, only realizing I can fully move my arm now. "How can you have changed so much in that time?"

"Evolution is part of it, yes. The evolutionary process moves much more rapidly when space travel is involved. But evolution is really quite a small part of it. The real game changer was gene modification. It made us smarter, stronger, healthier, and of course, more adaptable. More suited to alien environments. But you," she smiles again, pointing her finger at me. "You are the new pinnacle of gene therapy."

"Me?" A cold chill makes me shudder. I look down at myself, at my skin. I'm hidden under a white medical gown, but from what I can tell, I don't look any different. I touch my hair, still thick and curly as ever.

"Not gene modification, gene therapy. Don't worry. Your cells are now identical to what they were before your death. But that's the kicker. You died. You chose to be frozen because you had a brain tumor, correct? Inoperable."

A lump is forming in my throat. I nod. "Yes."

"So you chose death, before the tumor grew and things got any worse, in hopes of being brought back?"

I nod again. "Yes."

"Removing the brain tumor, that was easy. Surgeons could've done that a hundred years after your death, no problem. Bringing you back, that was the hard part. Reanimation is quite tricky, you see. Well, tricky to do without any serious complications."

I sigh. "Well, it's good you figured it out eventually. Even if it took a while. How many others have you revived?"

She shakes her head. "No one else. You're the only one."

And there's the next chapter! Sorry it took a little longer than a week. I have been very busy lately between work, studying, several doctor visits (I'm not sick, don't worry) and apartment shopping (long story short, I'm moving out soon and have a lot of stolen, yes, stolen items to replace; life sucks sometimes).

I know there was a lot of exposition in this chapter. But of course Diana wants answers! She had a lot of important questions to ask. Next chapter will get more into the action.

<3 y'all, 

Caitlin