Asterisk

Asterisk, Prologue

The needle pricked her skin, leaving her numb and sore as Doctor Seth drew blood from her arm. It was quick, but she quivered and clung tightly to her mother's arm. Dara was not usually afraid, but needles made her turn cold.

Soon enough she felt the doctor press a swab of cotton to her arm, secure it with tape, and then he made a show of excusing himself with two vials of her blood. Her mother had yet to explain why they needed to visit the doctor's office. She recalled going just a month ago, and she didn't feel the slightest bit ill. Dara felt fit, as fit as a five year old could feel.

"Mommy, why can't you tell me why we're here?" she glanced up at her mother. She had dark brown eyes that reminded Dara of their backyard fires after the flame had died, and all that was left were glittering coals. Wrapping both of her arms around her mother for comfort, she was extra careful of her pregnant belly.

Dara's mother sucked on her teeth, pressing her lips into a thin line. One of her arms came across Dara's back, pulling her closer to her. The other smoothed down her childs pale hair. "Sweetheart, they just want to learn something about you."

Dara scrunched up her eyebrows. "How do you they do that?"

"They take your blood, and put a couple of drops through a computer. The computer can learn all sorts of things about you. It knows what color your hair is, your eyes, how tall you might be one day, how healthy and strong you are.." Her mother squeezed her tight, and Dara giggled. "It's actually very cool; they couldn't do this sort of thing when I was a kid."

Dara frowned. "You were a kid?"

Her mother snorted with laughter, and had to recompose herself. "What do you think I was?"

She grinned at her mother. "You were my mom," she said it matter-of-factly. It came as a surprise to her when her mother laughed. To Dara it wasn't a joke.

"Well, you aren't wrong," her mother said. Dara's heart swelled with pride, because she loved to be right. And if you weren't wrong, you had to be right. Right?

Her attention shifted to her mother's stomach, and gently she patted it. Being the oldest of four already, she was used to the idea of a baby on the way again. In April, the new baby was due, and although her parents hadn't mentioned what they wanted to name it yet she knew for a fact that it was a girl. She and Blake would be able to outnumber the twins.

"Do you know what her name is going to be yet?" she pondered quietly, still patting her mother. To still her, her mother placed her own hand on top of Dara's.

"Daddy and I have a few ideas, but you can't know yet." She tapped Dara's nose, and she laughed again.

"But why not?" she asked, but there wasn't any more time for talk. There was a rhythmic knock at the door, and then Doctor Seth walked in with a stack of papers in his arm. He hardly seemed friendly. Rather, he carried himself dutifully. She could sense her mother tense and knew something was wrong.

"Dara, would you like to go out in the waiting room and color for a little bit? I need to talk to your mother." His smile was charismatic and friendly. Dara smiled back, a practiced smile she saved for adults. Wordlessly she jumped out of her chair and walked out of the room, waiting for the adults to shut the door behind her.

But Dara did not walk back to the waiting room. She kneeled down next to the door and pressed her ear to the crack between the door and the wall. It took all her concentration, but she focused on the muffled conversation behind the closed door. Curiosity won her over the promise of toys and games waiting just a hall beyond. She wasn't sure why he would want her to leave, but she felt she had a right to know.

"Your daughter was a match," she heard the Doctor start. A match for what? Like matching tiles she wondered? She continued to listen in on the conversation.

"And what will this mean for her?"

"This means we need to ask for your permission to genetically engineer her. There are hardly any visible differences aside from the teeth, but we'll need to go in and do some restructuring before we get down to the biology of it."

"No," she heard her mother's irritated voice and a shiver scurried down her back. When her mother became vexed, almost everyone knew to step back. "What will this mean for her? Your... Superhero program."

Dara's eyes widened. A superhero program. The words swarmed around inside of her head, drawing her away from the conversation until they took root. They wanted to turn her into a superhero? The idea sounded incredible to her. All the cartoon heroes Atticus and Alastor watched had men in capes and women wearing masks. They always swept in when the bad guys attacked, defeated them, did a flyby of the county jail to drop the crooks off and saved the day with crowds cheering. She took the opportunity to imagine herself in a cape and tights, but soon had the realization that she was missing out on their conversation.

"I'm going to need to test the rest of your children once they reach the age of two. The sooner we can get the procedure done, the more successful it will be."

"And the only time you'll ever even think of using them is if we're attacked by Wraiths?"

"Correct. And even then, we never ask them to fight unless they're sixteen at the youngest. Even then they need to pass a fitness test. Combat skills will come with the instincts."

Combat skills, instincts? Dara wasn't quite sure what the Doctor meant. Feeling tempted to open the door she started reaching for the handle. But before she could open the door a nurse came down the hall.

"Excuse me dear, are you lost?" she said in her saccharine sweet voice, the one adults used for children they knew weren't where they were supposed to be. The voice that grated on Dara.

"No, I'm supposed to be in the waiting room," she rushed, and then scurried off. Once she was out of the nurse's sight she walked until she was in the waiting room, sitting in front of a coloring book page already scribbled in sloppily. She turned the pages until she found one that was clean and began to carefully fill in the lines. And soon enough she was focused on the task and not the Doctors confusing conversation with her mother. But she never forgot it.