Hollow Point Happiness

Case 4: Arcnaphobia

The blood seeped into the carpet, spilling out from the girl's head. Chris just wailed and cried. Mana whispered something to the robot but Chris couldn't hear over his cries, nor did he care.

"WHY!" He screamed, over and over.
Mana put the gun to his forehead, "Shut up and start to talk. Now."
Chris grew silent, "Why, why would I tell you anything now! I have nothing left to lose."
Mana gave a small smile, "I find it entertaining that you think I'm that stupid. Go ahead Defrag."
The robot moved towards the body, its long, skeletal, metal fingers grabbing the body's neck.
"No! Stop-stop. If you destroy the Node I'll lose everything, I'll lose her for good."
"I'm well aware, Mr. Cartwin."

There were meaty and squishy sounds and streams of blood hit the floor as the robot ripped out a metal cylinder from the girl's throat and through her to the ground.

"Here you are." The robot handed the cylinder to Mana.
"Defrag, count down from 360, 1 number per second."
"360...359...358..."

Mana pulled the gun back from Chris's forehead placing in on her thigh, "Start talking."
"Pablo sent out me and a small group of guys, some mercenaries that he hired, not ALPHA's. We were sent to take Sinco-Ona, he wanted the experimental bio-metal tech thing that they were working on from Warmage. I don't even know how he found out about it, even ALPHA didn't know about the lab much less the tech. I was just there to make sure no cops showed up and interfered." Chris stopped.
Mana just looked at him, "You're wasting your time not mine. Defrag what are we at?"
"287...286...285..."
Chris cleared his throat, "We were told to kill everyone except for 2, a Millie Witword and Robert Brighten. We broke in easy, it was a science lab, not a stronghold after all. Killed the few guards, rounded up the scientist, got all of them in a room. We found Millie and capture her but we couldn't find Robert, the others said he had left hours beforehand. We never found him."
Mana put her hand through her hair, "Really? You never found him?"
Chris panicked and shook the chair, "I swear! Don't hurt my girl anymore! Please!"
Mana placed the hand on his shoulder, it was cold, "Don't worry, I trust you."

Chris heard small mechanical noises coming from her hand, 2 tiny metal spiders climb out from under her palm and started to scuttle towards his head. They climbed up his face, he tried to shake them off but the cuffs didn't let him, they ended up on his temples and stopped moving.

Mana spoke, "Defrag download everything after age 15, and you can stop with the numbers."
"Of course." As the robot spoke Chris felt pricks on his temples.
Mana put her hand on his cheek, "Mr. Cartwin, for you and your daughter's sake I do hope you didn't lie to me."
Chris's face stiffened at the fridged touch but he forced himself to talk, "Who are you? Why did you do this? Why me?"

Mana didn't respond, she looked behind herself at the picture he had looked at earlier, "Was that your wife? She was 25 if I remember correctly. Such a tragedy to be accidentally killed in a drive-by, the bullet went straight through her neck and blow out the Node. You didn't even a chance to revive her. But, I must admit to turn around your entire life and become a cop to try to avenge her, that's true love."

Mana turned back to face him and closed her eyes. She pulled down the mask and opened her eyes.

"What the fuck?" Was all Chris was able to manage.
He was looking into the face of his wife, Mana opened her eyes to reveal glistening green irises just like his wife had had.

Mana spoke in a perfect replica of his wife's voice, "I am no one, but I can be anyone."

She smiled as she kept looking at Chris's face of abstract horror.
"Finished downloading." The robot said, the pain started receding from his temples.

Mana smiled, she placed a kiss on Chris's cheek and placed the Node into his pocket, "I'll see you around my love." She pulled the mask back up to cover her face and put a hand out, the spiders jumped onto her palm, she lightly pet them as she spoke,

"My eyes will always be watching," She blinks and her eyes change to blue, "And don't worry about damaging them." Brown this time, "I have plenty to choose from." Blinking one last time her eyes returned to the original blood-red.

She walked out of the room with the robot trailing behind. With a click, the apartment's door closed and the handcuffs unlocked. He fell to the carpet, rage filling every atom of his being. But, now wasn't the time. He called for an ambulance and broke out a window so they could come straight to him, he picked up Ash and stood at the broken window, waiting, and thinking.

Chris walked into the Police headquarters, he stored into the Chief's office, He was covered in blood.

"Good lord Chris what happened!?"
"I was attacked by the wraith, girl, assassin bitch... I think."
"You think?"
"I don't know, she could like change or shapeshift."
"Um... are you sure you weren't seeing things... or drunk?"
"CHUCK I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD! I just had a replica of my wife kill my fucking daughter and then kiss me." He was silent and his eyes burned, he was quiet for a long time, "But, do you know what scares me Chuck?"
"...What?"
"I had the lab check the DNA on my face." He was silent again, "They matched, 100% matched Chuck. It was my wife's DNA Chuck."