"Well, you are dead my dear." General Hammond stated plainly.

My eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head.

"Excuse me what?" I said flabbergasted.

I quickly checked my pulse and breathing patterns. I was even tempted to prick my finger for blood but stopped myself.

"Sir, how can I be dead?! My heart is still beating, I'm still breathing, I felt pain earlier! None of this makes sense!" I stood up breathing heavily.

Hammond's face was stoic and calm, "Ms. Grace please sit and remember our conditions, let me finish explaining and then I can maybe answer your questions."

I calmed myself down and sat back in the chair.

"Now as I was saying, you are dead. It is true you are alive in the technical sense, but to the world, your friends, your family you are dead and there will be no plausible way for you to see them or return to your old life ever again."

I sunk back into the chair with pure shock taking over my mind.

I finally looked back up at him, "so am I like a vampire or something?" I replied.

Hammond gave me a confused look then started laughing so hard he started banging his fist on the table.
When he finally calmed down, he regained his composure and continued to finish explaining.

"No Arya, you are not a vampire. You are special though, that's why you are here."

"Oh, okay" I replied still confused.

"You see the crash you were in was orchestrated by us. We have been watching you for a some time now, we saw potential in you and now you are part of a top secret government program. You should be honored really."

I was furious and confused and tried to hide the ball of emotions stirring inside me as this man kept speaking but if it were up to me I would've strangled him by now for practically taking my life away from me.

"We had to move fast you see. We knew you would be leaving for university soon and trying to intercept you there would be much riskier and we would have to analyze your movements for at least another month to establish your daily patterns. So we figured this would be the best opportunity to make everything look like an accident."

At this point I was just still trying to process everything, none of it even seemed real.

"But try to believe me, as hard as it may seem,our intention was not to kill you or purposely harm you in anyway. I mean all that observation and analysis would just go to waste otherwise."

I slowly turned my eyes to stare back at him, "So where is my mom? Can I see her? Why can't I go back? What do you want with me?!" I could start to feel my eyes welling up with tears. I wasn't thinking about the conditions, I wanted to know why these psychos took me away from my life.

The general raised an eyebrow, not expecting an outburst like that. But then softened his gaze ever so slightly if you blinked you would've missed it. He probably understood that this reaction was to be expected even given the conditions we made.

"I'm sorry, but your mother is not here. And I meant it when I said you were no longer able to see any of your family or friends again."

"So did you kill them," I looked down at my feet.

"No. We killed you, well the past you."

"I'm sorry but I'm still not understanding." I spoke trying to not let more tears fall.

He sighed deeply and tried to straighten himself in his seat.
"Arya. I'm going to explain this from the moment of the crash the best way for you to try and comprehend. You may interrupt this time but only in a calm manner, understand?"

I nodded my head.

"We initially caused the crash with a remote controlled vehicle as to not injure any of our members. After the crash, we waited for movement from your car and waited from there to see if both you and your mother were conscious because then it would be more complicated."

He looked at me and I just nodded for him to continue.

"We had the nearby cell towers tapped and heard you make the phone call to 911 saying how your mother was still unconscious. Luck was on our side then so we had to move fast." Once the communication was lost with the operator, we managed to delay their ambulances and police just enough for one of our teams to get you. I believe you know one of those team members, Eric?" He paused.

I gave a slight scowl.

"That sure was something seeing on the cameras how you knocked the crap outta him. He hardly ever is surprised by anything that one."

"Can you please continue sir?" I tried not to sound agitated.

"Of course. So after Eric loaded you into the ambulance, you may not remember but he gave you an injection. One that made you appear dead. It was specially developed in our labs, and given the wrong dosage can truly be fatal for a person or given too little, and they wake up from anywhere to 30 minutes to a day. I won't bore you with the science behind what makes this stuff work, but that's what he gave you." He leaned back in his chair and looked to make sure I was still following.

"So you drugged me?" I asked plainly.

"In a way yes, but we also 'killed' you in a sense as well." He included.

"I thought you said I wasn't a vampire though? Am I some like weird zombie hybrid?"

Hammond chuckled, "You know, you really watch too many movies."

Instead of replying I just crossed my arms and looked away slightly trying to hide my embarrassment.

"As I was saying once you were dead we had our team take you to the hospital, posed as EMTs proclaiming you DOA (dead on arrival). Once a doctor proclaimed you officially dead. They took you to the morgue where they signed your death certificate. It was a busy night and there were no particularly mysterious circumstances you died under. Just a broken neck or collapsed lung or a cardiac tapenade from you trying to escape the car. We made it so, there would be no autopsy performed on you and that you were to be transported to a funeral home where you would later be cremated. Because well we couldn't exactly have an open casket funeral for you, and if by some reason you began to wake up...well it would be a disaster on our end."

"So that's what you mean by I'm dead? Everyone thinks I died in the crash? What about my mom?" I asked desperately.

"Well she is alive. She only suffered from a concussion and a broken arm or rib I can't remember exactly which of the two. However, she isn't in the location you are at, she is still in your hometown. And unfortunately the local police claim to believe that she is to be held responsible for your death. So they are doing a full investigation on her for involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving while under the influence. So as of right now she is in a jail cell I believe awaiting trial, but at least she is alive."

My eyes probably looked like saucers at the moment from how shocked I was at this information. I rapidly stood up and started pacing back and forth.

"YOU JUST SAID MY MOM IS IN JAIL?! Because of me being 'dead'?! This is all your fault can't you do something?! Call off the investigation or let me talk to her? Please!" I was losing it at this point.

"First of all you need to sit and calm down. What happened to your mother was unfortunate I agree, but we have no control over the actions of the local law enforcement unless it pertains to a person of interest to us. Such as yourself. We can't just go into a police station and say your mother is innocent and to release her of all charges we already obtained our target and besides you can't leave either way so I don't see why it makes much of a difference. She probably would've gotten more leniency if she wasn't under the influence," he shrugged.

In my rage of the moment I stopped and looked at him. "What do you mean she was under the influence my mom doesn't drink or do drugs. Did you fake her results or something?" I questioned.

"You may consider us terrible people here Miss Grace, but we did not fake any results. Upon your mother's arrival to the hospital, she had multiple tests taken. Two of which were a blood test and urine sample. Both of which tested positive for alcohol consumption and drugs." He stated.

I sat down with a look of shock on my face obviously still trying to process everything.

"Apparently your mother was on antidepressants and pain killers. And that mixed with trace amounts of alcohol suspected police to believe it was her fault since no other car was found on the road and it wasn't a curvy mountain road either." Hammond shrugged.

This can't be right, I thought. Sure mom has had some problems with depression especially since dad and Ethan died but I never knew she was on any pain killers and she hardly ever drank at least not when I was near. And she always said she was going to group therapy and that the meds were working. She was getting better, at least that's what I thought.

"Apparently her psych evaluations were not that stellar either so her case doesn't look too good. For what it's worth I am sorry this had to happen, we couldn't leave any evidence of our being there at the scene, I hope you understand why."

How could I not see what was happening. Was she suffering the entire time and I was too blind to see it? Was I too caught up in leaving everything behind including her that I didn't notice? She thinks I'm dead and the last time I spoke with her I ignored her. How could I be such a terrible person to her when I'm the only real family she has left.

I could feel unintentional tears running down my face then as I tried to quickly wipe them away. I didn't need this man to see me cry and break down thinking he has clearly broken my spirit. I won't be weak now.

I looked up at him, my gaze cold and unflinching. "So what happens now," I asked plainly.

He looked a bit surprised given my reaction of the series of events that were just explained to me. But he instead smirked slightly.

"Well I'm glad you have accepted the current situation. Let's get started shall we?"

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Hope y'all enjoyed! I would appreciate any feedback!

-purplegirl22