Episode 13
1000 Words
A gentle click resonated in the silent room as the door to the apartment softly opened, as if the person entering wished not to disturb anything. They refrained from turning on the lights. Charlie, the robotic assistant, registered the movement and whirred into action, gliding past the sofa in the living room and whispering a suggestion for a warm cup of milk.
Luca hadn’t truly slept the entire night, every sound meticulously captured by his acute senses. He waited for acknowledgment of Charlie’s offer, but the room remained silent. Shortly afterward, he heard the kitchen door open, a soft shuffle of movements before they approached the sofa.
Then there was silence again, before another subtle disturbance—the opening and closing of the door. Quiet once more enveloped the living space.
It took Luca a moment to return to the present, realizing every muscle was tight and his fingers had clutched the edge of the sofa with a knuckle-whitening grip.
He recognized the tension coiling inside him—a response to those few seconds Jack lingered beside the sofa.
Ridiculous, really.
Opening his eyes to a darkness thick and consuming, Luca inhaled sharply, a self-deprecating laugh escaping his lips despite the piercing pain that shot through his body with every breath.
---
The persistent beep of his smartphone dragged Ethan from his concentrated work, pulling him back into reality. As he unlocked it, a flood of messages bombarded the screen, crowding his inbox with updates.
[... ...]
[Breakfast this morning was toast and milk, though the toast ended up a bit burnt. [crying emoji]]
[Jack finished everything, but he still seemed hungry. Should I give him more to eat?]
[The midday sun was lovely; should I let Jack soak up some rays?]
[There’s this notion that lack of sunlight can lead to calcium deficiency, although that seems a bit outdated now. [duh emoji]]
[The robot shut down midway due to battery failure but woke up charging—odd, right?]
[Jack’s wounds appear to have reopened, sweat streaked across his brow in pain. Did something happen without my knowing?]
[The sunset’s beautiful tonight. What should we have for dinner?]
[Jack’s nutritional supplements are out. Could you grab some on your way back, maybe some sweets too? I heard sugar can lighten one’s mood during recovery…]
Charlie, the robotic assistant with an emotional interface, often delighted in narrating every trivial detail to Ethan, like a chatty child.
Ethan’s fingers scrolled through each line, his expression softening with a helpless smile.
Yet, he recognized that this situation was unsustainable.
Jack had cloaked himself in silence and stubborn defiance for over two days and a night.
Despite Jack’s compliance with directives, getting him to share feelings or thoughts felt impossible.
Chaining Jack to the bed like some puppet for his amusement was inconceivable—an act of cruelty Ethan could never commit, for even though Jack wasn’t human, at heart he remained sincere.
Pondering this moral puzzle left him baffled from the start of his shift until its end.
However, stepping through his front door halted his ruminations—
A bitter, metallic scent, imbued with an underlying tang of blood, engulfed him like a rising tide, wrapping around him ominously.
“What… happened?”
Ethan’s pupils contracted with shock, his mind going blank. An intense heat flushed through his body almost instantly.
Instinctively, he shut the door tight, hoping to contain that unnerving aroma.
Jack, sprawled on the sofa, had awakened, but his state appeared grim.
...
“Luca? Luca! …Quickly… the suppressant…”
The familiar voice pierced through the fog between waking and dreaming.
Shakily, Luca tried to focus, forcing his eyes open wide. All that greeted him was endless darkness, his unsteady breaths matching the chaotic rhythm of his heart that now pounded in his ears.
“…How are you feeling now? Still with me?”
The pervasive scent of pheromones invaded every pore, as inescapable as the air itself being inhaled, an unseen force nudging Ethan forward.
“Hey…”
His voice, dry and cracked, strained to coax life into Jack’s seemingly petrified form.
Yet the instant contact was made, Jack recoiled sharply, instinctively pulling away with a strength born of desperation—
It was as if a blade had found its mark, igniting a feral kinetic energy within Jack. He writhed against his bonds, the ropes at his wrists creaking under the pressure.
His back arched defensively, eyes blazing with bestial rage as he snarled at Ethan, “Get away! Don’t touch me! Leave…”
Ethan withdrew hastily, reflexively erecting a psychic barrier, inadvertently provoking Jack into a more frantic struggle.
“No… Don’t touch…!”
Something was amiss.
Ethan’s composure momentarily faltered, focusing on the gentle heat radiating from his nape, his own pheromones erupting—
Jack's towering frame collapsed, like scaffolding with its support whipped away, leaving him boneless and pliant.
His body, exhausted by recurrent forced estrus, hungrily absorbed the offered solace.
The visceral pain subsided into numbness, cleansing his turbulent mind into an empty void.
"…"
With breath increasingly uneven, Luca’s aquamarine eyes flickered beneath heavy lids, glazed with tears threatening to spill.
A cool hand settled on his brow, and a voice thick with concern punctuated the oppressive silence, “How does it feel now? Hang in there—the suppressants should be here soon…”
Luca jerked away with a shiver, instinctively recoiling, muscles tremulous as he strove to prop himself up on wobbly arms.
But the source of the pheromones persisted, oblivious, hovering to assess his wounds, testing pressure with gentle hands.
“Don’t move, seems like the wound reopened. Let me see…”
The tear gaping wide sent a fresh burst of coppery tang tantalizing past his nostrils, Ethan’s face creased in worry, his touch becoming increasingly firm.
“...No, don’t…”
Humbled and exposed, Luca instinctively curled inward, yet his resistance was of no moment—those strong hands flipped his vulnerable body onto its back, resigned, awaiting the next blow.
- Writer
