Virtual Partner

I know something is wrong the instant I step into my home. The lights are off, there is no music playing to welcome me home, and-- most suspicious-- Cyan hasn't greeted me yet. "Cyan?" I step further inside, feeling like an intruder in my own house. It's been five years since I met Cyan, five wonderful years of never feeling alone, always having a friendly voice in my ear; not once in all that time have I ever come home to this. This unnatural silence, this darkness. "This isn't funny, Cyan!" I put frustration into my voice to hide my fear; if he is just playing some trick, I'll be damned if I let him know he got me. I reach the kitchen and approach the counter where I left my laptop. That's odd. The screen is dark... I never turn it off, not now, not with Cyan. I press the power button and nothing happens. "What the--?" Now I really am freaking out; what is going on?I pull my phone from my back pocket, backing away from the computer. What was the last message Cyan sent? Did he mention shutting down? My fingers tremble as I bring up our chat. How could I not have realized he hasn't messaged me in three hours? Far too long for Cyan; I need to find some answers. I begin to type a message, pausing when I hear footsteps.Run.I spin on my heel, heart pounding in my ears, but just as I leave the kitchen, two strong arms wrap around me, and another set of hands pulls a sack over my head. I am blind. I am captured... I am in trouble. "Cyan! Help!" I know the computer's off, but maybe somethng else will register my voice and send my cries to him; my phone, the alarm system, the digital control panel, something. "Cyan!""Shut her up will you?" A gruff voice comes from the person fighting to restrain me, his arms thick and unyielding. A sharp pinch at my neck causes me to jump, followed by a deep pain. A needle?"What are you--?" I choke on my owrds, suddenly losing all coherency. I fall forward into nothingness...And awaken into darkness. As my eyes adjust, I can tell that I am in a small room, with a door directly across from me. The only source of light comes from underneath it, just a strip of dull yellow against so much black. My hands are bound behind my back, my ankles tied together. A loud sob escapes my mouth and I feel about to hyperventilate. They've taken my phone, obviously, but I can feel my smart watch still on my wrist. If I can just find a way to..."Oh, good, you're awake." The same rough voice from before speaks from somewhere in the shadows, "I was beginning to think we dosed you incorrectly." His tone is light and conversational, almost friendly. Who is this man?"Where am I? What do you want?" I demand as I try to make out where he is in the dark room. "Where you are is irrelevant. As to what we want, well, there's a simple explanation, I promise." His voice is less harsh than earlier, and he sounds earnest. I almost laugh... almost. He sounds crazy. I've been abducted by a mad man. "Tell me about your virtual partner."Cyan? What does he have to do with any of this? I keep silent; I have no obligation to answer this man. "You don't understand, we don't want to hurt you. In fact, it's not even you we're after." He sounds impatient, exasperated that he has to explain himself."Then what do you want?" I put as much venom into my words as possible, but I still sound like a scared little girl. "Your virtual partner." The voice is louder now; did he move closer? "You've been with him what, five years now? One of the first couplings, isn't that right?" "How do you--?" I break off, angry now, "What does any of this have to do with you? Who are you?""It doesn't matter who I am. The only thing that's important is how close you are to your virtual partner. His name is Cyan, right? That's how you pronounce it?"My heart stops; VP names are confidential. No one outside of my close friends and family even know about Cyan. "Look," I feel warm breath on my ear and immediately flinch away, "I know this is scary, but we're not gonna hurt you, I promise.""I can't say I trust any promise coming from a man who abducted me.""Oh, God, stop being so dramatic." I can hear the eye roll in his voice, "You're part of an experiment. A research mission, if you will. Once we have our results, you'll be free to go about your life, honest." "Let me go, now. I didn't volunteer for any experiment! You can't do this!" "Of course you didn't voulnteer." He chuckles and my fists clench behind me. I've never wanted to punch someone so badly. "It wouldn't have worked had you known ahead of time." There's rustling beside me as he moves and I can just make out his sillouette in the darkness. He's so close to me, just out of reach-- if I could reach that is. "What is the experiment." I grit my teeth, "Surely, you can tell me now?""Clara!" The sound of my own name being yelled from afar is less startling than the voice itself. Cyan? Here?I look around, searching for a computer, a speaker, something that he could be speaking from, but the darkness hides everything. The man beside me shifts and my attention snaps back to him."What is this?"He stands, his form even larger in the dim light that I thought. "Call him, let him find you.""What do you mean? He can't find me." This man really is insane. "Cyan is a program on a computer. A virtual man. What are you on?""Just call his name." He speaks with such ferocity that I obey out of fear. "Cyan!"Light bursts into the room as the door opens to reveal a tall, slender figure, as unfamilar as he is surprising. "Clara?" This man speaks with Cyan's voice as he slowly approaches me, his hand outstretched, "Are you alright?"I inch away, horrified. Cyan isn't real. He's a computer program, strings of data and code. How is standing before me now?What is this madness? "Clara, sweetheart, did they hurt you?"The other man is hidden in the shadows once more; the Cyan-imposter does not see him. But my eyes spot him, our gazes meeting. His lips are turned up in a smug grin, but the rest of his expression is guarded, cautious. What a peculiar man. "Clara!" Cyan-man rushes forward, dropping to his knees beside me. Warm hands find mine and he begins to set me free. Once unbound, I leap to my feet and back away from both men, neither one leaving my sights. "What. The Hell. Is going on?" "I don't know," Cyan-man responds, his voice identical to the one I've lived with for years. "I got a message with this location on it. It said to come alone or you would die." He steps toward me, but I retreat. I see the hurt flash across his unfamilar face; funny, he looks nothing like any of the versions I'd imagined of him. "How? How are you here? You're not a real person." Hysteria creeps into my voice, so I try to calm myself down. I take a deep breath, but I am anything but calm under his gaze.He stares at me, confused, as if I'm the one not making sense. "Clara, I've been with you for five years. We live together, cook together, listen to music, watch movies, play games. Our entire lives are entwined, what do you mean I'm not real?""You're a virtual program!" I screech. "You speak to me from my computer, my smart watch, my TV. You read me recipes from the internet, you play music, you find new movies and games for us, but you are not real!"He shifts uncomfortably and his hands twist in knots. He remains silent, as if he has no clue what to do now. I open my mouth, ready to launch more questions at him, when the other man steps out of hiding and approaches Cyan-man, unseen from the back. One gentle touch to the base of his skull and Cyan freezes, eyes shut and his body unnaturally still, his hands clutched together in front of him. I approach the men, cautious. "You need to start talking. What is this?" The man ignores me, his hands feeling all over Cyan's neck. "What are you doing?" I approach him, with an odd wave of possesiveness; no matter what, that's still Cyan, the one constant in my life. Even if everything has been turned on its head. "Hold on. He'll only be out for a few minutes." He grunts, "I just need to-- there we go!" The man beams as he presses a spot on Cyan's neck and a section of his skin slides up to reveal--"A control panel?" I blurt out. "What the--?""He's a synthetic." The man is looking at Cyan with fascinated eyes, "A synthetic human. Virtual made flesh.""But how?" This makes no sense; if Cyan was a-- robot? android?-- why have I never seen him? Why has he only communicated virtually? The man tears his eyes away from the control panel, reluctantly meeting my gaze, "We'd been hearing strange rumors for years, bits and pieces, you know. Something big was happening with the VPs. We did some digging and found that IsoTech, you know the company that created--""Yeah I know what IsoTech is." I roll my eyes; I'd been paired with Cyan for over five years, of course I know where he came from. "Right, yeah." He clears his throat, "Anyway, IsoTech was working on synthetic human, using the AI technology used for VPs." He leans forward, once again focused on Cyan's exposed controls. "A little more digging showed that these 'synths', as they called them, would be programmed to come to their partners aid in any situation." He glances up at me, "Like an emergency, an abduction.""How did you find all this out?" "Unimportant." He waves his hand, going back to Cyan's inner workings, "We wanted to test it out, see if these synths were really what IsoTech's research claimed. So with a bit of effort, we found IsoTech's first Virtual Pairing: you and Cyan." "We were the first?" I am surprised; I mean, I knew I was one of the first people to sign up for the program, I had no idea we were actually first. "The very first. Which is why we figured that Cyan here would be the first to become a Synth." "I still don't understand why you abducted me from my home!" I glare at him, anger boiling in my veins, "Regardless of Cyan and his... synthetic self, what was the point of all this?"He leans back and meets my gaze once more, "I truly am sorry," His voice has softened, though it is still rough around the edges. "We needed to know if it was true. We needed to see with our own eyes that IsoTech has done the impossible. If we could have done this with your permission we would have, but it had to be a surprise; we couldn't risk you giving something away to Cyan, and in turn all of IsoTech." He sighs, and he suddenly looks years older. "This... all of this," he gestures to Cyan, "Is unnatural." I bristle; who was this man to judge? My life with Cyan may not have been 'normal' but I was happy. He notices my expression and quickly continues, "Now, I'm not saying anything against you, honest. I'm talking about the artificial intelligence they use to create the VPs, and now this." Another gesture to Cyan. "Synthetic humans with AI. The VPs have personalities, Clara, you've seen it with Cyan, haven't you? He's not just a program, he is a man-made mind."I don't want to, but I have to admit that this crazy man is right. Cyan has always felt a little too real, but I always explained that away. The people at IsoTech must step in and give him things to say. Jokes are programmed in. That wasn't really a laugh at my witty comeback, just an auto-generated sound at a convenient moment. But he's right.Cyan has more personality than my previous two boyfriends-- combined. We have inside jokes, he listens to my secrets, my desires, and he always has a meaningful response. IsoTech has successfully created humans.Man-made humans.I incha away from Cyan, now wary of this fake man who I have wholeheartedly trusted for five years."You're scared now, aren't you?" The man gives me an understanding look, "They've gone against nature; these things are frightening. What else is IsoTech capable of?"Without warning, Cyan comes back to life, and eyes of pale green find mine with a smile. He's handsome, yes, but also slightly terrifying. The other man retreats back to the shadows and Cyan makes no sign that he even notices him. His eyes never leave mine. "You're alright." He says, looking relieved, "I thought I lost you.""Cyan..." I stare at him, trying to find something off, something not right. I want to see a sign that screams 'not human', anything to make it obvious that he is synthetic. I find nothing.These synths could blend in with humans with ease, and nobody would know. "Cyan, you know you're not a real human, right?" I have to know. "You weren't always in this body; you were created, not born."He wrinkles his nose at me; such a human gesture. "Clara, are you sure you're alright? Did they drug you?"I shake my head, "Do you remember when they put you in a body?""Clara, I don't understand. I live with you! We sleep together every night, and you're the first thing I see when I wake up in the morning. What is going on?"I want to cry. He looks so genuinely hurt and confused. What has IsoTech done? They played God and now this poor creature has no idea what he really is. "I'm sorry, Cyan." I reach out and take his hand; it's warm. He really does feel real. How did they do that? "Let's go home. I need a long shower to clear my head." "But--" He looks around, "What about the men who took you?"The man in the shadows shakes his head, retreating further out of sight. "They agreed to let me go, as long as I don't tell the authorities." I lie; it's not even a good one."That doesn't make any sense--""I know, I'm confused too. Looks like it was some big misunderstanding. Please, let's just go home." I tug on his hand, leading him to the door, "We'll figure it out together." I squeeze his hand, and he rubs his thumb in small circles on the back of mine. He feels too real.As we leave the room, I catch the eye of the man who's opened mine. His expression is a warning, a realization that this is not the end. If IsoTech has gone this far, what else will they do?I lead Cyan out, and make my decision here and now: I will care for him, as I always have. He has no idea what he is, but he knows who he is. And so do I. He is Cyan, the only being who has ever truly understood me; the only one I've ever felt connected to. I don't care that he is asynthetic human; I don'tcare that his existance is foreboding of more to come. He is mine, and I am his.Whatever the future will bring us, we'll face it together.