Page 39 - The Muse 2021

Melissa’s fist raised and connected with the android’s face, punching it square in the face. The android stumbled back from the force of the impact.
And at that moment, she remembered the interview with Mark Zahk. With those thoughts in mind, she realized something... different in the android’s gaze. She remembered hearing how this new model could adapt, change, learn. It just needed to be taught―
Her android copy suddenly punched back, hitting her nose with the same amount of force.
***
Things got worse before they got better... Actually, they didn't get any better.
Sitting on her raggedy couch two months after the Sim “incident,” Melissa had time alone to reflect.
Melissa pressed on the crook of her nose, still bent at an unnatural angle from being punched. But that didn't matter. What mattered was that she was living with a possibly psychotic robot version of herself. What mattered was that Mr. Sims was dead. The android had “taken care of him.”
She couldn't help but to feel a slight feeling of relief from Mr. Sim’s death, but it isn't something she would ever admit out loud.
Yet the android copy, her other self, had absolutely no filter and showed the much darker parts of Melissa’s personality. The ones she tried so desperately to hide.
And that terrified her.
She couldn’t be reckless, she needed to formulate a plan if she wanted to eliminate the android. Maybe she could tell the android that she had important business plans to negotiate and lure her to a secluded building. Melissa would be waiting with a weapon, possibly a bomb, and could escape unscathed through a window while the android blows up into tiny bits. Yes, that would work.
***
Melissa ploddingly climbed the stairs of the isolated building, the floorboards creaking under her weight. The
grenade felt cold and heavy in her hand, a reminder of what was yet to come.
When she got on the second floor, she surveyed the area and replayed the plan in her mind. The room’s floor was
covered by a dusty grey carpet, worn out with age. Adjacent to the window on the right side of the wall was a series of multiple bookshelves, one behind the other. The old books were decorated with cobwebs and a thick layer of dust. She walked over to the window and opened it, so she could make a quick escape when the bomb detonates.
Satisfied with her work, she leaned against the wall closest to the bookshelves, waiting for her unsuspecting “guest” to arrive.
It only took mere minutes for Melissa to hear the familiar sound of creaking floorboards, indicating the android’s arrival. The woman stepped inside the room and Melissa looked into the android’s familiar face, which still looked identical to her own in the most unsettling way possible.
The android looked back at her for a moment, before her gaze fell to the object in Melissa’s hand. An expression of realization dawned on her face. “Are we going to discuss the business’s finance plans,” the android said with an incredulous tone, “or do you have a different plan in mind?”
“I―”
Before she could speak, the android was running past her, going to the end of the aisle of heavy bookshelves. Melissa was fast, but her copy was faster. In that moment, the android gave the bookshelf a hard shove, toppling it over to the next row. The whole aisle of bookshelves fell one after the other, in a domino effect. One crash after another shook the entire room. The thick layer of dust, which now became a suffocating cloud in the air, made it almost impossible to see. When everything finally became still, Melissa somehow found herself crushed underneath the fallen bookshelves, the dust making her eyes water. The grenade had slipped from her hand, and was now in the possession of the android, who stood a few feet away from the mess of books and splintered wood.
While tossing the grenade nonchalantly from one hand to the other, the android said, “Well isn't this sad? I hate that it had to come to this. I'm simply trying to save myself, and so are you. We both know that there can only be one ‘Melissa.’ Two is far too many.”
The android turned around and walked towards the open window, explosive still in hand. “Here, let me give you a parting gift,” she said while pulling the pin of the grenade and rolling it back to where Melissa was trapped.
Melissa tugged and tugged, struggling to lift the weight off herself, in an act of desperation. This isn’t how the plan was supposed to go! Her own plan was used against her! Her story wasn’t supposed to end like this.
Before jumping out the window, the android looked over her shoulder with a smirk and said, “Remember, you brought this upon yourself.”
BOOM!
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