The Genesis Clone

Eva’s eyes widened before she ducked her head.

“Stay still,” Mom criticized her, sounding more harsh than usual. Eva stopped herself from flinching because she understood. Something was wrong with Dad. They wouldn’t tell her what, but they tested her blood not long ago. The three of them were now waiting in the hospital for the results. What results they were hoping for, they didn’t tell her either. Eva would ask but her parents got annoyed when she asked questions. Maybe they wanted to see if she had what Dad had? No...that didn’t sound like them. It didn’t sound like any adult Eva had met in her life to be concerned about her, about any child clone. She doubted even Johnathan Apple, who created the Genesis Flower, would care about them.

Maybe they needed her to donate blood? Eva could do that. If she did, maybe, her parents would lo...appreciate her. Perhaps they would even thank-

Eva shook her head. No, no clone would ever be that nicely treated. Not by their parents, their teachers, or by their doctors. And especially not by Eva’s neighbor Old Jack.

Who apparently worked here at the hospital because Eva just saw him pass by in a lab coat. And he had been glaring at her again.

He was a clone protester. Eva didn’t want to think what would happen if she was alone with him.

“Doctor!” Eva looked up in time to see her parents stand up while the doctor approached.

“It’s a match!”

“Oh, Arnold!” Mom cried as she and Arnold hugged each other. “You won’t have to wait months for a new heart!”

...What.

“Let’s not waste any time. Let’s do the heart transplant now,” the doctor ordered and before Eva knew it, another doctor grabbed her arm.

“W-Wait!” Eva cried as she fought back against the tall man, her instincts telling her to run, run, RUN. “Wha-”

A slap across her face stopped Eva’s words.

“Shut up,” Delilah whispered, her eyes filled with hate. “The Genesis Flower created you to be our child, and you failed. The least you can do is to give your father your heart. He needs it, you don’t. You should be grateful that you even got to live at all.”

Time went still as Eva digested what mo...Delilah just said.

It was one thing to know, but it was another to hear it.

Time continued and Eva felt her arm get pulled. But while her brain stopped working, Eva’s body didn’t.

Eva found herself stomping the man’s foot and racing out of the room. She heard screams behind her but she didn’t stop.

Why wasn’t she enough?

Someone grabbed her. Before Eva could scream, she felt something warm cover her before she got picked up.

...Was she being hugged?

“I’m sorry,” whispered Old Jack as they walked, with him carrying her under his coat. “I created the Genesis Flower so we could live on through you, not so we could live longer because of you.”