Equilibrium - #ProjectWomanUp

Thirteen

The Paper Minds Project Machine – or PM squared as Kane nicknames it – is a large, ugly, looking contraption. The shell is made up completely of steel, and the skeleton is predominantly wires and hard drives.

The machine is hooked up to a grey chair, which reminds me of a dentist chair, with a visor that comes down over the eyes of the person sat inside. The chair looks uncomfortable, and I don't want to sit in it.

There is another chair – identical to the grey chair – linked to it by thick black wires, which are all coiled together into a tight spiral. "What will it do?" I ask Kane.

He doesn't answer, so I glance at him. Kane has a tense look on his face, and seems to be deep in thought. I study him for a moment; noticing how attractive he is with his dark features and golden skin.

I softly place my hand on his arm, and he snaps out of his thought to turn to me. I offer him a kind smile, as his eyes focus on me once more. "You zoned out on me then" I laugh gently. Kane is an intense guy, but with the way he is acting now, even I am nervous. But I refuse to show it.

"I was thinking" Kane replies, wetting his dry lips with a lick of his tongue. "Maybe we shouldn't do this".

"Why not? I thought you had to show me something?" I raise an eyebrow at him; not understanding his sudden change in attitude.

"What I am going to show you, it changes everything between us. Me and you, we'll never be the same again. I have to show you some things about me – and about you – that will change everything".

"Alright" I nod, giving him a confused look. "So why don't you want to tell me?"

"Because I don't want to be rejected again" Kane states, and I give him a confused look. I try and ask him what he means, but he simply walks over to the PM2 and begins to turn it on. The machine clunks and buzzes, and some lights turn on. I am confused about what he is doing – so I stay silent and watch.

When Kane steps away from the machine, I assume he is finished. "Ready?" I ask. Kane doesn't answer me, so I repeat the question.

"Huh?" he says, turning to me. "Oh right, yeah". He runs his hand through his hair. I have never seen Kane like this, he is nervous. Nerves, and Kane, two things I would have never put together before tonight.

A part of me wants to tell him that we don't have to do this tonight, that I can wait until he is ready. But the larger part of me, the part that made kill the Red and follow Kane tonight, tells the other side of me to shut up and find out what all this is about.

There are two seat on either side of PM2, which are connected by wires and hard drives. The entire things hurts my head, my family didn't own a computer. Not many families did, but those who did their children usually became Intellects.

"Did you have a computer as a child?" I question, and I watch Kane press lots of buttons and pull lots of levers.

"No. I know how to use them, only because I got an Intellect to teach me" he mumbles, continuing to busy himself with PM2.

"Intellects are good allies" I state.

"How's your Intellect working out?"

"He'll smash it" I chuckle.

Kane pauses and smirks in my direction, "you sound sure".

"I'm his teacher, there is no way he could fail" I grin playfully, and he shakes his head at me in amusement. He turns back to the PM2 and instantly becomes serious once more. There is a few more moments of silence, before Kane turns back to me.

"Take a seat here". He walks me to one of the steel chairs, and I clamber on. The wires around me, he picks up and begins to attach them to my body. He stick nodes onto my forehead, my chest above my shirt, my fingers and two on either temple.