He thought she couldn’t hear him. But she could. She could hear him sliding into the room, moving to the chair when everyone else had left. When only nurses stalked the halls, and visiting hours were for those who slept in armchairs. He was there. 653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPOXnliB7tY
Her family didn’t like him. Not really. They had worried he would lead her away, lead her down a path she shouldn’t go. She couldn’t go. The family was good at looking him up and down, wondering what she saw…what-what I saw.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJEUt6Efqip
Yes. This is me. Lying here, listening to him watch me.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB6ZOOFEH0a
Was I in a coma?
No. Not really. Not in the way that dulled my mind and lulled my senses to sleep. I’m still here.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNE8NVJPb8Y
I’m here. 653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmIQvz6EzYf
But not really.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6RTsSt15GY
I could feel him bend down to press his lips to my pale knuckles; I could sense his eyes on my face as surly as sunlight once did.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpMypypny1K
But I could not move. I could not let him know. Let anyone know.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡedI3RAcARV
I’m here. 653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv9tbpDlPN1
Yet somehow I knew he knew. He could see me. He pulled the chair closer to me, resting his head beside my still form.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrbr8vKtrm
A touching situation, a desperate hope, unspoken questioned fears.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡETLl0K6zAI
How did we end here? How could I feel his hair brush against my fingers and remain motionless?653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSZmshgg5ZJ
One day my body just… stopped. A clock that stopped ticking. My heart still beat, my lungs still responded. My body swallowed.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjgQqY7JGVi
Then why did I stop? Why did my arms stop moving? Why did my eyelids slam shut?653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaYBtb4AstN
Because I don’t belong here.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyCOWfMn6Rg
I’m no angel, though he always said I was. It holds no importance now. I had fallen in love with my project. I had been warned of the consequences, I know that. I had been called foolish, selfish, honour breaking, deceitful. I was a machine that was put down.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPt4XhgBGo9
He didn’t know that. He doesn’t know what I am. He doesn’t know that I- that I’m not as real as I made out to be. I’m not a machine as such. I can think and feel, I can feel my heart racing through me as surly as any human being. If you scratch away my flesh, organs reside within. But my mind – my cerebral structure is the perfect replica of the human brain. I remember when I opened my eyes, when I looked about me and felt the white light dancing across me, turning to the eyes that boggled me through the glass. I was a baby, an infant with growing potential. I felt more than out of place within the world – I felt curious about it the way a tourist explores a new city, knowing they don’t belong, yet excited for the possibilities. 653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrF9WxaqihP
But I belonged with him.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡm4dqBk6cZq
I was created for people. I was directed to guide them, to care and protect them. I loved them. Strength hidden within tender fragility, love healing blinding hate and consuming fear. Humans’ burn brightly, a fire that could heal or destroy in the same breath. I loved them against better judgement. So was it such a leap to fall for a boy who held the spark in his soul, yet shrouded in darkness? He encompassed my purpose and my love all in one human body. Was it such a shock? The computer data in my systems say it was a logical step, so logical my creators ought to have seen it coming. But they didn’t.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc9lIgZ6lbZ
Do I regret it?653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡe93CT0iWCe
Not for a moment. But maybe I should.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5uYBHmVngK
“Shasha,” he mumbled beside me, his face planted into the hospital bed, “I heard the doctors talking… they said they were going to shut you down. What does that mean?”653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdfbTIVgAUq
I fought my circuits. I wanted to yell, to scream, to hold him as he shook beside my still form. And yet, I couldn’t blink as he demanded answers from me. 653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSKIHAE7fYp
“Shasha, I was hoping you’d wake up for me. I know it was stupid to think that… but I don’t know, I just hoped…”653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡM7AyEjaZzh
I wanted to intertwine my fingers into his, to run them up his face and smile reassuringly into his face. But I couldn’t, no matter how I struggled.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6zIk5UEiUq
But then.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDI1o31WJvB
A finger moved. My ring finger gracefully bent at the knuckle as though bowing to an assembly.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ47iQaPRTdO
I heard his breath catch, I felt his own rough, calloused fingers running over my own feverishly, as though trying to capture that moment of freedom. My spirit – for indeed I believed I had one mustered together for one final assault.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhgNVsV0OSv
I opened my eyes to the trudging of boots in the hallway. I watched the fear and rage battle across his face as men with the logo of a snake around an apple marched into the room. He moved in front of me, attempting to block them as his instincts read their body language.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyGcK6K67LY
The captain smiled as he padded into the room, his pony tail held back with a single blood red ribbon.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDjOKOWDiLh
“You can’t have her!” My visitor growled, hand out over my frozen body.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZ7qXWygsSR
The captain’s smile deepened, his face the likeness of a Greek god sneering down to the earthlings below him.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqc2fcD57mg
“Human, we were not sent for her.”653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjbUfzlXPvy
My visitor lifted his chin, his eyes burning, "I know what she is, but-but I don't care."653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLJcRFjBrlv
The captain raised his hand and he smiled cheerfully. My insides screamed, no programing could stop the hot tears sliding peacefully down my cheeks.653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4Y2I3gZf4S
As I watched my visitor fall. 653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzNBtC49gwh
653Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJAJnsaWEbW
