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. 634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJOTEUJLQVv
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg3dxgXU59N
Yes. This is me. Lying here, listening to him watch me.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCYS90taNz
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡikxITeld9h
I’m here. 634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNHu7uU6t8b
But not really.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgz8IJnVDst
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ77538NOmvP
But I could not move. I could not let him know. Let anyone know.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0oRAQ8jTJX
I’m here. 634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6imvMwvc7K
Yet somehow I knew he knew. He could see me. He pulled the chair closer to me, resting his head beside my still form.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ42cXULxVVn
A touching situation, a desperate hope, unspoken questioned fears.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ3kTMQFir3
How did we end here? How could I feel his hair brush against my fingers and remain motionless?634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2isJH2tyh2
One day my body just… stopped. A clock that stopped ticking. My heart still beat, my lungs still responded. My body swallowed.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrkmHA82Ykr
Then why did I stop? Why did my arms stop moving? Why did my eyelids slam shut?634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2Yzm891S9N
Because I don’t belong here.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCHLTr3mCrq
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAoRb5LiKZ6
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. 634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz39DxsCW4z
But I belonged with him.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAINb2rViBx
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVEAhpRD5oB
Do I regret it?634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkihVETnVWa
Not for a moment. But maybe I should.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6smTClOaU7
“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?”634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ52Dia0avuC
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. 634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgbTSC83mwW
“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…”634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5ZHUVyekTM
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ79eKzFhzjp
But then.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxa0SwnFrgT
A finger moved. My ring finger gracefully bent at the knuckle as though bowing to an assembly.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1ytML6E6AV
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC4eTEsOk0h
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.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtm5NR0zC87
The captain smiled as he padded into the room, his pony tail held back with a single blood red ribbon.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBQHwooq6em
“You can’t have her!” My visitor growled, hand out over my frozen body.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU8bGBna8Xs
The captain’s smile deepened, his face the likeness of a Greek god sneering down to the earthlings below him.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡESwwr5uPXL
“Human, we were not sent for her.”634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXcdFFJfnSP
My visitor lifted his chin, his eyes burning, "I know what she is, but-but I don't care."634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPUIaOFaonk
The captain raised his hand and he smiled cheerfully. My insides screamed, no programing could stop the hot tears sliding peacefully down my cheeks.634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHU0q4nmj0w
As I watched my visitor fall. 634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxLUy9QRv49
634Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3UsMNSWiBj
