All I Need Is A Second Chance

[Skimblekitten]

Fern lay collapsed, naked, on the side of the road where his battery had started to run low. The little heart crystal that he usually wore as a necklace that reflected his feelings was mostly black by now as was the small cylindrical crystal that reflected his charge. He was trying to conserve his energy, shutting down as many processes as he could to keep from shutting down. The fear of being shut down out here kept him going, even though he knew it was futile. How he still felt this fear with his emotions shut down he didn't know.

Last night his master had tossed him out on the street, shouting that the neko android toy was worthless and deserved to die. He'd tried so hard to please the man, but every time he did as the man asked he was beaten and denied recharging, effectively starving him. While he didn't need most of the basic necessities, the man had taken pleasure in denying him them anyway. Still, Fern had been happy the man was pleased with him even in such a sadistic way. Evidently though the man was just not pleased with him, perhaps because the neko had stopped crying when he was violently beaten or violated. His energy had run low at that point, so he had shut off his ability to physically feel.

The little neko's artificial body was half broken from his abuse, not so badly that it was irreparable but enough that it would be rather expensive to bother. He had seen his master shopping for a new toy online when he had dared peek into the man's private room and knew the man would rather throw him away and get a new toy rather than waste the money to fix him. While it had made him upset at the time, now he could only an empty void where his emotions had been shut off.

As his vision started to fade, Fern noticed a few artificial tears escape his eyes without his input. 'Ghost in the machine I suppose. My program must have errors. Perhaps that is why my master was so displeased with me,' he thought, the light of his eyes fading slowly and soon he was alone in the dark. If he hadn't shut down most of his extra processes he would have panicked, being left alone in the dark, feeling as if he were fading into nothing at all. Even so, the fear grew as he felt more of himself fade soon leaving him drifting in nothing but darkness with only the vague memory that he had even existed.