Flawed

By Pauline C. Harris

With Yvonne in control, Michael perfected, and Drew and her friends having been captured by the creators, everything seems hopeless. But when a group of flawed androids rescue them, Drew is suddenly thrown into the middle of saving the world again.

Drew buries herself in the elaborate planning and scheming, as well as vigorously trying to bring Michael's memory back. But as Drew loses sight of what she cares about and her world seems like it's being ripped in two, choices are needing to be made and Drew discovers many of the people she thought she knew weren't as they appeared to be.

Betrayal, sorrow, and passion drive Drew to the limit and she's forced to choose, once again, between giving in to her desires.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melange Books, LLC
• Release date: Sep 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781612357355

Pauline C. Harris

Pauline C. Harris is a seventeen-year old author living in Northern Idaho. She started writing short stories when she was eight, and after she self-published her first book when she was fourteen, moved on to write the Mechanical Trilogy. She loves anything that has to do with science fiction, including Star Trek, and her main hobbies are writing and playing the violin in various orchestras and quartets. ​Mechanical is her first professionally published novel. ​She is currently studying in both high school and college and hopes to achieve her AA degree alongside her high school diploma. ​She is also working on another series of YA science fiction novels.

Book preview

HARRIS

With Yvonne in control, Michael perfected, and Drew and her friends having been captured by the creators, everything seems hopeless. But when a group of flawed androids rescue them, Drew is suddenly thrown into the middle of saving the world again.

Drew buries herself in the elaborate planning and scheming, as well as vigorously trying to bring Michael’s memory back. But as Drew loses sight of what she cares about and her world seems like it’s being ripped in two, choices are needing to be made and Drew discovers many of the people she thought she knew weren’t as they appeared to be.

Betrayal, sorrow, and passion drive Drew to the limit and she’s forced to choose, once again, between giving in to her desires and fears, or doing what she knows is the only right thing.

Table of Contents

Flawed

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-one

Chapter Twenty-two

Chapter Twenty-three

Chapter Twenty-four

Chapter Twenty-five

Chapter Twenty-six

Chapter Twenty-seven

Chapter Twenty-eight

Chapter Twenty-nine

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-two

Chapter Thirty-three

Chapter Thirty-four

Chapter Thirty-five

Chapter Thirty-six

Chapter Thirty-seven

Epilogue

About the Author

Previews

Prologue

He watched her from the doorway that led into the long, white corridor. She sat in her cell studying her hands that lay in her lap, her fingers laced together. A shadow fell across her cell leaving her in semidarkness. Her long auburn hair fell across her face, as she bent her head, not even bothering to swipe it away.

Michael’s brow furrowed. She was pretty. No, he shook his head. She was beautiful. But what did that mean? The word was used for so many things, and although Michael understood the definition perfectly, knew exactly what it meant ... he felt nothing. It should have some significance, shouldn’t it? She should have some significance, shouldn’t she? She had called him by his name. She had said he knew her.

But he didn’t.

She had said he knew both of them, her and that other girl who was in the cell a few doors down from hers. But he had no idea who she was. He tried to remember. Tried to figure out if she was right. But whenever he tried, he came up with nothing. She was probably just confused like the creators said she was. That had to be it. The creators were always right.

He went back to watching the girl in her cell. She sat there, staring down at her hands, and although it seemed like such a boring and irrelevant thing to do, Michael couldn’t seem to wrench his gaze away. Something about her held him there, something grabbed him and wouldn’t let go. Something inside of him screamed at him that he knew this girl ... but he didn’t. That was the truth. He didn’t know her. So why was he watching her?

Suddenly the girl looked up, startling him. Her eyes met his, searching his face for something. Her face was even prettier than the rest of her. She had delicate features, and her eyes were blue, the color of the sky. They looked at him with some strange expression. Hope?

Michael, she said quietly.

At the sound of his name, Michael backed away, faster than he had intended, and in a second, he was out the door. He stood out there, staring at the wall. The color of her eyes, the sound of her voice, the way she had looked at him had brought on a strange feeling. A feeling in his heart that something had once been there. It ached with hollowness. Something inside of him screamed for him to remember.

But remember what?

Chapter One

Yvonne was smiling smugly as Michael walked my way. He passed right by me despite my efforts to talk to him. He grabbed Jessica and pulled her into a cell, clanging the door behind her. She fell to the ground with a sob and stared up at Michael with a gaze filled with despair and horror at the sight of her perfected brother.

Michael, listen to me, I tried to say. It’s Drew and your sister Jessica.

He reached out and roughly grabbed my arm, pinching the skin so hard it hurt.

Let go! I yanked my arm away, took a step back, and glared at him. You know me! I shouted. You have to! My voice choked at the last part. I stared into his eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of the real Michael, but all I saw was an emotionless android staring back.

He grabbed me again and nearly threw me into the cell, slamming the door behind me. I fell against the wall and slid to the ground, rubbing my arm.

Michael, please. My voice was a whisper.

His eyes were indifferent.

I woke with a start, tears pricking at my eyes. I sat up, rubbing my forehead. I reached over to rub my arm where Michael had grabbed me in my dream. This scene had haunted me for days—Michael staring at me, completely perfected. And each time I dreamt about it, I awoke, crying.

I could hear others shifting in the cells around me—quiet movement and sometimes sobs. Most of them coming from Jessica, a few cells down from mine.

I still couldn’t believe what had happened. Every time I thought about the idea of Michael, the only person I had ever loved, being turned into a mindless android and locking us up, my mind refused to believe it. It was true; so horribly true. And I didn’t even want to think about what lay in store for Jessica. She was sitting in her cell waiting to be taken away and turned into a robot like her brother.

They’re going to kill you. Yvonne’s words rang through my mind, and I rubbed my forehead. My fate would be completely different from Michael’s and Jessica’s. I had already been perfected; turned into an android. But I had gained my individuality back and, according to the creators, I was now flawed; something to be discarded. They were going to kill me. I had told myself that I wouldn’t let them. That I would get away with Jessica and we would be free, but after days of sitting here, and finding no way of escape, I was beginning to doubt whether or not I would make it out of here alive.

I tried to hold back the tears. Tears of hurt, anger, and frustration, but it was getting harder and harder. A single tear slid down my cheek and dripped off the edge of my jaw line.

I wanted out. I wanted out so badly. I wanted Jessica to be free and for Michael to come back to me. But all these things, I knew, were impossible.

The creators wanted a perfect world, filled with what they considered perfect people: androids. I was in their way. I was the one who opposed them and wanted things to change. I had rebelled and now I was paying the price. I was flawed and therefore needed to be eliminated.

My thoughts floated back to Yvonne. Where was she now? Probably sucking up to the creators, getting on their good side, while she planned their annihilation. Although, I realized, she was a flawed android like me, she would never let the creators know. She claimed to be smarter, and while I sat here in this cell, I wondered if that was true. Sure she was ruthless, mean, and greedy, but she had ended up on top, right? She had turned me in because of the wrongs I had done against her, mostly for her benefit with the creators, and now she had what she had always wanted: power.

I heard Jessica call my name from her cell. Drew? Her voice rang through the silent corridor.

Yeah? I replied, hoping that my voice didn’t give away the fact that I had been crying.

There was a sniffle. Um ... I don’t even know what I was going to say. What can I say? I mean, what can we do about this? Her voice choked. A tear rolled down my cheek.

I desperately wanted to say something comforting, but nothing came to mind. I wanted to fix this so badly. I wanted to say something that would make everything better; that would make the problem go away, but there were no words that could do that. We sat in silence for a few moments.

I don’t know, I finally replied. It was barely a whisper, but I knew Jessica had heard it. And for me to hear it, too, seemed to tear me apart just a little bit more. Somehow, saying that out loud was admitting that there actually was a problem; a problem from which I couldn’t run away.

I leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. My brain hurt from trying too hard to find a solution that wasn’t there. I let out a sigh.

Hours went by and even though there were no windows or clocks, I knew it had to be late. Less people wandered past the door to our hallway, and although as an android I needed no sleep, other humans in the cells around me were slowly nodding off. I remembered the last time I was here, waiting for Yvonne to let me out. Now, I had no one upon whom to hope. There was no one out there waiting to set me free. Frustration clung to me like a virus, but I couldn’t let myself lose hope yet. I couldn’t do that to Jessica.

I leaned against the wall, listening to the silence around me. Everyone in the cells around me had to be sleeping by now. But suddenly the door creaked open, sending a burst of light down the dark hallway. I squinted and watched as a figure approached, female, but obscured by a large hood over her head. I had no idea who she was, and it took me a few seconds to realize she was walking straight toward my cell. I opened my mouth to ask her who she was and what she was doing here, but before I could utter a sound, she slid her hands through the bars and dropped something small and metallic onto the floor beside me. I squinted up into her face, my eyes still adjusting to the lighting, but I only glimpsed a flash of blue eyes before she turned and hurried away. I stood, ready to call after her, but she was already gone.

I stared down at the ground and kneeled, feeling around for the object she dropped. As my fingers brushed the small metallic item and I brought it closer to my face, my heart nearly stopped. I gripped it tighter into my fist and stared down the corridor where the woman had vanished.

A key.

Chapter Two

I stared down at the key in shock, every muscle frozen. Who had she been? My first thought was Yvonne. She had access to the keys, to the cells, to the whole Institution. But it couldn’t have been her. She’d turned in Michael, captured Jessica and I. And when I had looked up into the face of the woman who dropped the key I had seen blue eyes, not Yvonne’s black ones.

But before I could think any further or come up with a plan, the door opened once again, and the corridor flooded with light. I squinted and turned my head away, stuffing the key into my pocket. The footsteps walked down the aisle and I waited ... wondering. It took me a few minutes to realize that there was more than just one person, and in fact, there were multiple people.

At first, I had thought it was the creators, or some androids, but when once my eyes had adjusted to the light, I looked up and couldn’t believe what I saw.

Beatrix was smiling down at me as she calmly unlocked the door to my cell. My mind flashed back to the day when I had met her at a café and how she had explained to me her association with the flawed, a group of rebel androids.

What...? I barely managed to say.

She shook her head and put her finger to her lips. I scrambled to my feet, and hurried out of the cell, noticing the half-dozen others who had come along with Beatrix. I glanced down the hallway and saw Jessica’s cell door being unlocked.

Jessica ran over to me, giving me a confused and frightened look. She looked