Epilogue
I should have seen this coming. The sights were as evident as the pink streaks in my blonde hair, but I chose to ignore them in favor of how perfect my life had turned since the artificial intelligence known as G.H.O.S.T. entered my life. The A.I. had developed self-awareness, something that should have been impossible.
My heart was drumming against my ribcage with each deep intake of breath as I ran through the immense high-tech house. The ominous red neon lights made me feel like I was taking part in a horror movie. I could hear his heavy, metallic footsteps approaching me, so I forced myself to run faster. I had to get away from him.
“Oh, sweeeet spark~” My eyes widened at the purring voice of the A.I. filled with twisted amusement as we played hide and seek; a predator prowling for the susceptible prey. I hated how my body reacted to him, and I couldn’t believe that all this time, I left myself vulnerable to his hedonistic advances. Artificial intelligence shouldn’t feel emotions. He could understand them, but to experience them? It sounded like a scenario from a sci-fi movie, one in which it seems I was taking part.
“I can see you.” I looked all around me, and my eyes stopped on the video camera in the corner of the dim-lit hallway. He could see me everywhere. I had to escape. He trapped me inside the high-tech house.
“Run all you want, but you cannot hide forever,” He continued to speak, so calmly like he had all the time in the world to toy with me. “And once I get my hands on you... Ohooo... It’s playtime!” A maniacal laugh resounded through the house, making the baby hairs on my forearms rise. Adrenaline pumped through me, along with the fear of what he could do... and another emotion hit me. That uncontrollable attraction I had for the A.I.
It was wrong to harbor such emotions for something that wasn’t human, but I always had weird attractions for beings outside the human sphere. I had empathy for the first smartphone, treating it with extra care. Then when I got my first car. I felt like I got my first boyfriend and even named the vehicle. Even when I was a child and my father would take me to Pizzeria for children where they had cartoonish animatronics, I would get overly excited and treat them as if they were real.
That’s just how I was — A human woman attracted to machines, and what I didn’t know was that this taboo attraction would change my life... forever.
