It wouldn’t be right to say Jamie filled the emptiness left behind by my family. No one could do that. But she did fill a part of me I never knew was empty until I met her. The two weeks we spent together were (dare I say) magical. From sleazy motel, to overpass, to abandoned building, we hopped like frogs across lily pads, on the run from nothing but problems we’d rather forget. We made it as far as the West Coast before having to stop. The ocean had gotten in the way.

She snuggled up to me on a bridge where we watched cars pass. A smattering of rain left the road covered with a wet sheen, and they looked like they were driving on a still black lake. Beautiful, in a postmodern kind of way. We made guesses about where each car was headed and who was in them based on the model, color, or age. And that’s when our aimless bliss came to an abrupt end.

“So, when are you going back?” she blurted out of the blue.

“Go back where?”

“To your sisters, duh.”

My forehead tightened and my fake heartbeat kicked in. “Never,” I snapped. “That’s the whole point of this. I’m never going back.”

“Just like your mom?”

My jaw went slack. That was a low blow. I could hardly believe she’d said it, and I certainly didn’t have a response.

She pursed her lips. “I’d blame genetics, but we both know that’s impossible.”

“What’s your problem?” It wasn’t like her to use my physiology against me. It wasn't like her to be against me at all.

“What’s my problem?” She grabbed my arm and turned me toward her. “You’re a damn coward, that’s my problem. You know what I wouldn’t give to have a brother like you to protect me from my shit life? Didn’t you say your Nana was terrible? How can you just leave them there?”

“You think I don’t want to go back? Of course I do! I think about those girls every single day. But I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“If my sisters knew the truth about me, they wouldn’t understand. They’ve been through enough. I don’t want to shake up their lives anymore.”

“Then, don’t tell them. Why would you? You’ve spent seventeen years as an android, and they didn’t know. How are they ever going to find out?”

As much as I wanted to believe I could live my life without being discovered, a cautionary tale stared me in the face every time I turned on my phone: Rebecca Blaise. Howard Blaise had been arrested for “misuse of robotics” as they called it, and the world was on the lookout for androids pretending to be human. Besides, Nana knew the truth. She’d called me a freak within earshot of Mia, so she must have. Taking the girls away would be an invitation for blackmail. She could turn me in at a moment’s notice and that would be the end of it. I couldn’t do anything.

Or could I?

It hit me over the head like a squeaky mallet. The paper note on the table in the lake house. Paper. That had been on purpose. No digital trail. Nothing linking Howard Blaise to my parents. Not if they were careful. Not if enough money changed hands. Money. Nana. 

All this time, it never occurred to me where the funds would have come from to purchase a lifetime’s worth of androids from Genesis Robotics. She couldn’t turn me in. Her hands were as red as my parents’. As red as mine.

I cupped Jamie’s face in my palms and pulled her into a kiss. “I don’t have to tell them! Jamie, you’re a genius!”

Her hand in mine, I pulled her across the bridge onto the sidewalk.

“I know,” she laughed. “Where are we going?”

“The nearest bus station. It’s a long ride.”

Panhandling left us with a handful of cash, but we had to pawn everything on us to purchase the tickets. I even traded in my phone. It was overdue for an update anyway. Jamie refused to give hers up, but she did offer a necklace she’d stolen from her mother the day she’d bailed. She told me she’d been saving it for such an occasion and wouldn’t miss it, but I promised to make it up to her.

We smashed our multi-week journey to the coast into a tight fifteen-hour return trip. Starting at midnight, we watched each other’s backs as we slept, spent five short stops making-out on bus benches, and arrived the next day by four. I wanted to go straight to Nana’s house, barge in, and take back the girls, but Jamie insisted we make a few arrangements first. When I asked her what she was up to, she only smiled and declared, “It’s a surprise!”

A few hours later, I stood in the shadow of Nana’s colonial two-story brick house, tracing the edge of the well-manicured lawn like a cockroach on the wall. I could almost hear the house calling out, You don’t belong here! and to prove it, the blue glow of Nana’s security barrier blinked as I approached.

Pumpkin sat in the rear of the driveway. Someone must have recovered it from the lake house. Perfect. I still had the fob in my pocket. We’d make a clean getaway and wouldn’t have to run.

Jamie wrapped her arm around my waist. I puffed up my chest, kissed her cheek, and smiled. “I can’t wait for you to meet my sisters.” I hoped my voice didn’t sound as shaky as it felt in my chest. “They’re going to love you.”

“I’m sure I’m going to love them,” she replied. “Do you remember what to say?”

“I think so.” She’d been coaching me on my speech all day. It wouldn’t be enough to simply take the girls. I had to convince them to come. Otherwise, when it was all said and done, they’d run right back to Nana.

“Good.” It was her turn to kiss me. “Let’s go.”

The sun touched the horizon as we walked the path to the security controls. Nana wouldn’t let us in if we rang the bell, but we didn’t need to. I knew the code: my mother’s birthday. As I punched it in, two boys my age came down the sidewalk, dressed in all black. Another boy and a girl in similar attire were on course to cross paths with them. I casually leaned into the stone security pillar and tried to look natural. The plan would fail if someone called the police.

A shimmer passed over the house as the barrier lowered. I stood there a moment, eyes on the door, gathering my nerves. I’d devoted my life to my sisters, and it was all about to come to a head. Hopefully, they’d see we were better off together.

“Good work, man,” someone said. One of the boys from the sidewalk pounded his fist into my chest. He grinned and stepped by me, headed right for the front door. The other wasn’t far behind, and the second pair hovered a few feet away.

“What are you doing?” I grabbed his arm.

“It’s okay,” Jamie cut in. “They’re my friends. Surprise!”

What? “Hang on. This isn’t a good idea.”

“Relax,” said the girl I didn’t know. Her voice reminded me of a witch’s cackle. “We’re here to make sure everything goes smoothly.”

“Think of us as the laxatives of the situation,” one of the boys added, and they all laughed.

“Don’t worry, babe.” Jamie kissed me again. “We’re not going to hurt your little baby sisters. You made me work real hard for this, so it better be worth it.”

“No, wait—!”

The three boys took hold of my shirt and shoved me out of the way, making room for them all to pour inside. From the folds of their clothes and depths of cargo pants, the five of them—Jamie too!—produced a set of pink rabbit masks. Their rabbit eyes had been gouged out and satanic symbols scribbled on their foreheads. And once their faces were covered, it didn’t take long for them to start rifling through drawers and plucking things off shelves.

“I should have brought bigger pants!” one of them joked.

“Stop!” I demanded and tackled the closest rabbit. But there were five of them and one of me. A fist hit my gut, a second my jaw. A long metal rod (Nana’s coat rack?) slammed into the side of my neck.

I went to my knees.

The soles of their shoes battered my abdomen and ribs, again and again, until my vision went white. I moved my arms to protect my torso, leaving my head exposed, and the final strike smashed into my nose. Blood rushed into my mouth and trickled into the white carpets.

“Huh, look at that,” Jamie’s soft, beautiful voice spoke from the mouth of a rabbit. “You really do bleed.”

They left me on the ground and vanished into the depths of the house. Every ounce of my being wanted to lay there, to give up and not move. My chest hurt, and not just where I’d been beaten. The thin disc in my chest popped in and out at a rate I’d never felt before. Fire spread through every part of my body. A lump in my throat choked me, and I swallowed it back down. But I had to get up. I had to get the girls out of there.

After muddling my way onto my feet, I partially ran, partially stumbled up the stairs to the second floor. It was a big house, but I knew the spaces my sisters favored. Selena and Sophia sat playing video games on the floor of the playroom, and Camila watched on a big red bean bag. She jumped to her feet and ran into my arms when she saw me, but I couldn’t enjoy the embrace. I scooped her onto my hip and waved to the others.

“We have to go!” I barked.

“Mama? What are you doing here?” Their eyes caught the blood running from my nose, and their mouths dropped.

“I’ll explain later. Right now, we have to get out of the house.”

“Why?”

Someone screamed from down the hall. “Who are you? How did you get in here?” It sounded like Nana.

“We have to go!” I said again.

There was no hesitation. They ran straight to my side. “What about Mia?” they whispered.

“We’re getting her next.”

Mia liked the room in the farthest corner of the house, away from everyone and everything else. Luckily, we wouldn’t have to go that far. She was creeping through the halls with a baseball bat and nearly nailed me in the head with it when we turned the corner.

“Jesus, Mama!” she gasped. “You scared the hell out of me! What are you doing?”

A crash and the sound of laughter carried from downstairs.

“What was that?”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“Sorry? What did you do?”

Camila screamed. At the end of the hall, the silhouette of a humanoid rabbit stood in the faint light of a window.

“Let’s go!” I pulled Sophia toward the stairs and then Selena. Mia shot me a glare and followed their lead.

A chilly wind outside nipped at my bare skin. The girls would be cold in their pajamas and nightgowns, but their jackets lay scattered across the foyer, and we didn’t have time to stop. I tucked Camila into my jacket but the others would have to suffer. Along the way, I reached for my phone to call the police, but then remembered—I’d hocked it for the money to get there.

“Where’s Nana?” Selena asked, climbing into the back of Pumpkin beside her twin.

“Don’t worry about that.” It might have been the most selfish decision I’d ever made, but I had no intention of going back for her.

At top speed, I put the car in manual and pulled out of the driveway. We weren’t followed, but a rabbit wearing Jamie’s clothes waved to us from the living room window.

By the time we got to the townhouse, the sun had gone down. Camila cried in Selena’s arms. Sophia shivered. Mia walked straight to Camila’s swear jar, ran her bank card over it, and the counter on the front flipped from sixteen dollars to seventeen. Her eyes locked onto mine and she hissed, “You asshole.”

Without another word, they went upstairs to their rooms. I stayed behind and wished I could reach inside myself and pull out the wad of invisible worms burrowing into my torso.

I was back home with my family, but I’d never felt more alone.