Further North

The first time Cleo invaded

That night, she flooded his head with hopes and small fantasies of life together. As if they were humans, they wandered the streets together—never lost nor hesitant of their final destination. Lights of every color, warm to cold tints, sparkled against the clean windowpanes. From his memory, before the vision was lost and drowned by his thoughts, he distinctly moved his lips close to her ear and whispered a feeling of love and happiness.

Julian opened his eyes to find himself in his room. The lights were out yet the street from outside clearly shown through his window and cast shadows of bright white rectangles that splayed across the floor—they even climbed up the walls. Julian, not understanding what groggy felt like, tried to pull himself out of bed, though his arms and legs felt like they weighed ten to twenty pounds more than they actually did.

Staring at the immaculate man in the mirror, Julian tempted—and managed to fool himself—into shaving despite no hair, nor even stubble appearing on his chin. He lathered up and swiped the razor over his skin. Then, he turned the water on in the shower and walked to the kitchen where he poured himself a bowl of cereal. He hadn't noticed doing anything of the sort for his mind was still on the beautiful woman from his vision until he spilled the milk on his hand, watching the white liquid seep into his skin before it frazzled the electronics in his hand. Sparks leaped from his skin, smoke puffed from underneath, and his hand stiffened; the fingers curling up as all the muscles became taut at once. He cursed on reflex but then smiled—Julian now had a reason to see the doctor.

—-

"—Visions, you say?" Doctor Shawl made an incision in the back of Julian's hand, examining the wires behind the skin as he pulled it back.

Julian hummed a confirmation. He was laying down on the metal surgical table as the doctor worked on his arm. The whirr of the surgical tools came to a stop as the doctor pulled down his mask:

"When have these visions started? When do they happen?"

Without looking at the doctor, Julian answered wearily and almost emotionally, "I-I—" his voice became shaky, "at night usually when I go to sleep. They've—" he took a deep breath, "I've always had them when I sleep. Though, not every time. Some nights, I don't have any visions at all, other nights after I wake up, I remember them so clearly at first, but then, they fade so easily."

"Can you describe them to me?" Doctor Shawl slowly said, already putting the pieces together.

Julian gulped before sitting up—the white fluorescent light bulb was right in his face. "It was dark, very dark except for these faded light bulbs. There—there was a woman, or her hand at least, that switched a blue light bulb for a yellow one...in another...there was one where I was in space, I think because I was right in front of the sun." He dipped his head, staring at his fingers, feeling the slightest bit of embarrassment as he spoke, "the most recent one I had was last night o-of this woman I saw when I went to—ahem—to deliver the package. At the man's place, she was frozen still, and I dreamed of walking down the strip with her." Julian's voice trailed off as he added on, "next to me."

Doctor Shawl, stiff with anticipation and curiosity, blinked a couple of times before sitting back in his chair. He cleared his throat, "are these, erm, 'visions,' bothering you in any way, 545?"

Julian's head tilted up at his model number—an alias he used to go by before, "no—uh...I was thinking you could call me by a new name, well, I was thinking about the name...Julian like the Roman Emperor."

Doctor Shawl smiled, "wonderful, absolutely wonderful my boy," he stood up, "if the dr—visions ever bother you too much, take one of these," the doctor walked to the wall where he picked out a bottle of pills and tossed them at Julian, "they'll get rid of them. However, you'll also notice you'll be asleep longer and even better, but only take them if you're having trouble sleeping. If you have any visions while you are awake, alert me immediately." Julian nodded twisting the bottle in his hand. Then, he read the label.

"Doctor," a wave of confusion overcame him, "these are only meant for humans. Surely it's mechanical given my state of life." Doctor Shawl turned and simply said it'll fix his circuitry by turning it off at night.

A simple lie, yet powerful enough to keep a man's sanity—if he even was a man.

The doctor hesitated, "I have another job for you," Doctor Shawl spoke softly, yet the mention of it felt out of place. He looked down at his tools before raising his head to Julian who perked up.

"Oh, by the way, I have the money from the guy last night." Julian lifted the clip of money to his cheek, barely seeing the edge of the crisp bill before the doctor ripped it out of his fingers. He had expected a cut of sorts, working with the doctor or at least for the doctor, but what Julian found out later was that he was essentially a robotic servant; just like the ones at the uptown square serving the well-to-do people. And just like that, he had lost his freedom, his identity, everything that had come to him from that brief moment in front of the emperor of Rome.

—-

Error: 432

Unauthorized access attempt.

Error: 432

Unauthorized access attempt.

....

Err—

Initiating alert system

Intruder alert.

—-

"What was that?" The Doctor froze as he placed the bills on the cart full of medicinal tools. A loud banging came from the other room, echoing through the various rooms that the hall snaked through. Still as stone, Julian, wide-eyed and scared, carefully watched for Doctor Shawl's reaction.