A Metal Coffin

By Riddel

He was in love with her, Kaldea realized as saw Sion tenderly bring Dominique into his arms. Leaning there against the wall of the opposite room, concealed in shadows. Kaldea felt sorrow touch her supposedly nonexistent heart. Sion you fool, Kaldea thought to herself as she brought her gloved hand up to her mouth, preparing to wipe away the tears her eyes could no longer shed.

Sion? Dominque had whispered as she woke up from her dream. Her voice was so young, so innocent, so fake; Kaldea was the only one who could still hear the robotic gears behind that voice. Daugaron could hear it too. Perhaps that accounted for his ambivalent feelings for this object which he once convinced himself could ease the pain of his sister's death.

But Daugaron knew as Kaldea knew that robots, no matter how lifelike, could ever hope to become life. No matter how many vital organs they stole from a living being, that final spark simply could not be created by a man, even one with the will of a Daugaron. Kaldea knew that she still had her soul, that was why she had refrained from confronting Sion further in the hallway. Her soul had prevented her from bringing back the hurt that he had forgotten.

Yet she could not overcome her sorrow at their encounter. He did not remember her. All these years she had held onto his memory. He was her childhood friend, the only man she would truly love. But now she knew there was another. It was a pity it had to be Dominique. Sion, your loves comes too late. You are in love with a portrait of a dead girl. Her face is frozen not in paint but in mechanical gears.

Often times in the last few years Kaldea has asked herself that same question - ten years off the life of a human being to buy eternity for a robot. Is that a fair price? But Kaldea had turned her mind away from such thoughts again and again. She had long considered herself a casualty of science. They had created such a lifelike robot- it had never been done before. If anything, her life had been a success. Only, her death was unending. She was the martyr who must wander the world as a ghost form of her old self, watching her parents grieve, watching Sion grieve and finally watching them forget. That was hardest of all - watching them forget.

You are already dead. Kaldea felt her inner voice reminding her. So be dead!

Although it was easy to convince her mind that she no longer existed in this world, after all living things did not bleed blue blood. Her heart still believed that it existed in this world. Her heart was jealous that Sion would bring another girl into his arms. Her heart wanted to be the only heart that would press against his in a lover's embrace.

Kaldea's form melted into the shadows as she saw Sion approaching with Dominique on his arm. He was so close. What if she reached out to him? And told him what Dominique really was? Would he grieve again as he had grieved over her death?

No, Kaldea decided. She would not, she would not be responsible for the twicefold tragedy in his life. So let him take Dominique home like some pleasant Barbie doll who would be forever young and would never die. Who would always laugh and never cry. Who would always seek to please and never to hurt. Dominique was perfect in a way that only a robot could be. That was perhaps why Daugaron had hated her, her perfection irritated him because it was inhuman. So cruel was he to her that the poor thing had run away. Sion's tender heart must have given Dominique a world she had never seen before. But had he recognized the pieces in Dominique that was made up of his childhood friend? Maybe by some mystical sixth sense he had recognized the parts of Kaldea which had continued to live in this metal coffin.

In a moment of clarity Kaldea came to a bitter realization. Perhaps as Sion embraced Dominique, Kaldea's own jealous heart was also satisfied. Because, she could not remember, if they had given her heart, as well, to Dominique.