Truthful Memories

Shara was stunned by the memories that crashed into her mind. She had been lied to her entire life. Her parents hadn’t died in a freak transporter accident. She now knew . . . she remembered, though she was so young. Her parents had been the one’s listed on her birth certificate – surrogate or not, her mother had indeed been Telara Mikori and her husband Reggial.

They had cared for her and loved her. Images of Telara singing to her and carrying her in her arms drifted into her mind. She could hear the song as if it were being sung that moment . . . It was one she had often sung to herself in her childhood never knowing where she had learned the song . . . now she knew. There were so many memories.

Once with her father tickling her, of both of them taking her to the park . . . though she was too young to really do much except play with some toys on a blanket and enjoy the sunshine. They would read to her and most importantly, she could feel them . . . the feelings she had felt from them when they had been with her . . .

Then, the real truth of her parents’ death came to her. She had been sitting on the floor playing with some of her toys when Bakar Mikori had entered the house.

“I’m here…” He said to her parents. “What is it you want ? Do you want me to take the child off your hands now ?”

“No.” Her father replied. “The experiment is over. We want to keep Shara and raise her as our child . . . Not more games. No more tests . . .”

“You can’t decide that.” Bakar said angrily. “She was MY creation ! You knew this when you came aboard on this project years before.”

“And we stuck by your failures with Telara.” He said. “You’re my brother . . . Please, understand and let us have this child . . . Shara is our whole world. And you know that Telara can have no more children. And you know that’s directly because of you !”

Bakar looked at his brother with anger in his eyes. “I could always help you two conceive again . . . It’s not impossible for you as you might think.”

“What ? For another of your experiments ?” Reggial replied angrily. “These are CHILDREN you’re talking about !”

“That didn’t seem to bother you in the beginning.” Bakar sneered.

“Well, it does now !” Reggial replied. “You cannot have Shara. She’s our daughter now !”

“We’ll see about that !” Bakar said in a huff and stormed out the door.

Telara looked at her husband. Fear was in her eyes. She went to Shara and picked her up, holding her against her chest. She looked at Reggial.

“Are we safe ? Will he leave us alone ?” She asked.

“I’m his brother . . .” He said. “Blood is thicker than water . . .”

But Shara began to cry in her mother’s arms. She had already sensed what was to come.

That evening, when everyone was sleep, something had awoken her. A sound or feeling . . . Her eyes opened to darkness that they adjusted to quickly. She began to whimper as she felt someone in the house other than her parents. She could feel what he was going to do. Crying, she heard noises . . . small bursts of energy. It was too late . . .

A face loomed over her crib. It was the man she had seen earlier that day. The one her parents had been arguing with. He reached for her with a wicked smile, knowing he had her now. As he picked her up, for a moment, she saw the bed her parents had been sleeping in . . . They were there now, but she couldn’t sense them anymore, and there was a distinct burning smell . . . faint, but it was there. She cried more. She knew they were dead. And this man, who had raised her, had killed them . . .

She pulled out of her memories with tears in her eyes. “They loved me . . .” She said. “They wanted me and he killed them . . .”

“Shara ?” Will asked with concern.

“My parents . . . My Uncle didn’t lie about them being my parents . . . but he lied about how they’d died . . . I must have suppressed the memories or he did it. But HE killed them . . . and they loved me . . .” This woman who was usually so strong, wiped at tears as they fell down her cheeks. She turned away, “I need a few minutes.”

“Of course,” Will said returning to check on his patients in the room.

Shara walked over to where Zack was lying, still unconscious. No one knew could say why Zack had been able to recover her memories, nor why he was still unconscious.

“Thank you.” She said softly.

She then walked away and looked at Karissa and Rahel, lying side-by-side still unconscious. This was her family now, along with Will, the twins and Karissa’s parents. Placing a kiss on each of their foreheads, Shara headed out of the door and off to her duties.