Plock. Plock. Plock. Plock.
Norman catches the holographic ball, turning it over in his hand before throwing it back against the wall for what must have been the hundredth time that night.
It was late. Rain pattered against the hotel window. He knew he had to go back into work in a few hours, but tonight—like the past few nights—he couldn't sleep.
He had spent the better part of the evening wracking his brain over all the case files surrounding the Origami Killer. Even now—lying in bed—it took nearly every ounce of control he had to not dig through the evidence again. It felt like some important detail was staring him in the face—he just couldn't see it.
He knew he had one solid lead to go on. He would investigate it sometime tomorrow. The anticipation of it made it hard for him to relax, and every pitter-patter of rain against the window reminded him of how little time Shaun Mars had left to live.
Plock. Plock. Plock. Plock.
As he went to catch the rebound from his last throw, the ball disappeared and a notification flashed across the screen of his ARI.
Attention: program closing due to automatic software update scheduled for 10/18 at 2:00am.
Right. Norman had forgotten about the new update ARI was getting. It was a new AI assistant—optional, of course—so nothing special. They were designed to help the user in any way that was work-related.
ARI offered updates like this sometimes, but Norman hardly ever took advantage of them. He was always very self-sufficient in his work; even his colleagues back in DC hardly ever saw him outside his office, and it was rare that he had ever been assigned to group projects where he needed someone's help.
Still, he had one AI assistant who he used from time to time. The barman, who he mostly implemented as a way to help him unwind after a long, stressful day—but would also sometimes discuss case files with. ARI's advanced technology made it possible for him to design how the AI would appear as well as behave; so he made him resemble the barman from The Shining, a movie that he liked a lot. Sometimes, his job made him feel a little like Jack Torrance—a dull boy.
Another notification flashed across the screen.
Estimated time until download complete: 9 minutes and 42 seconds.
1%... 2%... 3%...
Norman took off the glasses and laid them on the nightstand beside him. He laid back in bed, massaging his temples. He felt a headache coming on.
No—worse than that, he realized.
He was shaking in the fingertips and his heart started to flutter. His mouth instantly went dry.
"Shit... not now," he groaned.
He began trembling from his hands up to his arms. Quickly, he opened up the nightstand drawer beside him, fumbling through its contents until he found a vial of Triptocaine.
He had already resisted the urge to take it once today; he wasn't sure that he could do it now, and he didn't intend to try. It was too late, and his withdraw symptoms had begun to grow worse and worse the more that he resisted.
He held the luminescent blue vial out in front of him. Through his blurred vision, it appeared to be swaying back and forth. He would see one, then two, then one again.
He unscrewed the top and inhaled the substance through his nose.
It was like a like a heavy weight off being lifted off his shoulders. Suddenly, he felt light, and all the pain had disappeared from his body. It was followed by a calming wave of euphoria.
He hadn't allowed himself to have any Tripto in days. He had forgotten how good it actually felt to take the stuff. One thing he did remember, though, was that the experience was always relatively short-lived. There wasn't an especially unpleasant comedown or anything, but everytime he took it, he always wished that the effects would have lasted longer.
Laying back further in bed, he allowed his hands to roam over his body. His skin was suddenly more sensitive, and nothing compared to the feeling of touching himself when he was high. He was only wearing a thin pair of boxers, but he took them off anyway. He grabbed the base of his cock, pulling it down so that blood rushed through to his shaft.
It didn't take much to get him hard. Within a matter of seconds, his entire member was engorged. He began stroking himself; waves of pleasure ran through his body as he imagined as if he was having sex with a beautiful woman.
He knew once he had finished, he would be able to fall asleep within minutes—he always did. But even in moments like this, he would have intrusive thoughts about how lonely he actually was, and how he likely wouldn't have trouble falling asleep at night if he had a partner. He mostly blamed his job for that. His work had always been so demanding of his time.
"Use me…" a small, whispered voice called out beside him.
He jumped, releasing his cock. His eyes darted around the room, looking for the source of the voice. His gaze landed upon the ARI glasses sitting beside him on the nightstand. There was a soft glow emitting from inside the lenses.
The update was complete. That's a new feature, he noted—if it was the ARI calling out to him just now. He didn't think it could have been anything else.
Reaching out to grab them, his heart hammered in his chest. For some reason, he was nervous as hell.
He swallowed, clearing his throat. He put them on.
Looking through the lenses, his face instantly grew red hot. Laying at the foot of the bed was a gorgeous woman with long dark hair and porcelain skin. She had full, pouted lips and sultry blue eyes. All she had on was a silky black slip.
To his embarrassment, it was the exact same woman who he had imagined himself having sex with only moments ago.
No—there had to be some sort of mistake, he thought. This couldn't possibly be the new AI he received during the update, could it? He definitely hadn't programed her in—and even if the ARI was now intelligent enough to read his mind and do it for him, surely it couldn't have considered anything he had been thinking over the last few minutes to be work-related.
"Who are you?" he asked—he was just barely able to keep himself from stuttering. He wasn't even sure why he was asking. He was in such disbelief that any of this was happening, and the Tripto-high he was on right now made this all seem so surreal.
Slowly, she crawled across the bed toward him on all fours. Her slip rode up her back slightly, revealing her bare ass. Her icy blue eyes were locked on his.
"Yours," she said.
"Oh, fuck," he whispered under his breath. Blood started rushing to his cock again.
He froze, holding in his next breath. With every move she made towards him, he could see the mattress sinking beneath her—as if she were really there.
He never imagined that something like that would ever be possible with one of ARI's AIs. He wondered how much more they would be able to do.
She crawled on top him, gently wrapping a hand around his neck and giving him a deep, passionate kiss.
Everything was real. Her body on his legs, her skin on his neck, her lips against his. Her touch was so sweet and simple, but it was the greatest thing he had felt in a long time.
It was at that point, Norman decided that his job wasn't so bad.
Something about everything seemed to flip a switch inside him. Suddenly he didn't feel nervous anymore. He was crazed, even—hungry for more.
He grabbed a handful of hair at the base of her head, pulling her in closer and deepening their kiss. He snaked his tongue into her mouth, and to his delight she mimicked him.
He wrapped his other arm around her waist, pulling her flush against his chest. Her body was soft; warm.
He could've lost track of time. Kissing her like that felt like being in heaven for him. He had never allowed himself to be so sensual with a woman before. He had had sex with other women—sure, but he had always been so cautious, and he never really let go.
It was painfully obvious how fully erect he was. The only thing that separated their bodies was the thin hotel blanket between them—he was stabbing her in the leg through it. He pinned her down onto the bed, pushing aside the blanket and covering her body with his own.
His heart raced so fast. There were no barriers between them now; his hard cock rubbed against the soft skin of her inner thighs. She let out a soft, pleading moan against his lips.
There wasn't a lot to stop him from blowing his load right there. The only thing holding him back was his will to enjoy every moment with her. In his eyes, she was perfect in every way. The last thing he wanted was to end their encounter short, or find out this had all been some sort of hallucination.
He grabbed her all over—her breasts, her waist, her hips, her thighs. He wanted to feel every part of her body—and every part of her he touched only pleased him more.
"God I fucking want you," he growled into her ear.
She arched her back into the bed.
"Take me," she begged.
He couldn't help it. He bit the side of her neck, sucking hard at it.
She didn't seem to mind, though. She squirmed beneath him, gently moaning in pleasure.
He was automatically grinding his hips into her. Even if someone were to come into the room right now and hold a gun to his head, he didn't think he would have been able to stop.
At this point, the only thing his dick was connecting with was the outside of her vagina; but even that felt so good he was on the edge of exploding.
He serviced his cock to her warm, wet entrance—grazing the full length of her slit before entering in.
Nope—he definitely wasn't going to last long. Her pussy gripped his cock in a way like no one ever had. He didn't know how much of that was due to her AI technology, or because he had imagined her being such a good fuck.
He decided immediately that he wasn't going to hold back. He gripped her tight, fucking her hard and fast.
To his delight, she didn't object. She cried out in pleasure, throwing her head back in ecstasy and rhythmically grinding her hips into him. Every thrust into her threatened to drain the cum out of him. He wished he could stop himself from finishing too soon, but he knew he wouldn't be able to.
He roughly tangled his hands into her hair, grunting obscenities into her neck as he fucked her faster and faster. Pleasingly, she clawed her nails into his back.
To his surprise, she came first. The way her inner walls pulsated around him sent him into his own climax. It was the hardest he had ever came in his life.
His heart pounded in his ears. He tried to catch his breath, but it came out ragged and short.
Beads of sweat rolled down his body. Slowly, he pulled himself out of her and collapsed onto the mattress.
He rolled over and looked her in the eyes. God, she was beautiful. He hadn't noticed that she had actually been crying—and yet, she smiled at him.
With his thumbs, he dried the wet corners of her eyes. In that moment, she looked at him in a way that he couldn't quite describe. It made his heart skip a beat and he felt warm. In any case, she was much different than any other woman he had ever known.
As sexual as she had initially appeared to be, it was obvious that she was so much more than that—and maybe that's what Norman had wanted all along.
Suddenly he was afraid—afraid that this had all been a dream. Afraid that he would wake up, and he would be left alone again.
He reached out, tenderly cupping her face.
"Will I ever see you again?" he asked.
She smiled.
"Whenever you need me, I'll be here for you. But for now, you need to rest."
She leaned in toward him and gave him a gentle kiss.
"Goodnight, Norman."
Suddenly, the screen went dark, and he was left alone in the room.
He sat for a long moment in silence. He took off the glasses.
To his surprise, he didn't find a mound of spilled seed on the mattress below him. It must have had really gone into her, he realized. As intelligent as he was, he wouldn't have ever been able to figure that one out.
He'd need to name her, he thought. Get to know more about her. Sure she was an AI, but she was based off of a person, after all. In any case, the next time he'd see her, he'd be sober. He'd really make their time together count—in any way that she was willing to.
Tomorrow for sure, he thought. Hell, he could see again before work. For now, he realized that she was right. He was tired and needed to get some sleep. In the morning, he'd be focused again on solving the Origami Killer case. With any luck, he'd be able to save Shaun Mars before it was too late.