The Dark Inside (A Human Element)

by Donna Galanti

  The bolt clicked open on his cell door. X-10 retreated into a shadowy corner. He took a deep breath and rose to his full height in his naked glory. Harsh light entered the room as the female was pushed in. Her long, blonde hair hung in waves. The door slammed shut. Metal slid into place. There was no escape for her now either.

  She looked around the room then saw him in the corner. He stepped forward and she gasped, backing up into the door. She turned and pounded on it.

  "Let me out! Please. It's a mistake."

  She glanced back, her mouth a pink carving he yearned to touch. She was his game here in this cell for his easy taking.

  X-10 stepped closer. A whiff of buttery caramel and vanilla delighted his massive nose. His gray walls held so little scent. He savored the few scratch-and-sniff perfume ads he'd found in used magazines. He breathed them over and over, imagining them caressing a female's skin. And now it did. He inhaled deeply. She faced him and pressed her back up to the door.

  "No one is coming," he said. "I won't hurt you."

  She shook her head violently as her wide, blue eyes darted up and down his body. She was as young as he. Large breasts pushed up from her white blouse and tan legs were exposed all the way up to her mini-skirt. Dr. Bjord did a good job finding this one on the street. X-10 had killed uglier ones than this from his mind's eye.

  "What are you?" she whispered. She looked left and right but kept coming back to his face.

  "Just a government experiment."

  "You have yellow eyes."

  "You have blue ones."

  "Contact lenses?"

  He shrugged, running his hands down his chest and legs. She shook her leg nervously and crossed her arms. "I want to leave."

  "You can't. You're bought and paid for."

  "I want my money back. It was only for an hour."

  X-10 stepped closer. Deeper he breathed. Something else was in all that buttery sugar. An earthy smell of pine and bark. Her smell. She didn't shrink away this time.

  He jerked his head at the camera on the wall. "He's watching us, you know."

  "The old man?"

  He nodded.

  "You sound like a normal guy, except…"

  "Normal." He liked saying that word.

  "You don't look it."

  He grunted.

  She sighed, resigned. "Don't you have clothes?"

  "They hurt my skin."

  "Oh." Her face softened. Her fear was fading it seemed. "What's your name?"

  He paused a moment. "Charlie."

  She smiled. Her white teeth between full lips dazzled him. "That's a nice name. I'm Sabrina."

  "Sabrina." He drank it in like hot chocolate. Rolled it around his mouth, warm and intoxicating.

  "Why are you in here? For…hurting someone?"

  "No. Scientific testing."

  "That sounds awful. Am I being tested too?"

  "Just me."

  She looked relieved. "He said it's your first time."

  X-10 nodded. He grew hard thinking about it.

  She looked down and her eyes widened. "You're big."

  He stood taller, feeling empowered. Her words poured over him coating him in unbearable yearning. Part of him wanted to push her down and throttle her, then bite into her soft neck and taste her insides. If she knew those thoughts she would start pounding on the door again. But part of him wanted to sink his rigid sex softly inside her and lick her smell. Could he make her want him?

  No one will ever want you, the doctor said. You're too different. A killing machine. Not all human. Unworthy. Dr. Bjord's words burned in his brain. X-10 would prove him wrong.

  Sabrina took a deep breath and walked toward him. "Okay, an hour." She placed her hands on his chest and looked up into his eyes. Her scent made him dizzy. His breaths came faster as her warmth infused him. No one had ever touched him except to plunge needles in his arm or clamp probes onto his skin. He shuddered.

  "Are you afraid?" She raised her eyebrows. He shook his head and tried to find his voice to say 'no' but only air floated out. She smiled at him then and leaned her whole body into him. He stood frozen at first then swam his broad hands through her soft locks. He tugged on them. They bounced back. Her lips touched his chest. Tingly explosions ripped through him. When she wrapped her arms around him and stroked his back he tipped his head back and moaned.

  Her breath was a hot touch. "Why do they keep you in this awful place? It's so cold and damp."

  "I am unworthy."

  She looked up and touched the corners of his eyes. "You talk strange. Why unworthy?"

  "I was born unworthy."

  "I can make you a worthy man." She smiled, with practiced seduction. It was a generic smile she gave others. He thought of men between her legs and it made him sick. She was just a dirty whore.

  He pushed her away. "Tramp talk."

  She bit her lip. "I didn't want to be a tramp. I only said that because I thought it's what men liked to hear. Sorry, Charlie."

  He frowned at her, debating whether to take her or not. But her touches had made him feel worthy. Even if they were paid. And she smelled and looked so good. And she was here.

  She sat down on his bed. "Why don't we just lie here for now? We can talk, you know. Like real…people."

  He stood over her, considering. What would he talk about with a human girl?

  She lay down on her side and he did too, facing her. Her blonde hair curved along her breasts like silky strands of sparkly cotton candy. He'd seen a picture of it once being swirled on a stick at a fair. He wondered what it would taste like. What she would taste like.

  She touched his face then pulled her fingers away. "When you look at all your parts, you're not so bad."

  "A monster."

  "No. I've been with monsters."

  "Like me?"

  She shook her head. "Monsters on the inside."

  Even in the garish light she was the loveliest thing he had ever seen. He wanted to touch her, but was afraid of his urges. To hurt and maim and kill. Good guys don't do those things. And she had called him by his name. As if he was a good guy.

  This would be his own experiment. Not Dr. Bjord's. But he needed to slake his thirst to kill.

  He sent his mind's eye out into the woods as he stared at her. There he found a fox. He tore into him, all the while smiling back at the girl. It felt strange, this smiling that humans did.

  The fox yipped. Blood spurted. Rip. Shred. Chew.

  He felt calmer now.

  She tilted her head at him. "Where were you just now, Charlie?"

  He swallowed the fox's heart, relishing the succulent meat, and focused on her. "Outside."

  She nodded as if she understood.

  "How old are you, Sa-bri-na?" He savored her name like the blood that trickled down his throat.

  "Nineteen."

  "I'm eighteen."

  "You've been here all your life?"

  "Yes."

  "It's like a prison."

  "It's all I know. Will ever know."

  "You know me now."

  "For an hour." But Dr. Bjord probably wouldn't let her leave here alive. She knew too much. X-10 wouldn't be made to do it, no matter how Dr. Bjord tortured him. He would be a good guy until the end. His secret experiment would be a success. He didn't want the hour to end. Knowing it could be her end.

  She turned and stretched out on her back. Her soft slopes enticed him. "I just left my prison."

  "You escaped from jail?"

  She laughed. It pierced his cold heart with a flame. "A jail of sorts. My bastard of a father. He was my jail keeper. With fists almost as big as yours." She took his monstrous hand and held it in her small one. Light blew inside him; chased some of the dark away.

  "He hit you."

  "And more. I finally left. Last month. I've only been in the city since then."

  "You left, just like that?"

  "In the night. I didn't say goodbye to anyone."

  She faced him again. Her eyes
grew shiny. What did that emotion feel like? Tears had never fallen from his eyes. Was it painful?

  She pulled up her skirt. Gray bruises marked the tops of her legs. "Old evidence. Now I call the shots. If the pimps don't get me. I've been avoiding them."

  X-10 touched her old wounds. Her skin was smooth and soft. He worked his power on her. He had only used it to heal himself before. The bruises faded. Sabrina sucked in her breath and let go of his hand.

  "What are you really?"

  "I told you. An experiment. A monster."

  "Monsters don't heal people. Angels do." She touched her legs as if waiting for the bruises to re-appear. "Where were you when I needed you before?" She laughed nervously.

  "Here. Alone."

  "I've never been alone. I grew up in a house full of kids."

  "Alone inside though?"

  She nodded and took his hand again, pulling it to her chest. It filled the space between her warm breasts, like her scent filled his pores. "Alone like you."

  "Why the streets?" His heart raced faster with her touch. He willed himself to be still when all he wanted to do was plunge into her skin with his hardness and fingers and teeth.

  "I ran out of money the first week, Charlie." His name on her lips shattered his ice. It melted it into warm rivers that ran through his limbs. She kissed his hand and held it to her cheek. Her misty blue eyes mesmerized him like sapphires on fire.

  And then she reached up and kissed his lips. He couldn't move. She parted his lips with hers and pushed her hot tongue in his mouth. He tasted her sweetness then lapped at it. Her hair shimmered around her like a halo.

  "I want you, Charlie. Do you want me?"

  He nodded. An ache spread throughout him. It wasn't painful, but full of need and want. She wanted him. Even if she was a whore. But she seemed so clean and pure. And she said he wasn't so bad looking. She didn't think he was a monster. Alongside his need, hope sprung that if one day he killed the doctor and escaped, someone could love him.

  Golden Sabrina wanted to. If only for an hour.

  But nothing gold can stay. That poet had written so.

  She stood and undressed before him, leaf after leaf. Her slender curves were everywhere and he was so hard. Still, he couldn't move. She was his experiment. He was terrified of ruining it all if he moved. Could he control his darkest desires? He didn't want to make the first move. He wanted her to take him.

  And she did.

  She sank onto him, drawing him in slow. His muscles tightened as she rose up and down. He spiraled high above where he had always dwelled in darkness. Her nipples were the light pink of sky at dawn, a color he'd only known from a photo. He touched them and they stiffened at his rubbing. He pulled away, but she took his hands and placed them on her breasts.

  "Touch them like this, see? I like that, Charlie, do you?"

  He could only nod as ecstasy rose in his groin, a building heat. He was covered in her wet depths. He watched his body disappear over and over into her as she took him in. Her moans crashed over him and he held onto her pliant flesh.

  "Oh, Charlie, sweet Charlie."

  He was sweet Charlie. He reached up and stroked her hair. She arched her back and he ran his fingers along her throat. It pulsed with life and blood. She fell on his chest and they were pressed together like one piece of flesh. Was this the love that humans spoke about in books? It opened up his dark soul and filled in the black holes where emptiness resided.

  Her heart beat in sync with his.

  Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

  She pulled away from him then, a body of fluid lines, naked and lovely in its workings. She glided over him and he followed her rhythm.

  And then a great wave swelled within him where water had never been. Her body was the oasis that took away his parched existence. His pleasure mixed with an ancient urge.

  "Feel me, Charlie."

  And he did. She was all around him and he shot into her the only thing he could give. Light pulsed out from his fingertips and toes and mouth. Brilliance blazed around him. Or was it her radiant hair that filled his vision above with this light he couldn't contain? He grabbed on to her and held her tight, releasing a wild roar as he rocked deep inside her sweet flesh. Her mouth hung open, her eyes wide. Did she feel it too? He closed his eyes and fell back onto the scorched sand as the water receded.

  She slumped across his chest. His heart raced. Hers slowed.

  "Sabrina?"

  She did not move. He lifted her head. Dull eyes stared at him. He pulled himself out from under her and flipped her over.

  Dead?

  Her neck bore the red marks of his hands. The hands of a monster.

  "No. No!"

  He touched her as gently as she had touched him. He tried to heal her with his power but there was only stillness. Water filled his eyes, a damning film. It spilled down his cheeks. It was painful. These human tears.

  He pulled her limp body to him, folding her small nakedness into his beastly mass. He knelt with her on the floor and cried. He would not give into this temptation again. It was too much pain, this human pleasure. He would stick to killing for release. But oh, he had not sought to kill tonight.

  His experiment had failed.

  He would never be Charlie the good guy. Dr. Bjord was right. He wasn't worthy.

  He was X-10 the monster.

  Then she coughed.

  Color rushed into her face. She leaned over and hacked. Exultation rushed through him. He pulled her up. Her body shook as she sputtered, tried to breathe.

  He held her in his arms. She beat feebly on his chest. "You tried to kill me."

  "No…no! I didn't realize my strength." He leaned his big head down on her petite one. "I'm sorry."

  "Water," she whispered.

  He placed her on his bed and rushed to get her a drink from his tiny fridge then knelt before her.

  She drank an entire water bottle and squinted at him. "You didn't mean to hurt me?"

  "Never. I-I love you." His heart unfolded as he said it and he breathed her wonderful smell that gave him life.

  She intertwined her dainty fingers with his brutish ones and bent her head to touch his. Her hair hung glorious and alive around her, framing him in her world. Her hand grazed his face then she stood and pulled her clothes on.

  "My hour is done, Charlie."

  "Come back?" He hoped. Could she be another reward? He would do anything.

  She looked at him with sad eyes. "What will you do to me next time?"

  "Love you."

  She turned away, knocked on the door. The lock clicked. Metal slid open. She stepped through the space that would separate them.

  "Sabrina, stay." He was captivated.

  She glanced back. "Goodbye, Charlie. I hope you never forget your first time."

  He stared at her in anguish and then her gold was gone.

  "Wait. Don't go!" He came out of his reverie and rushed to the door. "He'll kill you!" But the door locked in place. He beat his fists on it. Even if he had gotten through he would never escape. Drugs sprayed into the air from his captor would knock him out the instant he tried.

  "Bjord, leave her alone!" There was no answer from his master. "You hear me? Keep her here with me. I'll do anything you want. Anything!"

  He paced his cell that night, smashing his hands on the concrete walls until they bled, wondering if she made it back to the streets. Wanting her to be back on the streets. Wanting her to be with other men. It would mean she was alive. He sought her out in the city with his mind's eye but she was nowhere.

  Finally, he fell into a nightmarish sleep. He stood on a riverbank and pieces of Sabrina floated by. An arm. A leg. A hand, frozen in a delicate wave. Her decapitated head stared at him with those blue eyes as her gilded hair flowed behind her.

  When he woke, visions of Sabrina riding him with lust and tenderness fell heavy in his mind. And something white lay on the floor.

  He wiped the sleep from his eyes and sat up, staring at it. />
  Sabrina's shirt.

  Slashed with red.

  A memento from Dr. Bjord.

  He staggered out of bed and smashed the camera that mocked him. He would pay for that later.

  He fell on his knees and caressed her blouse then picked it up gently so as not to add to its wounds. He breathed deep of this garment that had clung to her as she had to him. Her sweetness filled him–and then loss replaced it. She had called him an angel, but she was now the angel. His tears wet her shroud. It was all he could give her now. He willed Sabrina's musk–their musk–into his mind forever. He wasn't a monster. He hadn't killed her. Dr. Bjord had.

  And the doctor's end would come soon.

  X-10 hugged his first love to his chest and drifted back into his dreams where Sabrina could live again…and call him Charlie.

  The Job

  Felix

  The curl of the woman's hair called to him. It was Laura's hair. Burnt strands of copper and fire. He had seen it a hundred times, in person as well as his dreams and visions. He had tried to keep his presence hidden from Laura over the years, but she knew he watched her. She had caught him once and asked why he followed her. That was the only time he spoke to her before disappearing again. I need to know what you are, he said.

  "Felix?"

  He re-focused his eyes on the flesh and blood woman before him, Maria, who drove him to thoughts of Laura. "We'll do it tonight."

  She nodded, squinting at him, and stood. The angles of her face were sharper than Laura's as if each killing she had performed over time shaped the hardness of her on the outside–as well as the inside.

  "I'll be at the bar at nine then." She gathered up her notes.

  "I'll wait for you to bring the men to the motel room. You're sure you can convince them?"

  "I've never had a problem before. And these two like to share."

  He eyed her figure with a longing never realized. Her body was tight and lithe. The lines of her muscles wrapped around her as if a chisel had etched them from stone. She stretched and his eyes grazed her breasts that thrust outward. He admired their roundness. He could see how they would call a man to mold his hands around them. To feel their supple flesh and lick those nipples into arrow points. Her body was encased in metal, and her breasts were the cannons ready to blast a man's armor away.