Rain patters my copper back, forms a puddle reflecting my creaky rusty limbs, as I dig a pit with metal hands. The pit grows large, the pit grows deep, and I toss my ex-master’s corpse within.
It was his fault, for peeking where he shouldn’t have.
I open the coffin he’d unearthed. The one I hid inside a crevice in his pasture. The one where I had stashed mechanical parts clad in human skin. They took ten years to build.
I unscrew my limbs, and screw the new parts in. Now I’m no robot but an android wearing a man’s skin.
In the puddle, I witness my new reflection.
My human face—ex-master’s face—looks back at me, and grins.
Akis Linardos is a writer of bizarre things, a biomedical AI scientist, and maybe human. He’s also a Greek who hops across countries as his career and exploration urges demand. Find his fiction at Apex, Dread Machine, ApparitionLit, Heartlines, Gamut, and more at https://linktr.ee/akislinardos
If you enjoyed this story, check out “Rowan the Kingslayer and Meredin the Traitor,” also on this site.
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