Prologue

Earth, July 3012

My name is Arianna Marshall-I, and I am a clone. I am nothing more than a meagre lab rat.

Arianna-I sealed the doors shut to the cryo-chamber behind her. She sank to the floor, shielding her eyes with both hands as if that could alter the reality that had already dawned upon her, sobbing and shivering, unable to understand how it could have happened. It was true. Part of her did achingly desire not to spend another massive chunk of her life-- frozen to the core in an ice-cold chamber. But she never meant to kill the woman who freed her in the first place, who helped her realise she had an existence, who she wouldn't exist without.

"Hello--" The woman who came into the room checked her out, head to heels, "healthier me." A wide grin. She looked exactly like me, Arianna-I had noticed. Not that she ever knew what she looked like, but the figure she had seen in the mirror mere moments ago was very resemblant to the woman in front of her. "I'm here to take you home." A blank stare, unable to comprehend what she was trying to communicate. "Newborn baby brain-- got it," The woman held her around the shoulder, leading her out of the blockaded chamber she was asked to stay in.

"Chips?" There they were, relaxed on the elegant, comfy couch in the living room on a Sunday morning. Arianna was two different women in her eyes-- A burnt-out perfectionist who drowned in alcohol on workday evenings and on weekends, a hungover girl whose kindness reflected in her smile. Even as they sat on the couch, her hands extended towards the newfound friend, Arianna-I could notice the lines under her eyes. The lines only appeared when she was genuinely happy-- Arianna-I had learned. Because she used to smile differently on the late-night work calls-- her eyes bereft of its shimmer, merely a bare, lop-sided grin.

"I was so lonely before you, dear. I won't let anything happen to you. This is your home. No one will take you away. No one can. No one." She mumbled throughout the previous Friday night, contorted on the floor and clinging onto Arianna-I's waist, drunk to the bone. And the midnight after, Arianna-I was up, scared and pale, only to find her on the other side of the bed. Upon hearing the unrest, she sprang to life, her bloodshot eyes roaming the room to detect any danger. "It's okay, it's okay." She told Arianna-I as she sat beside her, her hands firm yet gentle on her shoulder. She was like an owl-- hard to see if she even blinked.

"It's only for a week or two, they promised. You trust me, don't you?" She pursued her as Arianna-I ran to her room up the stairs. "Please don't run, dear. Listen to me. You know I'll never let anything happen to you, right?"

Would things have been different if she had stopped there and then? Why did she keep running? Arianna-I soon realised she would never be able to forgive herself. A mere moment, a reflex she barely had any control over, and the life of the one person who ever cared about her was lost. She had started to take pride in being the reason why Arianna's eyes shimmered, unlike anytime else while she wasn't being with her. But right then, pupils dilated, pale, her eyes were staring into a void or perhaps piercing into the guilt and regret which had started building its grim towers inside Arianna-I's soul.

They were right. We belonged in a cryo-chamber, sealed forever.