Alpha Ryland

Chapter 3

I'm watching a soap opera because I have nothing else to watch. I've spent so much time alone that I watched all of my favorite shows and random videos on the internet. Sure, there is a lot more content out there for me to watch, but I found a soap opera by diving deep into a certain website and stumbled upon a folder of pictures that shipped two characters together and I thought it was cute.

When I finish the first season, I close my laptop and set it aside so I can go to sleep. It's been another boring day of doing absolutely nothing. I'm all alone in my house and don't have a reason to leave during the day, so I just watch videos. I get up from my bed, not as tired as I was when watching the last show, and stand on my mini balcony. It is not a real balcony, but a hologram one that I can set the temperature, wind speed, light, and background. It's something that was made for me when I was younger.

I set my hologram wall to a night sky and admire it. This always made me calm when I was young, and it had helped me even more after the incident. When Dylan un-mated me, my life changed so much. I was used to having someone around and knowing what my future was going to be like to being alone and no future of a husband or kids. I am officially what they call, "Anomalite," who is a person that is an anomaly in having a mate.

Only a handful of people have this condition and everyone treats them differently. I don't get out of the house because of this reason. It does get lonely a lot, so I always spend time with my family when I get the chance. Lately, they have been spending a lot of time in their lab, so I have been left alone for days now. It's been a few months since everything happened, so I need to get over it soon.

I let out a breath of air and prepare myself to leave the house. When I get my jacket on with warm shoes, I head out into the night and take a car to the laboratory. It isn't very far from my house so I get there rather quickly. When I arrive, I go through the security system and reach the building. I scan my hand and the door opens up for me. The white walls bounce the flickering light rays around the hallway and shine on me. I have the effect of illumination as I walk down various hallways until I reach the end where it requires another security pass.

Scanning my eye and doing a voice command, the doors open for me and the motion-activated lights turn on. I see various lab equipment and tables with curious looking solutions on there. Everything is capped or locked away for security reasons and neat for easy access. I pass different stations and admire all the hard work these smart people had spent weeks to years on.

I eventually reach an area of giant crates that hold ordered materials or chemicals that have yet to be put up. Since I only have clearance since I am a trusted daughter of the two owners and not an actual employee, I cannot touch anything if I can avoid it. It's not an official rule I have to abide by, but one I created so that I don't get myself into trouble by making a mess of their research.

I stop by the boxes and read the labels, knowing where each box should go to. To clear my mind, I decide to pick up a box of what contains test tubes and take it to the back room where all the glass equipment is held. I carefully take them out and rinse them with distilled water and place it in the appropriate places.

I write 'trash' on the empty boxes so that the sanitation workers can pick it up later and go onto the next box. As I pass by a table with purple liquid, a shadow catches my eye. I quickly look to the other table that holds vials of something inside a glass cage. The cage is open, exposing the capped vials to the elements outside of the cage. The area inside the cage is sterile, so opening it up this long without the machine on will contaminate the area. When I came in here, everything was closed. How did it open?

Walking toward it and examining the open cage for any defects that could have opened it on its own, I see no hint of tampering. It must have been an electrical failure. I click the button next to it to close it and catch a glimpse of another shadow by the boxes and crates. I walk up to it with curiosity, praying that it is not some rabid animal that will jump out at me.