scrapbook.

SPARE PARTS.

far in the future, there
lives a small boy who isn't
fully human.

his legs never worked properly,
so they were replaced with
metal ones.

his arms were always aching,
so they were replaced with iron
ones.

and his heart, his heart never
beat, so it was replaced with
an innocent robot's.

one day, the little boy set out
alone to find himself a toy to
play with.

he searched the scrap yard all
over, but nothing looked fun in
the slightest.

the boy sighed and sat down on
a rotting wooden ledge, sighing
to himself in disappointment.

"hello..?"

a croaky voice called out, and the
boy looked around in curiosity.

"is, somebody there..?"

the voice called out again, alerting
the boy more so, causing him to
stand up abruptly. he looked around
for the source of the voice, before coming across a rusted torso attached to a brightly lit head.

"ah, hello there."

the head spoke softly with it's voice
box coated in dirt and muck, the vibrations of the sound causing the grime to shift slightly.

"could you perhaps
help me little boy?"

the boy stood there, a little scared of the old robot, unsure of how to respond.

"it's okay if you can't, you see, i'm just a bit curious of something, do you think you can help?"

the boy nodded anxiously, before taking a step forward towards the robot.

"if you look closely, you'll see i'm missing a few body parts,"

the robot smiled softly, a friendly face on show in order not to scare the boy in front of him,

"the absence of my arms and legs are rather obvious, but you see, what really bothers me, is that i'm missing my heart."

the boy's eyes widened at the mention of it, both curious and worrisome.

"a few humans said it was urgent, so i agreed to give another part of me away, but i never thought they'd steal my heart. i was then dumped here and left to rust away."

the robot's expression became sorrowful, and his eyes began to tear up with what little oil he had left inside him.

"please, little boy. i don't have much time left on my old ticker as it is, please help me out."

the boy began to feel bad for the robot, and then an idea popped into his innocent little mind,

"i have a heart you can have," he spoke for the first time.

the robot's eyes widened as much as they could, both excited and sad as
the little boy began to loosen the small hatch on his chest, revealing the mechanical heart he'd had placed inside of him.

"that- that heart-"

the robot's oily tears began to stream down his face, "that's my heart."

those words, hit the young boy harder than expected, and he too choked up a little.

suddenly, he began to unscrew the mechanical heart from inside his chest, and held it out to the robot, innocent and unaware of how it would effect him, "here."

"what are you doing?"

"this," the boy shook the heart, "is yours, and it's only right if you take it back."

he knelt down and wiped the robot's tears, before opening his rusted hatch and screwing the heart inside.

"what about you?" the robot questioned, thankful, but worried for the child.

"me?" the boy said, as his body quickly began to weaken, "honestly, i've already met my time!"

he smiled brightly, and fell backwards onto the dirty scrap metal.

while the boy giggled sweetly, the robot realised something; even if he wanted to help the boy, he couldn't. his body was already so worn out from the many part exchanges, it was beyond repair, and so was his own.

"little boy?" the robot spoke, his voice glitchy as he started to run down.

"m-mm?"

"what's your. name-name."

the boy thought for a moment,
"seung ho."

"ah, that's a n-ni-nice nam-e."

the two fell silent, as their voice boxes were no more, and eventually, neither were they.

their limp bodies lay next to each other, finally peaceful and free of any fatigue or pain.

maybe they'll meet
again in another life.

maybe they'll be used
for spare parts.

but that didn't matter,
what did matter, is that
they didn't die alone.

- ♡ -