iHeart

CELINE.K

iheart

THE JOURNEY OF A DEAD MAN INTO A ROBOT.

I heard the clanks of footsteps coming up the metal stairs. I felt my heart race and my head spin. My muscles tensed up. Footsteps approached. Sweat trickled down the side of my face and my stomach gurgled in panic. A tingle ran down my spine. I could see from the back of my head that he was standing behind me.

“Jacob,” I heard a deep voice echo in my ears.

The voice wasn’t familiar to me. I began to shudder. Should I continue to feign my unconsciousness? A light beam shot into my eyes. An unfamiliar face leaned over. My eyes began to focus and I could see the features of the man’s face: tall nose, blue eyes and a warm smile.

“How do you feel?” the man asked.

I hesitated. I still didn’t know who he was. His arm pointed towards two sofas across from each other with a little coffee table and gestured for me to sit down. My muscles still ached and I felt shaky. I sat down and looked around. There were laptops, computers and all sorts of devices and technology.

I sat on a sofa across from him. “Okay, first of all, I’ll just cut to the chase. Let’s not waste any more time,” Professor Black said, interrupting me with my eyes wandering around the laboratory. I glanced at all the test tubes, safety goggles and beakers, keeping silent as he continued, “So, you died from a traffic accident and you’re one of the first people we’ve experimented on. We’ve transformed you into a robot.”

I sat there with my eyes and mouth wide open. I felt dizzy again, what the hell was he saying? My mind twisted and flashes of my motorbike in flames while I was lying on the floor came across my mind.

“Don’t worry, I’ll help you and answer everything you ask!” he exclaimed with a smile.

Later, I sat in my room next to the sofas where Professor Black and I were talking before. So many thoughts were running through my mind but it stopped on one. Rachel. How do I even meet her now, what would she think? I’m a monster. She’ll freak out and never want to see me again.

2

I paced myself anxiously to the mirror. I examined myself from head to toe. I wasn’t just a monster, I looked like a monster too. Calm down, you’re a grown man. A grown man whose skin is made out of metal and organs are just functioning machines. A grown man who doesn’t even have a heart or a brain, those just replaced with micro­chips. What happened to me? Why do I look like this? Why me? I grabbed the chair and smashed it against the mirror. Shards of glass flew out onto the floor.

I couldn’t bear to see myself anymore. Jacob Oliver Smith, get a hold of yourself. Breathe.

I attempted to take my mind off it. I swiped my finger across in the air and a screen popped up. Show me my air mail; just the thought itself made the screen follow my command. I scanned through and one caught my eye:

I can’t possibly meet up with her. No. I have to go see her.

I don’t care what she thinks, I have to see her at least one more time. I replied to her airmail with a time and place.

I chose my outfit carefully and styled my hair. As I was driving my hover car to meet up with Rachel, I saw mini aircrafts in the sky along with the hover cars buzzing on the transparent glass roads. I could feel hundreds of eyes on me but I waved them off. I searched through the crowd for Rachel when a hand grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me around. It was someone just like me, with metal skin and machines for organs and only micro­chips for a heart and brain. It was Rachel.