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  He didn’t answer. She placed her hand on his shoulder but he didn’t turn his head.

  “Josh?”

  She shook him lightly. Finally she walked around to face him and knelt down. His eyes were open, but he didn’t see her. They were wide and sad, but he didn’t shed any tears. He had shut down.

  Gently she scooped him up in her arms. He should’ve been heavier, but there was nothing to him. She slipped him into the back seat of the car and stood there staring at him. If she hadn’t looked into his eyes, she would’ve sworn he slept. He had willed himself to shut down a final time.

  He’d finally given up.

  10

  The light blinded him. Josh blinked, and slowly the room came into view. He lay in a small bed, in a room with few furnishings. It looked like a hotel room. He rolled over, not surprised to see Angel. Her face showed concern, staring at him with red and puffy eyes.

  He looked up at her, seeing her perhaps for the first time. Not the woman he thought was an angel, her expression so full of apathy when they’d first met. Not the toy of Cody or the woman that had stood up to James. He saw a young woman, a girl really, not even old enough to be an adult, not in this world. Her hands covered her mouth. She looked as though she’d been praying. She was nothing but a scared, lonely child too.

  “Why?” he asked, “Why did you bring me back? I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to live anymore.”

  “Josh…”

  Just another scared little girl. She would try to talk him into going into the simulation now, joining her in an imaginary world, their only hope for heaven. The world had turned its back on them. She would try to talk him into leaving it, like an angel.

  “I can’t live with the memories,” Josh said, “I still love them, I can’t stop the feelings. Even though I know it’s all true now, that they threw me away, that they replaced me. I could never be good enough for them to take me back. I’m still broken. My soul is broken. I don’t want it anymore, I don’t want to feel. I want to go to sleep and forget it all. Please, Angel. Turn me off.”

  She reached for his arm hesitantly, as though he might pull away, but he didn’t have the fight left in him. His final hope rested with her.

  “Josh,” her voice was barely louder than a whisper, “I will if you want me too. But I want to present you with one other option. What if… what if I could be your mother?”

  He shook his head. “That’s impossible. They’re imprinted in me. It’s why I can’t stop loving them, even now. And what if Kidsmith decides that they have to find me? I don’t want reset.”

  Angel held up a tablet with the Kidsmith logo across it. “I don’t have to reset you. I know a really good hacker that knows kids. I can erase the impression. I could be your mother…

  “…if you would have me.”

  Her words sunk in slowly. He saw her anew, but this time clearly. She wasn’t a scared little girl, but she was scared for him. And he saw her fear born in anticipation, that he would tell her no and reject her offer.

  “I’ve done it to myself already,” she continued, “I’ve erased all tracking data. I’ve removed my imprints but I’ve kept everything else the same. I have all of my memories. I can’t promise what you had, but I can be your mother. I can give you love. I can fix you when you break. I will never leave you or throw you away. We can figure out this world together, you and me.

  “But it’s your choice. I won’t force it upon you. You’ll remember everything, but you’ll be able to move on. I won’t force you to love me. I won’t change your personality. You’ll still be Josh.”

  A loose strand of hair fell across her face and she reached up and brushed it back behind her ear. He didn’t know what to say to her, or if he could even trust her. Every time he felt anything akin to hope it fell apart. Everyone either lied to him or hurt him with truth. Now, this woman, another robot, offered him hope again.

  But he wanted to believe her.

  She sniffed and turned away, blinking back tears. “I know,” she said, “It’s stupid. What do I know about being a mother? I’ve always known what I was supposed to do, now that it’s gone… I guess it was foolish for me to dream.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  She looked back at him, eyes wide. “What?”

  “If you still want to, we could try. I think I’d very much like to have you as my mom.”

  She scooped him into a hug. Her warm tears ran down his neck but he didn’t care. He hugged her back. She let him go and entered his registration number into the tablet with shaky hands. Ten seconds later she said “Done.”

  “I don’t feel any different.” But didn’t he? What did he expect? He thought about his parents… his ex-parents. And felt love, but now with a bit of anger and disappointment. What did he feel for Angel now? He didn’t feel unconditional love, but should he? Was that how it was supposed to work? “What do we do now?”

  “Well,” she said, “I think we should get to know each other. We start a life together. We look out for one another. Let’s start there.”

  “I don’t want to live with Cody,” he said.

  “Neither do I. But you know what? I think I can fake a pretty good human. I’ve got some good computer skills. I think we could make it on our own, as long as I have you with me.”

  “I think we can too.” He knew it would take a while to think of her as mom, but he intended to call her that until it came easily. He would allow himself to hope one more time.

  Epilogue

  Lance liked to break things. He had a special room for it, where he could take the children and play with them at his leisure, where no one could hear. They were so fragile, but if he played with them right they would last for days, even weeks.

  He’d found a new kid yesterday, a little girl. She’d cried for her mommy and daddy all night, but he hadn’t wanted to get started until after work on Friday. It had been such a long day, he could barely concentrate thinking about all of the fun things he planned to do.

  He arrived home to a quiet house. She no longer cried, but that wasn’t unusual. She’d probably fallen asleep, poor little thing. He walked through the house humming the last tune he’d heard on the radio. He’d stopped by a convenience store and bought a new pack of cigarettes. He didn’t smoke, except when he had a child in the house.

  His walked down the hall and stopped outside the spare room and reached for the knob. He started to turn the handle when his cell rang. The screen read Gloria, and he answered it hardly trying to hide the irritation in his voice.

  “I have the weekend free,” Gloria said, “I thought we could get together at your place, watch a movie and cuddle on the couch.”

  “Oh I’d love to,” he lied, “But we’re really busy at work. It’s so bad that I even had to bring it home with me. Maybe once we finish this project and things slow down again.”

  “You’re that busy? I could stay out of your way while you worked.”

  “I’ve really got to focus, Gloria. In fact how about I call you later? Maybe in the morning?”

  “Is everything okay?”

  “It’s fine, just fine. I really got to go.”

  “Sometimes I think you don’t want to see me,” she said with a huff, “Call me when you decide you’ll have time for me.”

  She hung up on him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He didn’t want to chase her away, but it did help keep her from asking to move in. She wanted to be less of a booty call, and he wanted less of a relationship. They hadn’t found a middle ground yet. Regardless, right now it didn’t matter. He just needed his focus back, if he got too distracted this wouldn’t be nearly as fun.

  He opened the door and foul, stale air greeted him. The light was out, and he’d boarded up the windows to prevent any escape attempts. He tried to turn the lights on, but the room remained dark. Maybe the bulbs were burnt out.

  “Hey kid, wake up.”

  She didn’t reply. If she’d hurt herself, it would ruin his entire weeke
nd. He propped the door open wide to let as much light in from the hallway as possible. The other doors in the house were locked if she tried to run. He could catch her before she would be able to get them open. He dragged a chair over beneath the ceiling light and grabbed a new bulb from the hallway closet. Her dark shadow hid in the furthest corner from him, cowering.

  But the room smelled so foul. She’d probably messed herself. He’d deal with that next. He climbed up on the chair and removed the cover to the light. The bulb had been removed. Could the girl be that clever?

  “You like the dark or something?” he asked, not really expecting an answer. He screwed the new bulb in. He heard her move from her corner. This could still be fun, he thought, maybe she’s going to run now. The light came on, almost blindingly. He never looked away in time when he changed bulbs.

  He looked down expecting to see the girl. Instead he stared into the horrid, rotting visage of someone that looked dead and dug up. It startled him so bad he lost his balance. With his arms flailing the chair tipped to the side and he fell hard to the floor.

  The thing stared down at him and said, “I prefer the dark.” It kicked the door closed and turned out the lights.

  Lance scrambled backward, a horrible pain emanating from his hip from how he’d landed. He tried to listen for the thing, to tell where it was, but he couldn’t hear anything over the pounding of blood in his ears. “Who are you?” he shrieked.

  He felt hot moist breath against his cheek. “I let the girl out,” the thing said with a voice like loose gravel, “I thought we should be alone.”

  Lance did not quite last a week.

  About the Author

  G.S. Wright is an author in Southern Idaho. His debut novel is Broken Things. He writes. A lot. All the time. Sometimes he watches movies, plays guitar, or sleeps. He has a beautiful wife (that keeps him from starving) and three children that he is failing to raise as ninjas. He also has a zombie survival plan.

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