All I can see are yellow dancing lines surrounding me. Its hot. I cant feel my feet and I'm breathing in the thick black smoke. I start to wheeze. My sight goes blurry. I can't hear my dad anymore, the only thing I hear now are the loud flames next to me. Whoosh whoosh.
After my father died from the fire the government started giving us money left and right. I guess I can't complain it's just our house is so big for just the two of us. I haven't been in most of the rooms and I've been living here for 14 years. I'm 19 now and some of the hallways still scare me, others i just don't know about. I have stumbled across yet another room that I didn't know existed.
Squeeeeek! The hinges cry as I push the heavy wooden door open. My floor length soft purple dress drags against the smooth ground. The room was empty. I hate useless rooms like this. The walls were an eggshell white and it was a simple square. It had no personality, no windows, no color to it. The walls were bare. The laminate cream colored floors were cold on my bare feet. I spread out my pale white toes and took in the cold stinging sensation. I take a deep breath in. The air was still but chilled and smelled like dust and wood chips. I take a step and the door knob slips through my fingers. The heavy door closes behind me leaving me in the empty room not knowing what I'm getting myself into. As I take my first steps into the room I run into something, But nothing is there. I put my hand out and it feels soft or squishy? I knock on the rippling surface. It sounded like a muffled bouncing ball. I could see the other side of the room though. I knew it wasn't a mirror, or a window. Whatever it is its just there,in the middle of the room. I can't and won't accept the fact that it is magic. I don't believe. I can tell that the object is taller than me and about my arm length. I can't reach the top of it and it is flat. I find the edge of it and feel my way around the side. When I turn the corner my eyes widen. My jaw drops. I try to think of every possible thing that could be happening. I don't believe in magic. I never did, even when I was younger. But it is kind of hard to deny when it is staring at you face to face. The invisible wall becomes visible. I am looking at a door. A real door. Its tall. It doesn't fit the scale of the house. Its almost like it shouldn't be here. It is made out of wood and flat. The handle is gold. I can see my reflection clearly. The door knob is at a normal height. I go to reach for it. I twist the springs and the door is now in my control. The door is surprisingly light as I pull it toward me. With one quick swift movement the door swings open. It doesn't take much to open. The door shoves my dress out of the way as the coats come into perspective, lined up against each other. All different colors, furs, and leathers. I stand there staring at the coats relieved; just a regular closet. I reach out my hand and grab the coats squeezing them tight. I shuffle my feet forward and stub my toe into a box. I whence at the stinging pain as I shoot my eyes down toward the box. It is just a cardboard box. It looks beat up and misshapen, covered in layers of ducktape to hold it together. I sit criss-cross into my dress on the floor in front of the mysterious closet. I grab the overstuffed box and pull it towards me. The box is filled with old files covered with a layer of dust. I leaf through the top file marked as XX. It is dated a few years after I was born. It looks like something you would find in a movie. Top secret! Don't scrummage through! As I read over it, I understand so much more. The details of how my father died, and what he was before the accident. Why the government is giving us money. And then it gets weird. Information about me, why my life is the way it is, who my friends are, and why I live where I live. The pieces are all falling into place. My world is changing. The file told my DOB & DOD. It says I died 14 years ago in the same accident as my father. But that can't be true! I'm still here. I take a deep breath and put down the file. I look deeper in the box and find an old film reel labeled ‘Experiment 1’ with rust kissing the edges. I push my hand through the other files and grab the wheel. I take a closer look at it. I've seen these before with my dad. He use to make home movies with them. But I need the projector and its not in the box. Where could it be? I look in the corners of the closet and notice a deep red-brown colored cloth draped over a large object. It had a soft touch to it when I swiped at it. The projector was beautiful and shiny. It looked like it was brand new. I lift the projector and set it down on the other side of me facing the bare wall; a perfect screening room. I remember my father teaching me how to thread the film through the projector. Thread it over the sprockets, between the two rollers, over the big wheel, in front of the lens and onto the take-up wheel. The flickering light brings back memories of my father. As the click-n-clack fades into the background noise the film begins. A younger looking image of my mother becomes visible on the wall. She is talking about how the first one didn't come out the way she wanted it to. She looked like she hadn't had that much sleep. Behind her was a whiteboard with numbers and letters on it. As she finishes her document on number one she walked around the film to where I couldn't see her and the screen turned to black. It didn't take long for her to pop back up on the wall. “Experiment 2. I have made some changes to the first one, but she still didn't come out the way I wanted. She has to be perfect. just like she was before…” Her voice became muffled and she started to cry. I stopped the film; sitting in shock. What she was implying wasn't real, it was impossible. I try to wrap my head around the fact that I had died 14 years ago. Then my own mother cloned me out of despair. My mind was racing. I didn't know how to take it all in. It was too much for my heart to handle. I was living a lie. My whole life, 14 years spent in this foreign body. My life was unraveling around me. With tears running down my face I stumble over my dress trying to find an end to this nightmare. I take one last glance back at the door but it wasn't there.