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. 665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzeYVW0YE88
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv3rUVrGA5Y
Yes. This is me. Lying here, listening to him watch me.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡV9Vp3hPBCw
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡi1eDq04WpX
I’m here. 665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyfRvOiLOxI
But not really.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡg6wdOEgZae
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡh34nC310Gb
But I could not move. I could not let him know. Let anyone know.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRFYH2LgYji
I’m here. 665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuRSJ98ZAbt
Yet somehow I knew he knew. He could see me. He pulled the chair closer to me, resting his head beside my still form.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDYN6KdpLn2
A touching situation, a desperate hope, unspoken questioned fears.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtAHC5xhwTA
How did we end here? How could I feel his hair brush against my fingers and remain motionless?665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡin1WgdAEDK
One day my body just… stopped. A clock that stopped ticking. My heart still beat, my lungs still responded. My body swallowed.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPDwvHhz9Ig
Then why did I stop? Why did my arms stop moving? Why did my eyelids slam shut?665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcyYb7kU63z
Because I don’t belong here.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfwM9jQPnaD
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQGDSFe6KZv
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. 665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR9IdpbBw4x
But I belonged with him.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRNHZFxsIbR
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiJtUfo3QM9
Do I regret it?665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3PzU5Gfeqd
Not for a moment. But maybe I should.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqRDcjh3DF0
“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?”665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ085H1sjTPZ
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. 665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXFdrZvRnN
“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…”665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE2REClK5ti
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJ1Ix3C8MlV
But then.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡskPWpUI2Mg
A finger moved. My ring finger gracefully bent at the knuckle as though bowing to an assembly.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5dU9MJ7gS3
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtdDjktADU3
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.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxcm3erQPGL
The captain smiled as he padded into the room, his pony tail held back with a single blood red ribbon.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBttA8xxW49
“You can’t have her!” My visitor growled, hand out over my frozen body.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLAQiOoxi50
The captain’s smile deepened, his face the likeness of a Greek god sneering down to the earthlings below him.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5myMfe32fD
“Human, we were not sent for her.”665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9k8XOCk0qc
My visitor lifted his chin, his eyes burning, "I know what she is, but-but I don't care."665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBY9s2Qeprf
The captain raised his hand and he smiled cheerfully. My insides screamed, no programing could stop the hot tears sliding peacefully down my cheeks.665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ10u8n3q6dg
As I watched my visitor fall. 665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdpPQiusW7E
665Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡG0x0o7Erlp
