I sat in my cell. Devoid of light and sound, I have no idea how long I'd been here. All I know is that I'm innocent. I don't belong here on death row. No one believes my story; calling it 'the bullshit fantasies of a raving lunatic.'
I've been interrogated by police and doctors alike, but despite all the insults and drugs, I still hold to my story. It's all I really think about anymore. They may think that putting me in a sensory deprivation will cause me to crack…but honestly the silence makes my memories that much more vivid.
For the millionth time, I began to go through the story in my head:
It must've been eight years ago by now. I walked home from work late one night. I felt happy; I had a good paying job I actually enjoyed, my wife was young and beautiful, and I had just paid off the last of my debt. Looking back, that was probably why the mugger targeted me.
He grabbed my jacket from behind and threw me against a wall in an alley. He demanded all my money and punched me hard in my face. I'm by no means a strong man and the blow was enough to knock me to my knees. I put my hands down to catch myself and felt something soft. When the stars cleared from my eyes, I was horrified to see the body of a naked woman lying in the alley.
Another victim!
I looked up at my assailant with a new kind of fear, but he seemed just as surprised as me. Then the girl began to stir. She sat up and rubbed her eyes before looking at my hand on her thigh and following it to my face.
My first thought was that she was beautiful; waist length pink hair, deep magenta eyes, fair skin, and perfect figure. My second thought, however; were those horns coming out of her head? She gave me a look of slight annoyance, but then her attention turned to my assailant.
"What are you doing down there, pretty little thing?" he asked while licking his lips.
"Well I was sleeping." She said in a slow, deep voice.
"Girl like you don't need no beauty rest."
"Quite the charmer aren't you?" she said with a slight chuckle.
What I saw next I still don't understand. Silvery, transparent arms came shooting out of the girl's back and rushed toward the mugger. Without the man even realizing it, his head rolled off his shoulders and with a splurt of blood, his body fell into a crumpled heap. I was scared stiff by this point and all I could do as the girl got to her feet was ask, "What were those arms?"
She considered me with mild surprise, "You can see my vectors?" As she said this no less than six arms appeared. I nodded, too scared to even talk. "You're a very interesting human, Mr…"
"Jones…David Jones." I croaked.
"Well Mr. Jones, I won't take up anymore of your time." She said in a surprisingly sweet voice. I was just about to get up when one of her arms seemed to penetrate my skull. I felt an excruciating pain for a second and then all went dark.
I woke up the next morning to a hobo picking my pocket. In hindsight, that was the highlight of my day. I was late for work so I got a pay cut and got put on probation. Then I had to deal with an angry wife who was convinced I'd just been out drinking. I'm just that my mugger's body was never found. Guess I either have my savior or the local hobos to thank for that.
After that my life went back to normal. My wife came to forgive me and after a few weeks of extra hours, my boss took me off probation. On top of everything, I found out I was going to be a father. The first few months flew by in a day dream, but when we went in for the first ultrasound, that all changed. For all account and purposes, the child was a healthy, little girl, save for two protrusions on either side of her head.
My wife became angry after this. She worried about what our friends and family would think and blamed me for mutating our daughter. As I've said, I'm not a strong man so I never argued the point. Despite her fears, she did deliver and I was stunned to see my daughter. She had the same pink hair, horns, and magenta eyes as my savior back then. I stared at the baby and even though she scared me, I loved her.
Once we brought our daughter home we named her Eve and that was the last my wife ever did for her. I would often come home to find Eve crying in her crib while my wife either slept or watched TV at deafening volumes. I was also the one to get up at night to care for Eve and because of this, my work began to slip.
Thankfully my wife got a job and left me to be a stay at home Dad. Eve and I would play all day, but every night my wife would return and her contempt would drown out our happiness.
As the years slowly crept by, my wife's contempt began to grow into hatred. As Eve learned to walk, my wife would trip her; she'd even go so far as to hide or throw away her favorite toys. On her worst nights, my wife would even beat Eve for the sheer pleasure of it. She would leave horrible welts across poor Eve's back and it would take me several hours to treat and calm her enough to sleep. It all culminated on that night.
It was Eve's third birthday. She was at that stage where everything was a question. I delighted in explaining the great mysteries of life while my wife would either ignore her or scream until Eve ran away. So naturally, when a bunch of boxes were found on the table, Eve was nothing but questions. I explained to her that they were her presents for her birthday and she squealed with delight.
She tore open the largest one first and to her amazement, there was a beagle puppy with a blue ribbon around its neck. No sooner had Eve taken the puppy out of its kennel that my wife snatched it away from her.
"You didn't tell me you'd be spending my money on some flea bitten mongrel!" she screeched, glaring at me and holding the puppy by its ribbon. I pleaded her to put the puppy down as it began to struggle for air against its ribbon noose. Eve also began trying to take the puppy back but my wife merely held it higher.
"Who is going to pay for its food and vet bills? Certainly not me!"
The puppy gave one final jerk and then was still in my wife's grasp. A look of horror washed over her face as she brought the lifeless animal back down to her eye level. She looked like she was about to cry until she felt Eve tug on her skirt. She looked down and what she saw sent a chill down her spine. Normally Eve wore a happy smile unless she was around her mother; then her expression was neutral, but now Eve wore a new expression. Cold hatred. I barely recognized the girl myself and when she spoke, it was not with her usual happy questions, but a demand.
"Give me the dog…now." Eve said, the last word almost a growl.
My wife was either too confused to obey or too frightened, but either way she stood still, staring at the person who couldn't be her daughter. The seconds seemed to stretch into hours and when my wife finally lowered her arm, it happened.
Just like my savior, silvery, transparent arms erupted from Eve's back and severed my wife's arm at the elbow. As the limb fell, Eve caught the dead puppy and allowed the arm to fall limp to the ground. Blood sprayed from my wife's arm leaving a scarlet slash across the living room and she screamed in pain.
"What the fuck just happened?" She wailed. In a panic she shoved passed me into the kitchen and began ripping open drawers. Eventually she found the thick rag she'd been looking for and desperately tried to staunch the flow of blood. She also grabbed the phone and dialed 911.
During all of this, Eve's eyes never left the puppy, as if her mother's anguish meant nothing to her. Then she began to talk to herself.
"What's that? I should kill her the same way?"
For the first time, Eve's eyes left the puppy in her hand and locked onto her mother. She moved passed me with slow, deliberate steps until she was standing next to my wife. Eve said nothing, but stared up at her mother, patiently waiting to be acknowledged.
"I told you I don't know how it happened. My arm just suddenly…" my wife's voice trailed off as she finally noticed that Eve was staring at her with the same cold expression as before. "It was you wasn't it?"
Eve said nothing, but as I watched, the arms slithered out of her back.
"I knew you'd be a monster!" my wife screamed, "Ever since that ultrasound!"
If anything she said was bothering or if Eve even heard what her mother was saying, it didn't show on her face. Only Eve's arms continued to move.
"I HATE YOU!"
That was the last thing my wife ever said.
Just like that mugger in the alley, her head rolled off her shoulders. The screaming was silenced and her body fell in a heap there in the kitchen. Then Eve turned to me.
Her eyes were still cold and expressionless as she walked towards me. Everything seemed to slow down…I noticed that Eve had a cute kind of waddle when she walked…just like my savior, she too had six transparent arms…I could hear the faint voice of the 911 operator trying to get my wife's attention. After what felt like an eternity, she was standing right in front of me. I felt my legs give out and I found myself on Eve's level. She was still shorter standing than I was sitting, but with those heartless eyes, I felt like she was towering over me. She looked up into my face and her expression did not change. The puppy fell from her arms and her silvery arms spread wide. I closed my eyes, waiting to feel them tear through my flesh, but all I felt was Eve's little body press gently against me. I felt her wrap her physical arms around my neck and start to cry. I opened my eyes and the girl that looked at me was my Eve again. I held her close to me and watched as her transparent arms retracted back into her back. I didn't know what else to do so I started crying along with her.
It was only when we heard our front door being knocked down that we both stopped and looked around. There standing in the doorway was my savior from four years ago. She was still naked and if anything looked more dangerous.
"Where is my daughter, David Jones?"
"Who is she, Daddy?" Eve asked. "She looks a lot like me."
"That's because we are both Dyclonius." She said with a flourish. "Could you not sense my approach?"
"A dy-what?"
"Don't worry, I'll explain everything to you. Now come with me."
I tried to stop her, but Eve slipped out of my grasp and stood next to the naked woman. They gave each other a small smile and then she turned her cold eyes on me.
"What about you?" She demanded, "Will you come with us and be the bearer of the next stage of Evolution?"
"What do you mean?" I said completely lost. "Who are you?"
"My name is Lilith. I am a Dyclonius." She said with a sigh.
"What does that mean?" I repeated.
"It means I am the next step in human Evolution. I implanted my vector virus into you out of curiosity. I wanted to see what kind of Dyclonius you'd create and she is a marvelous girl. Unfortunately she is sterile. The only way for our kind to continue to exist is to mate with other Dyclonius. That's why I want you to come with us."
"But I'm not a Dyclonius."
"No, but you can still see our vectors. I'm curious what we could create, especially after seeing how powerful my daughter already is. This about it, if we had a child we might be able to take over the world."
"So…I'd be responsible for the death of humanity?"
"Not the death, no…the re-creation. A whole planet of Dyclonius."
I stared at Lilith who was clearly not in her right mind and Eve who was looking at her with pure awe. I thought of a how there were bound to be other people who would abuse Eve like my wife did. A world of people like Lilith might be good for Eve, but then I remembered how Lilith had brutally murdered the mugger. No, no world full of people like her could be a good thing.
Lilith seemed able to read my mind and heaved a sigh. I saw her vectors come shooting toward me, but even faster, Eve's vectors grabbed Lilith's.
"You don't touch my Daddy." Eve said, the cold fury back in her voice.
After regarding her for a moment, Lilith said, "Very well, dear. We'll leave Daddy alive."
As their vectors retracted into their backs, I found my voice again, "Eve, don't go!"
"It's ok, Daddy." Eve said with certainty. "I'm going with Mommy for a bit."
"But she's not-"
"We'll be in touch." Lilith said before using her vectors to leap into the night with Eve.
"You can guess what happened next and now here I am four years later; I think. Everyday Lilith's last words ring through my mind: 'We'll be in touch.' She's not a good person, but she never struck me as a liar. So now you know why I haven't gone insane: I know I'm innocent and keep hoping that Lilith will one day keep her promise."
David Jones concluded his monologue and returned to his seated position in the corner of his cell. In solitary you had to find ways to occupy your time and reciting his story was David's way. He buried his face in his knees just as the sound of his meal door being unlocked was heard. He didn't even look as the food was pushed in; it was just going to be the same old slop again. Rather than just being pushed in though, this time his plate slid across the floor and bumped into him. It felt heavier than normal too…was this his last meal?!
He looked down and to his horror there was the severed head of the solitary confinement security guard. David looked to the open meal door and saw two pairs of bloody, bare feet.
"Daddy?"