The Artificial Girl

chapter 13

By the morning, I had decided what I was going to do.

I was going to run away. Far from here. Somewhere they would never be able to find me.

I pulled out the lead from the charger and stuck a sealed envelope on the top of it. The envelope was for my parents. 

It was still dark when I walked out of the back door. The moon hung in the sky, although there were no stars. It was just after midnight. I closed the door quietly behind me and walked down the manicured garden path with the fancy coloured tiles in a mosaic pattern. 

I climbed over the padlocked garden gate and into the forest. 

The moonlight threw shafts of chalky light through the openings in the trees.

My feet crunched on the pine needles. I had no bag packed. After all, I didn't need anything apart from the charger, and I'd left that far behind.  All I had was determination, and a plan.

I got the night-bus to the Ferndene Forest – one of the only natural forests around here. The bus driver stared at me the whole journey like I was some kind of freak – which I suppose I was.

I saw him waiting by the old oak. Dustin. His hair shone in the moonlight.

When he saw me, he stepped forward. “What?” he said.

I hadn’t yet told him what I planned to do, but I was hoping he wouldn’t stop me.

“Come on, walk with me and I’ll tell you,” I walked forward and he fell in step beside me.

“You’re going to think I’m crazy,” I said, staring straight ahead through the forest.

“Just tell me, Nina,” he demanded. He turned to me and looked me dead in the eye.

I stopped. “I want you…to kill me.”

A silence fell over the forest, even the crickets stopped chirping.

“What do you mean? It’s impossible,” he protested.

“Not entirely,” I said. “I want you to…switch me off, and bury me, somewhere.”

He gaped. “Do you really expect me to……”

“I’ll help you dig if that’s what you’re worried about. But, it has to be somewhere in the depths of the forest.”

He fixed me with those blue eyes. “That’s not what I’m worried about. I’m worried about you. I don’t want you dead.”

Anger flared up within me. “I’m already dead, Nina’s dead, can’t you see? I’m just the machine that replaced her life. And this isn’t about what you want,” I snapped.

He stared at me for a while, then reached out and took me into his arms. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t get angry, I just….” I pulled away, and looked up at him. “Will you do it?”

His face was impassive and blank. “I-I don’t know, I don’t know if I can.”

“Why not?” I pleaded, clasping my hands together.

“Because…Nina, I love you,” he said, averting his gaze and looking somewhere at the forest.

“You don’t love me. You love this,” I pointed to myself. He shook his head.

“Not true.”

“Well, if you love me, set me free,” I returned.

When there was no reply I snatched the shovel I’d told him to bring that was leaning against the tree and began to run through the forest.

I heard footsteps behind me, and I turned around.

“I’ll do it.”