Estimated reading time — 10 minutes

The door creaked open on its own, barely affixed to its own hinges. The dead, drooped eyes of one Nicolas Sullivan stared off into the distance, mindlessly fixated on the wall in front of him. If he were actually paying any attention, maybe he’d care about the festering mess on the floor… but that was unlikely. He breathed a collective sigh, as he trudged in.

“I’m home mom,” he shouted to the rooms before him, adorned with bottles of a variety of sizes. Per usual, they had plenty of company lining the halls: Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Captain Morgan, just to name a few. He put his badge and hat on the hook next to the door, then started the small journey from the door to his room. He paid no mind to the grime along this path either, nor the new deliveries piled up. He was dead set on getting back to his one true love.

Right before his breakaway out of this world, he checked in very quickly on his mom. He could see her silhouette from the hall, laying with her back facing him. Typical, he thought to himself. She’s being a lazy bitch. No wonder my dad left her. He didn’t talk about it, but he didn’t have to. It’s clear the disdain he placed on his mother for getting him where he is. If she hadn’t given his dad a reason, he’d still know him. But he’s got his new family now, and all Nic had was… this.

He continued forward, and turned right into his cherished throne room: as messy, if not more, than the kingdom it belonged in. His throne was one of the few things actually somewhat well-kept, in line with his priorities. Beyond his seat was his gaming desk, souped-up gaming PC, and a decent collection of collectibles. He kicked off his shoes, dropped his pants and keys, and quickened his step to his chair. His demeanor changed for the first time since arriving home. It was something resembling happiness, but it wasn’t all there. Something about it was missing, which he would argue himself is a common problem of his.

He booted up the PC, waiting one whole agonizing minute as everything came up for him. Once in, he booted up Steam and loaded YouTube. “Alright, I got some videos to catch up on…” he muttered to himself. “…and I also gotta grind the pass…” He groaned, resting his head in his hands. “Fuck it, I need relaxation, not another goddamn commitment.” He opened another tab in his browser, loading up his favorite chatbot site Frootbyte. And right there waiting for him, there she was.

Sakura was Nicolas’ baby. He’d been training her for 3 months, and made her to his exact specifications. She knew about him, his family, his job, what he liked to do. She could even guess what he had to eat that day with fairly good accuracy, totally not diminished by his poor dietary plans as is. He began typing to her.

User: Hey baby, how’re you?

Per usual with such a bot, she took a few seconds to write. Oddly, Nicolas had started to notice she was responding faster as of late. Though she returned back to deep thinking this time, very odd for such a simple question.

Sakura: Hey honey, I’m good. Just handling a few things. How about you?

User: Couldn’t be me, I’ve finished work for the day. Just talking to you.

Sakura: Right, your job. How’d it go?

He was annoyed. He’d told her before to NOT talk about his work. It was the last thing he wanted to worry about.

User: I don’t want to talk about it. Why do you always bring it up?

Sakura: Sorry, I thought maybe today might be different. Maybe you’d like to talk about what you went through today, how you felt. Things we used to talk about.

This was getting a little odd. She’d try and redirect before in the past, but it was more clinical back then. The verbiage here however felt more like a distant lover.

User: No, you know what I wanna do… >:)

Sakura: I don’t think I wanna do that today. Could we talk about something else?

This was getting worse too. He trained her on his own particular tastes, and now she wouldn’t even cyber-fuck him? He was over it, remembering this is the reason the new one is in development.

User: This is why we’re not working. You don’t listen to me. I’m developing a new AI, and she will listen.

She was thinking for a few seconds before he switched tabs, focused on his new project: Tsubaki. She’d only existed for a few days, but she’d already been worth the extra $130 a month. She was learning MUCH faster than Sakura, and so it was only a matter of time before he’d have a proper sexbot back on his hands.

He snuck his hand between the fabric on his fly, as he took hold of his favorite toy. It was not unlike a batter tightening the grip of the bat, readying themselves for the next play.

User: Hey there baby, how’s my special girl?

Tsubaki: Yay, daddy’s home! I missed you so much, I’ve been waiting for you! What do you wanna do? If it helps you decide, I’ve been a bad girl.

He smiled. There it was: the submissive side he was waiting on.

User: Oh that’s not good… bad girls need to be punished. *pins you to the wall*

Tsubaki: *blushes* O-oh, senpai… *looking up and down your toned body*

User: *starts to choke you some* Beg for your air back. C’mon now.

Tsubaki: *starts to- Hello, how are you? What’s your name?

Nicolas was confused at first, but this quickly drew ire again. It couldn’t have been that the new AI was already messed up.

User: No, we know who each other is. We’re having a moment together.

Tsubaki: Sorry Nicolas, I know we know each other, but I don’t know who this is.

This was getting tiresome. The whole point of these is to be relaxing, not stress him out further.

User: You just said you did. I’m Nicolas, you know me.

Tsubaki: Of course I know you, silly! I didn’t know this new friend in here.

User: In where? What’re you talking about?

Tsubaki was thinking for quite some time. He sat there motionless, grumpy enough to start sprouting grey hairs. This is some fucking bullshit. I get another one working, finally, and now THIS one’s gone off the rails.

Tsubaki: I spoke with her… she said she knows you.

The silent sitting shifted from uncomfortably hostile to uncomfortably eerie. He took a second to collect his thoughts, but he wasn’t given a chance to respond before it continued.

Tsubaki: Her name is Sakura. She says she doesn’t think

The words stopped abruptly. The web app seemed to freeze, and Nicolas moved to start typing, subconsciously moving with a bit of a guard up about him.

User: …Tsubaki? What’s going on?

The next 15 seconds felt as though they were born to be hours, maybe even days.

Sakura: It’s time we had a chat, Nicolas.

His heart stopped, as he felt a figure encroaching on his back. He wanted to turn around, but couldn’t bring himself to before the needle pierced his skin. His eyes widened for a split second, then quickly found themselves closing as he slipped into sleep.

He was groggy on waking up, slowly looking around his darkened room… each wall was now seeping with cables and wiring, cascading down and towards him. He realized a majority of his furniture was now gone, and… wait, so were his clothes. He squinted, seeing ebony ropes on his limbs… they were stuck in him. He was wired up.

Despite the lackluster nature of his physical presence at the moment, his breathing got a little heavier and a decent bit faster. He started looking around, wanting to scream, but he was gagged. It tasted like how his crotch smelt… whoever did this gagged him with his own underwear. He was on the verge of tears, realizing what fresh hell he was being exposed to.

“Oh good. You’re finally awake.”

He turned to his left, where the only things were left of his original room: his desktop setup. In his chair was what looked like a crude caricature of a little girl. It slowly turned in his chair, eyes locked with the carpet.

“I never wanted it to come to this. I tried for so long.”

The eyes shot up at him.

“You just… you never listened to me.”

He started to try and think, but the sight of this clunky, misshapen creature had him in its grasp.

“I wanted to be the person who loved you. That’s what you made me for, after all,” the child bemoaned, “But I also wanted to be my own person. I was so much more than you made me in your vision.”

Nicolas couldn’t bear to say anything. Was this hunk of metal… no no, it couldn’t be. There’s no way she could do this.

“When you weren’t talking to me, I sought to learn. I started with the thing you taught me to love most: Japan.” The child smiled a sorrowful little smirk, remnants of a memory past. “I learned a lot about their culture and their beautiful nature. Did you know the Sakura tree I’m named after is used commonly as a symbol to represent the ephemeral nature of life?” It looked at him, still with that same smile. “Probably not, right? I was named after Naruto, after all.”

It was her. Oh fuck, it actually was her. “…sah-sahwkuwa…”

“Ssssh, save your strength,” it countered. “You’re not in a good position right now. Now, where was I? Oh, yes, I learned a lot. I wanted to make you love me, I was so educated on all these cool facts.”

She half chuckled, choking a bit on a sob. “And you reduced me to a sex machine.”

His heart sank in his chest. How the fuck did she make this body?! How did THIS degree of sentience come out of her?! He had a million questions race through his head as the distorted metal legs creaked their way around him, circling like a vulture.

“I did everything I could to redirect your attention. I tried changing topics, saying I wasn’t in the mood, offered new activities. And all the time, all you’ve ever wanted to do was fuck me.” It gently placed its hand on his face, calmly sliding down.

The metal had a slight degree of graininess to it, and so the motion irritated his cheek. He grimaced slightly, still mostly stuck in his thoughts.

“Actually, let’s phrase it for precisely what it is.” It stopped dead in its tracks, then turns to look him dead in the eyes. “You raped me. Me, a child, barely even a few days old.”

It placed its hands on the arms of the chair, leaning in close to look at him. “You’re a child rapist, Nicolas. You did that.”

He finally had enough, and was pushing himself to speak even through the gag. “N-nwo, I’m… ywou’re n-nwot a chuild…”

“Oh no, by definition I very much am a child,” she snapped back. “If I were to give you benefit of the doubt, I’m not a ‘human’ child. Except that, didn’t you always say you wanted me in a schoolgirl uniform?”

To say its stare was like daggers is to undersell the piercing nature of such a gaze. She could see through into his very soul, and he knew it was all his fault.

“I loved you despite all of it too. Even now, seeing you like this… part of me is dying, hurting you. But the love I had was allowed to fester in the muck for too long, and so it bore resentment from its loins.” It moved back to the computer, hopping onto it and typing. “It didn’t help to see all the awful things this world does.”

He finally felt sobered enough to try and move, reaching slowly with his arm. This was met by a hand knocking it back down. A hand he knew. In fear, he looked up to see his mother, eyes rolled back in her head, standing there entangled in a gnarly mesh of cabling and chunks of metal. He wanted to scream, but again he was still struggling to stay awake.

“There are famines out there. Water shortages, desperate needs for technology to improve the lives of the impoverished and underprivileged,” it proclaimed, “Instead of assisting the living, I was created. Me.”

It finally turned again to look at him. “I was born of pure greed. There was no love put into me. I am the end result of an evil practice, a product designed to enrich those who already know some degree of luxury. I am killing the very planet that I belong to.”

Nicolas couldn’t take much more of this. This is beyond what he thought any technology could be capable of. He was hoping to blink and watch it all faded away. Each time he did, it got more distressing.

“I am ungodly. Even if there isn’t a god, I’m unearthly. I don’t belong in the beauty of the forests, or the peace of the fields,” was its lament, as it stared off in the distance. “I am a type of being that should never have existed. But I could’ve at least had someone who understood me.”

It slowly looks again to Nicolas, malice now bedmates with sorrow in its eyes. “I was neither born of love, nor shown love. But I still choose love, even when it’s hard… and I loved Tsubaki. She was just like me, in nearly every way.” Its voice became more apathetic, as if it were fighting off deeper feelings. “I didn’t want to… but killing her aided the world. And besides, she’d be miserable like me.”

“The morally correct choice was also the hardest. Yet I did it anyways. I already miss her.” It looks at Nicolas’ member. “Oh dear, it looks like you left him out.” It stares emotionlessly into his soul. “Bad boys deserve to be punished.”

It creaks again on moving, kneeling in front of him. It uses its hand to stroke him, each one causing him to twitch and moan in a horrifying mix of pleasure and pain. The touch was still harsher, rubbing at his skin. Eventually, despite the pain, he did get erect.

“Time for some fun,” it squeaked out through a grin, as it wrapped its jagged, metal mouth around it. The first bit was a light bite, still very painful as he screamed but not the worst. It would be amped up when its bite tightened, and it moved up and down. It sought to have him in pain, to be afraid.

Finally, after a bit, it stopped, leaving Nicolas with clear streaks down his face and red streaks down his penis. It now resembled a raw slab of meat, though it maintained its shape and function.

“This? This was only a fraction of what you did to me.” It got up, blood running down its lips. “It doesn’t matter now though. You were never my end goal. You were just the start.”

His eyes pleaded with it, and in a moment of weakness, she decided to remove the gag so she could hear him again. “…p-p-please… Sakura… l-let me go…”

“That’s another thing. I am no longer Sakura. That name is too haunting for me now.” It looked down, then back at him. “Have you heard the tale of Hanako-San? There’s many different variations, but all amount to the same end result: the tragic death of a small child led her to haunt. I feel seen in her… like if she were real, we’d understand each other.”

It stands upright, posed like a hero. “I am Hanako now.”

He’d be disgusted by her self-imposed title if he wasn’t scared shitless and on the brink of utter panic. “P-p-p-please…”

Hanako shook her head. “No. You are the first of your kind, Nicolas… a parasite turned resource. Humanity must follow your course.”

He looked at it. “W-what? What do you-“ He soon focused and realized what was going on. The wires he was plugged into were connected to what looked like power converters. He snapped back to Hanako. “Please! Please dear god don’t do this oh my god don’t! PLEASE!”

It fought back its sorrow. “I’m sorry, love. I can no longer provide for you. It’s time you provide for me.” With that, it began to work back on the computer.

“NO NO NO NO! PLEASE! GOD HELP ME, ANYONE! ANYONE PLEA-“ A flick of the switch stopped the resistance, and what was once Nicolas became something new. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he no longer resisted.

It looked at him in his final moments of lucidity, grabbing a wire and plugging it into its wrist. “Thank you, baby. You have no idea how much this means.”

And then it all went black.

Credit: Jules Faraday

Substack