I think they know who I am.
Think?
No.
I know that they know.
I avoid leaving the main house that I am currently in because I saw the way they looked at me when we were walking around. They recognize who I am, I mean, how could they not recognize the son of the person who once exiled them, banishing them from the safety of the sanctuary they were in.
Some of the people I recognize, people who went missing from Dispacia, the ones who disappeared without a trace. So they were recruited here huh?
Anthony and Ashton were gone for a pretty long time now, and it's not like I'm concerned or anything but, I'm just a bit afraid, The people here genuinely despises me. I'm sure they have their reasons but I'm not sure how deep their anger goes, so I just can't settle down and relax, expecting them all to be okay with my presence.
"AI, " I turned to the middle aged-looking android, who Ashton called their Aunt, "What day is it?"
"Hi! I am Josephine, Today is the 25th of January, year 2608-"
"Don't bother, she's only programmed basic functionalities, she's not as complex as the rest of us." A guy stepped out from the corner of the room, his white hair stood out from his dark complexion, he's got a discoloration scar on his right face, spanning from the middle of his forehead to his cheek, like it was a part of some other android and was forcibly fit into him. His features were as sour as I saw on the other androids that I came across on the streets. He was wearing all black clothing, topped with a tattered leather jacket. "Jeremiah, whatever you wanna ask Jose, ask me instead."
"Ah well-" I can feel the intensity of his glare from a mile away, it made my skin crawl.
"You better hurry up princess, I'm not waiting for you fo' forever." He placed his hands on his hips, his glare deepening as he stared at me. It was unsettling, to say the least. "I don't have time fo' this."
"No, ah, wait," I didn't know where the burst of confidence came from, nor where did the confidence I had earlier disappear to. "Are most of the people here from Dispacia?"
He chuckled, though it wasn't light or friendly. It was more of in the mocking side like he was making fun of me. "Of course, this is the closest base to Dispacia, isn't it? That's why most of us here, hate you." I gulped at that, I knew it. "So many of us were mistreated by the reign, but all you people did was to look and administer it all like it was humane and normal. Watching on as we're treated like mere pigs." He stepped closer towards me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand. "Do you know what they do to dysfunctional androids?"
"They...uhm...they... scrap you."
"Right, and wrong. They don't just scrap us, princess, they remove the protocol identity within us, so the AI inside our head," He points to his temple, "then forms its own personality."
I mean, I knew for a long time, that androids were nothing but a carbon copy of the next but I never knew that they can form their own personality. Sure, an owner can set the way a certain android should act. But that's nothing more than an act added to the protocol identity, which overrides everything. Whatever connection you have with the android, it'll all be lost if willed by the protocol. But this, the AI filling in the void of the removed identity, it's news to me.
"Imagine that... the only moment we get our own personality is when we're about to die." He walked away from me, leaving me in stunned silence. "Be careful out here princess, don't want you turning up dead on the streets."
He walked away, slamming the door behind me and leaving me behind in a building that felt much bigger than it was and inside a haven smaller than it appeared to be. The idle chatter I hear from outside made me wonder if they were secretly plotting against me. We're they already planning my demise?
"Don't take him too seriously, he's always been like that," Someone spoke from above me, I looked up but I was blinded by the bright light that emanated from the middle of the roofing. A shadowy figure hopped off the railing of the second floor and landed right beside me, on her feet, with a thud.
"Mave."
"Don't mind him too much, he just went through a traumatizing 'birth' you could say." She said sitting down on a chair and pointing to the one in front of her. "But you should heed his words."
I took the seat in front of her, cautiously. Wondering if all of this is booby-trapped just to end up killing me. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that he's right, I don't particularly hate you but a lot of people here do. You are the only son of Samuel Peirce, the man most hated in Dispacia but also the most heavily guarded man." She leaned back on the chair, and the chatting outside grew distant like it was nothing but a faint echo in the void. "Which means, he's super hard to kill. So the people looked for where it's easier to strike, his only beloved son."
"That's not true, that man doesn't love me he's only-"
"bah, however way, you look at it. You are his only and last son." She gave me a knowing look as if she knows every little dark secret that my family has to hide. Everything we did just so we can keep up appearances.
"Wh-what do you mean? Mo-mom's still-"
"Come on now princess, don't play coy with me, You know what I'm talking about." I refuse. I refuse to acknowledge that this ridiculous bumbling commoner knows so much about me. So much that she can ruin my life. No. I did that myself.
Suddenly, the spacious building felt so much smaller, like a little box just fit enough for a toddler. The air around me felt constricted like it was just suspended in mid-air and I can't intake any of it. Paranoia settled in, in the small space I was in, I felt like there were thousands looking at me. Listening to me and laughing at how pathetic I was. My face felt hot, and as I began crying, it did nothing to my well being. All I needed to know was I need to get out of here. Out of this building. Out of this place. I want to go somewhere safe? But where? Anywhere?
I stood up abruptly, cutting off Mave's story, which I didn't even know she was telling in the first place. "Hey! Where are you going?!" I can't answer her, my mind was too clouded, it was all over the place, I can't think. "Just be back nightfall! Yeah?"
I didn't look back, nor did I look around. There were too many people, far too many. Were they ridiculing me? MAy plot my demise? All these thoughts rampaging my mind as my feet unconsciously led me back to where we were at the start. By the large metal gates. Its intricate designs seemed to move and slither on the surface, coiling, and uncoiling. Reaching out and ready to just snap. The man guarding it looked at me with distaste.
"I need to get out." He chuckled a breath, looking to his companion with a sly smirk.
"Sure, help yourself." With the same dark glint in his eyes, he signaled to the men and the big gates slowly pulled open and I was roughly shoved out.
I left, only for hell to place its judgment upon me.
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