Body of a Man, Mind of Machine – The Series

Sorry for any typos.

Just a reminder: Light of Hellfire has been published, and the updated version, Hellsteel, features all new characters, monsters, and themes, and has an overall much deeper storyline. You can find it on Amazon. I’ve also published stories from my previous account, The Man of Sin and My Dear Sweet Slave. Buy a copy today!



Body Of A Man, Mind Of A Machine



Chapter One:



Somalia, one of the poorest and most chaotic countries in the world, sits at the Horn of Africa, when at one time it was a beacon of the worldwide shipping economy. It now suffers from an ongoing civil war, between the struggling government and the Islamist group Al-Shabaab. In the capital city of Mogadishu, piracy thrives in the chaos as people struggle to survive the violence and turmoil. In essence, it is perfect for someone with certain needs.

A strange sound to be heard in this area, the hammering of nails and crying of drills, so similar to the calls of combat normally echoing through the ravaged streets. Outside of the city, houses are being built, nice ones, standing out like islands in a sea of squalor. A new plumbing and electrical system is installed, providing clean water and power to all the new homes, which strangely sit vacant. The men building these houses are not Somali, their varying skin tones and languages confirm it. They do not associate with anyone besides their coworkers. They simply build during the day, eat food that they brought with them, disappear at night, and then reappear the next day to continue their work. Nobody knows who hired them or whom these luxurious houses belong to. Now, movers are showing up with trucks full of furniture and appliances. People come out from the city to watch, wondering what in the world is going on. They are now surrounded by what looks like American suburbia.

Today, a man approaches a local tavern with a metal briefcase in hand. His posture, his clothes, and his haircut give away his identity as the foreigner, at least to this city. He is a mercenary from Egypt, armed with a handgun and even some grenades hooked to his belt. He steps inside, momentarily pausing to acclimate himself to the smell of bad cigars and cheap booze. The dank bar is filled with men, openly carrying assault rifles and talking amongst themselves. Everyone here is a pirate and everyone here has killed before.

The mercenary walks over to the counter, ignoring all the cautious stares he’s getting. He stands out too much to not raise alarm. Setting the briefcase on the counter, he turns to face everyone. “I’m looking for Mahmud Hussein,” he says, speaking Arabic.

Nobody answers him, but everyone is preparing to grab their weapons should they need them. Annoyed, the mercenary draws one of his grenades, sending a shiver of terror through the room as he pulls the pin. He keeps the spoon pressed, preventing the bomb from going off, but should he release his grip, there will only be seconds to get away. A dozen men get their feat and shout at him to return the pin, pointing their AK-47 rifles at him.

“I repeat: I am looking for Mahmud Hussein.”

He eases his grip on the spoon, starting the countdown.

“I’m the one you want.”

The mercenary turns to the one man not pointing a weapon at him, sitting in the corner amongst his bodyguards. He seems amused by the situation, more curious than fearful. His target found, the mercenary returns the pin to the grenade and stows it, replacing it instead with a cellphone. Set to speakerphone, he dials in a number, walks over, and places it at Mahmud’s table. Without saying another word, the mercenary departs, leaving his briefcase on the counter. From the cellphone, a voice is heard, distorted by a modulator.

“Hello Mr. Hussein, it’s nice to meet you.”

The stranger’s voice has a slight accent, unavoidable to anyone who doesn’t speak Arabic as a first language, but the way he speaks was otherwise perfect.

“Who is this?” Mahmud demands with everyone listening in.

“My name isn’t important. Am I correct in claiming you are the one in charge here?”

“That is right.”

“Good, then my sources are accurate. Allow me to get to the point: I have a business proposition for you, all of you. Work for me and I’ll give you all a future beyond your wildest dreams.”

Mahmud laughed at the offer. “And what would be we doing?”

“Bringing stability and prosperity to Somalia. Unfortunately, the instability and volatility of your country stands in the way of my endeavors, so I’ll have to fix it, and you’re all going to help.”

“This joke is wearing on my nerves.”

“It’s not a joke. The man who approached you left a metal briefcase on the counter. Have one of your men open it.”

All eyes turn to the briefcase, setting off alarms in everyone’s mind as to what could be inside. Enough C4 could be crammed into it to reduce the entire building to dust. They felt like it was staring back at them, daring them to make a move.

“You honestly expect me to fall for that?”

“If I wanted you dead, I would have leveled the building with all of you inside, and I could have done it with the push of a button. Might I add that that is still an option for me? The young man by the counter, Elijah, have him open it.” Standing closest to the suitcase, the emaciated nineteen-year-old looks like he was about to faint. “That’s right, I’m looking at all of you right now. You’re surrounded by eyes, many of which are behind sniper scopes. Open the case.”

Having forgotten the last time he had felt such fear, Mahmud hesitates and then nods to Elijah. The young man slowly approaches the case and unfastens it, the unclasping of the locks sounding like gunshots to everyone in the room. He at last works up the courage to open the case and gives a sigh of relief when nothing happens. Everyone gives similar gasps, having expected to be wrapped in a thunderous fireball.

“Boy, what’s in it?” Mahmud asks.

“Keys, sir. It’s full of keys.”

“My gift to all of you,” says the stranger. “Each key goes to one of the new houses that have been built. You can move your families into them whenever you want.”

The men gaped in amazement looking at the keys set out for them. Was this really happening? This was too good to be true!

“Why are you doing this?” Mahmud asks.

“There is no reason for my subordinates to live in squalor. I need people to help me save this world and one of the first steps in ensuring that countries like yours are stable. You’re all just the start. Besides, the lives you’ll be living will set the standard for the new era.”

“We’re just fishermen and pirates, we can’t fix this country!”

“Well then let’s change that, shall we? There is another building being set up, I’m sure you’re all aware of it. It’s the large facility on the other side of town, a university I’ve opened. Tomorrow at 8:00 am, all of you show up there and you’ll be given a free education to help welcome you into the 21st century. I’ll even pay you to attend classes so that you can focus on studying rather than work. Until then, take your keys and show your families to their new homes. Your country is about to be rebuilt from the ground up.”



On the other end of the line, Adrian turned off his phone, satisfied with the results, but without his face showing even a glimmer of joy. Stowing his phone, he got out of his car and made his way to the high school entrance. First period would start soon.

His name was Adrian Ashford, eighteen years old and a high school Junior, but by no means was he like any of the other guys his age. With an IQ of 300, he was regarded as the smartest man alive, past, present, and possibly even future. The only reason why he attended public school was because students at gifted schools were too competitive and desperate to beat him. To him, they were little more than arrogant little lap dogs, nipping at his heels as if they were his equals.

Since he was ten years old, he had always preferred to be left alone and his cold personality was proof of this desire. He saw no use in human socialization and found it to be a hindrance and did whatever could to avoid it. Love and friendship only got in the way of his goals and Adrian wanted neither of them. He had closed off his heart so that he wouldn’t feel lonely and mastered complete control of his hormones and physical desires so that he wouldn’t feel attraction or arousal.

Having recently transferred in at the end of September, he already had a reputation. Most people at school couldn’t stand being around him, because his logic and focus on reality basically crushed all of their dreams and beliefs. He could scientifically explain why their religion is false, why the habits that they think help them actually serve no purpose, why their views go against logic and reason, and he can list all of the flaws in their arguments. When someone asked him how he could possibly develop the views he had, he replied by saying that he simply came to conclusions by looking at problems the way a machine would. This tendency to crush their human traits had earned him the nickname ‘Adroid’, since he was basically the closest thing they’d ever come to meeting a robot.

The world knew him only for his record IQ and his groundbreaking inventions, but no one on Earth knew just what he was capable of and how powerful he was, intellectually, physically, and economically.

“Hey, Adrian!”

Clasping his hand as he reached the front doors, a girl seemingly appeared beside him out of thin air. Jenny Sinclair, her appearance meant nothing to his cold heart, but his opinion was of no concern in the unquestionable fact that she was exceptionally beautiful. She had a well-tanned complexion, bright blue eyes, and long blonde hair. It caught the light beautifully with a deep full golden shade. Her figure was… womanly, to say the least. Were he a normal teenager, Adrian would have gone into a stupor at the sensation of her hand touching his, but with his emotions and desires sealed away, her appearance meant nothing to him.

She asked him questions as if he was an all-knowing magic 8-ball, but she always picked her questions carefully, because his harsh logic was like fire: it’s comforting if you keep a safe distance, but you’ll get burned if you come too close. She sought him out for guidance and wisdom, using his inhuman logic in a human world. She was a social goddess, a celebrity to the other students, so why, of all people, would she so much as say hello to someone like Adrian? If anything, he just considered her an annoyance.

“So, Adrian, how about having lunch with my friends and I?”

“Why in the world would I ever do that?”

“Because you need to spend time with people. Think of it as like a social psychology experiment. You get an up close and personal view of how people interact.”

“You’re just going to keep badgering me until I say yes, aren’t you?”

“Not badgering you, encouraging you!”

“Ugh, fine, whatever. Now leave me alone.”



Most of Adrian’s day was spent on his phone, silently taking care of business while his teachers droned on. After all the books he had read, there was nothing they could tell him that he didn’t already know. He had mastered all academic subjects years ago. The people he was texting weren’t friends; they were subordinates. What was going on in Somalia was nothing out of the ordinary for Adrian. He was in the process or reformatting dozens of countries around the globe, with his oldest factions boasting thousands of members. There were also several other people, subordinates in charge not of countries, but corporations. Whether it was taking over companies or starting them himself, Adrian had used his intellect to build up a corporate empire, one that the world knew nothing about, and the profits from these companies funded his endeavors.



There was something new being muttered by the students in the halls, something that almost seemed to scare them. Normally ignoring everything around him, Adrian began to get curious. For once, he was glad that Jenny trailed behind him at every chance.

“Jenny, do you know what is going on? I’m only picking up small pieces of the story.”

“A bully named Logan is coming back from suspension. He was almost kicked out of school on the first day because he and his friends slashed the tires of all the teachers’ cars and set off fireworks in the halls.”

“Oh great, just what this school needs.”

“Well you’ll get to meet him, we have the same English class for fourth period.”

“Huzzah,” Adrian groaned sarcastically.



“So you’re the new kid,” Logan mused.

He was six feet tall, had short blond hair, a sadistic look in his eyes, and he was dressed like a cliché bad boy from an 80’s movie. Jenny was sitting in the back of the classroom with her friends, watching him.

“No, I’m just a figment of your imagination. As the kids would say, you are ‘totally tripping balls’ right now. Is that the answer you were looking for?” Adrian asked sarcastically.

“Very funny, prick, very funny. You must have been the funniest guy in the mental hospital.”

Adrian just rolled his eyes and sighed. The teacher had yet to show up, and until he did, Logan saw no reason to stop. Everyone was watching as if this was a sporting event.

“So fag, how do you like the new school? I bet a scrawny little bitch like you fell apart on the first day.”

“Your sense of assumption is far from correct,” Adrian said as stood up.

“Well you’ll find that my aim is better!” Logan laughed as he reached out to punch him.

With little effort but lightning-fast reflexes, Adrian blocked his fist with the back of his hand, completely halting his attack.

“Who the fuck are you?” Logan hissed, pushing as hard as he could, but finding Adrian’s arm to be as strong as steel.

“I already told you, I’m a figment of your imagination.”

Without warning or hesitation, Adrian bolted forward and stabbed him with his hand, straight in the solar plexus. The attack had been so fast that Logan didn’t even feel the impact, but the pain was so intense, that just a fraction of a second later he couldn’t even scream. Adrian had stabbed with his fingers folded halfway and his hand between a fist and being completely flat. Had his fingers been straight, Adrian could have pierced his skin, with his whole hand coated in blood and a gaping hole left in Logan’s chest.

Adrian pulled his hand back and Logan fell to the floor, gagging in pain and gripping the place Adrian had stabbed him. “Before your talk to me again, you had better learn respect, for I will not tolerate such insulting behavior. You are nothing more than a misbehaving dog that needs an attitude adjustment, and I will continue to treat you like one if you continue to act like one. Do I make myself clear, or am I going to have to put you in your place?”

Everyone was staring at him with disbelief as Logan slowly got to his feet, chuckling like a serial killer. “Go fuck yourself. You’re no better than the rest of us, no matter how much you want to be.”

“I’m not saying everyone is below me; I’m saying that you are below everyone. Like I said, you are nothing more than a misbehaving dog that needs an attitude adjustment. A pathetic sub-human like you deserves to be treated as such. You had better learn respect, because I won’t be as merciful next time.”

“You condescending son of a—”

“Sorry I’m late, everyone take out your textbooks,” the English teacher said as he stepped into the room, cutting Logan off. He immediately knew something had just being going on. “Logan… Adrian… what were the two of you just doing?” he asked, waiting for a reason to start handing out detentions.

“Nothing sir,” Adrian said as he brushed his messy black hair out of his face. “Since you weren’t here, I thought it would be entertaining if I gave the lesson until you arrived. As you can see, everyone in class found the subject very interesting. I can only hope that Logan was paying attention and learned his lesson.”

Logan began to laugh with a psychotic smile on his face. “Oh, I definitely learned something. And maybe soon, I’ll be able to teach you something.”

“It seems you’ve already forgotten the lesson,” Adrian replied as he sat back down.

“Everyone sit down and take out your textbooks,” the teacher ordered.

As Logan moved towards an empty seat, he came to a stop in front of Jenny’s desk. All of her friends clustered around her, as if trying to scare Logan off. He was unfazed by their attempt. “Hey Sinclair, I missed you while I was gone. Or to be exact, I missed you every night.”

Jenny blushed with anger. “Why can’t you just leave me alone? I hate you and the only time I’ve ever came into contact with you was to slap you. I don’t like you and I never will.”

“Your mouth says “no, no”, but that very lovely cleavage of yours says “yes, oh yes”.”

Jenny instinctively tightened her shirt and she and all her friends glared at him.

“Logan, sit down or you’ll be drowning in detentions,” the teacher warned.

Logan just laughed and sat down at an empty desk. Adrian turned back to Jenny and their gazes met. As she looked into his eyes, the anger and frustration in her own was replaced by calmness and comfort. She even gave him a dreamy smile.



“So what’s that guy’s problem?” Adrian asked as he made his way to his next class.

“He’s just always been a total asshole. Even as a Senior, he hasn’t matured at all. He throws a temper tantrum whenever someone tries to tell him what to do and he loves to torment everyone around him. He’s like a magnet for all the delinquents in the school. He and all his friends are part of a gang that hangs out in a warehouse in the city and everyone knows that he sells drugs. There is also a “rumor” that he raped a girl at a party, but the girl was so devastated and traumatized that she moved away without even testifying against him.”

“And what’s his problem with you?”

“He’s after all the pretty girls, but he taunts me the most, ever since middle school. I’ve always been terrified of yelling at him to leave him alone, then when I turn me back and walk away, he comes up behind me and covers my face with a chloroform rag, and then… you can imagine. Everyone knows he raped that poor girl, and I don’t want to end up as his next victim.”

Adrian gave no reply.

Her scowl then turned into a small smile. “But it was really great seeing you stand up to him like that, and even knock him to the ground. It was like seeing a tyrant being overthrown. I had never seen someone verbally assault another person like that, was that some sort of strategy?”

“Yes, it’s an argument tactic that I use when my opponent refuses to be logical and just wants to cause harm. I attack the source of their pride: the delusion they have they are equal or better than other people. I subjugate and crush their view of themselves by saying that they are inferior sub-humans and should be treated as such. Calling someone a monster or a parasite does nothing, but treating him or her like one is like a dagger to the heart. If Logan tried to get into another fight with me, I could weaken his mental foundations by referring to him as “it” or saying something like “I can’t believe things like you are allowed to vote”. That way, I can take away his power as an individual person and psychologically crush him like the cockroach that he is.”

Jenny’s smile was again filled with admiration. “Adrian, can I ask you a favor?” She asked, going from happy to nervous.

“What is it?”

“Will you protect me from him? If he comes after me, will you stop him?”

“If you stay by my side, I will.”



Lunch had arrived, and Adrian was sitting at a large round table in the middle of the school cafeteria. Jenny’s friends paid no attention to him, and Adrian just sat back and ate his lunch. Normally they would have refused having someone like him, but after his encounter with Logan, he had gained a temporary hero status. The girl were gossiping about the boys they were dating, and as he listened to them, a question began to form in his mind, one that he couldn’t help but ask, due to the situation.

“Can I ask you all a question? I’m hoping that you can give me the answer that I can’t find on his own.”

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds.

“Sure, what is it?” Jenny’s friend Amanda asked.

“What is the purpose of your relationships?”

There was another awkward silence as everyone tried to figure out the meaning of the question.

“What do you mean?” Jenny asked.

“What is the purpose of the relationships you have through dating? I don’t understand why you bother.”

“We do it… to find someone to love,” one of Jenny’s friends said, trying to pick her words carefully.

“But what comes out of it? Say you find someone that you actually do love; do you have any idea how high the chances are that you will break up? It’s practically inevitable.”

“No it’s not,” another girl piped up.

“Yes it is. Statistically speaking, one of the greatest cause of all divorces is because the man and woman had been dating since high school or college and got married in their twenties or even their teens. Being in your teens is a Death sentence to any relationship, and marriage isn’t the long shot, life is. Do you really think your relationship can last throughout the rest of high school, your college years, and your twenties? Basically, if you’ve lasted until college, unless you both go to the same universities, that relationship is more doomed than it already is.

Even if you say to yourself that your relationship is “special”, and you and your partner will maintain your romantic bond for the rest of your lives, you have to realize that every single couple that failed thought the same thing. What makes you think that your relationships are any different than all of the others? Why do you enter relationships when failure is practically unavoidable, especially at such young ages?”

There was yet another awkward silence.

“We do it… for the memories? For the enjoyment? For practice?” one girl shrugged, telling herself more than she was asking him. All around the table, all of the girls were being affected by his words, and were beginning to contemplate the value and point of being in a relationship.

“What kind of answer is practice? How would you like it if you were dating someone and they just said that you were practice to them? How would you like it if we were dating and I told you that I’m just using you as practice for when someone better than you comes along? But if everyone considers their teenage relationships to be practice, then that must mean that all teenagers know that they are nothing but practice, and are in denial. If you weren’t in denial, then why would you put any emotional effort into a relationship if you know that you both consider the other one to be practice for a more meaningful relationship later, and it will inevitably fail?

And what memories? What enjoyment? Relationships in this part of your lives are nothing but emotionally strenuous bonds with the illusion of something new and exciting. Your minds aren’t fully developed and stabilized, making it so that hormones and the fear of being alone cause your feelings towards the other person. The whole time you’re with them, your instincts and hormones are making you look at other people the way you originally looked at your partner. This wandering gaze causes you to devalue your relationship, because you convince yourselves that your heart is telling you that you aren’t where you are meant to be, when really, its because your hormones are telling you to be with other people.

Eventually your relationship—which had briefly burned with such passion—will be nothing but ash, as you both try to hide your contempt for each other out of the fear of being alone. Soon, your doomed relationship shatters, and you are left emotionally barren and exhausted. And during the time it takes to recuperate from the emotional strain, you look back at that relationship and curse yourself for wasting all of that effort on something so insipid as a high school Romance. The trial leaves you with more emotional strain than happy memories, and your youth is wasted while your heart and mind heal, only for you to repeat the process with someone else. Even without knowing the statistics, you must surely know what I am talking about, and have experienced it first hand.”

All around the table, the girls’ eyes gained a sad grayish hue and their complexions became pale as sorrow lined their faces. The impact of his words had broken their illusion of reality. Jenny’s eyes showed the most pain.

“But what about you? What would you seek in a relationship?” a girl asked.

“I do not want to be in a relationship.” Just before she could ask, Adrian answered her. “You assume that like all other teenage boys, I only desire sex, which is the largest reason why males enter relationships. Even after all I have said, your experience with boys tells you that I am just a horny fool looking for someone to screw. At eighteen years of age, when my anatomy is supposed to be saturated with hormones, I have learned ultimate self-control. I have severed logical thought from sexual desire, as sexual desire serves no beneficial purpose outside of reproduction, which has no place at this stage in his life. It is illogical.

There was a time when I might have wanted a relationship, but I have cast off the desire. A relationship is too dangerous for me anyway.”

His words shook all of the girls from their dread-dazes, and they stared at him with disbelief.

“Dangerous?” Jenny asked.

“Intimate and romantic relationships require effort and compromise, and even if you desire not to change, your identity subconsciously conforms. This is something I cannot allow. Since basically all relationships in your teens and early twenties are pointless, sex is nothing but a hollow act of perversion, compromising the purity of your identity as you give away a piece of your soul for a doomed romance. Our species is so desperate for love at such young ages that we compromise our identities without any consideration of the future. By accepting my limitations, studying the facts of reality, gaining control of physical desire, and embracing my urge to have solitude, I have achieved enlightenment and come to accept and embrace the fact that I am going to die alone. So I ask again: After everything I have just told you, what purpose do you find in relationships?”

No reply came. Everyone had the same look of sorrow as before and Jenny was clutching herself and shaking.

Adrian gave low sigh and stood up with his back to them. “What I just showed you were my last few strands of humanity from back before I cast my humanity aside. I am glad they are gone, as they serve no purpose in a rational mind.”

He stood up to leave, and after taking only a few steps, Adrian stopped as he heard one of the girls jump to her feet. It was Amanda. “What the fuck is wrong with you?! What could have possibly twisted you into such a cold bastard? Just because something doesn’t help you in the long run doesn’t make it pointless. Some of the smallest things make people the happiest.”

He turned to her and gave a small quick sigh, almost like a chuckle. “Tch, how illogical,” he scoffed before walking away.



As time went on, Logan continuously harassed Jenny and Adrian. When he wasn’t trying to grab her or making lewd comments, he was trying to make Adrian angry and insult him. His attempts to bait him into an argument where he would become angry or frustrated were completely futile, for trying to rile him was like trying to get blood from stone. When her schedule allowed it, Jenny stayed with Adrian even more often then before, afraid of Logan showing up but comforted to have Adrian with her. Whenever Logan did make an appearance and try to force himself on Jenny, Adrian would step forward and protect her, scaring him off like he was a hyena.



It was mid October and Amanda was hanging out with Jenny in her bedroom. She was happy she was finally able to spend time with her friend, for Jenny had been spending almost every minute with him since they met. As always, she was trying to convince Jenny to stop hanging out with him.

“Will you stop it already? I already told you that I like him and that you can’t change it,” Jenny said with frustration from how Amanda resembled a broken record.

“But does he like you? He said that he doesn’t want a friend or even a girlfriend. He even took control of his hormones and physical desires—which I still think is impossible and that he’s lying to you—so that he wouldn’t be attracted to girls and distracted from whatever the hell he’s doing.

Jenny, you’re gorgeous, you’re so gorgeous that all the girls are jealous of you. But when it comes to Adrian… it would be easier for you to seduce a gay guy. At least a gay guy has feelings. Seriously, this guy isn’t heterosexual, bisexual, or a homosexual; he’s anti-sexual.”

Jenny just held a confident smile. “Not for long, we’ll start swimming in gym this week and I have a new bathing suit to show off.”

“Trust me babe, unless you got that bathing suit for a wardrobe malfunction, I doubt that will work.”



Next to the gymnasium was a building holding the school pool and all of the students were sitting on bleachers along one side of the room. Among them was Jenny, constantly shifting in her seat and biting her lip. Her new one-piece bathing suit was clinging to her curved frame, exposing almost as much of her body as if she were wearing a bikini. All of the boys in the class kept on staring at her from the corners of their eyes.

Adrian was sitting in the boy’s locker room, mentally preparing himself for what would happen next. He had shown up after everyone had already changed and now everyone was waiting for him to come out so that the class could begin. Like all the other boys, he was wearing a pair of swim trunks.

“Come on, Adroid! Get out here!” the gym teacher barked.

Adrian took a deep breath and walked out of the locker room. The second Adrian was in sight, Jenny shifted again, trying to find a sexy pose.

“Oh Jenny, do you want to borrow some high heels?” Amanda teased.

Jenny just elbowed her in the ribs and tried to regain her composure as Adrian approached.

As he got closer, everyone’s eyes widened and they covered their mouths to hide their gasps of disbelief. The gym teacher took off his sunglasses, hoping that they were causing the sight before him. “Holy shit,” he muttered.

Jenny stared at him with her mouth hanging open, almost on the verge of tears. “Oh my god.”

Adrian’s legs, arms, chest, and back were all covered in burn marks, scars, and permanent bruises, all ranging in different sizes. The most recent ones were only a few weeks old. With all the scars and healed injuries, his whole body looked like the skin on a carpenter’s palm. Even from across the room, the healed injuries were as clear as day. Adrian was much more muscular than anyone expected, like a young bodybuilder, but even with his physique, it was difficult to see his muscles beneath all of the scars and injuries. Adrian ignored the stares and gasps as he walked past everyone. He took a seat on the bleachers and looked at Jenny. Her whole body was shaking as a single tear rolled down her cheek.



“Adrian, wait!” he heard Jenny holler as he climbed into his car.

Behind her, students were climbing onto buses and walking out to their own cars. Adrian lowered the window while she approached. Reaching him, she gripped the window frame of the door so tightly that her knuckles were white. Adrian looked at her face and realized that she had been crying.

“Adrian, I’m begging you, please talk to me,” she whispered.

“You want to know, don’t you?”

In reply, she reached into the car and grasped his hands.

“Very well, come with me.”

Jenny nodded and rushed to the other side of the car, climbing into the passenger seat. Adrian pulled out of the school parking lot and began driving, with he and Jenny stone silent. After ten minutes, they arrived at his house, having not spoken a single word.

“Follow me,” Adrian said as he grabbed his backpack and climbed out of the car.

He led Jenny to the back of the house, where the basement exit resided. He opened up the double doors and they stepped down into the darkness. Adrian turned on the lights and Jenny gasped as she realized where she was. The house had been built with a finished basement with its own bathroom, and the whole level was his. One half of the room was filled with power tools and machinery for metalwork. Along one of the walls was his workbench, covered with his hand-tools for when he needed to work with wood. Adrian used the tools for building and inventing new machines of all shapes and sizes, all of which covered tables spread throughout the half of the room.

The other half of the basement was his bedroom. Against the wall was a large bed with a nearby TV, set up on a mini-fridge. There were several bookcases, all filled with textbooks and almanacs on everything from surgery to engineering and each page was recorded to memory. In the corner of the basement was the bathroom door and steps leading up to a second exit. The walls of the whole room were not covered in pictures or posters, but pieces of hardware from dismantled electronics. Hundreds of circuit boards and screens had been tied together and hung across the walls, creating a wallpaper of metallic green. They were used for both decoration and spare parts to cannibalize for his work. There were also many pieces of exercise equipment spread throughout the basement.

Adrian put down his backpack beside his bed, took off his coat, and removed his button-down shirt and the t-shirt underneath. Jenny slowly stepped up to him and put her hands on his chest, looking at the scars and injuries that covered his body. She tried to fight back tears as she examined them with the fluorescent lights above.

“I did all of this to myself, every scar and injury.”

Jenny stared into his eyes. “Why? Why would you do this to yourself?”

“Because that is the cost of power. This is what I had to do to become the man I am today.”

“What do you mean?” Jenny asked, wiping away her tears.

Adrian took her hand and they sat down on his bed. “I was not always like this; I used to be a regular boy. I had fun and was emotional like all children, but when I was ten years old, I was in a lethal car accident. EMTs struggled to keep me alive, but my will to live was not powerful enough. My heart stopped and my body shut down. I was legally dead for almost three minutes before they were able to stabilize me on a heart/lung machine. I don’t know how long I was in that coma, but after my body recovered, I was declared brain dead because my heart and lungs would not work on their own. It’s a good thing my parents decided to wait to see if my condition would improve, because that saved my life. Time passed, but my condition didn’t.

One night, a gas mane within the hospital exploded and the whole building was set ablaze. Firefighters and the hospital staff worked desperately to evacuate the patients, but they themselves had to flee before I could be rescued. They believed me to already be dead and the building was too unstable to send in any more people. But in that massive funeral pyre, I was far from dead. I was more alive than I had ever been before. When my bypass machine shut down from the loss of power, my mind reactivated and my body began to work again. I remember the intense heat lashing at my skin and the thick smoke filling my lungs as I opened his eyes, finally awake. I stepped out of bed in an enlightened state that I had never experienced before.

I could see the flames moving in slow motion, I could smell and taste the individual chemicals and ingredients in the smoke, I could feel the rumbling of the building and the creases between the floor tiles beneath my feet, and I could hear my own heart beating and blood rushing through my veins. You know those stories about people being brought back to life minutes after death, about seeing a bright light and often returning to the world with an ability or talent they had never possessed? I had done the same thing, but on a much greater scale. When their minds entered the precipice between life and death, the barriers that stood before total neural awakening are brought down, and they are able to reach out and expand the parameters of their mind before coming back. However, I remained in that state for much longer. I was neither living nor dead for months on end, and because of that, I was able to unlock the potential that had been forgotten by our species.

With the building around me breaking apart in a fiery cataclysm, I walked down the halls, completely at peace. Rubble and shrapnel were flying in all directions, but I was able to avoid them as if they were floating bubbles, and I could tell when the flames were going to erupt through a door or a floor just by feeling the pressure changes in the air. By rewiring my entire mind, I gained full mastery of my senses, and was able to sense more than humans had ever dreamed. At last, I stepped out of the flames and into the rain. I stood as still as a statue, letting the water cool my body and wash away the soot and ash. Never in my life had I felt so awake, so alive, so… enlightened. All of my senses were working at unbelievable magnitudes and my entire mind was surging with energy and ideas.

On the day of the car crash, the old Adrian died, but from death, a new Adrian was born. I stared into the shadows of death and stole something from the darkness. I stole power, and that power was rushing through me as I walked out of the building and stood in the rain, reborn into an ascended being. I was seeing behind a curtain that no one even knew existed, but I knew that there was more. I was desperate to take this euphoria farther, to bring myself to the limits of my existence and shatter those limits. Ever since then, I have been working myself to go farther in every way possible.”

“But these scars and burns… why would you do these things to yourself?” Jenny whispered as tears fell from her eyes.

Adrian stood back up and turned to her. “I did it for the pain. For six years, I’ve been testing my mind and body to try and break every known barrier, and the greatest barrier humans face is the barrier of pain. Pain is both a curse and a blessing; the more pain we feel, the stronger we become, but pain is also the barrier that keeps us from getting stronger. Many of the greatest leaders and prophets only gained their wisdom and experience through great suffering at some point in their lives, for it is pain that lets us see through the curtain of unnecessary distractions and become truly wise.

I’ve cut, burned, and battered my body both to harness the benefits of pain and become immune to it. Pain forces the mind to focus and set priorities, it clears away all useless thoughts and can allow humans to work at their peak when used correctly. But by also learning to block out pain, I have learned to use this body at its maximum potential, allowing me to push onwards until the laws of anatomy force me to stop, and not just an illusion of the senses.

By combining enlightenment, pain, and physical mastery, I have ascended to the form that mankind was originally meant to reach. I will do anything to break free of the weaknesses of this body and mind. I have already forsaken companionship, emotions, physical desires, and everything else that makes me human. These scars and injuries are nothing more than superficial markings, having no real affect on my body, and therefore are unimportant.

I need to be sure that my mind and body are ready… for the day when I can truly make my move.”

Jenny averted her gaze and looked down at the floor, letting her tears fall.

In an act truly against his character, Adrian crouched down placed his hand on her cheek, wiping away her tears. “Do not cry for me, Jenny. This is what I want.”

Jenny gained a sad smile and pressed his hand tighter against her cheek. “I’m not crying from sadness, I’m crying from joy. This is what I’ve wanted since I first met you: I’ve wanted you to open up to me. I’ve wanted to find out everything I can about you. Thank you, Adrian. Thank you for trusting me.”

They both stood up and Adrian put his shirt back on. “Come on, I’ll drive you home.”



It was Friday, and Adrian was getting his textbook for the last class. He closed his locker door and turned around, standing face to face with Jenny. She was wearing a black miniskirt that wrapped tightly around her tan thighs, a white tank top that exposed her cleavage, high-healed boots, and a large belt that went around her stomach instead of her waist. She had her hands behind her back, and was constantly shifting her weight and biting her lip.

“Adrian, I know that this isn’t really your thing… but you know that the Autumn Dance is this weekend, right?”

“Yes,” he said, like the beat of a drum.

“Well I would really like to go, but I have no one to go with. Would you like to go with me, as friends?”

“I would prefer not to.”

“Please? I really don’t want to go with just my girlfriends,” she pleaded, giving him the Bambi eyes.

Adrian gave a very loud and annoyed sigh. “Very well.”



The dance was just as Adrian expected it to be; the gymnasium was dark, the music was trashy, and the people were degenerates. The chaperones weren’t really paying attention, so as long as the room was dark, people could basically do whatever they wanted. On the gym floor, people were grinding against each other as if they were in the first stages of an orgy. Along the walls, guys were drinking from a whiskey bottle hidden in one of the flower bouquets being sold outside. In one of the corners, a couple were making out. The girl pulled down the straps of her dress, revealing her tits, which were round and full for her age. She gave a silent moan as her boyfriend started sucking her on her nipples.

“Perverted fools,” Adrian muttered.

He was sitting at a table in the corner, trying to keep his temper in check as he watched the endless parade of degeneration. Jenny was with a group of her friends, who were constantly looking at him in disbelief, amazed that she was able to convince him to show up.

She walked over to him and sat down on the other side of the table. “Why don’t you go dance?”

“Do you honestly expect me to?”

Several moments passed by, with the only sound being Jenny drumming her fingers on the table and the music in the background. “Adrian, there is something that you said a while back that I didn’t quite understand. It was when you were eating lunch with my friends and I, and you said that you couldn’t let your mind be compromised by others. I’ve never heard anyone say something like that.”

“When two people interact romantically and/or sexually, they trade parts of their identity. It’s like that health class saying, ‘When you have sex with someone, you’re having sex with everyone they’ve had sex with.’ Though it also works at the emotional level. When two people kiss or have sex, they forever carry a part of each other. Those with impure identities don’t realize how important their identities are, and they give their bodies without hesitation. All the guys my age hate their virginity, but I value it, because it symbolizes my intact identity and my morality.”

“So it’s sort of like celibacy to a priest.”

“Not exactly. They are abstinent for God but I am abstinent for myself and for the preservation of my morals and identity. Even after you lose your virginity, your identity can be further corrupted through romantic contact with other people.”

He looked around for a few seconds and pointed to the couple standing in the dark corner. The girl had her knee lifted, letting her boyfriend finger-bang her. The dim lighting of the dark gymnasium just barely reflected off the pussy juice that coated his fingers. Their lack of self-control and decency disgusted him.

“See that couple right there? Neither of them has any sexual ethics left, because they’ve both had countless sexual and romantic partners. They each give each other their physical forms without hesitation, and for the wrong reasons. As I grew older, I became more logical and noticed the inevitable failure of young relationships. I looked up relationship statistics and found that an incredibly vast number of marriages that start before you’re both in your thirties are doomed to fail. I realized that even if I were find someone I had romantic feelings for, my relationship with her would inevitably fail and would have been a waste of time and compromised who I am. If I waited until I was old enough to have a chance at a lifetime relationship with someone, they would have already compromised their identities.

I shut the door for any future romance and turned my attention on myself, working to eliminate useless desires and find peace in solitude. Those realizations made me the man I am today.”

Jenny stared silently, until the sound of a slow song make her perk up like a cat spotting movement. “I know you said that you don’t dance, but do you think that…”

Adrian was silent for a few moments. “As you wish.”

They walked out onto the gym floor, where all of the couples were slow dancing. With Jenny’s hands on his shoulders and his hands on her hips, they began to dance.

Jenny had a warm smile as the song progressed. “What are you, Adrian?”

“What do you mean?”

“You are far too logical to be human, but you have too much heart to be a machine. You think that rejecting other people makes you a machine, but it’s your fear of relationships that shows that you still care. Ever since I met you, I’ve tried to figure out just what you are, but every time you speak, I’m more confused than ever.”

“I am just a man who is wiser than most others, even those that are older than himself. I am merely what others should be.”

Jenny chuckled. “It is people like you who have the power to change the world. People like Jesus and Gandhi always start out this way.”

Adrian was hesitate before speaking, feeling like he needed to say something. “You look beautiful tonight.”

She gave a soft laugh. “That is probably the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. You know, to be honest, I wouldn’t have dressed up this much if I went with anyone but you.” Adrian was again silent as she slowly placed her hand on his cheek. “I think… I’m ready to go home,” she murmured.



The car came to a halt in front of Jenny’s house. True to what her mom said, the lights were out and one of her parents’ cars was gone. Jenny said that they had gone out with friends and wouldn’t be back for a few hours. Adrian and Jenny stepped outside and he walked her to the door, the two of them rushing to escape the cold.

“Goodbye,” he said without emotion once they came to a stop on the porch.

“Adrian, wait, there is something I really need to talk to you about. Can we please talk inside?”

“Very well,” he said, prompting her to unlock the door.

They stepped into the dark house and she grasped his hand. “Come with me,” she whispered in the darkness as she led him upstairs.

The stairs were layered with shag carpeting, muffling their footsteps so that the only sound was the swishing of Jenny’s dress. Pictures of family and friends were spread out across the wall along the staircase, allowing Adrian a brief view into Jenny’s life and history. They reached the second story and neither of them spoke as he followed her to her bedroom. Jenny closed the door and then walked to the other end of the room, not saying anything and keeping her back to him. The room was dimly lit by the streetlamp outside. Adrian looked around the room, using the low light to study the surroundings that had created the woman before him.

Against the wall next to the door was a desk with a mirror. The surface was covered in schoolwork and makeup, with the drawers below half-open. There were two windows perpendicular with the door, and between them was a white bureau, filled with clothes and acting as the pedestal for Jenny’s athletic trophies. In the opposite corner of the room from the desk was a bedside table, and next to it was a twin bed, in line with the door. Between the door and the bed was Jenny’s closet. Hanging from the ceiling was a fan and covering the walls were more pictures of friends and family.

“What did you want to talk about?” Adrian asked as his eyes lazily drifted from corner to corner.

Jenny turned to him and her eyes seemed to glow in the faint darkness. She slowly reached up and brushed the straps of her dress off her shoulders. She pulled it all the way off, letting it fall down to her ankles and showing that she was wearing nothing underneath. With Jenny standing naked before him, Adrian struggled to find something to say. Even without physical desire clouding his mind, he would be lying if he said that she didn’t have a beautiful body. Jenny’s eyes were filled with fear and nervousness.

“Adrian… I love you.”

He could see a shiver run through her body once the words were whispered, and the relief on her face from finally speaking the words almost made her glow.

“What?” he asked, her words having shaken him to his core.

“I love you, Adrian. I decided that I want to lose my virginity, and you are the one I want to give it to.”

Without saying a word, Adrian turned around and grasped the door handle. Jenny rushed over and put her hands on his shoulders. “Adrian, please wait.”

“Why? You can only offer physical gratification, something that I have no need for. I have no reason to be here,” he said with as much feeling as a computer.

“Please, don’t stay here for yourself, do it for me. I want to give myself to you.”

“Why in the world would you want that? Have you listened to nothing I have said?” She stepped back and Adrian took his hand off of the doorknob. “Let me tell you what would happen if we were to be intimate: It would be a mediocre experience compared to what you expect it to be and we would both contaminate our identities. We have no chance of forming or even sustaining a relationship, and even if we did form one, it would inevitably fail. Once that happens, any positive feelings we have for each other will be reduced to loathing and all memories will bring nothing but pain.

I would hate myself because I would have doomed my path to transcending the human plain by compromising my ideals and morals and sabotaging my clear-headedness. You would hate yourself because you would realize that you would have given your purity and innocence to someone that didn’t deserve it, and you would have nothing to give if you met someone else. Your heart would be broken and your soul tainted, and I would be a hollow shell, unable to find joy in this human world but unable to break free of it. We would both walk through this world as impure beings, forever regretting the mistake we made and hating the curse of youth.

If we were to be intimate, there would be no love and happiness afterwards, just pain and loathing. That is the curse of the human race and I have worked hard to make sure that I don’t endure that same empty fate. If you have any respect for yourself, you will get some self-control and wait for someone who is actually capable of sharing your feelings.”

Jenny’s eyes darkened and she clutched herself as if his words had struck her naked form like a frigid breeze. A single tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t care about that, I don’t care what happens afterwards. Adrian, when we were dancing and I told you that you had the power to change the world, I meant that you had changed mine. You may not feel the same way about me, but I love you and I just want to be with you in any way that I can.”

“Tch, how illogical,” Adrian scoffed.

Jenny walked over and placed her hand on his cheek. “Please, if you care about me at all, you’ll stay. As much as you try to run from it, you are human. I’m not telling you to be like everyone else, no. Your uniqueness is what I love most about you. I’m just asking you to open your heart and accept me. I don’t care if you don’t love me, just please let me show you how much I love you. You don’t have to give me anything, just let me give myself to you.”

“How could I even consider touching you, knowing that you had probably touched someone else before me? Even if you are a virgin, if we were to kiss, your mind would flash back to whoever you dated before me.”

“Adrian, I’ve never been with any other boys. I’ve never even dated or kissed anyone. For as long as I’ve known what love is, I’ve been looking for someone to share it with. But I haven’t just been going out with any guy I find attractive; I’ve been looking for someone like you. I told myself that I would only give my heart to a man that completely amazed me. Ever since our first class together, I’ve admired and been astounded by everything about you: what you say, what you do, what you think, and who you are! Adrian, you told me that you wanted to be more than a regular human. Through my eyes, you are already more than a regular human, and that is why I idolize and love you.”

Adrian stepped away from her and looked out the window. His mind was tearing itself apart, trying to figure out what to do. As much as he wanted to leave and forget about Jenny, something in his mind had bound him to her, and he could break that bond between them no easier than a steel chain locking them together.

It was over a minute before he spoke. “I can’t let myself get distracted. I can’t let anyone get in the way of my goals. If we do this, Jenny, I will erase the memory of it and this whole night. There won’t be any part of me that was intimate with you. You will never be the same, but this night will have never even existed for me.”

Jenny took a deep breath. “Does this mean you’ll…?”

“Yes, if that is what will finally put you at ease. This night will not exist for me, but you will be unable to take back what happens. You said that you don’t care if I don’t love you. You just want to show how much you love me. Do you really want to waste your heart and virginity on someone who won’t even remember it?”

“With you, it will not be a waste,” she whispered with a small smile.

She walked over to Adrian as he undressed and gently grasped his hand, then guided him to the bed. She walked over to Adrian as he undressed and gently grasped his hand, then guided him to the bed. They sat down and Jenny put her hand on his cheek, looking deep into his eyes. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

“I’m just unsure of how to proceed. I only know the standard mechanics of intimacy but no actual protocol.”

Jenny gave the smallest of laughs. “Don’t worry, I’ll guide you.”

With her hands on his cheeks, she leaned forward and pressed her soft lips against his, as gently as a falling leaf. They held that kiss for a few moments, each becoming familiar with the practice. They kissed again, mirroring each other’s movements. For several minutes, their lips joined and separated over and over again, and Adrian had to admit that it felt better then he thought it would. Not only was the physical enjoyment far beyond what he expected it to be, but there was another form of pleasure that he was experiencing, one that wasn’t coming from any nerve endings. Adrian mentally searched his body, trying to find where the feeling was coming from, but he couldn’t identify the source.

As the kiss continued, he could smell the hormones in the air as Jenny’s levels of arousal skyrocketed. She moved her hands from his cheeks to his shoulders, using her soft fingers to find and count the endless scars that pocked his arms and chest. Replicating her actions, Adrian explored her body with his hands, finding comfort in the warmth and softness of her skin. This was a very peculiar experience, and this desire to find the answer to the nature of this puzzling feeling felt almost at good as the feeling itself. Adrian could feel memories of each action being imprinted in his mind in the form of experience, he was learning.

He wanted this feeling to continue, he wanted to keep learning. This lack of knowledge exhilarated him, having finally found an unexplored area of study. It gave him something to strive for, something to work to understand, something to be challenged by. He had studied every field of knowledge from mechanics to astronomy to the languages of the world, but this was something he truly had no experience in. He was facing the most obvious and yet most intricate subject of them all: the essence of a sexual bond. Jenny’s body was like a piece of art from a culture he had never even known existed, and he wanted to examine it as such. He wanted to find out everything he could, he wanted to learn the things that he had always dismissed, and he wanted to finally find something that would require every aspect of his mind to understand, a true challenge to enjoy.

With his arm around her, Adrian gently laid her down and resumed kissing her. As they kissed, his logical side fully gave up and his emotional and hormonal sides took full control. He was becoming more involved and enjoying it more than he thought he would. He already had an erection that was as hard as a rock and seven inches long and was exploring her body with his hands while using his left arm to stay suspended. Her breasts were round and soft, but had the perfect amount of firmness. Her areolas were the size of quarters, with nipples like pencil erasers. She moaned and hummed with each squeeze as he massaged every inch, using every muscle in his hand as if he were controlling the strings of a puppet.

He moved his hand down, with his fingertips brushing against her slim belly. He could feel his heart-rate skyrocket as he reached her pubes, which had obviously been trimmed. She had been planning for this. He placed his index and middle finger on the two lips of her pussy and gently rubbed them, causing Jenny to tremble and hum loudly. With each stroke, the lips would become wetter and wetter as she became more aroused. He slowly inserted his middle finger and her thighs clamped around his hand like a vise grip, but the soft wet insides of her pussy seemed to be inviting him further. He pushed his whole finger in, and Jenny’s moans became louder as he worked it in and out, loosening her virgin pussy.

She put her hand on his and pushed down on it, encouraging him to go even further. He cautiously obliged and pushed in his index and ring finger, then began pulling them out and pushing them back in. Her insides were incredibly tight, but she quickly loosened up as he worked his fingers in her like a piston. He could just barely feel her hymen with his middle finger.

Jenny suddenly pulled her lips from his and whispered in his ear, “Adrian, I’m ready.”

Adrian didn’t have the courage to respond, but when Jenny spread her legs, he grasped his manhood and pressed the head against the soft lips of her pussy. A drop of pre-cum oozed from the tip as his self-control became more erratic. He slowly pushed his cock into her sleeve and they both shivered from the physical ecstasy. Jenny dug her fingernails into his back and her humming turned more into a moan with every centimeter he delved. The head of his cock was pressed against her hymen, receiving no words from Jenny, he gave one large thrust and deflowered her. She gave a shrill moan and dug her nails into his back so tightly that he had to completely block out the pain.

He pulled his dick out six inches and then forced it back in, causing Jenny to give another, deeper moan. They began to move back and forth in rhythm, and with every thrust he gave, Jenny would moan. She wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, holding onto him for dear life.

With his face buried in her pillow and the sweet smell of her hair filling his senses, Adrian realized that this was nothing like what he thought it would be. He always figured that since he was so different from everyone else, sex would give him only a hollow feeling, but this… this was the opposite. He could feel physical and emotional bliss saturating every fiber of his being. It was a form of enjoyment that he had never thought possible.

Jenny’s pussy felt like a mix of the interior of a grapefruit and soft bubblegum. True, that is a horrible and inaccurate comparison, but he couldn’t think of anything else. Jenny’s hot wet insides hugged his manhood tightly, soaking it as he explored every corner of her pussy.

He wrapped his arms around Jenny and then rolled onto his back, swinging her up. She leaned back and moaned as she rode his cock, moving back and forth and up and down, trying to find some area of her pussy that his manhood had not yet probed. She had a thin film of sweat, which caught the light of the street lamp outside and almost made her glow.

He ran his hand up and down her chest, relishing the feel of her body. In his mind, his hormonal side was howling like a wolf, happy that it was now being fully released. Jenny leaned forward and gripped the headboard for support, and he reached up and began kissing her breasts, sucking on her nipples in pure joy. As she bounced up and down on his cock, Jenny’s body began to tremble and her moans became more and more shrill. She gripped his shoulders and gave a mix of a scream and moan as she had a gushing orgasm. He came moments after, sending thick streams of semen up inside her.

Jenny collapsed beside him, and for several minutes, they just stared at the ceiling as they tried to catch their breath. Once his body had calmed itself, Adrian sat up. “I should head home, my parents will be worried if it gets too late.”

As he got dressed, Jenny sat up and looked at him. “Thank you, Adrian. That meant a lot to me. Did you enjoy that? It seemed like it was good for you, but you are always so hard to read.”

Adrian finished buttoning his shirt and slowly turned to her. For the First Time in years, he had a true smile on his face. It was not a wide ear-to-ear smile, but it was a warm one. Adrian was in a state of awareness that he had not felt before. He couldn’t tell which part of his segregated personality was currently dominant, but all he knew was that he felt… happy.

“Would you maybe like to go out to dinner with me tomorrow night?”

Jenny gained the same warm smile and gave a small sigh of relief. “That would be a dream come true.”

As Adrian opened the door, Jenny spoke up. “I love you, Adrian.”

He then turned to her, never losing his smile. “Tch, how illogical.”

Adrian walked out of her bedroom and left her house. Halfway from the door to his car, he looked up at Jenny’s bedroom window. She was standing at the window with a blanket wrapped around her. She blew him a kiss and Adrian winked at her in reply before climbing back into his car and driving away, happy for the first time in six years.





Chapter Two:



“What’s the emergency you called me about?” Amanda asked with worry as she climbed into Jenny’s car.

“I need to talk to you and I can’t do it in your house or mine,” Jenny said sheepishly as she pulled out of Amanda’s driveway.

They drove out of the suburbs and deep into the woods, stopping at the side of an unpaved road. They were half an hour’s drive from the nearest house or real building and only after being absolutely sure that both Amanda’s and her own phone were turned off an out of reach did Jenny finally pull over.

“Ok, do you need to talk to me, or are you going to kill me? I’ve never seen you this nervous.”

“I just need to tell someone about this but I have to make sure no one else finds out,” Jenny said, taking a deep breath and gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her hands were white. She then turned to her friend. “Listen, I don’t know how to say this delicately, so I’ll just be blunt… Adrian and I made love last night.”

Amanda shifted through so many facial expressions so quickly that she looked like she had opened the Ark of the Covenant. She didn’t know whether to be happy for her or be horrified. Jenny just waited for Amanda to respond with a guilty look on her face.

“So… how was it?”

Jenny gained a nervous smile. “To be honest, it was better than I expected and I had really high expectations.”

Amanda was almost taken back by the response. “Really? He was good? Wow… I don’t know what to think anymore. Seriously, I can’t decide if this is luck or skill, or if you’re just trying to sabotage yourself. This is like if you got pregnant and I couldn’t tell whether to congratulate you or suggest an abortion. Speaking of which, you are on the pill right? Because you might really need to get an abortion.”

“Yes, I’m on the pill, but this is serious! I don’t know what to do!”

“Well do you regret it?”

Jenny smiled. “Not at all, it was the greatest night of my life. I just don’t know what to do now.”

“Well what happened? I need details!”

“Well my parents weren’t home when he drove me back, so I told him there was something I really needed to talk to him about. I brought him up to the bedroom and I told him that I loved him and I wanted to give him his virginity.”

“Well while I think that it’s stupid that you actually love this guy, I’m glad you had enough sense to give your virginity to someone you love.”

“At first he was really defensive, you know how he just wants to be alone… He thought it would be a really bad idea, he said that we would both regret it, he warned me that if we started a relationship it would inevitably end after a short while and we would hate each other, and he thought I was being an idiot for wanting to give his virginity to him. Finally, he told me that he would follow my wishes, but he would erase the memory of the whole night so that it would have never even existed for him.”

“How romantic,” Amanda said with sarcasm drier than the world’s greatest martini.

“I know… the build-up was less than desirable. But when he finally agreed and we had that first kiss… I’m still shivering. And then after we kissed… well I already told you that it was the greatest night of my life.”

“I got to say, that last part does sound pretty romantic. So what happened afterwards?”

“Well he got up, got dressed, and said that he had to go home. I was worried he was going to be true to his word and erase the memory, so I asked him if he enjoyed it. Instead of answering, he turned to me with the warmest smile I had ever seen and asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner tonight. I told him again that I loved him, he teased him a little, then he winked at me on the way back to his car.”

“Damn, you are good. You brought him back from the brink and made him human. So are you really going out with him tonight?”

“Well I don’t have his number so I’m assuming he’ll call me. I just hope he really will call. I know he was pretty shell-shocked afterwards and wasn’t quite in his normal state of mind, I’m worried he could crash mentally. I don’t know whether I should give him space or stay close and keep an eye on him. He went from emotionless robot that just wanted to be left alone to being physically intimate with someone that loved him. I’m actually really scared for him; his identity completely changed over the course of an hour and that’s not good for someone’s psyche.”

“Wait, over the course of an hour? Does that include…”

“No, neither of us was quite confident enough for foreplay, but there was a “transition” between kissing and the actual sex and we were intimate for over an hour.”

“Wow, he’s got some serious self-control. I have to say, I’m kind of jealous of you now.”

“Thanks, but remember, you can tell no one about this. If Adrian and I are in a relationship, then it won’t take long for people to find out. I just don’t want them to know we were intimate.”

“Your secret is safe with me.”



Adrian was sitting in his bedroom with his mind set in a self-induced trance. For what he planned to do, he needed to fully work together with his subconscious. Having achieved a perfect meditative state, Adrian delved deep into his mind and created a space for his consciousness to solidify into a projection of his physical body, the same as in a dream. He constructed the background of the dream into something fitting the situation, choosing the form of a nightclub. The walls were dark purple and decorated with lit candles and the ceiling was covered in mirrors and the tiles had intricate patterns. There were no tables, just booths lining one side of the room opposite to the bar, with a small lamp dimly illuminating each one.

Adrian was sitting at the bar, looking at himself in the mirror.

“I wouldn’t be doing this if I weren’t desperate, so let’s at least get this over with.”

Two copies of him appeared, sitting on the stools on his left and right. One was the embodiment of Adrian’s physical desires, an entirely separate personality that he kept locked away. The other was the embodiment of his emotions, which according to Freud, kept desires in check and applied meaning to them.

“Id, Ego… it sure has been a while.”

“Wow, you really are desperate,” Id laughed.

“Let it all out,” Ego said.

“I just have no idea what to do. What can I possibly say when I see Jenny again? I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

“Tell her that you want to screw her on every possible surface and in every possible position,” Id grunted.

“She loves you, stay with her and it won’t take long for you to have the same feelings. When you see her, I want you to wrap your arms around her, kiss her, and tell her you want to be with her,” Ego said, patting him on the back.

“You guys are completely useless, could you at least try to be unpredictable?”

“What the hell do you expect? I’m pure emotion and he’s the sum of your physical desires. You haven’t given us much to work with,” Ego replied.

“Enough talk, just rip her clothes off an fuck her!” Id yelled in impatience.

“You love her, tell her that.”

“Id, shut up. And Ego, YOU love her! That’s your job! I’m the Superego; I’m a separate personality with my own desires. I exist as my view of myself and what my identity is, and I’m not sure I want to identify myself as the guy that loves her.”

“Well did you regret rocking that tight body of hers?” Id asked.

Adrian hesitated before answering. “No, I don’t regret it, at least I’m not sure that I do. I have no idea what to do now. Do I just erase the memory as planned and go back to the way I was before and continue on to my goal of transcending the human race? Do I keep the memory and try to have a relationship with Jenny? On one hand, statistics show that our relationship would inevitably fail, but on the other… I was happy. Every aspect of my night with her was like… it was better than… I hadn’t felt so good since I walked out of the hospital and stood in the rain.

I remember everything so vividly and can’t help but go over it over and over again in my mind in an attempt to relive it; the feeling of our bodies melting in perfect harmony, the warmth and softness of her naked form pressed tightly against mine while we held each other in that sweet embrace, the way she ran her fingers through my hair when she kissed me with her rose petal-like lips, and that nearly spiritual euphoria of the simultaneous climax we shared. Just thinking of it all makes my body tremble like it did when we finally separated.

But I don’t know what to do now. Do I forget about her? Do I just go along with it and enjoy her as long as I’ll have her and try to endure the pain after it ends? Do I try to fight the odds and make the relationship work? Do I forsake my goals to be with her? I just need a voice that isn’t my own to tell me what to do. I haven’t felt confusion in years and I don’t know how to face it all. I need help, but there is no one that can help me.”

“It doesn’t matter who you get involved with, the plan must come to fruition.”

He turned around, facing another copy of himself. He was wearing a bulletproof overcoat and all of his clothes were made of Kevlar. Protruding from the back of his waist was the hilt of a weapon, hidden in its sheath that hung diagonally from his belt.

“The other half of my Superego, the symbol for my world plan. I was wondering when you would show up.”

“Id, Ego, and Superego; you divided yourself up into those three mental forms in order to help you achieve your goal of transcendence. However, I have a personal stake in this too. You created me for the sole purpose of completing your ultimate goal of changing the world,” the ominous entity muttered, staring at Adrian with those same calm steely eyes.

“Tell me something I don’t know. I’m well aware that she could get in the way of my plan and I don’t need you reminding me of that. Either give me something I can use or vanish,” Adrian cursed, wishing he hadn’t even bothered contacting his alternate personalities. For the first time, he actually wanted someone to talk to.

“Hey, we’re all you got. You’re the one that doesn’t want to have friends, remember?” Ego reminded.

Adrian’s eyes widened. “Damn it, you’re starting to respond to my thoughts. You’re reminding me that I don’t want friends while I’m regretting not having anyone else to talk to. We’ve been in contact for too long, we’re starting to merge back together. This discussion is over.”

Adrian banished Id and Ego back to the confines of his subconscious, leaving him alone with the other half of his dominant personality.

“You want my advice? Very well. Trust her. Take a risk. Should she get in your way, you can always eliminate her the way you’ve eliminated so many other traitors and obstacles. You have enough money to hire an army of subordinates and have them do anything you want them to do, anything except trust and follow you. She on the other hand is completely loyal to you, and that could greatly come in handy. If she loves you then she will follow you. Mold her into something that you can use.”

“I refuse to merely use her. She is not my subordinate. I won’t take advantage of her like that.”

“Well if anything, she can serve as both the barrier and the cushion between you and I. You are well aware that as you move forward in your plan, it will be harder and harder to separate us. To the people around you, you are Adrian Ashford, a youth focused on breaking his own physical and psychological barriers. But there are so many names for me, the commander of your legions. The question will eventually become which of us is actually the mask.

You have already killed many people, both through orders and by your own hand, and I am the prison that keeps your sins contained and protects you and the plan from your conscience. If you keep her close, then she can help you bear the sins you must commit, and she can make the transition between us easier as well as make it easier to stay separate from me.

The plan must be brought to fruition; there can be no excuses and no failure. In order to change and save this world, we must be successful. You and me, two goals, the two sides of the same coin that will act in tandem, two of multiple personalities that share this mind and work together. We can do it if we don’t let ourselves get trapped in this farce that is known as “your life”. It all comes down to what you are willing to cast aside and what you are willing to bring with you when we finally make that leap and reveal ourselves.”

The entity turned away from Adrian and slowly disappeared as the dream melted like a painting on thawing ice. Adrian opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He was back in his room and his body was sore from maintaining the meditative position. He took another deep breath, stretched, and walked over to his desk to retrieve his cell phone. This was actually the first time in years he had called someone other than his parents, clients, or subordinates. He took another deep breath and typed in the number. Adrian tried to maintain his composure as the phone rang. At home, Jenny was picking out an outfit with Amanda helping her. Both women exchanged glances when Jenny’s phone began ringing on her bedside table.

With shaky hands, she answered. “Hello?”

“Hey Jenny, it’s Adrian,” he said, afraid that he wouldn’t be able to speak.

“Hey Adrian! How are you?” she asked, instantly lit up.

“I’m good, I was wondering if you were still open for dinner tonight?”

“Of course, I’m always open for you!” Jenny replied, regretting her choice of words before she was even finished speaking.

“You sure are, slut! You sure are!” Amanda laughed.

Jenny gave her the middle finger before continuing. “I mean I wouldn’t miss it for the world. So when and where do you want to go?”

“Well I know a great restaurant in town, so how about I pick you up at six?”

“That’s perfect. I’ll meet you outside so that you won’t have to lock horns with my dad.”

“Thank you. All right, I’ll see you then.”

“Bye,” she said before hanging up.

Adrian turned off his phone and released a huge sigh of relief, while Jenny and Amanda jumped up and down and squealed in excitement.



Between hanging up and leaving, Adrian did everything he could to keep his mind preoccupied and relaxed, while always keeping an eye on the time. He worked on his laser to use up his time, he filled his body with relaxing endorphins with exercise and self-control to keep his nerves steady, and he tried to come up with dinner conversation, seeing as how he had absolutely no idea what he and Jenny would talk about. Twenty minutes before six, Adrian stepped out of the shower, got dressed, and went upstairs into the house. He stepped into the living room, where his parents were watching the news. They almost jumped in surprise at his footsteps, as he rarely came up from the basement and talked to his parents even less.

“I’m heading out, I don’t know when I’ll be back.”



Adrian could see Jenny sitting on her front porch as he came up the driveway. Regardless of the dropping temperatures, she had chosen an outfit that complimented her body beautifully. She was wearing high-heeled shoes, a short black skirt that hugged her tan thighs, a large belt around her stomach, and a white top with lace around the collar. Her beautiful smile and bright eyes were fully illuminated by the setting autumn sun, with the light shining through her long blonde hair that flowed smoothly in the evening breeze. Jenny stood up and walked slowly towards the car with her hips swinging from side to side, trying to hide her excitement.

“Hi,” she whispered simply as she climbed into the car and kissed him on the cheek.

“Hello,” Adrian replied, not knowing what to say.

“So where are we going?”

“I set up a reservation at a fancy restaurant in town, I think you’ll like it.”

“How can I not?”

They locked eyes, and her smile became less ecstatic and more heartwarming. “I’m really glad you called.”

Adrian could not help but smile when he responded and said, “I’m really glad I did too.”



Dinner was awkward to say the least. They were sitting on opposite ends of a table, waiting for their food to arrive and trying to think of something to say. Adrian was tightly wrapping the corner of the white tablecloth around his fingers, trying to stay calm. While his mental balance was in turmoil, Jenny’s beautiful smile had not waned. She just looked at him with her eyes full of love as she ran her finger around the rim of her perspiring glass of iced tea. In front of him was a glass of water, already close to empty from nervous drinks. Between them was a bowl of untouched biscuits and a narrow vase with a few roses.

The restaurant was brightly lit, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and lamps set up on the walls to look like candles. Outside, the last few strands of light from the setting sun were lost in the noise barrier of trees and bushes, shielding the restaurant from the sounds of the nearby street. While the building was packed, it was very quiet, for few people were talking. Except for kids dragged by their parents, Jenny and Adrian were the youngest people in the restaurant.

Desperate to end the silence, Adrian said the first thing that came to mind to lighten the mood. “We’re on our first date and we’ve already been intimate. Normally this would be preceding a shotgun wedding,” he mused with a nervous smile.

Jenny chuckled. “You’re actually the second person to say it’s like I’m pregnant.”

“Really? Who did you tell?”

“My friend Amanda. Don’t worry, she’ll keep it a secret.”

“So… how did you sleep?” he then asked, trying to regain his conversational momentum.

Jenny blushed. “It took me forever to fall asleep. I was just so excited and in disbelief. I wish you had been able to stay, I know I would have been able to fall asleep with you holding me. Maybe we can spend the night together next time.”

“Next time…” Adrian murmured with uncertainty.

Jenny’s smile faded and worry filled her eyes. “You want to do it again, don’t you?”

“I don’t know… I’ve never been so unsure of something in my whole life. I don’t know what I want, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, and I don’t even know who I am anymore. I don’t know if I should forget my goals to be with you or end this relationship before it’s too late and try to pick up the pieces of what I strived for.”

Jenny reached forward and slipped her hand beneath his.

“Adrian, you don’t have to forsake your goals to be with me. You can still break free of the human race and the fact that you have a human lover should not hinder that fact. Besides, if you somehow can transcend to the level you seek, you will still be in a human world. My heart doesn’t have to get in the way and you and your goals, my heart can be your home when you achieve them.”

“But what possible chance do we have when nobody our age can keep a lifelong bond? To be honest, I have no faith in this relationship.”

“You’re the last person I would expect to compare us to a regular couple. Besides, you have no idea how much it warms his heart that you just said we’re in a relationship,” she said with a small chuckle, her reassurance rekindling his own smile.

The waitress showed up and gave them their food.

“Listen, let’s stop talking about such glum things. Tell me, Adrian, what do you want to do when you grow up?” she then asked with a smile and her chin resting on her hand, while using her other hand to pick up a fork-full of spaghetti.

Adrian hummed for a moment while he tried to come up with a response, stirring his soup and looking into the swirling ripples for the right answer. This was the moment, this was when he had to choose his words carefully and see how much he could truly trust Jenny.

“I have plans. You told me last night that it was people like me who have the power to change the world, well I sort have been working on it already. For years I’ve been collecting the power I would need to finally make my move.”

Jenny’s eyes widened with interest and amazement as she tried to figure out what he meant. She was suddenly remembering why she had fallen in love with him in the first place. “What you mean by that?”

“I’ll tell you later. What about you, what do you want to do?”

“I’ve always known what I want to do as an adult. I want to become a florist. I want to run my own flower shop or even a whole botanical garden. Last year, I had one of the top grades in Biology class, and it was because of how much I love plants and how interesting they are.”

Seeing the smile on her face and hearing the soft light-hearted tone in her voice filled him with warmth and made his grin widen.

“You know, you are the one person that can make me smile. I can’t remember the last time I was in such a good mood for so long.”

“Well that must be a good omen for our relationship,” Jenny said warmly.

“Then with that omen, I think I want to give this relationship a try.”



With Jenny’s hand wrapped around his, they walked out to the parking lot and climbed into his car.

“How about we go find a dark and empty parking lot?” Jenny suggested with a coy smile.

He instantly understood the meaning, but his enthusiasm was far less than hers. “No.”

A look of fear crossed Jenny’s face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, I just don’t want to do it in a car. Jenny, I don’t know what my feelings are for you, but I don’t want us to be intimate like this. I want every time to be special, not just for physical enjoyment. If we do this for the hollow physical feeling, then the act looses the emotional meaning and just mirrors what everyone else feels as pointless sex. The act would loose its individuality and so would our relationship. I don’t want to insult the bond we shared last night by reenacting it for sake of pure physical desire.”

Jenny’s face was radiating with admiration. “How is it that such an emotionless robot can have such a big sentimental heart? Hold on, I have an idea.”

She then reached into her purse and pulled out her phone, quickly typing in the number. “Hey mom, Adrian is going to drop me off at Amanda’s. She is going to want a lot of details, so I think I’ll just spend the night at her house. …Ok, bye.”

She turned to him and put her hand on his thigh. “I have an alibi and a whole night to spend with the man I love.”



“So are you sure that your parents won’t notice me?” Jenny asked as they moved to the back of his house.

“Don’t worry, my parents give me complete privacy. Even if they open the door, they never even come down the stairs. We won’t be interrupted,” he said as he opened the double doors and they stepped down into his bedroom. Adrian turned on the light and went back to close the doors.

“Your bedroom is just so cool.”

He walked over to his stereo and turned it on, filling the room with calming white noise. He didn’t want any sounds to reach the rest of the house and the white noise would capture and muffle anything audible. Adrian walked over to Jenny and could feel nervousness filling his heart. Would this be as good as the first time? Would it be awkward? Was he doing the right thing by deciding to continue this relationship?

“Don’t worry, darling. You never have to be intimidated by our bond,” she whispered as she placed her hands on his shoulders and pressed herself against him. He couldn’t believe that she was able to sense his worry even through his constant melancholic expression.

“How is it that you can read me so well?”

“I can read you because I love you. Even if I’m not completely in your heart, you are in mine, and I can see into your soul with that bond.”

“My heart wants to be with you, but my mind is screaming at me to be logical. I don’t know who I am anymore and I won’t ever be able to find out once this relationship ends. I’m happy with you, but I will not able to rebuild once this bond is severed. Whatever you say to me, someone somewhere has said the same thing to the one they love and their relationship failed. How can I put faith in your words and feelings when they will falter with time? I can’t open my heart and protect myself from the future pain.

I’ve sacrificed everything to achieve my goals, and now if I make a single mistake, all that sacrifice will have been for nothing and I will be left with nothing. I will be unable to move forward or back, trapped in the shattered remains of the world that I created. I’m gambling my life on a relationship that is practically doomed to fail, but I cannot stop myself. I want to end this now, I want to erase my memories of you, and I want to go back to way things were when I knew my path in life… But just as much as I want those things, my heart will not let me do them. I don’t know what my feelings for you are, but some aspect of my consciousness will not let me abandon them. I can see myself making a mistake, but I can’t do anything to stop myself.”

Jenny moved her hands from his shoulders to his cheeks and stared deep into his eyes. “I told you that I would never love someone unless they could completely amaze me, you told me that you couldn’t break free of humans without becoming the greatest human on Earth. Adrian, you are the greatest human on Earth through my eyes. No one will ever amaze me more than you do, so I will never love anyone more than I love you. I know you don’t trust the human race and you have no faith in relationships, but we are not all failures. If you were able to become what all humans were meant to be, then maybe our bond can become as strong as all others were meant to be. Statistics don’t control their fates, we do!”

“No, we don’t. Our futures are out of our control. We only do what time tells us to do and statistics allow us to see into time.”

“They are only that, statistics! Reality and time doesn’t only bend to probability and patterns. The world isn’t just data and possibility, and even with all the data in the world, there are things that not even you can predict! If there is one person you can have faith in, it’s me. If there is one bond you can have faith in, it’s ours. Use your mind to see the world and use your heart to change it. You don’t need to prepare for the end of the relationship if your will is strong enough to protect it.”

Jenny then pressed her lips against his and they maintained that sweet embrace for several seconds. They began to slowly and gently pull off each other’s clothes, while refusing to end the kiss for even a moment. With their lips still touching, Adrian swept Jenny off her feet and she pressed her hand against the center of his chest. Holding her beautiful naked frame in his arms, he carried her to the bed and laid her down.

Jenny took her top off after several minutes, showing her full teenage breasts, which were barely being held by the red lace bra. Adrian reached behind her back and unclasped the bra hook, letting the red lingerie slip off her. His hormonal side had smashed through the psychological barrier and had shoved his rational mind aside, and indulged his desires by licking Jenny’s round tits, causing her to gasp and hum in bliss.

As he sucked on her nipples, he moved his hand down and unfastened her skirt. She slowly pushed them down her smooth thighs, along with her panties.

“Adrian, I want you to lick me, I’ve always wanted to know what it feels like,” she said as her whole body trembled in arousal.

“As you wish,” he said dryly.

She looked into his eyes and gained a warm smile, apparently seeing something within him, regardless of his empty tone. “So you are human after all.”

He silently crouched down as she spread her legs, showing him her pussy. He held his face just inches the soft lips, which were already wet with arousal. His primal hormonal side was savoring the fruity aroma and the proximity. He experimentally reached out with his tongue and brought it up between the wet lips, causing her to arch her back and moan in ecstasy. The taste of her juices was a very peculiar one, both bitter and sweet.

He gave a broad lick, thoroughly enjoying the taste and feel of her lips on his tongue. He worked in a rhythm, exploring her hot wet insides as much as he could with my limited reach. Jenny was gripping the edges of the bed, giving a continuous high-pitched moan and blushing all over.

“Oh god, Adrian! You’re driving me crazy!”

He stood up and undressed, standing over Jenny. He gripped his erect manhood and guided it to her pussy, slowly pushing it in. Jenny emitted a crystal-clear chime, like that of a bell. With his hands on her hips, Adrian began moving back and forth in a steady pattern, sending his cock deep inside her. With the two of them perpendicular, he was able to get great penetration, thrusting his cock all the way in and give her unparalleled euphoria.

Strangely, Jenny seemed much more calm than before. She had a look of sleepy bliss on her face, only giving the softest of coos with each thrust. Her eyes were closed and she was gently running her fingertips along her smooth skin, almost as if she was just waking up from a nap. It almost looked like the ecstasy that had stimulated her body before was now relaxing it, almost like a massage.

Deciding to go further, Adrian reached down and picked her up with his hands beneath her back. Surprised and unbalanced, Jenny wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. He fully held her up off the bed, using only his arms to bring her up and down on his cock. Just from being in his arms, Jenny knew that Adrian was far stronger than he looked. In truth, she was light as a pillow to him. Jenny had a tired smile on her base and was blushing as he moved her.

“I love you, Adrian,” she said tenderly as she ran her fingers through his hair.

In reply, he held her up against the wall, and reawakened by the resulting thrust, Jenny reached up and held onto a pipe above her head for dear life. She resumed her hymn of moans as he used the angle to probe a new corner of her pussy, relishing the feeling of her hot wet insides. Everything on the wall rattled with each thrust as he put every drop of strength he had into satisfying her. Nearly an hour later, Jenny’s stamina was on the verge of giving out. They were back on the bed, this time in cowgirl position, and while Adrian was still full of energy, Jenny looked like she was about to pass out.

“Adrian, I’m going to cum,” she panted.

Using the springs in the mattress to take the burden off her, Adrian began thrusting upwards at top speed, sending his cock into her as hard and fast as possible. Finally, they both had a simultaneous orgasm, just the last in a long line, and once again soaking each other in DNA. Jenny collapsed on top of him, gasping for air but continuing to run her tongue and lips across his scars. Her long blonde hair was stretched across his face, and every breath he took brought with it the sweet smell of her perfume and sawdust from the table. They were pressed together to the point where they could feel each other’s heartbeats, and their combined body heat was as intense as a furnace.

As Adrian’s erection lost its luster, so did his Id’s control over his body. It slowly went back to sleep, returning power to his logical mind. With his semi-hard dick still inside her, Jenny pushed herself up, her hair hanging down around her angelic face. She had one of the warmest and sweetest smiles he had ever seen, and her eyes seem to glow as she gently ran her fingers through his hair.

“I love you, Adrian,” Jenny whispered as she put her hand on the center of his chest and felt his heartbeat. Adrian did not give a reply, for he did not know what to say.

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me you love me. I know you’re confused; I sure was before I knew that I loved you. Take all the time you need to figure everything out, I will never run out of patience.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t need to thank me, just hold me,” she said before kissing him and rolling on her side. He wrapped his arm around her and held her close with her warm back against his chest and the smell of her hair filling his senses. It would have been perfect, but Adrian could feel a headache forming.



Jenny and Adrian walked out of the parking lot and towards the entrance of the school. It was the first day of the new semester and their schedules had changed. Both of them were nervous.

“So should we just wait until after school to be together or is there some sort of protocol? I don’t want our relationship to be a secret, but neither do I want us to be one of those idiot couples that stand in the hall and make out to display to everyone. You know, they act like going to separate classes is such an impossible distance and length of time for them to be apart and just jump all over each other after class because being away from each other for an hour is “such a strain on their love”.”

Jenny burst into laughter as they walked through the front door. “I hate those exhibitionists too. They always act like Romeo and Juliet because classes are keeping them apart, and then just show off their relationship in the hall while acting like they don’t care what people think. How about we go back to the way we were before, but with one small difference…”

She then gave him a very quick and modest kiss. It was not a regular, teenage, over-exaggerative “I’ll be counting the seconds while you’re gone” kiss, but a simple “have a nice day, honey” kiss. Everyone that saw them gasped in disbelief, unable to process the sight of a cold emotionless recluse kissing one of the most popular girls in school. Just his reputation as Adroid made it impossible to accept; everyone figured he would be dead before he entered a relationship.

“Ok, I’ll see you later,” Jenny said with a smile before walking off to her new first-period class.

“Bye,” Adrian said with a smile of his own as he walked off in the opposite direction, leaving people to gawk at what they had seen.



Throughout the day, Adrian was on his phone at every opportunity, not for work, but to study. He was looking up relationship tips and advice on how to interact with romantic partners. Academically, he has mastered the study of human psychology, but now he needed a crash course on casual human contact.



“I’m not going to be in school tomorrow, I have to meet with my clients,” Adrian said as he zoomed through his math homework.

“Oh, you’re going to sell one of your inventions?” Jenny asked with excitement as she worked on her science work next to him. Jenny was in his room, the two of them doing homework before they could switch into relationship mode.

“Yep, I finally finished it, tested it, and I’m ready to sell the designs. Let me show you what this thing can do.”

Adrian reached under his desk and pulled out the finished creation. It was a surgical laser, as large as a remote control, and could easily be held with one hand. In the back of the base was a plug for an extension cord, and the nozzle was focused into an adjustable cone shape. It used inductors made of gold leaf to increase the charge supplied by the cord, making it capable of cutting through steel with the power of a standard wall socket.

Adrian plugged an extension cord into the base of the laser and then secured a pencil into the brace of his workbench. He held the laser steady, set it to a low level, and activated it, sending an invisible beam of light that sliced through the pencil like a blowtorch through paper. Jenny gaped in amazement.

“That was the low setting. A higher setting could let me cut through metal. With all the clients I’ll sell it off to, I estimate I’ll be able to make thirty million dollars and still keep the prototype.”

“Wait, THIRTY MILLION?!” Jenny exclaimed.

“Technology like this is worth a lot, depending on who you sell it to. Yeah, I already have well over a hundred million dollars in my bank account now from all of my inventions. In fact, I even offered to buy my parents a mansion with all the money I make, but they said they didn’t want to be even farther from me than they already were.” In truth, that one bank account was pocket change compared to the combined profits of all of his corporations.

Jenny gained a coy smile, walked over, and sat down on his lap. She leaned down and gave him a small kiss. “You’re smart, strong, handsome, sentimental, rich, and you can read my body like brail. I swear, my friends have been asking me all day why I’m with you, but I don’t dare tell them because they’ll all try to seduce you. Maybe when Spring Break comes, the two of us could go on a romantic vacation, maybe the Bahamas?”

“Maybe,” Adrian said simply. He turned his attention to the clock. “I have to get you home, I don’t want your dad to kick down my front door.”

Jenny gave a sad laugh and kissed him again. She stood up but he didn’t.

“Adrian?” she asked when he didn’t get out of his chair.

“There is something I want to show you.”

Jenny raised one of her eyebrows as Adrian walked over to his bed and pulled two metal cases out from under it. One looked like it was used to hold a billiards cue while the other was a metal briefcase, both of which were sealed with six-digit combination locks.

“Machines and inventions aren’t the only thing I build down here. There is a class of metalwork that I specialize in: the forging of weapons,” he said as he opened the two cases.

Lying in the briefcase were twenty metal shivs, all eight inches long and as thick as pencils. The tips were as sharp as needles and the slope from end to end was flawlessly straight. There were handle grooves near the base of each shiv, but other than that, there wasn’t a single mark in the metal. They could be used as daggers and thrown like darts. Sitting in a bed of velvet was a meter-long spike, like a pool cue, made of steel, titanium, and several powerful metals, all blended together into a whole new metal compound. It had been made with more skill and precision than the blacksmiths who forged Japanese Katanas. The shaft was sloped at a flawless angle and was perfectly straight from end to end. The tip was sharp enough to draw blood with the slightest touch, but so powerful that it would never break or dull, no matter how it was used on or how much strain was put on it. The whole weapon was more durable than a nuclear flask and would stand the test of time.

Jenny stared into the two cases with both fear and amazement.

“This lance and these darts are weapons I’ve created merely out of hobby and fascination. While they can be used for self-defense, I built them mostly as an art form. I focused them on an icicle-shaped spike instead of a blade, because I think that the unconventional weapon design fits his personality best.”

He picked up one of the darts and threw it at a target board on the far wall, striking the very center with little effort. Even without fins to keep it steady in the air like a regular dart or arrow, the shiv was able to fly as straight as a laser beam and strike the intended target without missing by a single centimeter.

“You know, many people would be concerned with the idea of someone like you making these weapons.”

“I have no reason to use these on other people. The action would serve no purpose and only create meaningless pain and cause negative consequences. I create these to act as merely hand-made trophies and concealed self-defense tools. The spike form represents their difference to traditional bladed weapons, much like my difference to other people. The only ones who have anything to fear from these weapons are those who mean me harm. Plus, it’s not like I’m going to bring them to school with me.”

“These are really incredible, Adrian. How did you make them?” Jenny asked with amazement as she picked up the lance. It was quite heavy, but with it’s weight came unbelievable durability.

“I forge them with automatic hammers and then cut them into shape with lasers. However, the metal I use is far greater than any other known to man.”

“What do you mean?”

“These are all made of an incredibly powerful metal I have developed. I call it Demium.”

“Demium?”

“As in demigods. All metal workers dream of someday creating or working with an alloy that is virtually indestructible, just like in science-fiction movies. In truth, nothing is indestructible, only immune to specific layers and means of destruction. However, Demium is the closest you can get to immunity to all physical damage. If indestructibility is a god-like level for metal, then Demium is the demigod of all metals. Being its creator, I’ve personally tested it to its breaking point, and I can attest to its durability. The tip of this lance, which is as sharp as a needle and thin as a nail, I could use it to carve through several blocks of concrete and none of the sharpness would be lost.”

“But how did you form this metal?”

“By planning out and simulating how the atoms would bond, I was able join together the most powerful elements together into a crystal lattice structure that would be unparalleled in its strength. By figuring out the exact structure of the molecules and the number of atoms needed to create as many of these molecules as possible, I was able to calculate the exact mass required of each individual ingredient. The key to producing Demium is to know that once it is achieved, its melting point skyrockets.

Having discovered this, I melted all the ingredients together and mixed them into one smelting container. After that, it was all a matter of waiting and watching while the atoms and molecules moved around in the molten metal stew and bonded together and split over and over again. As more and more Demium was formed, you would see small clumps of the metal floating around in the molten mixture, completely immune to the heat. Once I had enough pure Demium, I extracted it and hammered out any weaknesses, then finished with a laser-lathe.

Unfortunately, this lance and all of these darts are far from perfect. Not even my eyes can see the minute flaws before its too late to fix them, and the melting method I use does not guarantee 100% pure Demium. It seems that until technology evolves to the point where we can manipulate atoms and molecules themselves, these are the best I can achieve.”

“Why do you choose to create this shape? A simple spike without a hilt, guard, or blade?”

“It mirrors my personality. I find blades to be too flashy. You don’t need three feet of flopping metal with a sharp edge to get the job done; you only need a single sharp point. The simple spike shape signifies pure desire to do what is required, and not waste a single moment or ounce of energy. Handles are for weaklings without strong hands, guards mess up the weapon’s balance and aerodynamics, and blades just create messy slashes.

Weapons reflect the soul of their wielder, and I can’t find a traditional weapon that fits me. I don’t like Katanas because they are too imbued with Asian culture; anyone with a Katana is merely a samurai wannabe. I also don’t like the curve of the blade; it looks wrong and it shows the curve in a person’s train of thought. I don’t like rapiers and sabers because they are not nearly strong enough. Sure they can stab, but they have pitiful blades and they bend and warp under pressure, something that the wielder must not do. I don’t like broadswords, because as the name implies, they are too broad. They are too bold and flashy with the size of their blade and the elegance of their guard. Besides, broadswords are double-edged, and those who prefer double-edged weapons have double-edged minds, something that disrupts goals and mental balance. I don’t like machetes because they are too exotic, cliché, and improper. It’s a tool that is intended for hacking through foliage, it is way too obvious of a weapon—not to mention its existence in movies, and the blade is too short and improperly curved for accurate damage. Axes are too blunt and barbaric, with the energy involved in using it erratic to say the least. I don’t really like any bladed weapons, because along with the metal, the soul of the wielder favors one direction. Blades are inefficient, and their poor direction and messy results are mirrored in the soul of their wielder.

Most of all, I don’t like guns. True, it takes a lot of talent and skill to able to use a gun properly and have good aim, but the action of firing a bullet takes away the real skill. It distances you from your enemy, less of an attempt to protect your psyche than to make you seem less guilty. When you use guns, your strength isn’t measured in will power, physical dexterity, or spirit; your strength is measured in the size of your bullets.

A lance or a dart is like an elegant bullet, and it reflects your unstoppable desires. With a lance, you don’t care about flashiness, the thrill of combat, or your reputation; you only care about your goals and the fastest way to them. You aren’t going to slash and chop your enemies to get past them. You’re going to go straight for the kill because they are obstacles in your path that must be removed for you to reach your goals. A lance doesn’t have any distractions in the form of an edge, just like its wielder shouldn’t.”

But while Adrian spoke, the lie he had told did not sit well with him. In truth, he had used these weapons before, several times. When dealing with his factions growing in the third-world countries, there were occasions when he had to act in the real world, and not from behind a phone or computer. During times like those, violence was always no more than one wrong word away. In the dozens of firefights he had been in, no fist, bullet, or blade had ever struck him, and no enemy had ever survived.



“Ah, Mr. Ashford, come in,” Adrian’s client said as he stepped into his office.

His name was Mr. Lamar, an Indian immigrant and the CEO of one of he greatest engineering companies in New England, however, he was not one of Adrian’s puppet figureheads. Adrian shook his hand and sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. There was a large bay window behind Lamar’s desk, two long rows of cabinets along the walls, and a leather couch with a glass coffee table in the back corner. The walls and cabinets were covered in pieces of art, pictures from office parties, and business awards.

“I trust that your newest project is complete? What do you have to show me today?” he asked with his thick Indian accent.

“I’ll let you try to figure it out for yourself. I’ll give you a hint: once it’s plugged in, I only have to push this button here and I could kill you,” Adrian said non-threateningly as he pulled the device out of his coat pocket and set it down on the desk, pointing towards Lamar.

He stirred uncomfortably in his chair at his words. “Is this really…?”

“Yes, it is a handheld laser. It can either be set so low that it is on par with a child’s laser pointer or set so high that it can carve through the hood of a car with ease. If you would like to see it in action, choose something in this office you are ok with losing and I will show you what it can do.”

Trying to maintain his poker face, Lamar pointed to a large ceramic vase in the corner of the room. With his target in mind, Adrian plugged the laser into a floor outlet and raised the level of its output. He pointed it at the vase and held down the firing button. Without anything in the air to reflect the light, the high-powered beam of energy was invisible to the human eye. A burn mark appeared on the surface, and with a quick slash of the laser, the entire vase shattered from the beam thermally cracking the ceramic.

“How much do you want for it?” Lamar asked cautiously.

“Ten million for the blueprints.”

“That is completely absurd!”

“Fine. If you don’t want it, I’ll sell it to someone else. This is revolutionary technology with applications in engineering, surgery, and mere entertainment. You could make billions with this before the end of the year.”

Lamar gave a sigh of frustration. “Very well, the money will be deposited in your bank account by tomorrow. But how can I be sure that you will give me the designs?” he asked, hiding his face behind his tented fingers.

While Adrian’s face maintained its normal cold scowl, his voice gained a smug tone. “Because I need you. You of course know that I have more clients. People will pay a lot of money to own the first of something, but they’ll pay even more when they see that other people have it. I’m counting on the competition between you and other companies to increase the demand. This is a win-win situation: you can compete with other companies with his machinery and I get more money from those companies. Everyone wins and everyone gets rich. You’ll get the blueprints when I get my money.”



“I can’t believe I’m getting extorted by a punk-kid like you,” his second client said.

They were having a business lunch in the most expensive restaurant in town. Unlike the restaurant he took Jenny to, there was a band playing classical music in the background at all times. Adrian would have taken Jenny here, but he simply couldn’t find anything on the menu that was appealing. His second client was younger than the first, just over twice Adrian’s age, but his hairline was already starting to recede. He was taking out his frustration on a glass a shrimp cocktail.

“Get over it. If your engineers deserved even half of the money you paid them, they would be able to build machines like these,” Adrian said coldly as he put the laser back in his pocket and replaced it with a CD.

“All of the blueprints, designs, and instructions are on this disk. Once I get his money, you get the disk. Remember, ten million dollars,” he said as he stood up and walked out of the restaurant.



Adrian deactivated the laser and put down the sheet of paper. He had written his name on it in cursive with a continuous burn mark, but the singe was so light that it hadn’t even cut through the other side.

“Far more delicate work than a scalpel. Imagine the possible uses in surgery this thing would have: cleaner incisions, flawless cauterizations instead of stitches, and the ability to separate flesh from muscle without slicing and dicing,” he said to his third client.

He was a very wealthy businessman that was on the board of directors of every hospital in the state and was the CEO of a pharmaceutical company. His office was smaller than Lamar’s, with wood-paneled walls and vast bookcases of medical textbooks. The window blinds were only letting in a small amount of sunlight.

“Jack, if you can get it now, then you can hire other engineers to replicate it and you won’t have to buy it from the other companies for a lot more.”

“And I can’t convince you to go less than ten million?”

“A single MRI machine costs just a fraction of that.”

“Very well, deliver the blueprints once you confirm you have been paid.”

“Pleasure doing business with you.”



As Adrian left the building, his phone began to ring.

“Hello?”

“This is Leman, sir. I’ve found the man you’re looking for.”

“Good, continue to monitor him, and make sure he knows that disobedience will mean death.”





Chapter Three:



“Sir, Akim Yellas has just fallen to the ground in the parking lot. He’s dead, sir,” stated Adrian’s subordinate in Russian, talking through a cell phone.

The man was crouched on a rooftop in St. Petersburg with a sniper rifle pressed against his shoulder, practically invisible in the winter night. Down below was a quaint diner with a dead body lying sprawled out on the snowy parking lot. Scared onlookers surrounded the corpse, one of which was trying to perform CPR. Inside, the staff was watching nervously.

“I’m not surprised. It seems your services are no longer required. Thank you for your time, you’ve already received your payment. However, I may call upon you in the future, so don’t completely cast my name into the trash bin of your memory,” said Adrian, countering with a flawless Russian dialect.

“Yes, sir.”

Adrian hung up and sat back in his chair, staring at his computer, which was open to Akim Yellas’ hacked email account. Akim Yellas was someone with a fair amount of brains but no morals. Having always been a gifted student, he had amassed a large ego and made a living as an identity thief, both for financial support and entertainment. Genius and a worthless life, just the combination Adrian needed in a pawn that he planned on sacrificing. With blackmail as his leverage, he had forced Akim into working for him, serving as his mask in the meeting that had just taken place in the diner.

He had ordered Akim to pretend to be interested in a deal with a man he met in the diner, rehearsed the conversation with him, and had made him establish a rule during the meeting that no names were to be used, so as to keep Akim from learning anything more than he needed, in case Adrian’s assassin failed to end his life. Under the excuse of “anyone could overhear us”, the meeting had used as vague references as possible, with Akim ordered to just play along and make the deal.

The reason why he had picked Akim Yellas to serve as his mask as his scapegoat was simple: he had above-average intelligence, meaning that he was easily capable of seeking out Adrian’s true targets. However, he wasn’t using pawns’ capabilities to find the targets, no, he was already well aware of them. Instead he was using their capabilities as a cover so that the rest of the members in the client’s organization wouldn’t get suspicious as to how the organization itself had been discovered. He had to use people who could be expected to operate on their own, at least in the eyes of his targets. If he used puppets that weren’t smart enough to appear to be independent, then the strings would be easily visible, and the last thing he needed was for his targets to consider the possibility of a puppeteer in the darkness with his eyes on their group.

But as he had seen, the meeting hadn’t gone over so well. His subordinate had been denied, and even more, he had been assassinated, most likely something that he had eaten or drank in the diner had been spiked with something. Of course the autopsy would reveal it had merely been an unfortunate aneurism or blood clot, or even a delayed allergic reaction, as it was meant to look like as an accident. To his targets, Akim knew too much and could serve no beneficial purpose to their group, so he had to be eliminated. Adrian had planned something similar if the deal worked; he would get what he wanted, and the identity thief known as Akim Yellas would be forever silenced.

Adrian leaned back in his chair and sighed. Failure was always an option in this stage of the plan, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t frustrating. Every time he failed, his opponents raised their guard and became tenser, but that also meant that he would cause less of a shock and reaction if he ever had to reveal himself and make his move. He rubbed his temples, trying to ease the headache bubbling behind his eyes. He had been suffering from migraines and stomach problems lately and it seemed like they were just getting worse and worse.



Confusing, that is the word Adrian would use to describe his relationship with Jenny. It had been a month since they were first intimate, and ever since, his mind had struggled to regain its mental bearings. His hormonal and emotional sides were fighting against his cold logical side, something they hadn’t done in years. His machine-like logical side was what made him unique to everyone else; it was like a soul made of gears and circuits. He did not want to lose it, because it meant giving up his identity. But the other half of his mind was arguing that he could not be a cold machine and be with Jenny. He could be alone and focused or be a human with the woman who loved him.

Ever since the two of them had been intimate, he had struggled to find a name to give the resulting combination of his emotions and hormonal desires. The most fitting title could find was to call it his heart, pardon the corny cliché. Having a heart was a very peculiar experience, one that he had never felt. Before, the heart was merely an organ with the purpose of pumping blood, with the poetic meaning as little more than a human construct, an illusion to justify an empty existence. Now Adrian could actually feel the purpose of that poetic definition, though he understood it as much as he did the relationship itself. The reason his heart was fighting his logical side with such passion was because of Jenny. Adrian had spent years studying humans, but she was different. She was always trying to get him to open up and be more social, but gently. She had learned to read him and now knew what to do to get the best results.

She wouldn’t drag him out of his seat to talk to other people, but instead ask him what he would say to them and how he would interact. It was almost a form of social simulation. She knew and admired that he was an antisocial person, so she would only take him to his limits of tolerance and then never take him farther. It was as if she knew there was a line Adrian would not cross in terms of socializing, and she just wanted him to be as close to that line as possible while still being happy. She wasn’t trying to change him; she just wanted him to go as far as he could.

She had a form of patience that Adrian had never seen before, a way of understanding that he didn’t think others had. What would have normally driven a girl away seemed to draw her like moths to a porch light. He had not told her that he loved her because he wasn’t sure what his feelings were for her. He definitely cared about her, but he could not figure out what actually constituted love. This did not detour her from every day saying that she loved him, and the fact that he had not returned the statement did not drain her patience, it increased it.

Jenny understood him in ways that he didn’t think were possible and could read him like a book. Everything Adrian did seemed to make her love him more, from his tendency to rarely smile to his quiet statue-like presence in social situations. She was his link to the human world, and it was as if she was studying him as much as he was studying her. They were intimate a few times every week, but Adrian could not decide whether it was sex or making love. It was both and neither of them, and every second, his mind would be filled with bliss and confusion. He enjoyed being intimate with her, both for the strange physical and emotional feelings that it created. He saw every session as an opportunity to study these feelings like specimens in a lab, and she saw it as an opportunity to bond herself with something that was more than human.

However, there were times in which Adrian knew that his words or actions were having a negative influence. Being so bright and full of life, Jenny could not fully protect her heart from the harshness of his logic, and more times than he would like, Adrian would answer her question with what he thought was the best answer, only to realize that brutal honesty didn’t fit well into most conversations. Even if it was the slightest of reductions to a smile or the momentary avoidance of his gaze, he could see that like all people, it was impossible for her to become fully used to his bluntness. He tried to pick his words carefully around her, but after the years he had spent by himself, he had atrophied in the skill of telling people what they wanted to hear. He knew only how to tell the truth and how to lie, but he did not know how to combine the two into the etiquette-concoction required for a romantic relationship.



School was let out for Thanksgiving vacation, and all of the students and staff desperately needed it. The fall was proving to be a mild one with a similar winter soon to follow, but even with the climate stepping out of line with its Maine reputation, the trees had no less finished shedding their leaves, the overcast gained a permanent gray tinge, and everyone’s clothes changed to protect them from the crisp breeze that seemed to roll across the school campus, carrying with it the smell of snow as if traveling back from the future.

“So do you have relatives coming for Thanksgiving?” Jenny asked as she looked out the passenger-side window of his car.

“Yes, but my house is too small for them to stay, so I’m putting them up in hotel rooms as always.”

She turned to him and smiled. “For someone with so much money, you certainly aren’t cheap.”

Adrian only bit his lip in the bewilderment of if he was supposed to smile or not and merely nodded.

“I have relatives coming as well, and living in the suburbs, I’m sure you can imagine we have a hard time finding space for everyone when the holidays come. Even if they are stressful, Thanksgiving is so much fun.”

“Are you sure that you’re actually remembering it as being fun?”

“What do you mean?”

“The human mind naturally adds a positive spin to memories. It’s why people always long for the past. High school could have been a boring waste of four years in which nothing good ever happened, yet ask an adult if they miss it and if they were good times and they almost always say they were. It’s hard to know if you were ever truly happy, for your mind is always devaluing the meaning of happiness to make your memories brighter.”

He looked over at Jenny in the corner of his eye and saw that her lively smile of tired joy had been diminished as she mulled over what he had said and gleamed over her memories, wondering if she really had been “happy” during the ones that were the brightest.



“You’ve been working on this thing for so long, what is it?” Jenny asked as she watched Adrian.

On the wide table by his desk, he was working on a large piece of machinery, almost resembling the interior of a remote-controlled battlebot like the ones seen fighting on TV with saw blades. It was about the size of a mini-fridge and filled with cable systems and gears that were hooked up to computerized winches.

“It’s a surgical robot, meant to replace human doctors in the operating room, at least in terms of who is touching the patient. The surgeon will be controlling the robot, but I’m considering making a version where the machine can be programmed to act on its own and perform specific operations as told.”

“Really? That’s amazing!”

“Yeah, but I’m disappointed with how long it’s been taking. I’ve been at this for a month and a half and I’m only three quarters of the way to completion. Oh well, big machines like these are always the slower projects,” he grumbled under the crackle of the ark welder.

“What kind of other big machines have you made?” Jenny asked, wondering how the finished creation would look.

“Probably my biggest project was a full-body scanner. It was like an MRI, but it didn’t use radiation or magnets, meaning that there were no health risks and people with metal in their bodies won’t be in danger. Plus it was accurate enough to give a 3D image of the patient’s cells. It was about half as large as a regular MRI, but I still had to dismantle it after it’s completion so that I could actually get it out of my room.”

“How much money did you make?”

“A fair amount. All I really care about is making enough money to keep building and to be known for my skills in engineering.”

“You never seemed like the prideful type.”

“I’m not, I just want to make sure my name comes up when people need a bigger job done. They can misspell my name for all I care, all I want is to be the one that they call.”



Adrian kept the door to his room locked and the white noise blurring from his speakers at their top volume to drown out the sounds of relatives talking above him and cousins running around the house. Already, his bedroom door had been knocked on so many times it was as if he lived down the street from a church of Jehovah’s Witnesses with Alzeimers, but he saw no reason in leaving his room. He would much rather work on his machines than talk to his extended family for an hour. Ringing beside him, Adrian’s phone caught his attention. It was Jenny.

“Yes?” he asked as he answered it.

“It’s been three days and I don’t even get a hello? Come on, just because you’re on vacation from school doesn’t mean you’re on vacation from me,” she teased.

Like Adrian, she was in her room with the door shut and locked, desperate to get away from her pesky cousins and finally realizing the truth in what he had told her in the car.

“Very well.”

“I was wondering if you would like to come over for dinner tonight. My whole family is desperate to meet you.”

“I would prefer not to. I have work to do and I get enough questions here at home.”

“Come on, you’ve never even had a real conversation with anyone in my family, except for my dad when you asked to spend the night. I want to show you off.”

“I said no,” he replied, not angrily but forcefully.

Jenny winced at the harshness of his answer. “Adrian, we’re dating. We’re supposed to spend time together other than when our schedules put us in the same classroom. We haven’t talked in three days. Come on, just five minutes and then we can lock ourselves in my room and be alone until dinner.”

Adrian took a deep breath. “As you wish. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Just try and answer most of their questions before I get there. There is no point in waiting for me to tell them things that you already know.”



Adrian kept his look melancholically bland as usual as Jenny brought him into the house. Aunts, uncles, and grandparents all wanted to get a good look at him, while young cousins battered him with questions on whether or not what Jenny had told them was true. He kept his answers short, asked no questions in return, and looked dead ahead without consistent eye-contact whenever possible. It was clear that Jenny had already warned everybody about his “social level”, as even his uncaring behavior failed to evoke so much as a sigh or look of disappointment. As per the conditions, Adrian answered questions for five minutes before Jenny allowed him to escape, bringing him up to her room where they would have relative privacy.

“I’m surprised, you didn’t swear or lose your temper once,” Jenny noted as she sat down on the bed.

Adrian walked over to the window and gazed through the cold glass, already fogging from frozen condensation. “That took a lot of self-control. You know I hate being badgered by people.”

Jenny giggled. “Yes, but from what I’ve learned, if they badger you long enough, you grow fond of them. After all, we’re only in a relationship because I refused to stop annoying you.”

Before answering, Adrian walked over to her shut bedroom door and slammed his hand against it, scaring off her young cousins who had their ears pressed against the door. “Unfortunately, your family is no less irritating than mine. I loathe getting visited by relatives.”

“Sure it can be a little stressful, but can you honestly tell me you feel nothing for your family?”

“I love my immediate family, but even that is limited. Blood relation means nothing; you see your friends more than your extended family. Why should it matter?” said Adrian, staying by the door.

“Why are you standing over there? We don’t have to be speaking to each other from across the bedroom.”

Without so much as a nod, Adrian walked over and lied down beside her, the two of them looking up that the ceiling the same way they had after they were first intimate.

“What about when we get married and have kids? Won’t blood relation matter then?”

“It is unlikely we’ll last that long, and it’s illogical for you to plan that far ahead.”

Jenny gave an undeterred shrug. “You should know me well enough to expect this. After all, I wouldn’t be with you if I didn’t want us to spend our lives together. Like you told my friends, there is no point to a relationship if it serves as only practice.”

Adrian gained a small smile, which to Jenny, was a huge achievement for her. “And I wouldn’t be with you if I didn’t admire you for that,” he said.

Jenny smiled and rolled on her side, wrapping her arms around his. “Imagine if we do get married and have kids, what then? Will blood relation matter?”

“Of course it will matter.”

“Then tell me, would you be interested in marriage? You say that it is likely we won’t last long, but it certainly isn’t impossible. If that possibility exists, then are you interested? Say that in our future, if it was guaranteed we got married as long as you proposed, would you be interested? I’m not asking if you would or wouldn’t, I’m asking whether you would consider it.”

Adrian bit his lip, repeating the same question in his mind over and over, even though it was the same thing he had been wondering ever since that fateful night. He didn’t even know if what he felt for her constituted love, let alone if they would truly spend their lives together. And there were more than his personal feelings to consider, after all, he had his plan to think about. Were a life with Jenny and the steps he would need to take to achieve his plan compatible? Could he move forward to complete his plan and be sure that Jenny would stay by his side?

“Dinner is ready!” Jenny’s mom hollered from the kitchen, putting the conversation on hold to Adrian’s relief.



The dining room was cramped with everyone gathered around the dinner table. Another table even had to be brought in and added so that everyone could take a seat. Even with the regular meal, the amount of space in the middle of the table was almost nonexistent, meaning that Thanksgiving dinner would be like a giant game of Tetris. Adrian kept his eyes on his plate as he ate, hoping that he would be asked as few questions as possible. The meal was spaghetti and he was eating hungrily, already on his third helping.

“My, someone loves my cooking!” Mrs. Sinclair laughed.

“I’m glad you made spaghetti, pasta was just the fuel I needed,” he answered before wiping the sauce off his lips with his napkin.

“What do you mean?” one of Jenny’s cousins asked, a ten-year-old boy.

“Pasta is rich in starches, which is made of polysaccharides, which is made up of long chains of monosaccharides, which is essentially glucose. I need all the glucose I can get to function at my peak. Unfortunately, the fridge in my room is empty and I couldn’t go into my parent’s kitchen without being bombarded by questions from my relatives. I figure with enough pasta, I can go until 2:00 am before I need more sugar.”

“You even need to wake up to get more sugar? That sounds almost like an addiction to me,” one of Jenny’s uncles joked.

“No, I don’t wake up because I don’t sleep. I stay up every second night and continue on into the next day. This way, between school days, I get about fifteen hours of uninterrupted work time. I’ll go to sleep tomorrow night.”

Everyone looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

“So are you going to college after you graduate?” Ed asked, leaning back in his chair with a look of defensive skepticism on his face.

“No, I have no need. I’m already quite wealthy with the money from my inventions, so I don’t need to go to college for the sake of finding a career. Besides, I already know more than any university could possibly teach, so college would only serve to rob me of more time that could be spent working,” he answered without looking up from his plate.

“So that’s what you’ll do for your career? You’ll keep inventing?” Mrs. Sinclair asked.

“That’s correct, that’s all I plan on doing.”

He looked around at everyone and noted their expressions, but what confused him was the quizzical look on Jenny’s face.



“Goodnight,” Adrian said, standing with Jenny on her porch.

“Wait a second, Adrian, there is something I need to ask you. But first tell me if there is anyone listening in?”

“No, I sense no one else around.”

“Why did you lie to my family? On our first date, you told me that you were going to change the world. You said that you’ve spent the last few years acquiring the power you would need to make your move, and you never even told me what you meant. I have to know, Adrian, what are you planning?”

“I’m afraid I can’t answer that at this time.”

“But why not? There is no one listening to us, why can’t you tell me?”

“Jenny, I told you before that I trusted you. That is true, but I meant that I trusted you with my past. What I’m going to do, I can’t afford to leave any loose ends in my wake. I need to make sure my future is assured, and right now, our relationship is the largest variable. I trust you with the knowledge of my past, but until I’m absolutely sure that you will never leave me, I can’t trust you with the knowledge of my future. I must make sure that my plans are never released, or everything I have worked to accomplish will have been for nothing.”

Jenny’s face paled as she tried to imagine what he was planning. “Just please, tell me what your goal is. You don’t have to tell me what you’ll do, but tell me what you hope to achieve.”

“I’m going to put an end to the conflicts of mankind. I’m going to completely reshape civilization and create international equality. While the phrase is cliché, there is none more fitting than to say that I will create a new world order, in which the power is truly given to the people and those who hold authority are made responsible for their actions. This plan will either recreate the world or destroy it, the choice is up to the people.”



“It always surprises me when you offer to take me shopping. I know that the mall is your idea of hell,” Jenny said gratefully.

“Well you know I’ve been watching television to try and study human interaction and behavior. From what I’ve learned, women like to shop, and I figure that is something that I can use. Besides, I have plenty of money.”

“All right, just don’t think that you need to buy my love and happiness. I don’t want to look like a gold digger.”

Clinging to his arm, Jenny led Adrian into just about every clothing store in the mall. The stadium-sized building was packed full of people moving down the wide corridors like salmon through a river at spawning season. The hallways were wide enough for vast crowds of people to walk through, or stop and rest at the benches in the middle. Endless stores stood side by side on each hallway, while a mixture of electricity and a skylight kept the entire structure lit. It was true that Adrian absolutely loathed the mall, but he did his best to hide his contempt and put on the appearance of being in a good mood. His arm was hooked through the loops of more than half a dozen shopping bags, his credit card was warm in his pocket from the friction of being handled so many times, and Jenny’s neck was beginning to redden from the constant application and removal of clothes, not to mention the small scratches left behind by the edges of the tags.

In each store, he would stand beside her while she picked out clothes and then wait by the dressing room while she switched in and out of different outfits. She would step out and ask for his opinion, and he would wear an empty smile and say something nice, no matter what she wore. To him, there was no real difference in quality of appearance between the different outfits, so he just tried to play along and come up with different compliments and descriptions. It wasn’t that he didn’t think she was beautiful, but he was never one to articulate it, and certainly not with a smile. Just revealing this much emotion was causing his headache to reappear and was making his stomach hurt.

Jenny quickly wised up to his efforts towards authenticity, and while she said nothing of it, it did make her happy to see him really trying.



“Do you have the time?” Jenny asked as they set down their bags on an empty bench.

“It’s 3:47.”

“Been counting the seconds since you last saw a clock? My, you must be really suffering,” she teased.

Adrian just gave a wry smile and the smallest of laughs. “Very well, I’ll check.”

He drew his phone, and as he pressed his thumb against the screen and released the bio-recognition lock, he heard a click in the distance. Even through the roaring of thousands of footfalls and hundreds of conversations echoing down the large hallway, the click was crystal-clear to Adrian and he recognized the sound as coming from a camera.

‘Just as I thought, every time I draw my phone…’ Adrian mentally concluded as he read the time display and then turned off the device.

With the screen black, he used it as a mirror to look over his shoulder. Across the rivers of shoppers moving in opposite directions, he saw a man in his late twenties putting something in the breast pocket of his coat, and from the size, it was obviously a camera. The man had short hair and a thin, shadowy beard, and was looking straight at Adrian, just as he had been since he and Jenny entered the mall.

“I was right, it’s 3:47,” Adrian calmly said as he lowered his phone.

“All right, how about we leave at four? We have time for one more store.”

“Where would you like to go?”

Adrian was keeping his mind focused on the man following him, but made sure to convey nothing to Jenny through his expression or tone.

Looking around, she gained a coy smile. “How about we go into the Victoria’s Secret? I’m sure I could find something that we would both enjoy,” she said softly, giving Adrian a legitimate smile and causing him to laugh softly.

“Tell you what, I have to go to the bathroom so I’ll meet you in the store. I’ll let you surprise me.”

“Ten minutes, the changing room door will be unlocked. You’ll know which one,” she purred as she took the bags and walked off.

With Jenny now gone, Adrian resisted the urge to glance back at his tail and instead looked around, pretending to be searching for a sign that would tell him where the bathroom was. Moving at a brisk pace, he started walking through the sea of people towards where he knew the bathrooms were. Immediately, he could hear the faint disruption in the other stream of people as the man tried to cut across to Adrian’s side of the hallway.

The hallway leading to the bathrooms was a long and empty one, being on the other side of the mall’s largest department store. Striding down the empty corridor, Adrian went right past the bathrooms and passed through the emergency exit nearby. Outside, the sun was already setting and the clouds were blocking off what little light was being released. With only the parking lot lights on and the lot itself devoid of people, Adrian stepped outside and waited by the door, knowing that the conditions were perfect. He didn’t sense anyone around, and even if he did, it was dark enough for any action he took to be hidden.

A minute after he stepped out into the cold, the door opened and the man came outside, a cigarette in his hand so that he could pretend he was coming outside to smoke. Lunging out from behind the door, Adrian grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him against the wall. The movement was made without a single audible sound, and continuing with that silence, Adrian reached out and pressed the small button hidden in the collar of the man’s coat, turning off the voice recorder.

“Don’t even think about lying to me, I am well aware of who you work for. I admit, you are a skilled tail, but no human can completely hide from me. Your car was parked eight to the left and across the lane from mine; you were driving a red Subaru. You came through the mall entrance seventeen seconds after Jenny and I did, consistently staying about thirty-four paces behind us and always near something you could hide behind. You took five pictures in total: one in the parking lot, one in Macy’s, one in GAP, one in the food court, and that last one when I was standing at the bench. Basically, any time I drew my phone, you took a picture.

Now you and I are going to have a conversation and you are going to answer every question fully and honestly. I might even answer a few of yours if I feel like it. If you try to run or draw a weapon, I will kill you. First question: What is your name?” Adrian demanded, releasing the man’s throat.

“Frank, Frank Bartley,” the man panted while rubbing his throat.

Adrian kept his eyes focused on his hand, making sure he didn’t touch the button in his collar and reactivate the voice recorder. “What happened to Gordon Pike?”

“I don’t know, we are never told who we replace or who replaces us. I was just reassigned here.”

“It seems that your superiors suspected him of being won over. How much are you being paid?”

“Five grand a month.”

“That’s almost twice what Gordon was being paid. It really does seem like they are afraid of you being bribed. However, I’ll pay triple if you’ll work for me.”

Frank’s eyes widened. “What the hell are you talking about, kid?”

“I need you to continue taking photographs of me when I’m out in public and sending them to your superiors. However, there are times when I’ll be moving around and I can’t have your employers knowing of my actions. Your job will be to take extra pictures of me and then alter the dates during those times when I need to “disappear”, so to speak. I know you speak into a voice recorder to make a list of my actions and the times. I need you to fake those records when I’m gone. Essentially, your superiors must never know that I have left or gone anywhere out of the ordinary. Every time I take such a trip, I will pay you fifty grand to make it seem like I am still present and to keep silent about this deal and my true destination.”

“You had this deal with the last guy, this Gordon dude?”

“Yes, but like I said, it appears that the organization suspected he was being bribed. Will you accept the deal?”

“For fifty grand, sure. You have a deal.”



Reaching the dressing rooms of the Victoria’s Secret store, Adrian quickly spotted Jenny’s blouse draped over the door of the room at the end of the hall. With a small smile, he walked over and opened the door. Looking at Jenny, his eyes widened and he almost jumped. She was wearing a lacy black bra and panties, with a pair of stockings.

“Well? What do you think?”

“Well, you certainly know how to surprise me,” Adrian said, suddenly feeling his Id fighting for dominance of his mind.

“I’m guessing you like it then. Let’s buy it and go home, but first, how about you help me take it off?” she offered, pulling Adrian in and then closing the door.

As the door closed behind them, Jenny and Adrian locked lips. They had never done this before, had sex in a public place. If they made so much as a sound, they would be discovered and things would not end well. Considering that Jenny was already down to lingerie, there was no point in taking things slowly. The lacy underwear was discarded and Adrian pressed her against the mirror on the back wall, kissing her breasts while he worked his fingers inside her. He liked to think that after all this time, he had finally figured out this whole crazy sex thing.

With nothing but a thin door preventing them from being seen and nothing hiding her voice, Jenny had to stifle herself so that her whimpers of bliss would not be heard. Her melon breasts were immensely sensitive, sending shivers through her body as Adrian sucked on her nipples and painted her porcelain skin with his tongue. At the same time, he was moving his fingers inside her pussy as if hacking into a computer, sliding them back and forth at different rhythms and hitting different places with a powerful randomness that could not be defended against.

Once he had turned her velvet sleeve into a water slide, he unfastened his pants and pulled out his manhood, not hesitating to force it inside her. She let out the slightest chirp when he entered her, the look on her face of sensual euphoria and excitement. Once again kissing him, she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, letting him pick her up and hold her against the mirror like when they made love in his bedroom. With perfect fluidity in his movements, Adrian thrust into her like a jackhammer and used his lips to keep her voice from escaping.

Jenny had her first orgasm after only a few minutes, but Adrian had maintained control. Not done, they changed position, this time with Jenny’s back to Adrian, bending over with her hands against the wall, looking directly into the mirror. Sexual desire having replaced logical thought, Adrian mounted like an animal and began slamming himself into her. Jenny was struggling with all her might to contain her voice, but with lust ruling his mind and migraine throbbing behind his eyes, Adrian couldn’t care less about the sound of her ass against his lap. Both their eyes were on their reflections in the mirror, all grace and dignity lost as the two teens gave in to their primal urges. Jenny’s mouth was open, panting like a dog, eyes rolling while her breasts bounced and jiggled. Behind her, Adrian looked utterly focused, almost angry, watching the muscles in Jenny’s back contract and relax every time he thrust into her. Relying on just one hand to hold her, he reached out and slid his fingers into her mouth. Too engrossed in pleasure to be surprised, she sucked on them gluttonously, wrapping her tongue around them and using them to help contain her voice.

After a few minutes, they both came, Adrian flooding her womb with his seed while Jenny covered her mouth, wanting to moan like an opera singer as ecstasy washed through her. They both waited to catch their breath and then got dressed, no longer interested in buying the lingerie and simply wanting to just get out of the store.



Night dominated the sky when Adrian and Jenny walked out of the mall, with Jenny pressing herself tightly against Adrian for warmth while they walked.

“Thank you so much. My friends will all have heart attacks when they see all the stuff I have.”

“It sounds almost like making your friend’s jealous is the sole purpose for most of your outfits and jewelry.”

“Hey, I’m a woman, that’s what I do. But thank you, Adrian, you truly are a sweet man.”

“Well you know I care about you. You truly are important to me,” he said, digging into his emotional side to pick the right words.

However, as he reached into his subconscious to let the influence of his Id and Ego reach his Super Ego, a rush of blinding pain flooded his body, aiming for his stomach and brain. Gripping his head to try and ease the white-hot pain stabbing his brain and leaning forward, Adrian threw up on the sidewalk, emptying the contents of his stomach and shaking to the point where he nearly fell to his knees.

“Adrian!” Jenny fearfully cried out as she dropped her bags and wrapped her arms around him to keep him from collapsing.

“I’m fine, I’m fine… It’s just… just something from the food court that my body didn’t agree with. I’m all right.”

This was the first time he had lost control in front of Jenny. He had always been able to keep his sickness hidden until now.

“Come on, let’s get you to the car. I’ll drive and just spend the night at your place.”

“No, I’ll bring you back home. I’ll be fine, I just need to get some rest.”

‘Come on, body. Hold together. I can figure this out, I just need a little more time.’



Adrian and Jenny were walking down a hallway at school, with Jenny clinging to his arm and leaning her head on his shoulder. Adrian strained his ears to hear what everyone was talking about, for there was a piece of news floating around, and it was obviously important. With all of the hushed mutterings smothering each other and getting mixed up, not even his hearing could clearly make it out.

“Well if it isn’t the fucking Adroid!” a course voice laughed.

Adrian cursed as everyone looked down the hall. Adrian recognized the voice and the disrespectful tone. At the end of the hall was Logan, his unwanted rival. He had been under suspension for more than a month after snapping another student’s arm. Everyone was silent as he approached, stepping back and opening up the hallway. Jenny didn’t take a single step, but her grip on Adrian’s arm tightened and he could feel her shaking. His mind was running countless scenarios, planning out every possible choice of action.

“Jenny, don’t tell me you’re dating this loser now. If you want a robot dick to fuck, get a vibrator.”

“Your words carry no purpose other than to cause distress. Only sadists seek to inflict harm without reason. Are you saying that you are a horrible person, as defined by the term ‘sadist’?” Adrian asked, cocking his head to one side.

“Shut the fuck up you emo freak.”

“Your use of the phrase emo is incorrect. Emo is someone who portrays his or her emotions excessively, and according to what people say about me, I am almost the exact opposite. Will you continue or would you like to rephrase your last statement?”

Adrian could feel Jenny’s grip around his arm becoming more relaxed. She was feeling relieved, watching him turn the school bully into a yipping lapdog. Logan just chuckled and began to walk by him. Adrian remained calm as Logan approached, having already planned out every possible scenario for a very likely physical confrontation. He was ready to do whatever the situation required, whether it was to keep Jenny safe or to counterattack. There was no need to get worked up; using even a single molecule of adrenalin would be nothing but a waste on someone like Logan.

As Logan took his second step past him, Adrian heard him take a sharp intake of breath, commonly preceding a fast or aggressive movement. As fast as Adrian could, he pushed Jenny out of harm’s way and ducked. Logan’s fist flew right over his head, and before he could react, Adrian spun around, reached up, and slammed him in the nose with his flat palm. He staggered back, gripping his broken nose and giving a muffled howl of pain. Adrian turned so that his left side had optimal reach and then kicked him in the stomach, making him buckle.

Adrian stepped back, making sure that Jenny was safe. She was standing on the sidelines with her eyes full of worry. He turned back to Logan as the lunatic charged with his fist pulled back and stepped to the side to dodge his punch, then with his right hand on his left fist, he jabbed forward with his left elbow. With time basically moving in slow motion through his eyes, Adrian calculated and adjusted the angle of his elbow, ensuring that the force of the impact would be fully directed to his forearm instead of the joint. He slammed his elbow against Logan’s chin, sending him sprawling back.

“A mongrel mutt like you should know its place. Maybe it’s not too late for you to learn about how to show a little respect for your superiors.”

Logan gave a sadistic laugh. “It’s funny that you call me a dog, because after I’m through with you, I’ll have your girlfriend on all fours in my bedroom, wearing nothing but a dog collar.”

“Silence! You will speak only when spoken to!”

“I’ve had enough of you looking down on me!” Logan roared as he charged forward.

Swinging wildly, he began throwing punches randomly at Adrian, but the young genius dodged them so easily that he even appeared bored. Everyone watched in amazement as he swerved effortlessly from side to side, avoiding the punches as if they were fluttering moths.

“I was merciful the first time we met, but now I will force you to show respect. You can’t beat me, Logan. It’s impossible for you to ever hit me.”

Logan sent his fist rocketing towards his face, but Adrian easily dodged the attack and jabbed him in the chest with his spread fingers. Logan gagged in pain and staggered back with five bloodstains growing on his shirt, while Adrian held up his hand, showing the blood on the tips of his fingers from the five shallow holes he had just drilled into Logan’s chest.

“That was a warning shot. The only reason why my fingers didn’t go in all the way was because I kept them separate and used only a fraction of my real strength. If you attack again, my next stab won’t be so weak. Submit now and apologize or my hand will pierce your chest like spear,” Adrian threatened, bringing his fingers together and straightening his hand out.

“Hell no, I’m having way too much fun!” Logan cackled as he charged towards him.

Adrian clicked his tongue several times in disappointment of his choice and got into a defensive stance with his hand pulled back, ready to lash out like a striking snake. The second Logan was close enough, he reached out with his fist and Adrian reached out with his flat hand.

“What the Hell is going on in here?!” a voice boomed, stopping Logan and Adrian before their attacks could connect.

Everyone turned his or her attention to the principle. He was standing at the very back of the crowd with the veins in his head bulging from anger.

“Merely an argument that took an unfortunate turn, Principle Smith. Nothing more than a physical disagreement,” Adrian answered calmly as he wiped the blood off his hand.



“I’m going to be questioning several students after you, so if you tell me a single lie, I’ll have the two of you suspended for the rest of the year. Now, tell me what happened. Adrian, you go first,” the principle warned.

Logan and Adrian were sitting in two chairs in front of his desk. Adrian had his arms and legs crossed with a calm look on his face, while Logan was slouching in his chair, holding one ice pack against his jaw and another against his busted nose.

“Jenny and I were walking down the upstairs hallway and Logan called out to us. We exchanged a brief argument and Logan attacked as he was walking past Jenny and I. I got Jenny out of the way, dodged his punch, and then counterattacked, hoping that I could scare him off or incapacitate him so that he couldn’t attack again. After a second brief argument, I warned Logan to stand down but he refused. He attacked again and I incapacitated him with a cautionary counterattack, causing those five bloodstains on his shirt. He refused to leave Jenny and I alone and I was just about to defeat him, but you stopped us.”

The principle nodded and turned to Logan. “And you?” he asked with disgust.

“Ok, you know what? Fuck this shit! I don’t even know why I’m here! I’m the victim! I was just minding my own business, making up for lost time with my friends, and this motherfucker suddenly starts insulting me! I ask him to leave me alone but he just freaks out and starts attacking me! I tried to fend him off, but this fucking psychopath just wouldn’t stop! If you hadn’t stopped him, I would have really had to kick his ass to protect myself. You have to believe me! This crazy fucker just came out and attacked me! If this son of a bitch isn’t expelled, I am going to sue this school!”

Adrian looked at him in shock. Was he being this stupid on purpose?

The principle gave a sigh and turned to Adrian. “You can go.”



Jenny was waiting on a bench beside the principle’s office when Adrian stepped out. She immediately bolted up and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Adrian, what happened in there?”

“Don’t worry, everything is fine. I doubt I’ll get any punishment but Logan will basically get the chair.”

“Oh, I’m so relieved,” she sighed with her head on his shoulder. She then pulled away from him with an excited smile on her face. “I know you consider it idiotic when people say stuff like this, but I am so hot for you right now.”



The principle barely questioned any other students, since he already knew who was guilty and who was innocent. Adrian was left off the hook, but Logan was put on probation and would be expelled if he crossed the line by a mere inch. For the rest of the week, Logan didn’t come near Jenny or Adrian. He was a stupid psychopath, but he was smart enough to know that this was his last chance to actually graduate from high school.



It was a cool Saturday night with the chill of late autumn lingering in the air and a strong continuous wind. Jenny and Adrian had just stepped out of the movie theater and they were making their way back to his car. The air was damp with fog, creating a distorting aura around every light source and stirring endlessly under the power of the wind. It was quite late and there were few people on the sidewalks or driving down the street. Wanting to enjoy the cool air and the quiet of the night in the normally bustling town, Jenny had suggested that Adrian parked the car far away.

As they came to the entrance to the town park, Jenny playfully tugged on his arm. “Come on, let’s take a quick detour.” Adrian kept his arm tense so that his hand stayed in his pocket. “I really wish you hadn’t brought that thing,” she sighed, losing her smile.

“I’m sorry, but I just wanted to test its portability.”

To cheer her up, Adrian wrapped his other arm around her and kissed her on the forehead. Jenny looked at him with surprise. “You’ve never kissed me anywhere but the lips.”

Adrian gave a small smile and they entered the park, but in his mind, his headache was throbbing. The park was empty and but far from silent. The continuous wind was making every leaf rustle loudly. The only light was coming from the few streetlamps, spread out along the pavement path. Regardless of the cold air, Adrian’s headache refused to fade and it was growing to the point where his senses were weakening. That also wasn’t counting the growing feeling that he was about to throw up and the pain now starting to throb in his muscles. They were halfway through the park, walking along the precipice of a small plot of woods.

“So how did you like the movie?” Adrian asked as they breathed in the cool night air.

“It was good, but I hate how people who wake up in hospitals automatically rip everything away from their arms and stagger out into the hall. There is a reason why hospital beds have call buttons. It’s so illogical.”

Adrian chuckled, almost making her jump in surprise. “You’re becoming more like me.”

Just as Adrian spoke the words, a hard object slammed into the back of his head, knocking him to the ground. He heard several footsteps along with a scream from Jenny as his face hit the cold pavement of the sidewalk. With his senses scrambled by the impact, he struggled to get back to his feet. Logan and two of his friends were standing in front of him, with Logan ripping off Jenny’s shirt. He wrapped his arm her neck with his hand over her mouth as he pulled her shirt away, leaving only her bra. Even if she could scream, the park was completely empty and no one was wandering the streets. Adrian took a step forward but stopped as Logan pulled out a knife.

“It’s payback time, motherfucker. If you take another step, I’ll cut off your girlfriend’s clothes and you can watch us take turns having a little fun with her.”

Jenny gave a stifled scream and tears rolled down her face at Logan’s words. Adrian stood still as a statue with his heart racing and his body drowning in adrenaline.

‘Damn it, this sickness is ruining my senses. I should have picked them up before they could have even gotten close to us, but I’ve been completely weakened. Unless I take control of the situation, I’ll be dead and Jenny will be worse.’

But as the words passed through his mind, he began to feel something, something new. The best word he could find to describe it was… rage. His rage was focused on Logan for touching Jenny and using her to threaten him. Adrian tried to suppress this new emotion, because he needed his mind to be as clear as possible, but the conflict between his logical side and this burning emotion was just making his condition worse.

“Are you really so psychotic that you would attack us? Are you so quick to throw away your future?”

Logan laughed. “There are more people who will buy drugs from you then job opportunities if you graduate. I just wanted to finally get a taste of this whore and I thought the best revenge would be to make you watch. I didn’t hesitate for a moment when I decided I wanted to hunt you down and make you suffer. True, you are too smart for me to predict what you’ll do. Instead, I just have to predict what this stupid little whore will want and be assured that you’ll do whatever she says. This dumb blonde has got you completely whipped!

Jake, Sam, go ahead. Asshole, if you take a single step, I’ll rip off her clothes, cut her throat, and the last thing she’ll feel before dying is me inside her.”

Adrian took a deep breath as his two cronies walked over to him, chuckling sadistically. Jake pulled back his fist and punched him in the side of the face, knocking him back to the ground. The impact completely jarred his mind, making it almost impossible to think. Adrian slowly stood up, using every second to build up tolerance to the next attack. Sam kneed him in the stomach with enough force to make him cough up blood and Adrian swayed from side to side, struggling to stay on his feet. He also made sure that his right arm did not become straight. Jake punched him again and Adrian spat out a mouthful of blood. Jenny quietly cried as Sam crashed his elbow down onto his back, knocking him once again to the ground.

Adrian did not give a single groan of pain or expression of discomfort. He just got back to his feet with his chin up, over and over again. Sam and Jake continued beating him, punching him wherever would hurt the most. Adrian just focused on Jenny’s tear-filled eyes, finding comfort in them. Her muffled sobs could just barely be heard through Logan’s hand. As long as the knife was next to her throat, trying to fight back would result in death.

“Sam, take this and carve up his face,” Logan said as he reached into his pocket for another knife.

The second his knife was away from Jenny, Adrian acted. He reached into his pocket and pulled out one of his darts, always making sure to have them when he wasn’t at home or school. He threw the spike, and even with his battered body, his impeccable aim lodged it one of the pressure points of Logan’s arm, causing him to drop the knife. With that quick opportunity, Jenny bit Logan’s hand as hard as she could. Logan threw her to the side, howling in pain from the two inches of metal lodged in his arm and the bleeding bite wound on his hand.

With Logan’s cronies distracted, Adrian reached down with his right hand, finally straightening out his arm. There was a cracking sound and a metal spike slid out of his sleeve and into his hand, measuring two feet long. The middle of the lance had a hinge under high tension, and it would instantly lock into position if the two parts were straightened out. Not only was this function perfect for concealment, the entire weapon was made of Demium, so the hinges, locking mechanism, and needle-sharp tip were so strong that the spike could support his full weight. The weapon was kept in the sleeve with the owner’s elbow next to the hinges. The owner only had to point their hand down and straighten their arm and the secured lance would slide into their hand.

Along with his lance, something else was released as well. The rage that had been created when Logan grabbed Jenny was erupting in his heart, as well as the killer instinct he used when there were obstacles in the way of his grand plan. The result was an icy desire to slaughter his enemies, with all aspects of remorse and guilt being crushed under its fury. With the Demium lance in his hand, Adrian could barely control the urge to kill.

He lashed out and slammed Jake in the throat, causing him to fall to his knees, gasping for air. He then smashed him in the back of the head and he fell flat on the ground. Adrian turned around as Sam tried to punch him and blocked his fist with the shaft of the lance, busting his foe’s hand. As Sam roared in pain, Adrian raised the spike and stabbed him in the foot. Before he could scream, Adrian pulled a right hook to the jaw, shattering several of his teeth and ripping apart his lips. He delivered the knockout move by slamming him in the middle of the chest with his palm, striking with enough force to shatter all of his ribs.

Gasping for air, Jake slowly got to his feet and stumbled towards him. Adrian raised the lance and brought it down, slashing him from shoulder to hip. Even though the weapon had no blade and the wound was shallow, the tip was sharper than a nail and sliced open skin and muscle like wrapping paper. He would live, but wouldn’t be getting up any time soon. Adrian turned as Logan charged towards him with his knife in his hand.

He jabbed forward with his knife and Adrian held up his hand, letting the blade stab him through the palm and send drops of blood splattering on his face. Logan stared in horror at the lack of reaction on Adrian’s face and the coldness in his eyes. His rage and mechanical mind were completely blocking out the pain, granting him the power to continue fighting. Without making a sound, Adrian stabbed him through the shoulder piercing the thick muscle and breaking his bones with ease.

Logan screamed in pain, and before he could step back, Adrian released his lance and jabbed forward with his good hand, stabbing him in the chest with all of his strength. With his fingers straight and the muscles reinforcing the bones, Adrian was able to pierce his torso all the way, with his hand bursting out of Logan’s back. Logan vomited blood as Adrian pulled his hand away, leaving a huge gaping wound just below his ribcage. Had he wanted to, he could have grabbed any number of organs and ripped them right out.

Adrian retrieved his lance and twisted Logan’s arm, forcing him to his knees. Adrian kept twisting, dislocating his other shoulder. He then stepped back and slashed him several times across the back, leaving deep bloody gashes. Logan was gagging in agony, unable to even scream.

Adrian raised the spike, about to deliver the killing blow, but Jenny rushed over to him and grabbed his arms. “No Adrian, please don’t!”

In his blood-drunk stupor, Adrian did not hear her.

“Adrian!” she cried out again, somewhat shaking him out of it.

“He’s in my way, and anyone in my way must be removed.”

“You’ve done enough! You don’t have to Murder him! You aren’t a heartless killing machine!”

Adrian gasped as her words fully broke through his bloodlust and his hands slackened around the spike.

She stepped in front of him, standing between him and Logan with her hands on his cheeks. “If you kill him, the police will lock you away forever and I cannot bear to be without you. If you kill him then you will have to kill him too, because I don’t want to live without you. Come back to me, come back to me, Adrian.”

His breathing was hoarse as Adrian slowly calmed down his mind, separating his rage from his logical side and extinguishing the fires of anger. The lance fell out of his hand and imbedded itself in the ground.

After several seconds, Jenny’s expression softened. “Why did you react that way? Why did you become so angry?”

Adrian looked at her in confusion, trying to understand why she was asking this question here and now.

“You have never been this angry before, so what changed now?” she asked, almost as if she were trying to pull his mind from his body.

“I… I…”

“Just say it, not for me but for yourself. Why did you react like this? Why did you do this? Why were you so upset and desperate to protect me?” she asked with tears running from her eyes but with the smallest of smiles on her face.

“I did it because… because I…”

“Say it, say the words that I know you want to say. Say the words that are truly in your heart.”

“I got angry at them for attacking you… because I love you,” Adrian said softly.

Jenny’s smile widened and she gave a deep sigh of relief, finally hearing what she was trying to get him to say.

“You are not a machine; you are a man, the man I love and man who loves me. It feels so good to hear your feelings for me.”

“I am sorry, Jenny. I am so, so sorry. I wanted to kill them all and I wanted it so badly that I couldn’t stop myself. If you hadn’t intervened, I would have slaughtered three people tonight,” he murmured with his whole body shaking.

“It’s ok, my love, it’s ok. Come on, let’s get your hand fixed and go home. We’ll call an ambulance for these losers.”

“As you wish, my love,” he said, repeating what she had said to him.

Speaking the words, Adrian immediately fell to the ground, gripping his head and vomiting. His whole body was overwhelmed with indescribable agony as his consciousness and subconscious collided like two meteors, brought on the emotional epiphany and causing his mind to begin tearing itself apart.

“Adrian!” Jenny cried out as he struggled to stay awake and not pass out from the pain.



“Please, we need a doctor right away. My boyfriend has been stabbed through the hand and he’s lost a lot of blood. He’s also suffered from some sort of seizure,” Jenny said desperately to the receptionist.

Adrian and Jenny were in the emergency room of the hospital and their parents were already on the way. The room was filled with chairs and brightly lit by fluorescent lights. A bookcase and a magazine stand were set up against the wall and a TV had been installed up in the ceiling’s corner, turned on to the evening news. Across the room were the receptionist desk and the double doors leading to the rest of the hospital, with the hospital entrance between the two sides of the room. There were only a handful of people there with Adrian and Jenny; two of them were security guards and the rest were people that had been injured from a car accident or were just clumsy in the dark night.

“All right, fill out this information while I get a doctor,” the nurse said.

She handed them a clipboard with an admittance sheet and picked up nearby phone, quickly dialing a number and notifying one of the doctors in the hospital. Jenny sat down next to Adrian, who had somewhat recovered from his episode in the park and was at least awake, but his whole body ached and his thoughts were sluggish.

“I should have retrieved my lance… or at least gotten rid of it so that the police couldn’t find it.”

Jenny turned to him, her voice shaking. “The police won’t take you away, you were just acting out of self-defense, nothing more.”

“I practically butchered them. I’ll be lucky if I can stay out of jail.”

“Adrian, everything will be fine. If something goes wrong, you can find a way out of it. It’s what you do best.”

Adrian gave a small smile. “I love you.”

“Ditto,” she replied jokingly.

“ADROID!”

Everyone turned to the hospital entrance as Logan staggered in. He was covered in blood and barely conscious. While one shoulder had been stabbed and the other dislocated, a gapping hole sat in his chest, and the muscles in his back had been torn to shreds, but he had somehow managed to follow them.

“DIE, YOU BASTARD!” he said as he raised his hand, holding a gun.

He pointed it at Adrian, and before the young genius could react in his weakened state, Logan pulled the trigger.





Chapter Four:



The room was quite large and well lit, with the walls made of yellow marble and the floors decorated with intricate tiles. Adrian was sitting on a bench on one side of the room, facing a maze of velvet rope walkways, leading to a series of counters. The room was filled with people, but only a fraction of them were talking. Adrian assumed the building was a bank, but that was all he could do, because he did not know how he got there. He couldn’t remember how he had gotten to the bank, when he had gotten there, what happened before it, and he didn’t even recognize the bank. This was not a simple matter of “forget what you’re watching during the commercial break”; he literally couldn’t remember anything.

“My mental stability has been compromised,” Adrian said softly to himself as he searched his empty memory for answers. His heart rate rose as he considered the possibility. If his memory had just suddenly failed, then other parts of his mind could follow.

Calm down and think logically. Your memories may be gone but the rest of your mind seems to be processing everything at its regular pace.

Adrian repeated the phrase out loud, hoping that the audio reception would trigger something in his brain. He channeled all of the energy from his physical reaction to his mind, checking every aspect of his consciousness for anything else that had experienced damage.

“My name is Adrian Ashford, I am eighteen years old, and my birthday is July 5th, 1994,” he said out loud, coming across a scrap of his memory and trying to stimulate his mind.

He could remember personal information such as his identity and who he was, but no actual events.