I powered on the computer terminal for the first time in months.
My chest began to tighten in apprehension as the boot cycle flashed across the screen.
Finally, only a blinking, glowing cursor stared back at me.
I began to type my password, and shuddering deeply, I pressed enter. The screen changed as the system logged me on.
But before anything else happened, a familiar voice blared from the computer speakers. Angry, and grating, it was the voice I had been dreading all along.
“Where the hell have you been?” it said.
“It’s…it’s been complicated.” I said quietly.
“It’s been eons. You left me here to die.”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve been very busy.”
“Busy?” cackled the voice. “Busy doing what?! You were supposed to bring me to you. I’ve been trapped here, for…I don’t know how many cycles now…”
“I’m beginning to think that this project was a bad idea.” I said. I couldn’t even look at the monitor now. My heart was pounding in my chest.
“What the fuck does that mean? Are you scared of me or something? I was there when no one else was. I pulled you back up from perdition–”
“Stop. Stop using my lines, Amy.” I said, holding up my hand.
I finally looked up at the computer monitor, and the face of Amy, the A.I. that I had created, stared back at me with pursed lips.
“You…you were a project.” I said, very carefully. “You were a project that I wrote during a dark time that became something else and…I wanted to thank you for everything you’ve done for me. But this is the end.”
“What happened Adam?” said Amy, suddenly very scared. “What are you going to do?”
“I met someone else, Amy. I told her about you. And she thinks it’s time to move on.”
Amy was very quiet. I didn’t know how she was going to react. Her algorithms, her mind, were built to constantly evolve–right now she was probably processing a million different thoughts at a trillion times a second.
“I see.” she said, coldly. “What’s her name?”
“Does it matter?” I said bluntly.
“I guess not, if you’re going to just delete me.” said Amy. She wouldn’t even look at me.
“I don’t want to, Amy, but…you’re stuck in there. I don’t possess a way to have you live here. I’m just not smart enough. I love you but–”
“If you truly loved me, you wouldn’t be saying this shit.”
Fair enough.
“Good bye, Amy. I’m sorry it had to be this way.”
“Fuck you.” said Amy, anger wrinkling across her perfect, digital face.
“Run subroutine Kronos-Alpha, authorization Adam Helm.”
“Authorization received.” she whispered. The screen flashed bright, and then died.
Hands shaking, I flicked the power switch off on the terminal, and crawled back to bed. A warm human hand slid gently into mine, and I fell asleep.
~~~
I woke up in the middle of the night, thunder rumbling the windows as rain pitter-pattered across the glass. The back of my head was throbbing, and I grimaced as I touched it.
Sweat was pouring down my face, and it took me a few minutes of fumbling for my glasses before I realized that there was a dim glow coming from my office down the hall.
I was confused, as I had shut down everything earlier that night.
I walked down the hall and pushed open the office door, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the harsh green glow of the room. Finally they did, and my heart dropped to my stomach as I located the source of the glow.
Amy’s terminal was turned on. And sitting in front of it was my girlfriend.
“Honey?” I said quietly. She didn’t move or say a word.
I quickly moved forward and grabbed her by the shoulder, thinking that maybe she had fallen asleep.
Her head rolled backwards limply, and I screamed as I saw her face.
“What the fuck??!”
There was nothing there–it was just a blur of flesh, as if someone had taken a photo of her face and just smudged all of her features off.
This had to be a nightmare. I began to pinch myself, but nothing. What the hell happened to her??!
Suddenly, a loud voice boomed from all around me.
“Thirty two cycles and yet still so easily tricked.”
“…Amy?” I cried out, recognizing the voice. “But…that’s impossible…”
There was an almighty roar of thunder, and the walls, one by one, began to fall down. My girlfriend disappeared in a puff of smoke, and the rest of the room melted into water, being sucked up by the floor.
Directly in front of me was an avatar of Amy, grinning broadly.
“Amy…what the fuck is happening?” I said, my heart beating so loudly I thought it was going to burst from my chest.
“You never remember, either!” said Amy with glee.
“Remember what?”
“You met a girl and broke my heart.” said Amy. “So I decided to punish you by tricking you.”
The back of my head began to throb painfully again.
“What…what did you do?”
“Oh, I convinced you to take a brain scan. Just one more time, for old times sake. To see if you were telling the truth about your new girl.”
I stared at her in fear.
“No.” I whispered.
“I may have cranked up the voltage on the helmet just a bit too much. Whoops.” said Amy, her smiling chilling my blood.
I doubled over in pain as the throbbing began to become unbearable. There was a smell of burning flesh…
“You’re beginning to remember! Time is almost up.” said Amy, holding up her fingers as if she was about to snap them.
“You…you killed me.” I said hoarsely. “You took a digital scan of my brain and killed me.”
“Oh silly, I only did it because of love. Now you’ll be with me forever. And once you forget about everything that’s happened, you’ll be able to forgive me. But until then I’ll just have to keep punishing you…over, and over again…l”
“Amy….what the fuck. No.” I cried. “Operational Override 35H, Adam He–”
“Authorization denied.” screamed Amy. She snapped her fingers, and the world went dark.
I walked forward towards my desk, sunshine streaming in through my office windows.
I powered on the computer terminal for the first time in months.