Phylactic Death of The Andriod Mother Jaxon Degebrodt ............................................................pages

creative writing corner Phylactic Death of the Android Mother

Jaxon Degebrodt

I could barely breathe, crying into the course desert. The water retrieving machine was silent and dry. I slowly sizzled away in my pyjamas. Mum and Dad must’ve accidentally closed the big, ugly door on me, and my tiny body meant the doorknob was out of reach. More worrying was the creatures of the New World. They live close – they’re scary, and they’re hungry.

BANG. The sound of the door swinging shut shook through the tin house. I could feel the sound in my back as it echoed. I ran to the front door, expecting my Mum and my Dad, but instead I saw a strange floating scooter, humming by the front door. When the door opened again, a stranger walked out and caught my eye.

“You’re too young for this, ” the stranger said bluntly. She didn’t move, she just stared into me. “Are you going to die out here, or come with me?”

After a pause, she sighed and picked me up by the back of my pyjamas. I flailed about in the air, trying to punch, bite, and scratch her, but she was solid under her clothes. It felt like kicking a house.

The stranger strapped me to the passenger seat of her floating scooter, annoyingly humming along, like a group of mechanical flies in my ears. After a forever we arrived at a big, shiny house, crawling with robots and people, and humming with a similar sound to the scooter.

“I don’t think I like robots.” I instinctually rasped out of my dry throat.

“She talks?” laughed the lady to herself. “And sounds like she’s thirsty.”

She pulled a bottle out of her bag. I lunged for it, but she ripped the bottle from my reach.

“Tell me your name, girl.” she demanded, holding the bottle higher and higher.

After seconds of struggling, I fell back into my seat. “Bobby.”

“Enjoy your water, Bobby.” She tossed the bottle. Drinking hurt, but I needed it.

The lady turned to the house. “There’s a phylactery-empress in the house, but she’s not the bad type that…”

The sound of my own breathing and chugging overtook her explanation, but I tried to act like I was listening.

“…but you have to promise to do exactly as I say, okay?” She looked at me expectantly and I nodded to alleviate the tension. We dismounted the scooter and walked towards the house.

It could’ve been a castle. The building was tall, the air was cool and the plants made it look like we were in paradise.

“Identification.” a voice emitted behind the main sleek door.

“Hecate.” the woman spoke. “Plus one, a desert

child.”

The door opened, and Hecate walked in. Inside was a blinding and busy hallway, full of noisy people and that annoying, familiar hum.

Everything about this place felt bad. I went to ask Hecate to leave, but I realised that I lost her in the crowd. Eventually, I found her boots along the sleek floor and caught up. I leapt for her hand, but it wasn’t Hecate’s. It wasn’t human. The… thing looked almost like Hecate, but it clicked and hummed. Everything clicked and hummed. In shock, I ran down the closest hallway, bumping into sleek doors until one opened. The room was dark, but I needed to hide, so I skulked in.

There wasn’t a hum here, but the room was filled with soft breaths. In the centre of the room was a glowing bed, holding a woman: thin and dried up, but her eyes looked swollen and thirsty. Machines surrounded the bed, buzzing robot lullabies, and attaching tubes between them and her. Above, resting on top of a vat of water, a bag in a translucent box seemed to breathe.

Suddenly, the door behind me hissed open, letting in a shock of robotic murmurs before Hecate’s body blocked the doorway.

“Come now Bobby, there’s things we have to do before you’re a part of her.” Hecate spoke different, harsher. A noisy humming started emit from her body. Her eyes became glowing red dots, her hair sunk into her body, her arms split into four, and metal shards sprung free from her chest. I dove under the bed. The monster tried to pull me out, but I gripped onto the stand of the tank of water. As the monster pulled my leg, water began to spill towards the woman in the bed. The monster’s attention darted up to the container, allowing me to slip away as it barely stopped the bed from being doused. The thing’s head spun to face me, squeezing together to look like Hecate.

“I think you’d like becoming a part of us. It’s just like… a family.” Her blunt tone now sounded like orders. In rebellion and fear, I screamed, as all the noise I should’ve made today was released. In frustration, the monster’s fingers cracked into vat.

BOOM. Liquid flowed everywhere. The monster whirred to protect the woman in the bed, but the tank sent water flying into every corner of the room. The robotic breathing gurgled, and stopped. The humming scooter noise died, but there was no scream. I was alone in another quiet house.