With the release of Deprogrammed right around the corner, I've collected all of the [unedited] teasers that I've revealed so far and put them all on one page.
If you have yet to read both Program 13 and Allegiance, you should stop reading. Right now. (Seriously, these teasers will spoil a lot of both stories.)
If you've read both stories, feel free to continue reading.
I should probably mention that the teasers are very random, so they tend to jump around. Some are from Alexis' point of view, others are from Emile's.
1) “I’m not supposed to trust you.” Thirteen strummed her fingers along
the tabletop. “You’re dangerous, a threat to my well being.”
“Where did you hear that?”
She looked at me dumbfounded. She lifted her finger to her head and pressed it ever so gently against her temple. “From here.”
Great, now he was feeding her warnings about me. Exactly what I needed.
I let out a soft sigh. “You can’t believe everything your data streams
tell you, Thirteen. Sometimes the truth is buried beneath the lies,
hopefully you’ll be able to see that.”
2) Prologue
Emile
I focused on the sound of the light buzzing noise that came from the
sides of the Pod, my only indicator that the mist was still activated.
It had been weeks – possibly even longer – since my eyes had opened.
McVeigh had succeeded in restoring Program Thirteen, but he had failed in ridding her system of me.
I had expected her to fight me off, but from what I was able to gather,
Thirteen had not remembered me, the only positive to come from the
deprogramming. I was nothing more than a ghost file living on her
program now.
As long as I remained undetected, I stood a chance at saving both my family and Colton.
But I knew it was only so long before they located my file.
And when they did? I would be a goner.
I just had to hope that I had time and that it would be enough.
Footsteps sounded from outside the room. It had been hours since anyone
had entered. The White Coats came by regularly to perform evaluations on
Thirteen’s program, forcing me awake.
My body lay motionless as they connected the wires and upped the mist in
the Pod, all while I did my best to hide my memories; there were a few
times I had come close to exposing myself, times when spikes in
Thirteen's readings made the White Coats question if her system was
operating per usual. Thankfully, I had gotten better at controlling
myself.
I couldn’t risk another spike. Although we were two separate beings, we
inhabited one body. She was programmed to act a certain way while I was
still able to think of my own freewill. Our minds were still very much
connected, although my ability to control my body had diminished
significantly since the hard drive swap.
It felt as though I had been trapped inside of a coffin, able to hear, to feel, to think, but unable to reveal my identity.
3) “Her eyes, they don’t look right.” A small woman, wearing a rather
large white coat, moved towards the back wall, her hands crossed over
her chest.
I could register her fear. I could hear the rapid pace at which her
heart had been beating. I could see each bead of sweat as it traveled
down her face.
“You’re afraid.” My voice was no longer my own. It was cold, distant –
void of any emotion… very robotic. I moved closer towards her. With each
step came a loud bang as the weight of my body pressed down against the
tile flooring. “Why is that?”
4) "I was drowning in darkness, being pulled under by an all controlling
force – McVeigh. This was what he had wanted, and he was getting it,
once and for all.
The buzzing noise grew louder as the electricity traveled upwards,
flowing throughout every inch of my body. Don’t forget, I told myself,
you can’t ever forget.
But my words were useless."
5) I was awake, for what felt like the first time in my life.
My sight, my senses had all been enhanced.
We – Thirteen and I – had been enhanced.
I should have been erased. The attempted rewrite on her program was
evidence of that. But I hadn’t been. I was still here, still present,
still alive. And now I understood what I had to do.
“Thirteen,” McVeigh stepped forward, his hand extended out for me to grab a hold of. “Are you ready?”
It was a simple question, one that couldn’t be answered easily.
The part of me that was Thirteen? She was ready. She had been programmed to be ready.
I couldn’t say the same for me.
I had been human. I was built to experience life, to grow, to know what
it was to love, to leave an impact behind after my time had come to an
end. That was how my life should have played out.
But that life no longer belonged to whom – or what – I had become.
There was no end to this life, only if I exposed myself, and I couldn’t afford to do that.
I needed to end this, to save those that I loved before they were sentenced to lives as mindless Programs.
Flashes of data that had been implemented on Thirteen’s hard-drive
during her most recent evaluation filled my mind. Every stream of
information held a secret that I wasn’t meant to see but that McVeigh
knew I would see.
Perhaps it was foolish of me to believe that he would have assumed that
I’d been erased, after all, he was always one step ahead of me. But if
he knew I was in here, why had he allowed me to remain alive? Why hadn’t
Thirteen been deactivated? Because McVeigh needed me just as much as he
needed her.
“I will ask you again, Thirteen. Are you ready?” McVeigh grew steadily frustrated.
“Yes.” The word left my mouth without any effort on my behalf.
She was stronger than me, just as she had been before, but this time was different.
She’d been reprogrammed. She knew how to protect herself from intruders – from me.
That was the worst part of it all.
I was an outsider inside my own body.
“Emile?” Hayden sounded desperate; as if he needed to know that I was still here – alive underneath it all, underneath Thirteen.
But I couldn’t answer him.
Her Program blocked me, preventing me from saying a word.
I’d never felt so strong, and yet so weak all at once.
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