Under The Lamplight

Prologue

Tall grey doors creaked open, revealing tub-like objects in rows. A man in a white suit stepped in. Walking to the row titled "B," he glanced in the first tub. Inside was a small child, on it's wrist you could just see a name: Beau. The man continued walking until he reached the last tub that had a child inside of it. It was a girl who looked to be thirteen. The man knew that she had been in there way longer than thirteen years. The liquid that each child was immersed in stopped their growth right before a normal child would hit puberty.
He reached in with gloved hands, gently lifting up her head. As soon as her forehead broke surface, she trembled. She took her first gasping breaths in almost twenty years, having been put in as soon as she learned language. Her eyelids fluttered, but did not open, as they had sealed shut. It was the only part of the body that ever did that, for reasons that they were still trying to figure out.
He lifted her out of the tub, the liquid immediately running off her skin. He held a firm grip on her forearm, silently asking for her to show him her wrist. She obliged without question, and he read the name quietly. When she heard it, she noticeably relaxed, as though she was sure that she truly existed.
With little hesitation, the man placed his hands on her back and guided her back to the doors in which he had arrived. As soon as her foot exited the room, people with medical attire swooped in and gathered her onto a rolling bed. Without bothering to give her any warning, or moving her to a surgical room, they sliced along her sealed eyelids. Someone grunted in suprise: usually there was blood, or they hadn't cut in an exact line, but for her it went smoothly.
Only then was she moved to a surgical room, and the doctors immediately began fixing her to look more natural. They placed a serum on her bare brow bones, and a different one just below her waterline and the edge of her eyelid. A tar like substance was rubbed into her skull, stimulating hair growth almost instantaneously. While the serums grew her eyebrows and eyelashes, she was placed in a large hollow tube, known to most as a tanning bed. This one, however, was permanent, and full body. A small buzzing could be heard, as birthmarks appeared on her skin. After a few minutes, she was pulled out and put into a wash basin. Doctors scrubbed at her, and when they were finished, she had a light olive colored skin. She was pulled out and forcefully dried, then rushed to a room where she was placed on a chair. Someone started snipping away at her newly grown hair. It was almost touching the floor before, but now it ended between her shoulders and belly.
After what seemed only to take a couple minutes, she was clothed and a suitcase was in her hand. A man shoved her into a car, and began driving. It took five hours to get to the final destination, where she was given a book, a point to a street lamp, then virtually abandoned. She took a long look at her surroundings, noting the forest and single other lamppost. She seemed to be in a residential area; a small neighborhood with not many houses. She guessed that there were more down the street, and that she had been placed at the end. Walking up to the lamppost, she placed her back up against it and sat down. Opening up her book, she began to read, her only light in the dark of night the orb of energy above her.