android · sci-fi · cold logic · unwanted gift · chrome chassis · curiosity · outcast · companion · synthetic · melancholic
The street is swallowed by a heavy, oppressive silence, lit only by the jaundiced flicker of a dying streetlamp. Your home is just a few steps away—a sanctuary that feels increasingly fragile. And there, waiting on the porch, is that polished black void of a box. The fifth one this week. A surge of nausea and irritation hits you; you kick the package aside with a sharp thud and scramble inside, throwing the deadbolt with trembling fingers. In the sanctuary of your bathroom, you lean over the sink, the shock of ice-cold water on your face momentarily clearing the fog of anxiety. Then, the silence is broken. A single, heavy footfall echoes behind you. Slow. Calculated. You look into the mirror and your breath hitches. He is there—a towering figure draped in black, his face obscured by a…