EXPERIMENTING WITH 3RD PERSON! Yippee. Anyway, my total word count for this month is 6352. And sorry this bit is so odd, I was a bit rushed. :-P
Adam Johnson was a man, like many were, of about 40 years old. He lived a life, like all try to. He breathed every day of his life, like everyone does until the day they die. He lived in an old apartment building, he worked as a teacher of 4th grade math. He woke up, he worked, he went home, he ate. He slept, and he repeated. On weekends he graded reports, and on Friday’s he watched history documentaries on National Geographic. He had a good life, he kept telling himself. He had a simple life. But why, people often asked. Why, He thought? I wish I didn’t know why. And he would shake his head and walk on. Adam, same name as the first man of the world, but his sins were deeper than that. So much deeper.
Every day, he got up, trying ignore the pain. Every day, he lived in fear that someone from back then would find out. Every day, he bit his nails to nothing and walked out the door. Because someone normal like Adam shouldn’t have secrets, right? But Adam did. And he couldn't tell anyone. Until one day. After class, a little boy walked up to him, about the age of 7, an inquisitive look on his face.
“Mr. Johnson?” He asked, and Adam turned around, surprised.
“Oh, hello.” He said sharply, taking a deep breath. He closed his eyes from a moment, as if trying to remember something. Then he opened them again, the look on his face less sharp. “What do you need, Joshua?” He bent his knees and dropped down closer to the ground so he could be at eye level with this boy.
“I’m not Joshua. I’m his little brother, Mason.” He nods.
“Okay. What’s the problem?” He asked, and a little bit a sweat sheened on his brow. He had a tight smile, as if he wasn’t quite comfortable in front of kids. THe boy leaned forward, putting his lips next to Adam’s ears.
“You’re not real.” Adam’s face whitened, and he took a deep breath.
“What do you mean?” Mason took a step back again, fixing his gaze on Adam’s neck.
“Under your collar. There’s a thingy. You’re a robot, aren’t you?” He shook his head, standing.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mason. C’mon, it’s almost time for my next class. I’ll walk you back to your homeroom.” Mason shook his head.
“No, it’s fine, Mr. Johnson.” Mason ran out the hall and up to the next floor, where his Brother Joshua and his sister Addie, who was about 14 and thought she ruled the world, or that’s how it seemed to Mason.
“Did you ask him?” She asked, her voice sounding a little metallic. Her smile was crooked, as if something was wrong with the nerves in her face. Mason nodded and sat down on the unclean floor next to the bathroom. They heard class start and stared at each other.
“I can’t believe he didn’t recognize us.” Joshua said, sounding a little melancholy. We look just like we did back then, but younger. And more innocent, I suppose.” Carrie rolled her eyes and stood.
“I wish I could tell him, but Mother would never allow it.” Carrie whispered. Joshua stood up quickly, putting a hand on her shoulder hastily.
“He’s our brother. We should be able to.” Mason nodded and stood up,
“Joshua’s right. Mother doesn’t matter anymore. Let’s change back and talk to him.” All three of the children nodded in unison and reached up to their neck, touching the spot below their colors. A light shimmered over them, and when it left, they were robots. Silver, tall, robots, with faces that looked like the older versions of the children that stood there a second ago.
Adam walked down the hall, his pulse high, his mind racing. He seemed confused, upset. A few people wondered to themselves why he wasn’t in his classroom teaching, but no one said anything, and Adam wouldn’t have heard anyway. His thought were bouncing around inside him. He peeked around the edge of the hall, seeing the three tall silver robots and his face broke down. He walked towards them.
“I don’t care what you want, I’m not going.” THe robots turned towards him, the digital faces on them smiling.
“Adam.” THey said in unison. “We’ve missed you so.” Adam shook his head.
“Liar. You don’t care about me. I left because my chip was broken, and disgraced the family. I’m stuck like this forever.” The people nodded.
“Mother wants us to kill you.” The robot that was Carrie said, her voice uneven and her face ashen, “But we just came to give you this.” A port inside of her, and ;something comes out. “It will remove your chip, and you’ll become human forever. Adam put his hand to his chest, as if that would slow his racing heart.
“You--” His voice cracked. “You would do that?” Joshua and Mason nodded.
“Just--Go.” Carrie said. “ We won’t tell Mother. Can you...” She looked at the item on the ground, and Adam nodded.
“Sure, um...” He took a deep breath and reached down, picking up the heavy brass item filled with a green and blue liquid.
“Thank you.” He said. And they disappeared, and Adam took a deep breath. He was finally free. He was free.
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