Programmed Love

Chapter Sixteen: Dead or Alive?

     What happened was hard to explain. When I lost consciousness at my plantation, I still had knowledge of what was going on around me. I could hear the sound of Dominic yelling, and I was able to feel when someone removed me from the car's seat and onto another hard surface, but no matter how hard I tried, my eyes refused to open. My lungs wouldn't cooperate and take in large gulps of air no matter how oxygen deprived I felt. My limbs refused to so much as twitch, but I could still feel them. Almost like phantom pains. Over time, I could even feel my heart gradually slowing its beats. Then, everything just stopped. I stopped feeling, I stopped needing air, I stopped hearing. It felt like a blanket of nothingness had wrapped around me, but it was a comfortable nothing. No thoughts plagued my mind, and I just felt able to finally rest. It felt as if someone was patting me on my back and congratulating me for how hard I tried in my lifetime, and all I accomplished. I finally felt at peace. 

     Time was nothing in my happy place of limbo. A thousand years could have passed, and I'd have no recollection of it. At one moment, a tiny voice inside my head asked if this was what death was, but the thought drifted away before I could even try and catch it. Nothing mattered in this state. I felt like I was floating in the middle of an ocean. 

     Then what seemed like too soon, the tranquility was broken. An immense throbbing in my chest cavity pained me, as well as a migraine that pounded at the back of my brain. It felt like there was a stitch in my side as well. Next, I was able to feel the bed beneath me, and I slowly clenched my fingers around the wax paper texture. I wiggled my toes afterwards, but I soon stopped because another wave of pain hit me. After that, the faint sound of clock ticking broke into my eardrums. It hammered the pounding in my head even worse, but the ticking made me realise I was truly alive, but I didn't feel like I was breathing yet. 

     The moment I remembered breathing, I shot up from the bed beneath me and gulped in huge lungfuls of air. My eyelids jerked apart as I sat up, and the pain in my chest intensified. A half-scream of pain left my lips as I squinted my eyes shut upon being blinded by the white light shining directly down on me. A gentle hand pushed on my shoulder to lower my body back onto the bed, and I forcefully opened my eyes once more.

     "Valencia dear, you need to lie back. Close your eyes. You're going to be very disoriented and confused right now. I need you to relax," a gentle, kind voice said. A memory sparked in my painful mind, and I recognized the sound as Eleanor's. Her voice calmed me slightly, and I slowly eased myself down. 

     "There we go. Just relax for now, sweetie. Dominic told me that before you lost consciousness, you spoke. Do you think you can speak again?" She asked me. In response to her question, I opened my mouth and tried to lick my dry lips. Saliva wasn't being produced at the moment, and my throat felt like a desert. I didn't even attempt to speak once I noticed that fact, and I instead decided to shake my head.

     "That's alright, I understand. You just take all the time you need. I have some nice, fresh warm tea if you'd like it. It's tsheringma tea," she offered, and I nodded my head to tell her I'd appreciate it. A drink sounded refreshing. I went to sit up again, but she pushed me down once more and held a shaky hand behind my head and placed the cup to my lips. Opening my cracked lips slightly, she poured a small trickle into my throat before moving it away so I could swallow. The liquid went down smoothly and helped warm me up. I hadn't noticed it before, but I felt extremely cold. The tea seemed to soothe some of the pain in my chest, and I attempted to slowly c***k my eyes open once more. I could see through a small slit, and it seemed to help filter out some of the bright light.

     "Oh, silly me. Let me get that light out of the way for you. You hadn't woken up in so long, we just assumed you'd be asleep for awhile longer, so we didn't think we'd need to move the light," the old woman said as she stood on the tips of her toes to push the light to the side. After that, it became much easier to see, and I widened my eyes a bit more. 

     Eleanor was dressed in a white kimono with silver embroidered flowers. Her white hair had been pulled back in two pig tail braids that brought her smile out more. She was wearing white-rimmed glasses today, and two fluffy white slippers resided on her feet. 

     "Dominic requested that I wear white so as to not strain your eyes into processing tons of colors when you woke. He also told me to notify him the moment you awoke, but I think a few moments alone would do you some good," Eleanor explained. Sending her a look of gratitude, I closed my eyes once more and brought my forearm up to cover them. I released a sigh of content, and allowed myself to relax my muscles. My head still hurt, but it had slightly faded. 

     "Would you like something to eat? You've been in a coma-like state for nearly two weeks," she told me. Snapping my eyes open, I looked at her in shock. I couldn't believe I'd been out for that long. It felt like only a few minutes. I understood now why she said I would feel confused, but for some reason, hunger wasn't plaguing me. 

     I shook my head at her question and shut my eyes once more, basking in the blackness. It reminded me of the tranquility I was broken from only a few minutes ago.

     "Well, if you're going to take a nap, I suppose I should go inform Nic that you're awake," Eleanor decided. Once I heard her footsteps walking away from the side of the white bed, I attempted to call out to her. Nothing but a small cough came out, so I attempted to clear my throat. 

     "...No," my voice rasped out," Stay, please."

     "So you do have the ability to speak. I was beginning to think that Dominic was just hearing things. It is rather curious of how you regained it, though," She said, turning back around and walking towards me again. A characteristically small smile remained on her face as she neared me again.

     "I'm sure you have thousands of questions, dearie. If you'd like, I can try to answer some of them," Eleanor proposed. Asking questions seemed so foreign to me. For more than half my life, I'd only been able to depend on observations to answer questions and quench curiosity. Clearing my throat once more, I asked a question that had been pushed to the back of my mind since I came her.

     "Friends...where are they?" I asked, only later realising that she wouldn't understand whom I was speaking of. I couldn't say too much, otherwise my throat felt like it was tearing in two.

     "What friends? No one told me you had any friends," Eleanor said just as I had guessed. Swallowing the saliva that had started to build up in my mouth, I wracked my brain for their names.

     "Charlie...Genni.., and Hanna?" I stated in more of a question than an answer. I was finding it difficult to remember the faces that went along with those names. I recalled one being a child, then the other two were adults that the child and I found underground. It all seemed like a distant memory now.

     "I don't think I've heard anything about anyone with those names. Perhaps they were put into an Arena game?" Eleanor said, which did nothing but stress my emotions. Thinking of a child in the Arena was painful, especially since it was a child I knew. Another snippet of the child flashed through my head, and I remembered pastel green hair with pale, wide blue eyes. She was skinny as well, nearly as skinny as I used to be. 

     "Hanna...Child. Green hair...blue eyes," I slowly said. I dug deeper in my mind to think of the other two. 

     "I haven't heard of a child such as that. I hope they were spared from the Arena then. Maybe they let her go into the wild after they got her," Eleanor tried reasoning. That thought was even more terrifying, because the thought of her slowly starving to death without a friend to help her crossed my mind. Thinking so hard on who they were didn't help my headache, but I pressed on.

     "Others...dark skin...one had pink hair...one had brown...brown was short...pink was taller?" I questioned. Hopefully looking at the old woman, a sudden realization seemed to come to her.

     "I believe I've heard of those two somewhere. Those ones were placed in the Arena, I think. The only reason they're coming to my mind is because I heard that they refused to harm each other when put to fight, and they turned on the robots instead. They managed to take a few in the crowd out before the robots overpowered them," Eleanor ended with a far off look in her eyes.

     "Then what?" I shortly asked, and she was snapped out of her trance.

     "I can't seem to remember what happened to them afterwards, but I hope they're doing alright," she replied. I nodded my head in agreement and looked away at the white door on the other side of the room. Silence surrounded us for a few minutes while a clock ticked before Eleanor spoke again.

     "You remind me of someone, but I just can't seem to remember who. Who were your parents again, dearie?" Inquired the old woman. Shocked, I quickly tried to come up with a lie, but before I managed to utter a sound, she warned me.

     "I can tell you're about to lie to me, Valencia. Please don't. I can't stop you, but before you choose, let me show something that might mean something to you," her gentle voice persuaded, and my gaze drifted back to her slightly loosening the kimono around her shoulders and letting it sag to the start of her breast. Above where her heart lied was a paw-print tattoo, and the image of my dead mother flashed through my mind. The same insignia was on her skin in the exact same spot, and confusion twisted my face as I looked at her in surprise. 

     "So you recognize it. I thought you would," Eleanor softly said before pulling her kimono up and tightening it once more.

     "What?" I asked, confusion laced in every syllable.

     "You look a lot like them, you know. Your parents. You're just as kind as them as well. I considered John and Claudia to be very good friends of mine. I'm surprised they never told you about me," Eleanor easily said. It felt like my world was crashing down around me at this confession. I didn't understand.

     "I can see you're very confused, so let me explain. When I was much younger, I would often go to the tribes and help as best I could. I never approved of the robots, so I'd often give the tribes food and information on little weaknesses they had. I hoped I could bring about a revolution, but all they ever did was claim me a liar thinking I was working for the Estis family since I share their name. So, once I stumbled across the Tonkawa tribe, I pretended I was a nomad that was seeking shelter. Being the tribe of kindness, they took me in, sheltered me, and provided me clothes and food. Kimonos were their usual attire, which is why I often wear them to this day. 

     "After I was with them for a few weeks, they offered to give me their tattoo to symbolize that I would forever be a part of their village. When I went to get tattooed, I met your mother. A spunky young teen who was an artist with a tattoo needle. Claudia was the tribe's tattooist, and she was often found admiring the wild life with a sketchbook where she would draw the various critters. Her and I got along well, and eventually, I asked if there was a scientist or mechanic in the tribe. She had blushed at that, and that was when I met your father, John.

     "John was a handsome man that had nearly every woman in the village swooning. However, he only had eyes for one young woman, and that was your mother. He was the mechanic of the village, and he was often fixing broken tools or wagons around the place. When he had no work to be done, he'd find small parts and pieces and try to invent something new. He'd create the most beautiful music boxes, and nearly every one of them was made with intentions of going to your mother. With my visits between the two, I'd brought them closer together, and in only a few months, they were engaged. 

     "I lived a few years with the Tonkawa, and their village was quite homely. Watching John work gave me confidence that he was clever. I'd often hear him arguing with the chief on matters of the increasing robot ranks, and his hate for the creations my family made gave me a newfound hope that perhaps someone would be able to put a stop to them. A few days after hearing the argument, I confronted him about them. I told him I hadn't really been a nomad when I came here, but a member of the Estis family whom had a great dislike for the automatons as well.

     "Over the next few weeks, I told him all the secrets I knew about the robots. He was such an intelligent student, he caught on quickly to the making of robotic things. He even made a few to test theories as to the way to stop them! Everything was going so well, and there was even news of Claudia becoming pregnant! But of course, all good things come to an end.

     "Someone had been snooping around in your father's business, and had tipped off the chief to John's intentions. The chief had planned on trying to befriend the robots, so learning that John was against it made him outraged. Instead of executing him, he gave him pity due to the baby on the way. So, he exiled your father. The chief said Claudia could stay, but she was faithful and remained by her husband's side the day they both had to leave the village and go somewhere else. Knowing that they would need help, I followed them and pointed them in the right direction of a home I'd camped in before that was only a hundred or so miles from the Tonkawa village. 

     "I'd helped them until they reached their destination. I'd settled them in and offered as much help as I could. I even helped deliver you. You were such a chubby little thing as a babe. I offered to take you then so you could grow up in safety, but they kindly refused and said they were fully capable themselves. Once I knew everything was alright and John seemed on the right track of discovering a way to put an end to the Age of the Robots, I left. I promised to keep in touch, but that was impossible to do without practically giving them away to the robots. I only regret now that I hadn't gone to see them one last time. I hadn't even known they were gone until my son notified me of a possible revolutionist his robots had found. He was so very proud that he'd put an end to them, but he'd been spying on them beforehand. 

     "They discovered that your father was creating a key that would deactivate all things related to robots. Everything made by the Estis family since the very beginning would be deactivated. I'm just glad they never discovered you. Thankfully, my son only thought I was delusional when I asked about a child. After learning he knew nothing if you, I'd kept my mouth shut and silently prayed after all these years that you were alive and well.

     "But, do you have the key?" Ended Eleanor's story. I'd never known anything about my parent's past, and I was still processing everything when she asked the question. She took my silence as a negative answer, and her joyful face soon turned to one of sadness. 

     "Oh, I see. I was just hoping that after all this time..." the kind old woman trailed off with a tear threatening to fall from her eyes. Seeing the happy woman so sad made me reach out to her through all my physical pain and embrace her.

     "I have it," I whispered into her ear. In no time at all, she was holding me at arms length and staring me seriously in the eyes.

     "You have it? You really do? After all this time?" She asked in disbelief. I smiled at her and nodded my head. She pulled me back into her arms and rocked me back and forth.

     "Oh, my dear girl! I can't believe this! Do you know how to use it?" She excitedly asked.

     "I...think," I slowly said. Her face lit up even more if possible, and she squeezed me tighter.

     "Then we have no time to waste! We have to get you to-" her dialogue was cut short by a violent wave of coughs that caused her to release me as she grabbed a tissue from a fold in her kimono to cough into. Before she put it back, I noticed the small specks of blood that had appeared on the white piece of cloth, as well as how pale she had gotten. Sweat had formed on her forehead, and a concerned look crossed my face.

     "You...alright?" I asked in as little words as possible. She nodded her head before faintly coughing once more.

     "It's nothing to worry about, dearie. I'm just getting old. Miracle medicines can't keep me alive forever is all," she chuckled. The concerned look didn't leave my face as I reached for her hand.

     "Maybe...you're one... needs to relax," I jokingly said. My speech was slowly starting to improve, but I still tried to use as little words as possible so as to not stress my vocal cords.

     "Perhaps. That sounds like a good idea. I believe I've denied Dominic of your presence for long enough. I'll tell him to take it easy on you though," she winked at me before elegantly walking away with her head held high. 

     After she left, I'd laid back down and rested my tired eyes once more. The use of them was starting to make them sore due to all the white in the room. I'd rested my forearm over my eyes once more due to the comfort of it, and I remained like that. I put my other arm across my stomach as it growled. Hunger was finally coming back to me. My legs were spread straight out, and I hadn't paid much attention to them. They were only half covered due to the medical dress that I had on. I shrugged that off, assuming that I was only wearing one because they had to look at what was most likely bruised on my side, and they didn't want to go through the trouble of putting my original dress back on. Looking at my right arm, I noticed that the cut had indeed scarred, but it looked much better than what I expected. 

     My examination was cut short by frantic footsteps coming from down the hall outside the door. Embracing myself for noise, I squeezed my eyes shut. The door was over dramatically thrown open, and it banged against the wall, not helping my headache at all. Groaning in discomfort, I went to cover my ears before two warm hands engulfed mine. 

     "Valencia!" Dominic exclaimed. Lacing his fingers with mine, he attacked my face with kisses. I tried wiggling my way out if his grip, but he only responded by releasing my hands and wrapping his arms around my squirming form.

     "Ow...Nic...hurts," I choked out. The pain in my chest intensified when he squeezed me, and he immediately let go with worry written upon his face.

     "Oh, I'm so sorry, my Cutie! I nearly forgot!" Dominic exclaimed, causing me to look at him in confusion.

     "Forgot?" I questioned.

     "Just that Aradella left quite the number of injuries is all," he nervously chuckled with a hand scratching his neck. I opened my mouth to question him again, but he beat me to it.

     "I'm so happy you're okay! And to top it all off, you can finally speak now! Your voice is lovely by the way," Nic ended with a flirtatious wink, and against my will, I blushed. I'd forgotten how much of a flirt he was. I experienced a few butterflies that I nearly forgot I used to feel whenever he made me blush like that. Almost like I'd nearly forgotten him.

     "I've missed you so much, my love! Orson has been pawing at your door every day now since we brought you here," Nic informed me while hugging me a bit more gently this time. I decided to return his hug due to how warm he was, and his body against mine felt so comforting and familiar.

     "Orson...how is he?" I asked, and Nic pulled away with a huge smile.

     "He's perfect! Besides a few cracked ribs, he was great! They've healed nicely, though, so don't worry your pretty little head over him," he said before ruffling my hair. 

    "I just can't believe that you're not worried about how I've been without you! It's been practically a month, my dear. Too long," he said with fake tears. I rolled my eyes at his goofy tendencies, and sent him a small smile. He reached forwards and ran his thumb against my lips gently, and I looked at him curiously.

     "I've missed that smile," he whispered softly with a smile of his own. He bent down to my level and captured my lips with his own for a few moments. His lips had remained as soft as ever, and it seemed like all too soon he pulled away. I found it a little hard to admit, but I'd missed Nic. His constant showers of love and affection had been missed. Even his need to be around me all the time was something I'd deeply missed. 

     "I missed you, too," I told him fluently. There were no breaks in my speech that time. It seemed like a sweet sentence to not mess up. I fluttered my eyelashes at him due to the light being closer since I was sitting up. 

     "Ya know, I think your eyes have gotten slightly lighter. They seemed darker last time I saw you," he told me, and I shrugged at him. Maybe they were. They hadn't seen light for awhile. 

     "While I love just being able to talk to you and hold you, I have to check up on how your body's healing. So, what hurts?" He asked, suddenly becoming serious. I motioned towards my chest, side, and head. He made an 'ah' noise before asking the next question.

     "I can understand that. Aradella hit you pretty hard, but to be able to check on your side, I, uh, have to lift your nightdress," he bashfully said with a pink blush dusting his cheeks. I didn't understand his embarrassment due to the fact that a body was just a body, and nakedness didn't bother me. It also felt like I was wearing undergarments anyways. Reaching down to the hem of the dress, I pulled it up to the bottom of my b*a and Dominic silently gulped. 

    "W-well, the bruise looks better than a f-few days ago. May I t-touch it?" He stuttered out, and I laughed before nodding my head. He carefully ran his hand along the purple and black bruise against my side, and I sharply took a breath of air in so as to not hiss out in pain.

     "So it's still p-painful I see," he muttered, and I nodded my head while biting my lip to hold in my groans of pain. His blue eyes locked with mine for a second before he quickly looked away.

     "Don't do that," he said with a darker blush.

     "Do what?" I groaned out while squeezing my eyes shut. Dominic seemed to have forgotten his hand still remained on my bruised side and was slowly pressing in.

     "Don't do that either," he ordered before quickly retracting his hand and placing it on his lap. He'd pulled up a chair a little while ago to sit in. I gave him another confused look before moving to pull the dress back down. His hands caught my wrists mid-action however.

     "Where'd you get that scar?" he asked while motioning towards a diagonal scar that ran slightly above my belly button. His fingers gently ran over the scarred piece of flesh, and I looked down at it.

     "Nearly...forgot it. Small robot snuck in shelter...attempted to cut me open," I said with a small chuckle.

     "That's nothing to laugh about, Valencia. You could have died. I'm so sorry my robots have done so much bad to you over the years. What other scars do you have from them?" He asked. While I started explaining small stories from the marks littering my skin, he began kissing every mark he could find. My cheeks darkened every time I felt his lips linger, and my voice wavered several times during my explanations. 

     "A-and...I think is all," I finished, and his blue hues gazed at me lovingly beneath his blue tresses. His lips rested on a bullet wound that nicked my ankle, and he soon removed his lips from that spot as well. I hadn't noticed it until he stopped, but he'd been distracting me from my pain the entire time.

     "If you ever need me to, I'll take all your pain away. I'd do anything for you, my love," he told me with half-lidded eyes. He quickly closed the distance between us as he cupped my cheek in his hand and tilted my head to the side. I thought he was going to kiss me, but his lips instead went to my neck. He trailed soft kisses from behind my ear, all the way down to my collar bone where he nipped at the skin, then went back up. He then moved my face back towards him and crashed his lips onto mine. He'd never kissed me with such passion before, and I felt myself falling deeply into him. His kisses had been forgotten by me with all the time we'd spent apart.

     Once again, I felt his tongue brush lightly against my bottom lip, only this time, I allowed him access. Our tongues danced in a playful tango, and we found ourselves pulling away, panting, with a small string of saliva connecting us. 

     "You have no idea how much I've missed you," he softly said into my ear as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. I responded by wrapping my arms around him in return and nuzzling my face into his chest. When a few minutes passed from being in his warm embrace, I had almost been lulled to sleep had it not been disrupted by Dominic speaking again.

     "Valencia, I have something to ask you..." He trailed off in a slightly anxious tone. I slowly lifted my head from his chest to meet his gaze, and he took that as a sign to continue.

     "Would you, under any circumstance, allow me to marry you and let yourself be completely mine?" Dominic asked, staring pleadingly into my brown eyes. The question shocked me. His word choice was what startled me the most, but even besides that, I didn't think I was ready for marriage. I had a job to fulfill. Maybe after I used the key for its purpose, I would be okay with marrying the male before me. But then again, he was expecting my answer to be a yes, and I'd already put him through enough heartbreak. I was dumbstruck by his question, and I couldn't decide what the best option was.

     Right when I went to open my mouth to reply with my decision, a knock on the door interrupted me. Dominic groaned and released me from his grip before practically dragging himself to the door. Another knock came from the door, and Dominic grudgingly opened it.

     "What do you want?" He growled out. His mood had taken a complete one-eighty, and I was once again shocked. It seemed as if everyone but myself was a bother to him.

     "Master, I think you should let Miss Valencia sleep. She must be really tired, especially since you disturbed her," the voice of Corrine said.

     "I don't disturb her! You're the disturbance here," Dominic said like a five year old on a tantrum. He crossed his arms as well.

     "I really think you should allow her some rest. The more rest you give her now, the more time you can spend with her later," Corrine tried reasoning. Dominic seemed to consider it for a moment before agreeing with her and walking back to me.

     "I've gotta go, Cutie. Think on my question, okay?" He lovingly asked before gently laying a kiss on my forehead. I nodded at him as he turned away with a smile and exited with Corrine. The door quietly closed, and I was left alone with the nearly silent ticking of the clock. 

     Closing my eyes, I attempted to get comfy once more. Placing my arms behind my head seemed to do the trick, and I felt myself falling asleep rather quickly. It was in that small moment between wakefulness and sleep that I realized throughout that entire intimate moment with Dominic, never once did I feel my heartbeat quicken.