vacuum

Every part of me was picked at like a funnel cake. One-by-one, my components were vacuum-sealed and insulated. Before the week was out, the whole of me would be in a different world and reassembled before my new proprietor.

When I powered on again, I first noticed the pale blue climbing hydrangea peeking in from the window sill, observing me as workers screwed my limbs back on and plastered each eyelash to the flex-metal eyelid margin one at a time until they were full and fluttering again. My pink nails were glued to my finger beds. Their foreign hands reshaped my stomach. My proprietor reclined in its Eames chair with an old-fashioned in hand. The sphere of ice agitated as it watched me with great focus. Once my legs were replaced, I shifted nervously side to side.

In the nightfall, my proprietor's rough hands cupped my plastic face. The smell of bourbon whispered to me. "I've waited my whole life for an image like you."

It told me all would be at my disposal and that it would leash the world to me as my pet with only one contingency: I follow the set path. I do not wander astray.

And so they cast me on a big screen. Skyscrapers with my nondescript name and assembly-line face emblazoned on them. Behind the movie magic, electrodes and wires were affixed beneath my long hair, monitoring every activity for electrical deviation.

Attention became my prison. I had my cues. At the mark, I'd smile with the best of them.

I watched others watch me. If they listened closely, they'd hear their thoughts spoken back to them. I wasn't my own. My structure was that of the feminine, but the skin they layered me with was shiny and reflective.

With all the admiration, I was soon to find there was an inverse to it.

I felt it. I felt its rabid face enter through the two-story portico. Its soiled shoes muddy the mahogany floor. An explosive blow to the bedroom door. "How could you?!" It faced me and yelled at itself.

"How could you?!" It echoed.

When no reprieve was found, it grabbed my wires and pulled them with all its strength until my screen went black.

Written by not A Computer