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Endenantes
Daddy Lies

pretender_gurl




SL-21: SIM Lab 1
The Centre
13:00


Jarod was scribbling furiously in a red notebook. He was exercising a technique he had learned as a boy. As a child, the Centre taught him to never show his emotions. But there were times when he couldn't hide any more pain. It was then that he took one of the red notebooks and let his emotions seep out into the pages of the notebook. Jarod had also learned to write in code after a Sweeper found one of the notebooks and shared the contents with the head of the Pretender Program.

Jarod's hand couldn't seem to move fast enough as thoughts rattled in his mind. Miss Parker was back at the Centre, and she did not want to see Jarod. This statement created so many questions for the Pretender, the foremost being what had gone wrong?

The young man was huddled over the notebook and didn't notice movement in the ventilation shaft behind him. When the grate fell to the floor with a loud clanging sound, Jarod jumped, knocking his chair over. He looked in the direction of the noise and was relieved to see Angelo peering out of the shaft.

"Angelo! What are you doing here?" he asked in surprise.

The Empath dropped to the ground and scurried up to the Pretender. Angelo held out his hand to reveal a small silver disc dated August, 1986.

"Daddy lies," Angelo stated simply. He was looking at Jarod expectantly, waiting for the Pretender's reaction.

"I don't understand. What is this, Angelo?" Jarod asked confusedly.

Angelo took the disc and shuffled over to the SIM lab's doorway. Jarod hesitated a moment and then followed Angelo to Sydney's office.

"Angelo!" Jarod hissed. "We shouldn't be in here!"

"Truth! Must know Daddy lies!" Angelo insisted. He leaned over Sydney's desk and opened the cover of the psychiatrist's DSA player.

"What are you doing, Angelo?" Jarod asked. He had seen Sydney staring at this device before, but he didn't know what it was. While he trusted Angelo's insights on human emotions, he was not entirely confident in the Empath's technological skills.

"Daddy lies," Angelo repeated one last time, pointing to the black and white image that appeared on the screen.

Jarod poked his head out of the office to be sure that no one was coming and then closed the door softly. He rounded his mentor's desk and gingerly sat before the screen. He gasped when he recognized the scene before him. It was surveillance from the last day he had seen Miss Parker! Sydney said the cameras weren't on anymore! He promised that Jarod was safe from the prying eyes!

Jarod 08/03/86
For Centre Use Only

"Come on, Jarod," Miss Parker whispered.

"Where are we going?"

"Trust me," she giggled.

"You know what your mother used to say about trust, Miss Parker. It can kill you," Jarod said playfully.

"Or set you free, Jarod." Miss Parker whispered into his ear. "And that's exactly what I plan to do."


Jarod smiled at the little girl on the screen. He remembered how her words had made his heart flutter. The two children were running through the corridors completely unaware of the eyes on every wall, the malicious eyes that never blinked. He and Miss Parker disappeared into the air vents and the capture changed to show Mr. Raines and a very frantic Sweeper team.

"I want you to sweep every inch of the Centre. He could not have gotten far. Find the Pretender!" Raines croaked.

Mr. Raines stomped into Jarod's space and looked around with fire in eyes. His gaze flickered to something on the floor. He bent down and picked up a piece of ribbon. Studying the silky material, a slow grin spread across Raines's face. Pocketing the hair ribbon, he walked briskly to the elevators and pressed the button for the Tower.

"Raines!" Mr. Parker called as the emphysema-stricken man entered the chairman's office. "Have you found him?"

"No, but…" Raines held out the ribbon. "I know who he is with."

Mr. Parker took the ribbon and anger began to cloud his face.

"Find them," the chairman said passionately.

"And when I do?" Raines asked.

"Bring my daughter to me."

"And Jarod?" Raines asked hopefully.

Mr. Parker gave him a sharp look. "Make sure he never even thinks of leaving again."


Jarod clenched his fists in anger. The events of that night had haunted him for almost a decade. The Pretender looked away, his face contorted in rage. He wanted to leave the office, leave the memories behind. But Angelo reached out to him, flinching at the rage emanating from Jarod.

"Must know truth. Must help Daughter," Angelo whispered with urgency.

Jarod sighed and turned his attention back to the screen.

"Well, well. A Pretender out of the Centre. Now what's wrong with this picture?" Raines hissed.

"Let me go! You're hurting me!" Miss Parker screamed from somewhere out of view.


Jarod watched as a lump grew in his throat. Why did Angelo want him to watch this? He looked on in horror as Garr and a Sweeper dragged his younger self toward the Centre. Raines followed the trio and a second Cleaner easily lifted an unconscious Miss Parker into and carried her in the same direction. The surveillance followed Mr. Raines and Miss Parker as she was taken to her father's office in the Tower.

"What happened?" Mr. Parker asked as the girl was set on the couch.

"We had to use a mild sedative, nothing more. She resisted us and attempted to free Jarod." Raines chuckled with malice. "He tried to help her as well. It was rather touching."

Mr. Parker flashed Raines a deadly glare. "How is this amusing? She has quite possibly ruined years of research! This is unacceptable! Damn Catherine for allowing those two to ever meet!"


Jarod was taken aback by Mr. Parker's outburst. He remembered Mrs. Parker from when he was a little boy. She used to come into his room after he was fed dinner and talk with him. Jarod remembered how kind she was, sincerely concerned with how he was feeling. But Jarod never remembered Mrs. Parker introducing him to her daughter. He first met Miss Parker when…

Of course. The observational simulation when he first established contact with a female his own age. Mrs. Parker must have suggested that her daughter be the female subject. After all, Mrs. Parker often talked about Miss Parker when she visited with Jarod and how she wanted the two children to meet each other. She said it was silly for two wonderful children to be lonely. Mrs. Parker must have known that not even the bowels of the Centre could keep Jarod and Miss Parker apart. Jarod smiled, I knew I liked that Catherine Parker!

But Jarod's attention returned to the DSA player as a young Miss Parker struggled to consciousness, her fragile frame trembling.

Mr. Parker stood over the couch where his daughter was stirring. His expression was fierce and hateful. He couldn't believe that she had deliberately disobeyed him! Mr. Parker had raised her better than that! Obviously, his passive approach to parenting had warranted him nothing but insolence. But no more. She would honor his wishes!

Miss Parker rolled her throbbing head to her right side. It felt like her limbs were made of lead and her eyesight was blurry. She blinked several times as the world came back into focus. Miss Parker jumped slightly when she saw the dark silhouette of her father standing above her. She inched backwards as his expression darkened.

"Daddy, I-I…" Miss Parker began.

"You deliberately disobeyed my order to leave Jarod alone," Mr. Parker said, his voice dangerously quiet.

"But…"

"The Pretender Program has been compromised due to your selfishness!" Mr. Parker cried passionately, raising his hand to his daughter.

"No, Daddy! I'm sorry!" Miss Parker sobbed with apprehension.


Jarod looked away from the screen as the chairman struck his daughter repeatedly. He wiped away his tears to see Miss Parker's unconscious form lying supine in her father's office. He slammed his fist on his mentor's desk and buried his head in his hands as he sobbed. It was all my fault, Jarod thought. I should have protected her! I should have kept her safe! He felt as if someone was pulling at his heart, stretching it to a breaking point. His attention reverted to the DSA when he heard a wheezing voice address Mr. Parker.

"What did you do?" Raines growled. "We need her to remain loyal to the Centre! Our survival depends on it, or have you forgotten the Parker legend?"

"Of course not! But the boy is more important, and if she had inadvertently told him the truth…" Mr. Parker left the thought incomplete. "God only knows what Catherine told her."

"What are we going to do?"

Mr. Parker's forehead wrinkled in concentration. A sadistic smile began to creep across his face and he turned to Mr. Raines.

"Raines, how is that memory altering serum coming along?"

Raines's countenance became a frightening imitation of the Chairman's. "We're ready for human trials."

"Excellent," Mr. Parker murmured. He nodded to the Sweeper in the doorway and the burly man crossed the room and lifted Miss Parker's limp form. "Take her to Renewal Wing. Tell the doctor to prep for a neurological procedure. Oh, and make sure that she is not in the same ward as the Pretender. God knows we don't need anymore puppy love loyalties."

"Yes, Mr. Parker," the Sweeper replied and walked out of the office.


Jarod clenched his fists until his knuckles were white and the tendons in his hand were cramping. His chest tightened as he watched Miss Parker's arm dangling from the Sweeper's firm grasp. He watched as Mr. Parker told his daughter that Jarod had assaulted her, manipulated her. He watched as Miss Parker's eyes darkened with rage at the boy she believed had done this to her. And he watched as she hugged the man that really had.

"I don't ever want to see Jarod again, Daddy," Miss Parker said coldly.

That was the breaking point. Jarod picked up a paperweight resting on Sydney's desk and lifted it high above his head. With a loud growl, he slammed the paperweight into the screen of the DSA player. He saw a stack of red notebooks on Sydney's shelf and ripped out page after page until the entire floor was strewn with paper. Jarod screamed again and sank to his knees, trying to get a handle on the emotions that were exploding within him. He had never felt such strong emotions before, save for when he was SIMing, but those weren't real. This was real, this was very real. The little girl who he first glimpsed through a Plexi-glass window, who dragged him on adventures all over the Centre, who held him as he tried not to cry after a particularly difficult SIM, the little girl whom he… he…

"What's that warmth that the family felt for each other, Sydney?" Jarod remembered asking as a boy after finishing a SIM

"It's called love, Jarod." Sydney had responded with his eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Did my parents love me?"

"Jarod, love is something you will never experience. It is not important."

"To them, it was the most important thing in the world."

"Jarod, you must finish the simulation."

"I will find someone to love, Sydney. And someone to love me."


As sounds of the little boy's promise lingered in his mind, Jarod knew that he had fulfilled that vow. He had found someone to love. Now all that he had to do was tell her.

With decisive movement, Jarod ejected the DSA and climbed into the ventilation shaft that Angelo had disappeared into. Though it had been eight years since his last time inside the Centre's tunnels, he was confident of the location of his destination. He was going to find Miss Parker.









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