Iris was blasted backward, before suddenly waking up on a cold, hard floor. She flinched before springing up to life. She registered her surroundings as a hospital room. The vision panel in her left eye was simply blank and flashing red. Like that was going to help. Suddenly someone went through her. It was a nurse-droid of a hospital. It was blue.

The one running down the hallways was red and the next would be green. Iris was remembering the day before she even remembered it herself.

But what caught her attention was the hospital bed. There were a bunch of vials, wires, and a holo-screen with endless amounts of data Iris knew about. And they were all leading to the lifeless girl on the bed.

She had strawberry blonde hair and pale skin that looked even paler, almost blue, in the hospital setting. One eye had a piece of metal clamped over it and the other was shut tightly. That’s where the new cyborg eye was. She looked to her left arm and left leg, and saw where flesh and the new wires of her cybernetic limbs met. That was the surface area of her new cyborg additions. Seven of her ribs were replaced with metal, her brain and her heart were also melded with new artificial organs, making her half-computer.

Suddenly her veiny eyelid snapped open, revealing her blue eye that looked impossibly faded. Iris remembered how disoriented she was. She forgot she was human at that moment. Maybe because she actually wasn’t.

Suddenly something beeped and Simulated Iris flinched, now wondering why her vision had all this new data. Suddenly nurse-droids came in hurriedly, checking her vials and pulling on her, and not bothering to ask about Iris herself. She would start panicking.

“What do you remember?” the nurse-droid asked.

“What is going on?” Iris asked, but then at that moment, the words came up in her brain. “Iris Palsson. I’m 11 years, 6 months, and 12 days. What’s happening?”

That was when her moms walked in. They both seemed to have aged, with blotchy eyes and sunken-in cheeks, yet their sad eyes seemed to carry so much happiness.

“Iris!” They both wrap their arms around her and sob, much to her confusion.

“Why won’t anyone just tell me what’s going on? And why do I have these big limbs?” Iris screamed as much as she can, which is still so quiet.

Her Ma prepared herself. Ma looked the same as she always did, with light-brown skin and a head of black curls and blue eyes. “Honey, there was an auto-car crash. You were in it.”

“When was this?” Iris asked.

“A month ago,” Mee says. “Your surgery was right after. Now we’ve been waiting for you to wake up.”

“What happened to my leg and my arm?” Iris said. “And then my brain.”

“They’ve made you into a cyborg,” she explained and then went into all the details. “47% of your body composition is now cybernetic. But it saved you. We’re so glad you’re okay. We thought you almost died.” And then she burst into sobs. Her Mee patted her on the shoulder. Mee was never one for crying, but Eniola could see fat tears silently rolling down her pale cheeks.

“I’m a freak now,” Iris complains. “Half-human.”

“No, you’re not,” Mee cooed. “You are still Iris.”

Then suddenly a nurse-droid comes in, escorting a boy. It was Vivek. Her younger brother looked just as torn up as her moms did.

He reached a hand out to her. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she replied. “You are my brother, Vivek Palsson. 10 years old, 1 week. Born in Kolkata, India, and—”

“I already know me,” he said, and Iris laughed. At this moment, she would wonder where all of her siblings went. Vivek was only a year younger than her, and at this point, she only had 5 younger siblings.

“Sorry I missed your birthday,” Iris apologized.

“It’s fine,” he said. “And waking up is a great late-birthday gift.”

At that moment, it was like everything froze in time. Iris felt her limbs go frozen. Maybe she was just a freak. An anomaly who was a burden to society. She just wanted to be normal.

Everything went dark before Iris was locked in a black room. A figure appeared on the other side, and Iris almost gasped.

It was an 11-year-old. Not a cyborg. But with normal limbs. But then suddenly, the speed of an auto-car comes racing through the landscape before hitting her. Iris tries to scream, but it came out in silent cries in her mouth.

The auto-car hit, then the image was replaced. It was a girl. Instead, her skin was puffy and red and coated with blood. There were stubs of grotesque flesh jutting out from where her arms and legs should have been. Her left eye was leaking out blood while the other one was shut.

Then the image changed again. It was the car, but weirdly there was someone at the driver’s seat, even though that practice had been extinct since auto-cars were invented.

That person was 11-year-old Iris.

Iris now tried to run, but it felt like she was in the same spot because the cars came closer and she didn’t move any farther. Iris stopped.

She couldn’t outrun her past. And that was when she let go and let the car hit her.