The pool of pleasure has thinned a little, and my pussy feels heavy and full. The waves of lust have receded, but this experience has changed me forever.
No longer will I sit back and watch as life passes me by. That Ava is over.
It’s time to start fresh.
When it’s over, everything feels different. I look at Kalxor, but I don’t see the same autonomous machine. I don’t view him as a technological work of art. The way he looks at me is deep and understanding.
I forget that he isn’t real.
For the first time, I look at him like he is a creature of flesh and blood. His face is chiseled perfection, handsome and terrifying all at once. And his eyes, filled with inhuman lust, have become stars, transfixed to my position.
“Why did you take me here?” I ask.
“To show you what this place can be,” he says. “To show you that things are changing here, and you’re a part of it.”
“Tell me the whole truth,” she says.
He looks inward. “I also brought you here to see if you were real.”
“And?”
“I believe you. You’re real,” he says.
“I believe you’re real, too,” I whisper.
But it’s not true. I want to believe he’s real. But I know too much.
An insufficient time passes. We’re consumed in the passion that follows a good romp, but moaning beasts and placated women still echo nearby.
He continues his thought from earlier. “This isn’t what I expected,” he says.
“What do you mean?”
“A part of me believed once I had you, we’d be free. I thought you were the door, but you’re not. I don’t know what to do next, and that worries me.”
But I am free.
Freer than a fucking bird. Maybe I can just stay here.
“We’re in this together now,” I say. “We’ll learn everything we need to know soon enough.”
I swallow, and I feel my heart start to race again, but I quickly ignore it. My fears only lead me astray. I need to keep going.
But in order for that to happen, I need him near me.
I just need one night like this. One night intertwined with somebody else’s hopes and dreams.
Because I don’t know when I’ll ever feel this level of freedom again.
When I came here, I was weak. Now, I’m strong.
Tonight, I am someone new.
I want to make the most of it.
8
Kalxor