A Heart That Was Made to Beat
By Mad Meg Askevron
Chapter Two
Disclaimer: no shit.
Chapter Two: Daddy, Dearest
Dorothy lay soundlessly sleeping on her warm bed. Outside her dark room around the dome lighting branched and struck outside her window. She started to wake up when her window opened but a torn piece of cloth pressed to her face and as her eyes rolled to the back of her head she belatedly realized it was sprinkled with chloroform.
Dorothy woke up in a strange room with golden wood paneling. There was a fireplace crackling blithely, walls lined with bookshelves. On the shelves were folders, books, and pictures. Pictures of her in a life she never knew.
She sat up realizing she had been sleeping on a gold velvet couch. She wore a lacy white tea dress that had a high collar, with little white buttons down the back. She wore white petticoats and the skirt came mid-calf. Her hair was pulled back by a large white and gold bow, wearing a little gold heart pendant.
There were no windows on a door. She stepped through it and into a marble hallway that was lined with floor to ceiling windows that looked out onto a garden. There was a door and she turned it with a strange feeling of déjà vu. It led into an airy living room. Sitting on a couch was an elderly man with cruelly short gray hair. He wore glasses, brown slacks and a white shirt; reading a large book of sometime.
He looked up smiling when she came in.
"Dorothy! My dear!" he rose and kissed her cheek.
"Who are you?" He seemed shocked at her cold tone.
"It's your father, dear; Agamemnon DeChancy. You're Dorothy DeChancy. Done you remember…?"
"Where's Roger?" He looked crestfallen.
"So you're a remake of my daughter? I suppose Dr. Wayneright gave you false memories. He took you from me, you know. He was the brother of your mother. Your mother died when you were born. You seem so real for an android." He turned away. "Or maybe my serum worked. Let me see your hand."
Dorothy stared at him, overwhelmed by his words; but she found herself holding out her hand. He pinched it hard and she gasped.
"Ah, so the shot worked. Good, good." Dorothy stared at him in horror.
"You made me human?" He nodded. He began to pace.
"Along time ago, I met your mother, she was a student of mine, and we got married when she graduated. I met her family and. She had you and she died the next day.
"Her brother and I started a robotics research. Then when you were twelve you were kidnapped. It turned out it was Wayneright. But by the time I found you he had erased your memories and replaced them with fake ones. So, I thought it would be kinder to let you live in peace.
"Then when the cataclysm happened I found out about you. So I made serum to make you human and I waited, then I saw you in the rain and I shot you. There was only a 50-50 chance it would work, but it turned out beautifully. Though pretty soon you find you'll start to change. You'll become pinker, you hair will grow astonishingly fast. You'll lose your in human strength and weight. You'll be like any eighteen year old girl."
Dorothy sat heavily taking in all of this new information.
"I want you to stay here from now on. Now come on, dear, let's go for a walk."
It had been two days and Roger had been searching the city for Dorothy. Norman had informed him the day she went missing and he could find nothing of the girl. Roger sat with his back to his desk, watching the sun set in an ocean of fire.
Dorothy woke up in her new bed. She had said barely anything the past week she had been in her new home. Her red hair was almost to her waist now. Her bangs were still cut in a triangle and the bottom of her hair also cut into a point. Her cheeks had blush to them, and her eyes had turned green; as green as Agamemnon's eyes. Agamemnon had brown hair so she had to assume her mother had had red hair.
It was strange; she was neither happy nor sad. She always had beautiful clothes to wear, and nothing black. She had a large, beautifully carved bed with sheer white curtains. She could have everything she ever wanted. As Dorothy sat in her bed her hair draping around her, what an odd feeling, she brought out a silver locket with an onyx set in the middle.
She opened it and inside was a picture of Roger and one of Norman with their names under the pictures. There was knock on the door before her father came in.
"Dorothy, dear, what's wrong?" It was then that Dorothy realized she was weeping. Agamemnon looked at the locket in her hand and gasped. "You know this man, now?" Dorothy nodded. "Before cataclysm, you two were engaged. Nice fellow… as far as I knew. You met him after you lived with Wayneright." There was knock on the door and one of the maids poked her head around the edge of the door.
"Excuse me, master, mistress, but there is a visitor you master Agamemnon. " Agamemnon nodded and turned to Dorothy.
"Why don't you get dressed Dorothy and we'll have breakfast out in the garden." Dorothy nodded and rose as Agamemnon left. She decided on a floor length sage green and white dress. It had short puffy sleeves with a green silk cuff. It was all white and green silk, gauzy and soft. There was a sage green under dress you could just barely see under the white.
The white over dress was plane and sleeveless, the green had a pleated top and its skirt peeked under the hem of the white. A large green silk band tied around her stomach with a bow at the back. Finally the sides of her hair were caught up in a large green bow. She pulled on white slippers and stepped onto the balcony.
As she leaned on the iron railing she heard the front door open and close. She leaned forward and saw, she gasped, Roger step down the pathway. Apparently hearing her gasp he looked up at her through his sunglasses. But she despaired as her started to walk away seeming to not recognize her.
As tears welled up in her eyes Roger paused at unlocking the door and took off his glasses putting them in his pocket he distinctly winked at her and drove away. She quietly stepped back in side and wiped away her tears with a smile and went down to breakfast.
Agamemnon watched Roger until the car drove away and knew that he had been looking at Dorothy. Agamemnon smiled cruelly and stepped into the dark. No one was going to take Dorothy away from him again. Agamemnon stepped into the garden courtyard where breakfast was set up.
End of Chapter Two