We knew it might come to this, the two of us in a dark alley facing off with two guys who have herded us here.

“Freaking reaver lovers,” the one guy says to us. I’m calling him pimple face, because – pimples.

“Do it,” Vielle says back to me.

We’ve been best friends for our entire life, or what feels like our entire life. Ride or die, to the very end.

“What are you talking about?’ the second guy asks. I’m calling him The Brain, because he seems like the smarter of the two, even if that isn’t exactly a high bar to clear right now. He knows enough to be suspicious but not enough to avoid a situation like this one altogether. Yeah, way, way too late to be asking questions, buddy.

“I look like an ordinary human girl,” I tell the pair. “But I’m not.”

Both guys have hesitated now. They’re not sure if I’m kidding. Then, in the instants between time, I separate the gravitational bonds that hold together the atoms that form the cells of their body, and they die there, in the alley, in their uncertainty. Their bodies return to the particulates of which all human life is made. Easy like that.

I reset my vibronic meters, checking for any shortage.

“Well?” I ask Vielle.

“How do you feel?” She’s constantly adjusting my emotional and moral subroutines, while I sleep.

“Confused,” I say. “Why are people like that?”

Vielle shrugs. “But you know what we are?”

“What?” I ask.

“Sisters for life.”

***

Well this one got dark fast. I started out wanting to write about two friends who decide to die together rather than give in, then one of them decided she was a cyborg and that – nah – maybe we need a different ending here. And, that will be all. LOL. (Some really scary characters live in my brain, apparently.) I have a lot of interesting thoughts on “artificial life,” and not gonna lie, this one was a little inspired by one of RWBY and the totes asexual but still very loving (you feel it) robot who makes friends with the MC.

No RWBY spoilers, but it’s one of my faves for a reason. RIP Monty. Gone but never forgotten.