"As you know, I am not a normal human," Mom began. I was resting on the couch, sipping hot chocolate while Mom had pulled up a stool. Every now and then she would glance away before talking. Her mug of tea was cold, and she held it in between her shaking knees. Obviously, her history wasn't something she liked to talk about.

She stared at me evenly. "What do you know?"

"Well, let's see," I replied. "I know that you and Dad were part of an experiment, but I don't know what kind. I really don't know who Lydecker is or what he has to do with you. And, I don't know what the experiment was that you were in, how old you were, or anything like that. I only know that Lydecker created me, messed with my genes a bit, and you guys escaped from him," I said, checking the points off on my fingers. I leaned forward on the couch, closer to Mom. "That's all."

Mom sighed. "You really don't know that much, I guess."

"Guess not," I stated, trying not to be too snippy.

"Alright, then. Your dad, Zack, and I are not normal humans."

"Uh-huh…" I drawled.

"When our moms were teenagers, I guess, although I don't know for sure, they wanted to get rid of the children they were carrying. So, they were offered money to give up their children to this experiment. Here's where Lydecker comes in. He was the creator of this experiment.

"What he was doing was making genetically engineered killing machines."

"Killing machines?" I interrupted.

"Just hold on, please," Mom replied. She ran a hand through her hair, letting it fall back down around her shoulders. "I grew up in a military like place, being trained to kill and fight. Lydecker was supposed to be our father because we didn't know our real ones. He wasn't. I could describe some of the stuff he made us do, but it doesn't matter anymore-does it?

"To get to the point, we weren't the first group of genetically engineered kids that Lydecker tried to produce. In fact, we were the fifth group. Called X-5, then the rest of our barcode was how the adults identified us. We made up names for ourselves.

"When I was nine, we managed to escape, luckily. We all split up and lived our lives. Everything was fairly normal, with Lydecker coming around to try to capture us every once in awhile, no big deal, really.

"But, then, one day he managed to capture us. We were taken back to one of the few Manticore bases outside of Wyoming…actually this one was outside of Seattle."

"Manticore? What's that? Brin mentioned it, so I figured it was something, but what is it exactly?"

"The name of the experiment. The main part of it was in Wyoming."

"Oh."

"Anyhow, he created you by combining the reproductive cells of obviously Zack and I. To make a long story short, the building eventually burned down, and I thought Zack and I were the only ones left. Turns out, we weren't."

"Brin," I said softly.

"Yes."

"Who were the others?" I asked, curious about these people Mom had never told me about. "What were they like?"

Mom smiled softly. "I remember Eva. She never managed to escape. The sweet girl, oh, god, she was so sweet, was shot by Lydecker."

"Shot?!" I nearly screamed.

Mom nodded slowly. "Yes, nothing out of the normal, but it still hurts."

"I'd imagine so."

"I remember Tinga, Krit, Syl, Jhondi, Jace-who Brin was talking about down in Mexico-, Zane, Jack, Ben…" Mom's voice faded away and she cupped a hand over her trembling mouth, turning away from me. She rose to her feet and walked to the window.

"Mom? You okay?" I asked.

"I just remember them far too well. Much more than I should."

"They were like family, you just can't forget them."

"Sometimes I think it would be easier if I could." Mom turned back to me. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"That you couldn't have just had a normal life without all this bullshit haunting you."

"Haunting me?" I asked in disbelief. "I've never had anything out of the norm. You're the one who's lived through it."

"Still…" she said, her voice trailing off as she looked back out the window with the night sky backdrop.

I rested my hand on her shoulder. "Mom, normal is so boring anyhow."

After our pleasant little talk, Mom headed off to bed, despite the fact the sun was going to rise in only two or three hours. Not having a room, I prepared the couch Original Cindy had offered me earlier in the evening. Still dressed in my riding clothes, I lay down on top of the blankets I had set down.

For once, I actually wanted sleep to come. To be taken away from this life. Mom was right, I didn't have a normal life, no matter how hard she and Dad would try to keep it that way.

Sleep did come, eventually and I drifted away into dream world. Unfortunately, I dreamed of nothing but bleeding hallways where dead children screamed and a man named Lydecker killed them and their dreams.