Curse Revealed

Nazilla looks for Samara to see if she can reconnect with her old lover.

It had been hours since I had escaped The Net facility and stolen another car once I had gotten far enough away. The Net facility had been my home since my rebirth. I shouldn't say rebirth since I am now a machine. I was once a living, breathing, human girl and now I am a Machine. A filthy Machine.


Though I was allowing an inner dialog inside my head, I was focusing more on my surroundings. I would shortly be with Samara and I couldn't wait. I felt that if I could still feel something with Samara I would be human enough.


I finally found the apartment and felt a feeling close to happiness. It wasn't the same, though. I should have been feeling extreme bliss after being away from Samara for so long. I slowly got out of the car as I imagined that Samara would not accept me. Hell, I didn't even accept myself most days now.


I walked to the door as I gathered courage that I did not feel. Before I got to the door I looked behind me and saw something that I couldn't really tell if it was there or not. It flickered in and out. It seemed to be a young woman who was all in white and her whole form was nebulous. Finally she just disappeared. I would have to get myself looked at later.


Turning back to the door, I walked to the door and hesitated a moment and then knocked. With my Machine hearing I heard more than one person in the apartment. Was I already replaced by Samara? Would it now be easier for her to push me away?


The door opened and a man greeted me. My human memory didn't recognize him but my database did. It identified him as a member of Karma. My friend unless he found out what I really was.


"Can I have a glass of water?" I asked while giving him the hand signal.


The man looked at me a moment before nodding and letting me in.


"Why did Karma send you here?" The man asked after he shut the door.


"I can't tell you because of orders." I replied. Karma sometimes would have its members keep secrets from other members. This was, of course, so that the secrets could be better kept. Also allowed less of a chance for betrayal. "But what I can tell you is that I'm looking for Samara Crichton."


I was worried that this was pushing away the Karma member's trust in me. Looking around I could see two other members in the room. I could see their distrust of me but they had to follow their leader.


After a few minutes the Karma member nodded.


"I will have her location in a few minutes. I don't believe I've heard anything about Crichton's location being kept secret." He said and paused a moment. "And maybe you can help her. She lost her lover a few years back and you look like her type of woman."
*                  *               *
I started to feel what I would've called nervous, when I was a human, as I got closer to Samara's new house. I couldn't wait to see her and feel human once more. But that would all be meaningless if she destroyed me because she thought I might be some kind of trick from The Net.


I parked in her driveway and looked at her house. It looked more expensive than our old apartment and might mean that she had moved up in rank. Being very careful, as Samara is an agent of Karma, I walked up to the front door and rung the doorbell.


I looked at the wall and did see that it was made out of materials that would dampen the sounds a Machine would hear.


After a minute I figured out that Samara was not home. I didn't want to stand outside where someone might see me that wasn't supposed to. If one member of The Net saw me there would be trouble as I would either be destroyed or reprogrammed.


I walked over to one of the windows and decided to get in that way. I figured that the door would be more trouble than the window. That's how Samara usually did things. After a few careful minutes I managed to open the window and got in a half second before security caught me. I looked around quickly to make sure that there weren't going to be any surprises for me.


Turning I saw a hidden camera that must've not raised anything since my skin was that of my old human body. Lucky that Samara didn't put much money on her camera or the fact that she couldn't stand killing anything that looked like me. But that last explanation was either too human or just plain illogical.


When I had checked out Samara's entire house for traps, I started looking at it in another way. I started to look for any pictures of her. I didn't expect much since those in Karma had a thing with secrecy. Or at least the better members did. And Samara was a very good member of Karma.


After going through all the pictures in the house I was calm with the knowledge that Samara hadn't taken another lover since my human body had died. At least I had a chance to be with her as I once was. But it would be difficult even if she did accept me as I didn't know how long I could cling onto my humanity. Though my thoughts of being with Samara made me almost forget my Machine side.


I found a place by the door and stood there. I didn't move at all and I didn't feel any reason to move. An hour later I heard a car pulling up in the driveway. Would it be Samara Crichton or someone who would kill me without thought? I waited and took my gun out just in case.


The door opened, there was a gasp, and Samara dropped her groceries. I tried to read a clear emotion on her face but couldn't. There was a mix of fear and joy along with a million other emotions. I remained silent.

After a few minutes of silence I bent down to pick up Samara's groceries. As I picked them up she just stood still and silent while looking at me. I didn't blame her. I sometimes had trouble looking at myself in the mirror, so I couldn't say anything bad against her reaction. Also, she had seen me die in her arms and now she was looking at a robot version of me.


Finally I finished picking up the groceries and handed them to her. Her reaction of taking the groceries from me was more robotic than I could ever be.

"Samara, it's good to see you." I said after I decided someone would have to break the silence.


Samara looked at me oddly and I thought that she wasn't going to speak. "You're not Nazilla. You're not my girlfriend." She walked away from me and went into the kitchen.


"If you'll let me, I'll explain." I said as I went after her.


As soon as Samara put down her groceries she held a gun to my face. "Stop pretending to be her!" She yelled. "You can't be her! She's dead!"


I thought a moment before saying, "What if I am Nazilla? Wouldn't you like to make sure?"


Samara lowered her gun. "I'll let you explain and then I'll kill you. I think I can do that and not die."


With that I sat at the kitchen table and waited as Samara made tea. She seemed like an angel as she moved around. Seeing Samara make tea made it seem as though the past three years had never happened. It made my suffering and change seem like nothing. As long as I could see her I'd be close enough to Heaven to satisfy me. When she sat down and gave me tea the anger of God shot through her eyes to me.


"So how can you be Nazilla?" Samara asked and sipped her tea to cover up the hope in her voice.


"After I died, Netty took my body and transferred my brain's knowledge to a chip." I explained.


"Why would they want to make a Machine who was once a human?" She asked.


"There are some things that a human can know that a Machine could never understand. Some things are impossible to know by just being told."


"If that's true, then don't you have programming in you besides what Netty got from your brain."


"Yes, there was. I managed to find a way to put it in the background after three years. It won't affect me anymore."


"Prove it." As she said that I had a crazy idea that I had wanted to do to her for three years. I slowly walked over and showed Samara I wasn't going to harm her. Then I gave her a kiss like I had given her before I was made into a Machine.


When I finished the kiss and backed away, I saw Samara's face change. She smiled but then quickly took on a stoic look.


She got up quickly and said, "You will sleep alone tonight. I trust you are Nazilla, but not that your programming won't make you try and kill me." She got up and went to her room.


Well, at least I could be in Samara's life again. That was the most I could hope for.
*                    *                *
Right now I was being reminded of my humanity being a thing of the past. I had been reminded of it ever since the change, but now it was clearer than ever. I don't know if it was the untouched food in front of me or Samara's eyes looking into me. Her eyes showed distrust as she kept eating her food.


The silence was something I would've liked to get rid of, but she had not replied to any of my attempts at conversation. I dearly hoped that she was thinking of why I should be with her. Be in her life, at least. But with every bite she ate it seemed that she would never agree to be with me anymore.


Finally I pushed around the food on my plate like a human child. Or, really, like any human at all. Looking at Samara's mouth I thought I saw a brief smile. I went back over the moment in my memory banks and I saw that there had been a smile on her face for less than a second.


After Samara finished her meal she looked at me. She stared at me like she was looking for any bit of the Nazilla she used to know.


"Naz," She finally said. "I think there is some of you left. Know what? I love that part and I can't see the rest of you getting destroyed. If I lost you again I don't know how I would recover. I don't think I could."


Samara paused for a few minutes before she walked over to me. I thought that she was going to slap me but then her lips pressed into mine. I loved the feeling but it somehow felt distant. It was as though I could tell what was happening but not feel like a human would. I couldn't feel the same joy that I used to feel when human.


But it was what I had wanted so I kissed back. When we both pulled back as one a smile was on her face. My face wasn't expressionless and had a smile for her.


"I love you." We both said as one. I admit, I did cheat to give it perfect timing. But it did make us both happy.


As we smiled as one, she took my hand and led me to her room.