Caroline, The Exchange Student

Caroline 5: Confession Part 1

Writer's Note: Read parts 1-4 to get the full timeline of this story, so the conversations make more sense. I am grateful that you are reading this story I am working on! Thank-you and I hope you enjoy.

I opened my eyes and looked around the room...a hospital?

My mom looked over at me. We shared a smile. My dad snored in a chair on my left side. A book sat in his lap. My pops was a short fellow, salt and pepper hair cut short.

"Hey hon, you're awake," she said, her black hair and dark eyes looked just like mine.

I rubbed my eyes, my head felt heavy, hurt like hell.

"What happened?" I said, sitting up a little more in the bed.

My mom stood up and walked over to my Dad. She shook him awake.

"Dakota, Jaime's awake," Mom said, looking towards the window.

My dad opened his eyes and rubbed his face...he smiled at me. He stood up.

"Hey son, we're glad you're okay...there was a bad car accident," he said. Dad forced a smile.

"Accident...what?" I said looking at my mom, who looked away. My dad put his arm on my shoulder.

"You and Dallas...got into a really bad car accident," he said dryly.

I thought really hard and searched my mind...I remembered riding with Dallas. I screamed and that hard thud as we hit the ditch. Something seemed wrong.

"Yeah, I kinda remember the crash..." I said, looking up.

"What about Caroline...?" I said, looking at my mom.

My mom looked at my dad, she fidgeted with her hands.

Oh shit.

Dad sat down and studied me for a moment.

"She went back home...to Germany," he said, lying. He didn't look at me.

I clenched my hands over my sheets, balling them up.

"I remember now..." I said, leaning back.

"It's okay son," my mom said, sitting on the bed next to me.

"I know she meant a lot to you, but she had to go home...and she doesn't want..." Mom said trailing off.

I felt like crying but I held it back and looked away.

"Besides, you're really lucky to be alive after the crash," my mom said, putting her hand over mine. I felt a little better, but something seemed missing.

~

Rusty, our border collie, greeted me at the door -- he jumped up on me and licked my hands.

"Hey boy, I missed you, too" I said, heading for my room. He followed me, smiling and panting.

My parents had converted the downstairs garage into a room for me, so my dad could take over my old room for work. There was a rumor that a lung infection was spreading across the world, and seemed pretty deadly, but so far no one I knew had gotten sick. I had lots of space. Several sets of vinyl records leaned against the wall, on the right side of the room, close to the window. A turntable on top, my stereo below, sat on a waist-high, charcoal media table, all covered in dust. Meh. My bed was messy, clothes on the floor. To the right, the closet was closed, but the bathroom door was wide open. My small incandescent lamp was the only source of light, which sat on a nightstand, next to my bed on the left in front of the stereo-turntable area.

Where was my cell phone?

I asked my parents earlier and they both said I must have lost it in the car accident.

I sat on the bed and looked over at the digital clock on the dresser. It read: 3:00PM.

Rusty jumped on the bed, but I shooed him away and he ran out of the room.

I closed my door. I turned on the ceiling fan, which kicked into high speed.

The flowing air dried the sweat on my forehead.

My head still hurt, like it was emptied out. I sat down on the bed.

I wondered what Caroline was doing.

My body felt heavy, sleep overwhelmed me, so I took off my shoes and laid down on the bed. My room smelled nice, like home. I closed my eyes.

~

I woke up from a horrible nightmare. Caroline was in a locked room by herself and she was holding her stomach. Her hair was cut short and she looked pale, sick. I suddenly remembered something. I had seen her like that somewhere before, but was it real?

The clock read 9:00PM.

Rusty scratched at my door. I yawned, got up and let him in.

My window was slightly open. Sometimes my mom opened it for me. She said my room gets a little stuffy.

Rusty trotted into my room, then his eyes shot right at the closet door, it was one of those accordion doors; he froze. He growled deep. Rusty never barked, but he did growl at strangers.

I stared at the closet door, we both walked quietly over to my bed where my aluminum bat leaned against the nightstand. I picked it up. As I walked closer, Rusty moved with me, like a shadow.

I opened the door, and cocked the bat back. I switched on the overhead light. In the closet was a woman...she shielded her eyes. She stood there as Rusty growled at her, baring his teeth.

She looked like a blonde version of Caroline, her golden hair braided with blue hair ties that matched her eyes, like sapphire. She wore thin, gray jogging shorts and a white crop top that highlighted her athletic body.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

She backed away, and looked at Rusty. She forced a smile at Rusty; he stopped growling, but looked at her cautiously.

"My name's Veronica," she said, looking at me.

"Please, tell das hound to back down?...I mean no harm." Veronica said, her voice sounded just like Caroline's, same German accent.

"Rusty, come here," I said, looking at him, he whined, backed away from her, and then sat down, watching the woman closely.

"You look like Caroline...but you're not her," I said, coldly.

Veronica sat down in the closet and crossed her legs.

"I am friends with Caroline...we're best friends," Veronica said, sighing, wringing her hands.

"Where's Caroline?" I said, penetrating her blue eyes.

Veronica shifted her weight. Then, she stared at me.

Rusty moved closer to her and Veronica put her hand out as Rusty sniffed her fingers.

She tried to pet him but he moved away.

"She's probably in a city. Somewhere. Not exactly sure where, but is being held by your government," Veronica said, matter of factly.

"There's some kind of government agents staying in the house across the street...they're watching you." Veronica said, trying to coax Rusty again with her hand. He just looked at her, bored.

"How do you know?" I said, looking at her features. She had diamond earrings, and her hair was radiant. I suddenly missed Caroline.

"I saw them when I came in," Veronica said.

"They didn't see me." She said, as Rusty slowly approached her.

Finally, Rusty let the mysterious woman pet him. He smiled, wagged his tail, and panted as she stroked between his eyes. He licked her hands, then walked away towards me. I put the bat on the bed and patted him on the head. He laid down on the floor next to me, closed his eyes.

"Good dog," she said, smiling at the both of us.

Veronica inhaled.

"I need to tell you what's been going on," she said.

I looked over at her.

"How can I trust you?" I said, looking at the open window.

"I guess you can't," Veronica said.

"Caroline said you wouldn't...and I don't blame you, but she asked me to come here and tell you everything," Veronica said, "it's going to be the truth."

I folded my arms.

"Try me," I said, sitting down on the bed, my hand still on the bat.

"First of all, what happened..with you and Caroline, we didn't intend for you both to be so persistent, stubborn even," Veronica said.

"And, that's not her real name...it's Evie," Veronica said plainly.

I thought hard, and then I remembered leaving my body at a hotel...wasn't that in Indiana?

"Now I remember someone calling her that, Evie" I said, looking at her.

"I was there."

"I am having a hard time..." I said.

"--Remembering things?" Veronica replied quickly.

"Your government probably tried to wipe your memory."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well, that's the thing...this part will be hard to believe," Veronica said, her face stern.

"Me, Evie, who you call Caroline, and that hybrid you were with...we aren't from here," she said, searching my face.

I leaned back.

"There's three of you?" I said, incredulously.

"Yes," she said.

"In our timeline, clones are the only way we can survive," she said, looking down.

"Men cannot survive in our timeline, our earth," Veronica said.

"We think it's because the sun began producing odd magnetic fields which causes male neurons, brains, to behave more radically than normal. Historically, this happened around the mid 1940s. We never had a second world war, just the one. All male humans died off, worldwide. We called it the great male extinction. Anyways, all males die slowly within days of being there. We tried recruiting human males for several years, to come to our reality. They die in complete and utter madness."

I squinted at Veronica.

"That sounds like a terrible B movie," I said, insulting her.

Veronica kept a straight face.

"How did you guys get here?" I asked, still not convinced.

"It's a long story but let's just say that we are able to move between different versions of earth's timelines, a portal pathway. Evie and I, we come from a reality where Germany discovers alien technology, right around our industrialization period. Our archeologists discover an alien ship buried in the Southern mountains. That alien ship, its technology, was so advanced. My grandparents' generation back-engineered that alien hardware. Our government harvested amazing stuff from that ship.They learned everything they could about it. It was almost impossible, but they eventually developed devastating weapons, technology, and even medical achievements never seen before. By the time my parents were cloned, Germany had easily achieved world domination. No one could stand against us," she said, almost proud.

I stared at her. Veronica licked her full lips.

"We renamed ourselves 'God's Fully Evolved Beings'".

Veronica flipped her wrist over, a small tattoo with a strange barcode sat perfectly on her wrist.

"It's my name, my birthdate, everything about me, and even my exact number of citizenship...in our culture, I was born as number 333 million, that's exactly how many people were born, cloned, whatever, up to that moment, once global ownership was ours."

I just looked at her, bewildered.

"Wait...what about that other woman?" I said.

"She looked just like Caroline, I mean Evie."

Veronica sat up.

"That Caroline you left with, from the Miller's house? Both of you made it to Indiana together...she was on a mission," she said.

I thought hard. I saw flashes in my mind of Caroline, stabbing someone in the neck. I flinched.

"She's a hybrid...not sure which parts are human but probably this part..." Veronica said, pointing to her lady parts.

She opened her legs a little. I saw the perfect impression of her pussy pushing through her shorts; my heart fluttered. I looked away.

"Okay, that's crazy," I said, looking at her again, my mind racing to put this together.

I put my hand on my forehead and balled up my fist.

"Okay...wait," I said.

"So Caroline...Evie, whatever...lied to me." I said, cold.

Veronica leaned forward.

"Yes...we had to," Veronica said.

"No you didn't"

We both looked at each other. Veronica glanced at the open window.

"Look Jaime, you need to understand something," Veronica said.

"We had to survive, not just as a race, but as a species, too, but the cloning had limitations...something was wrong."

"We had to get fresh DNA...but it had to be specific," she said.

"Indigenous people don't share the same DNA as Anglos do..." She said, her eyes looking around.

"Evie came here to collect samples...but uh...she got completely caught up in her emotions," Veronica said.

I felt sick. I folded my arms.

"I can't believe this..." I said, my chin shook with anger.

Veronica shifted her weight again.

"I am very sorry Jaime...but Evie told me to tell you the truth," she said.

"She said you deserved it."

I just sat there, feeling empty.

"Jaime, listen, there's more to tell you but some of this...uh, is something I think Evie should say to you...not me." Veronica said.

"Wait, when did you last see her?" I demanded.

"The day you found her at the Miller's in Morrisville, she gave you that Ipod" Veronica said, "That was Evie."

"She was supposed to leave for good, after leaving Collier, but she begged our government to let her stay, for a while longer," Veronica paused.

"But our government, they saw what she was doing. They didn't care. Evie was just delaying the inevitable. Our government sent an extraction team. They took her away that very night...they came in and took her by force. Evie, she fought hard but..." Veronica said.

"...They took her back to our reality."

"Our government replaced Evie with that hybrid, which was supposed to take you back to our timeline. Our government wanted more than just samples. They wanted a full specimen...you," Veronica said, pointing at me.

I lunged back a little.

"Evie wasn't going to let that happen to you," Veronica beamed.

I smiled a little.

"Is she okay?" I said, my voice shaking a little.

Veronica stood up...she walked over to the bed. Rusty looked at her and panted, then laid back down.

"May I sit?" Veronica asked.

I nodded "yes".

"Okay, for now...yes, but she's recovering," Veronica said.

"Your US government is totally aware of what we have been doing...for years," Veronica said.

"Usually a guy your age just moves on, after a sexual encounter...no one in the program expected the both of you to bond like crazy glue," Veronica said, putting her hand close to mine. I pulled away.

"Where is she?" I said, "I want to talk to her."

Veronica frowned.

"She's telling your government everything that's been going on, in our timeline," Veronica said, folding her arms.

"I've heard rumors, but Evie and I think our government is planning something big."

Veronica looked down.

"It's awful, our culture dominates everything it touches," Veronica said, putting her head down.

"Some of us...especially Evie and I, we have been trying to change things there, from the inside...but everyone who has tried to stand against our government..." Veronica said, rubbing her eyes.

"...dies."

I stood up and walked to the open window, and slowly closed it.

"I helped Evie escape," Veronica said, standing up.

"Our Government had her locked up...she was charged with sedition and was set to be executed by law," Veronica said.

"The law is swift, no second chances."

"I was next on their list, so we both had to get away, and..." Veronica said, her eyes trembling.

"We lost a dear friend, who helped us."

"This all happened at the same time you were on the run, with that Caroline hybrid thing," Veronica said.

"That hybrid doesn't even know she's part machine. She's a new design. Meant to replace Evie's job. Our government bragged that those new hybrids were far more efficient." Veronica said.

"And that hybrid, she believes she is the original Caroline, through and through."

"So the hybrid believes all that stuff she told me?" I said, confused.

"Yes, she was programmed to, but we all knew that there had been so many problems with those hybrids over the years. I think it's the emotional programming of the AI pathways, which cannot be properly integrated one hundred percent with the human psyche. In other words, the machine inside always wins. Those hybrids become so attached to their specimens that they will do anything to stay with their chosen specs, to the point of rage, jealousy, and death. What's more, she had to be immobilized by your government, so they could take you from her," Veronica said.

I closed my eyes.

"Your US government, and those men working for your US government are probably contracted third party kites. They have this device, not sure what it's called, but it can incapacitate the hybrid's computer system," Veronica said.

I felt sick...a fucking hybrid sex bot?

Ugh.

And what the fuck was a kite?

"Evie told me that you were in a hotel with the hybrid, yes?" Veronica said.

"Yes, I think I remember that, it seems like a dream though, like it wasn't real," I said.

Veronica continued.

"They struck a deal, Evie and your government -- to wipe your memory and let you move on," Veronica said.

"Evie wouldn't let go, though...she was distraught," Veronica said.

"You know, she's racked with guilt," she continued, "Evie absolutely understands if you never love her again, hate her even...she just wants you to be okay."

I laid back on the bed, as Veronica stood up and paced a bit.

"Okay what now," I said, feeling a little better.

"Not sure," Veronica answered.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Rusty jumped up and ran to the door, his tail wagging.

I motioned for Veronica to go back to the closet.

She quickly disappeared into the closet and slid the accordion door shut.

"Jaime, it's Mom," my mom said.

I opened the door and the smell of chili and fry bread entered the room.

She looked at me. Rusty ran over to the closet and whined at the door.

I smiled at her.

"C'mon Russ, let's go!" I said to Rusty; he bounded to the door and ran out of the room like a streak.

"Smells like chili dinner," I said, my stomach grumbling.

"Do you wanna eat with us?" mom said, smiling big.

I nodded my head yes, then headed towards the kitchen. I shut the door behind me.

We ate and talked for about thirty minutes. It was nice. My dad was on his phone reading the next big thing for his stocks. My mom just sat and looked at me, being quiet. The frybread was really good and the chili warmed up my weak body.

Eventually, I excused myself and told my mom I wanted to finish my food in my room and go to sleep. My mom cut me a suspicious look, but didn't say anything.

I walked into the room with a huge bowl of chili, can of coke, and two pieces of frybread. I locked my room, put the chili on the nightstand, then walked over to the closet and opened it. Veronica lay curled into a ball, resting, her eyes closed. She opened her eyes. She smiled at me then sat up, stretched, and yawned. I put my finger to my lips.

"I brought you something to eat," I whispered, smiling at her.

Veronica came out of the closet and headed for the bed.

"Go on," I said motioning to the steaming bowl of chili, frost on the can of coke, and the frybread on a paper plate.

Veronica sat down and devoured the chili. She smiled as she ate.

"Thank you so much, I was so hungry," Veronica said.

I opened the can of coke, handed it to her and she took a deep gulp.

I watched her movements and every subtle thing she did reminded me of my Caroline.

"What kind of bread is that?" Veronica said, picking it up and taking a small bite of it.

"It's so good," she said quickly, taking a larger bite.

I laughed.

"It's frybread," I said.

"I grew up eating this," I said, smiling.

"I like to put my chili on it."

Veronica ate the entire bowl of chili. I could tell she wanted more. I took the empty bowl and went into the kitchen. The kitchen was like a void. My parents were probably in bed by now. Only the overhead light shone from the range, the chili still sat on the cold burner. The clock changed to 10:30.

I put the dirty bowl in the sink.

I quickly got a clean bowl, spoon, then, grabbed the last two round pieces of fry bread. I snatched another can of coke from the fridge.

I walked into my room, and Veronica wasn't there.

I heard running water coming from the bathroom. I tapped on the door. The water stopped and Veronica opened the door. She dabbed her face with a towel. Veronica's dark eyelashes made her blue eyes shine; she blinked, then, smiled big.

"Here", I said, putting the bowl next to my bed.

I sat down at the edge of the bed, facing Veronica.