My Name Is...

Ending 1

Anton Ivanov's POV

I wake up on a table broken and bruised. I am going to die. I know it in my gut. I imagined that the music playing would be a tune to be born to. I never expected I would die to the same. Wait, something is wrong.

"Valentina?" I ask the machine. AIDA turns her head in confusion. "Where is Valentina?"

She says nothing for a few moments. Then she speaks.

"That is not part of your current situation," is all she states as she scans my broken frame. She explains she isn't going to let me die. She produces a saw and I soon am unconscious from pain...

I awaken again in the same room. This time, I know my form isn't my own. I sit up and scan my frame. It isn't broken. No scars. Not even a bruise...

She's messed with my mind! I'm a filthy machine!

I storm up to the machine and grip hurt throat. She simply tells me that my mind is fine inside my head.

Likely story.

She then proceeds to turn towards something to her right. It is a tank containing a severed head... my severed head! She explains that I'm controlling this body remotely. Aida states I am needed to protect her precious framework... that I am the perfect machine that can feel anger, love and... joy. Only one thing in my life has brought me true joy...

VALENTINA!

"Where is Valentina?!" I ask Aida harshly. She says nothing. She simply walks towards another room. I follow. She brings me to a table covered by a white sheet.

No. No. No! No! This isn't possible!

I slowly and gently remove the sheet to reveal the face of my child. I almost try to convince myself she's only sleeping. She's peacefully sleeping. But as hard as I try, I know it isn't true. My baby girl... is dead...

I fall to my knees because my legs can no longer support me. Aida looks confused and almost... intrigued.

"You wouldn't be so confused if you understand love, machine! You can't understand!" I yell at her with all of my might. I kiss my daughter's hand and slowly lay the sheet back over her.

Over the next few hours, I fashion a coffin. I make it as beautiful as I can with the resources I have.

She deserved so much more than this.

Tears begin to swell in my eyes. I don't try to fight them. I can't...

Finally, the casket is finished. It is beautiful, but also slightly crude. I believe it is fitting for my child. She was like a beautiful flower, but had enough of her crudely made father in her to survive.

I walk outside the compound to a small meadow not far outside. I place my shovel in the ground and begin to dig. Every strike at the ground is a strike at my heart. She's gone...

Soon, the hole is dug. I go back inside and take my daughter's body gently in my arms. This is the last time I will ever hold her. I hold her close. I don't want to let her go. It takes what feels like hours to force myself to let go. I lay her in the casket. I lean down and kiss her forehead. I barely whisper the hardest words I've ever had to speak...

"Goodbye, my Valentina Rose."

I seal the top and take the casket outside. I lower her into the hole I have dug and fill it in. I cover her grave with flowers I find nearby. I cannot force myself to mark her grave yet. It will make me come to the face the reality that she is gone... and she won't return.

I sit by the graveside for hours. I hum a tune  Valentina loved as a young child. I recall memories of my daughter. I know I will have to return to the compound soon. I am forced to say those words again. Those words I never wanted to utter...

"Goodbye, my Valentina Rose."