Lies

Chapter Three- Explanations

"Thirteen years ago, in 2001, the government secretly granted certain scientists permission to clone humans. Before this, it was only animals that we were allowed to clone because cloning a human seemed, well, inhuman."

Dr. Richardson was in our living room now, he had decided this wasn't the kind of thing to discuss over Facetime. My 'mother' was there also, sitting in the corner wringing her hands.
"So... I'm actually thirteen?" I asked.

"Yes, you are thirteen years old, but when you were created, we wanted a you to start off at a young age."
I shivered when he said "Created". It sounded like I was just another piece in their game of science. "We didn't want to take the chance of you dying when you were a baby, but we still wanted to see how you would grow and develop, so we decided three was a pretty good age to start with." Richardson had the same look on his face that doctors have when they're explaining to a patient what is wrong with them.

My mind groaned when he said "develop". I remembered that akward stage of life that I was still in: bra shopping with my "mom", trying to pick out the best face wash, etc. Eew.
"Anywho, so far these necessary stages in life have been going very well, as we hope they will continue to be." He went on.
I wondered how many people he was talking about when he said "we", but I didn't ask. I felt like my brain was half-dead.
"When you were talking to my mom on the iPad, you said...you said that you were surprised that I lasted this long. Did you think I was going to die? Do you still think that?" My 'Mom' and Dr. Richardson exchanged worried looks. I stared at both of their faces, trying to decode what they were thinking. "Well," my mother began to stutter, "We were, of course, talking about when you were small! We were concerned that you were going to develop some sort of, I don't know, deformation."

I was having trouble telling if she was telling the truth or had just made that up. I felt dissapointed that they had had so little confidence in me. It was their own experiment, for goodness sake!
A sudden thought occured to me. "Are there any more like me? Any more clones?" I was almost eager to hear their answer. "Yes." said Dr. Richardson quietly.

"There- there are?!" I gasped.
"Well there were..." I shivered when he said that. "Were? What do mean were, Doctor?" I asked.

"Well there were about 20,000 others that were cloned in this experiment, most of which where children. However as the years went by, both the originals, and the clones have died for one reason or another. You and your Original are the only two that are left."

This had left me dumbfounded. First was the fact that about forty thousand people had died, and only me and some other girl survived. Next was the fact that doctor Richardson just referred to her as my Original, implying that I'm somehow not. Then there was the fact that I was just told that I'm a clone of my 'original'. Honestly, I think the word 'original' hurt me the most, but the deaths scared me the most.

"Woah, Woah, woah. Slow down. 20,000? What happened to them?" I asked trying not to lose it.
The Doctor still had the doctor face. "We don't know exactly. When we looked into it, it appeared as though most died of natural causes. But even if that were true, it wouldn't explain how the originals died at the same time the clones did, or how this specific group of people died in such a small amount of time." He said not changing the doctor face.

"When did the last, errm, set of people die?" I asked still trying to take it all in.

"They died about three years ago, and we're worried about you and Juliet." he said maintaining that expression.

I looked up at him and asked "Who's Juliet?" I kinda figured out within a few seconds who that was, but I wanted to hear him explain.

Now a more nervous look could be seen from the doctor. "She's... She's your original. She's the girl who was cloned to create you."

It really was hard for me to accept that he kept saying that I was a clone of this Juliet girl. After a moment of silence, I finally spoke up.
"Why was this, experiment conducted doctor?" I said failing to hold back the tears from my eyes.

"Well, Julie it wasn't so much to see if humans could be cloned. A very gifted scientist perfected to art of cloning. Rather than growing humans like fruit, we could now put a person in a pod linked to another pod, and create an exact carbon copy of that person. That's how you were created; we put your original, Juliet, in one of those pods, and within a few seconds, you were born. So cloning was the easy part. The point of the experiment was to see if a person would develop differently in different, and similar environments."

I sat silently taking it all in.
Clone. Me? And it wasn't even the point of the experiment? Why? However the most important question for me was the one I asked, and when I asked it, all the emotions inside me bursted out of me in the form of anger.
"Why the Fuck, didn't either of you Ever Tell Me!?"

"It was because we wanted to protect you..." The doctor started, but I cut him off.

"Don't Give Me That Bullshit!! Just Fucking Answer Me!!" I shouted growing more hysterical with every word.

My mother then got up and approached me. "Sweetie please" she said calmly. I know now she was truly regretting how I found out, and she was sorry for what I was going through, but I was too angry at the time to tell. Seeing her get close to me only made me worse.

"Get The Fuck Away From Me!! I can't believe you of all people would do this to me.. You Fucking Liar!! You Two Lied To Me My Whole Fucking Life!!" I screamed already losing my voice.

"Sweetie It's not like that. Please.." She started again.

"Stay The Fuck Away From Me!!" I shouted again.

"Julie please calm down." The doctor said standing up.

"Shut The Fuck Up!!" I screamed at him instantly, and then turned to my mom.
"You aren't even my fucking mom!! You're Just a Fucking Liar, you Fucking Bitc-" I stopped when I felt a needle swiftly enter and exit my arm. Then I felt overwhelmingly sleepy within a few seconds, and I blacked out.