Artificial Mates - Chapter 13

The door wobbled in front of my eyes. My world seemed to crumble around me. Nobody ever told me the bare truth except Lyla. It hurts so damn much. That gaping hole in my chest throb and there was no cure whatsoever. Only the meds could numb the pain, reduce it to a dull sound in the background. Lyla, I miss her terribly. She promised to call me every day, but in the past year of her departure, she only called five times. Liar! They all lie, each one of them. Her last video was too short with stupid Timi cutting our conversation to steal her away. The connection cut with them giggling. The sound echoed in my head to voices mocking me. You’re stupid Liliane for clinging to her. She doesn’t give a damn about you. Just like those machines. Nobody gives a f.u.c.k about you.

“Call Lyla Carpenter,” I spoke to my bracelet. A projection of the contact interface appeared right before me. It scrolled down to her name, a loading bar moved to the left.

“Lyla Carpenter is off-world. Do you want to proceed?” asked a female robotic voice.

“Proceed.”

“Titan Message Express… Connection. It will cost three credits to forward the message. Do you want to proceed?” I shook my head one tear rolled down my cheek.

“Proceed,” my bracelet chimed the credit transferred to the company’s account.

“Please, step in front of the HoloCam* to record your message,” I got off the bed on trembling legs to my office area next to the door leading to the living room. The desk used to be crowded with books and clothes piled on top. Books with all types of objects serving as bookmarks. Old bills, price tags, socks, pens. Now they were neatly stacked next to my screen. It’s been months since I’ve switched it on. The pens had found a proper holder, the dust gone. The small smiling cat figure I thought was lost sat next to a new block note. I chuckled, more tears streamed down my cheeks.

“Please, switch on the HoloCam to record your message,” insisted the female voice. I sighed and pressed the button on the screen. It hissed a tiny green light flipped on.

“Detecting HoloCam. Initializing 15%….” I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, grabbed a couple of napkins from a nearby box to blow my nose.

“Stand by,” the light flashed twice the screen turned on. Holocaust red and blue logo danced over it, then it morphed into my miserable face. “Recording,” she announced. I straightened up and brushed my hair away.

“Hi Lyla,” I smiled and failed. “How are you doing? Me, not so good. It’s been a while. Haven’t heard from you for three whole months. I miss you,” my vision got blurry and my chin quivered. I shook my head, trying to gain control over my raging emotions. With a deep breath, I continued. “I have a big surprise to announce… I got myself a companion from the company Sognare. Timi recommended it to me. I placed the order the week after you moved away. I was kind of… in a bad place,” I paused to swallow the lump in my throat. “You didn’t call at all I was desperate. So, I ordered one,” I smiled as my tears poured down my face. “I didn’t know it would take this long to make them. I sort of… forgot about it,” I wiped my tears. “They arrived a couple of days ago. And yes… you heard it right. They like two of them. Now I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do? We are not getting along… I’m not getting along with them,” I corrected. “The worst… there’s more, there’s a big chance I might get fired from my job…” the light from the screen flashed cutting me in mid-sentence.

“Message registered. Do you want to send now or delete the message?” I had so much more to tell Lyla. However, I didn’t have the strength to repeat my sad tale.

“Send message,” the video squeezed in a letter icon, which jumped on the screen before disappearing. “Thank you for using Titan Message Express. It will take forty-eight hours for the mail to reach the recipient. Have a good day,” the voice faded and the device switched off. I leaned back in the chair with a heavy sigh. Dawn pressed against the window. The whole building was silent.

“What were you expecting? You ordered a mate! So why are you like… I can’t do that… It’s weird! Liliane, we are already here. Deal with it,” Demos’ words crawled back from the dark corners of my mind to haunt me. My stomach crunched with anxiety. I did it again. I’ve hurt him. What was I expecting? It was a good question, yet I didn’t have an answer. I got to my feet and went to the living room.

“Lights”

My eyes roamed over the kitchen area to settle on the pods. Grant was still sleeping peacefully and Demos’ pod was empty. I dashed there for confirmation. I pulled the lid and placed my hand on the soft cushion just to make sure my eyes weren’t betraying me. He was gone. I sprung around frenetically searching around the apartment.

“Demos?” I called. He didn’t reply. “Gone!” I choked on the word. It sounded so wrong.

“Connect to EWink!” I snapped at my bracelet. The interface materialized before me.

Liliane: Where are you?

[User: Demons offline]

[User: Grant offline]

I gasped at the projection.

“Jil! Please locate Demos!” I shouted on the verge of tears.

“Calm down, Demos is in the main hall,” replied Jill.

“What? Hold on I’m coming,” I dashed out and pressed the elevator button repeatedly. When I door opened Jil’s hologram stood with arms crossed over her chest. I paused pressing my lips together before getting in.

“I don’t think he wants to see you right now?” I gave her a peek over the shoulder but decide to ignore her. It was none of her business anyway. The door chimed when we reached the hall. I walked out and halted as Jil’s image appeared by the door.

“Liliane Kerry you should treat your mate better than that,” she commented. I pressed on and went through her hologram.

“Where is he?” I called loud enough that it echoed in the large empty space.

“Mates are not like cyborgs. They accompany humans through their lives and love them as a real human would. However, their feelings will never alter. They will always feel the same amount of love for you even when you’re old and falling apart. They will watch you die and will grieve. Then the company will call them back for termination. Human emotion fluctuates, they fall out of love, and hate,” her words make me slowed down. I sprung around to find her flat image shaking her head at me in dismay.

“What would you know? You just an AI,” I shouted digging my nails into my palms.

“That’s enough, Liliane,” said Demos. His voice came from across the room. “You’re angry. No need to take it out on her,” Jil folded her arms over her chest, her image breaking around the edges. Demos reduced the distance between us in a couple of steps.

“Let’s go,” he said as he reached my level, then he went to the elevator. I followed him in silence. He nodded at Jil when the door closed. The trip back to the apartment was in awkward silence. He went directly into his pod leaving me alone.

I tried to sleep, but it was no use. I took a shower and pulled a book from my virtual library. At the end of the first page, I couldn’t concentrate on the words. It was now 7:03 am. I should get ready to go to work, and then I remembered Mr. Ramdin told me to take my day. With a motion of the hand the screen before closed, I let out a sigh. What could I do with so much free time on my hand? An activity that didn’t involve draining my already low finance. A light knock on my door made me flinch.

“Good morning, Liliane,” said Grant in a happy tone. He pulled the door a crack and peeked in. When he spotted me sitting on the bed, he pushed the door wide open. “Hey! Why are you still sitting here? What about work?” he frowned at me. “I was out cold yesterday… literally,” he laughed. I stared at him with wide eyes. “I mean, what happened? I just saw your message on Ewink. Did something happen to Demos? I couldn’t sync with him,” I shook my head.

“It’s just a misunderstanding, nothing to worry about. Also, I took an off today,” I dropped my eyes to my lap. That wasn’t a total lie.

“Awesome! Can we go out and visit around. We can spend the day out. I could prepare a basket we can go have a picnic. That would be cool, right?” he came closer to the bed with puppy eyes.

“I don’t know,” I hesitated. It was already weird with Demos now if we have to spend more time together it will become painful. But I couldn’t ignore the issue.

“Please! Please, pretty please,” he knelt by the bed with his hands joint. Where had he learned that?

“If Demos said no, then I can’t do anything,” I pulled my cover and retrieved my book pretending I was reading.

“Ok, and what do you want for breakfast?” he jumped to his feet with a smile.

“Tea,”

“Only tea?” I sounded disappointed.

“I ate too much last time I had nightmares,” I added in a dry tone.

“Then only tea. I’ll be right back,” he went away, leaving the door open. I crawled on the bed and peered through the opening to see if Demos was awake. I could only see part of the kitchen, Grant was humming as he got the kettle ready. No Demos so far. I sunk back on the bed. Why did I care?

“Mates are not like cyborgs… they love as a real human would,” the words of Jil rang in my head. Demos was furious he wanted to hit me. That’s not loving at all. Grant came back all jolly with a steaming mug.

“Here’s the tea for my princess,” he knelt by the bed in an overdramatic gesture. I laughed at him. I took the mug and placed it on the nightstand.

“I really enjoyed last night,” he sunk in the bed next to me. “I hope you can have more of those,” he peeked at me. “Is the invitation to your bed still open?” my head sprung in his direction. His smile widened when he saw me blush. I got off preventing to search for something at my desk.

“Is Demos awake?” I asked to change the subject. I scolded myself for choosing the subject I didn’t want to address.

“Yes. He said he’s ok with a picnic,” I turned around and bumped into the chair knocking half the books off the table. They fall to the floor in disarray.

“H-he did?” Grant narrowed his eyes at me. Then shifted them to the door. I followed his gaze and found Demos annoyed face stared back at me.

“I heard a noise,” he simply stated. His copper eyes fell on the mess I made. “It’s just clumsy Liliane,” he turned and walked away. I sunk to my knees and picked up the books. His words cut like blades.

“Liliane? What happened between you two?” asked Grant as he joined me to help with the books. I avoid eye contact.

“Just a misunderstanding,” I added a little too quickly. My hand shook when I put the books on the table.

“I’ll go prepare sandwiches,” he left and closed the door. I didn’t like this tension between Demos and me. I didn’t know how to fix it. That picnic was a bad idea; however, I needed fresh air. I grabbed the tea, sipped it on the way to my closet and chose a light flower dress, a hat with cute sandals. If I’m with them, there’s no way bad things will happen. The image of the disgusting Jay guy flashed in my head. I rolled the dress in a ball and threw it back in the closet. With a sigh, I went for a pair of black shorts and a gray top. I kept the cute sandals.

At 9 am, I got out of my room fully dressed. Demos had occupied the dark couch; he lounged while watching my every move. It was troubling; his eyes seemed to punch holes into my skin. I quickly joined Grant in the kitchen. He placed the sandwiched in the lunch bag he had previously used.

“Hey!” I called. He looked up with sparkling eyes.

“Hey, I’m almost done,” he announced. “You look good in this outfit,” he leaned closer. I moved against him. He tilted his head to look at me. Then wrapped his arms around my waist.

“Thanks…” I placed my head on his shoulder, “Thanks for fixing my messy room, thanks for feeding me healthy food, thanks for the smiles,” he chuckled his hand rubbed my back.

“You’re welcome princess,” he whispered against my ear. He turned and pulled the fridge door, grabbed a juice bottle. It took every bit of energy not to look over at Demos. “All ready!” he waved the bottle at me. A knock on the front door caught our attention. I peered at my bracelet.

“Front door camera,” a forty-year-old man dressed in a three-piece suit held his badge at the camera. It reads, Benedict Dims – Evaluator.

“SolTech, send me,” the building security green light his ID. My smile faded.

HoloCam* holographic camera