All Isn't As It Seems

Walking into the hospital's in-patient ward to meet with my dying ill mother, I walked up to the front desk, with a porcelain-looking woman, with perfectly cut hair, each curl curled to perfection. Not a hair out of place. Her outfit was prim and well-kept. It suctioned to her almost like a body suit or spray-on latex.

I couldn’t quite believe what I was looking at. She almost looked so real. A shiver ran down my spine at the thought of a carbon copy of a real human being standing before him. Most hospitals now had AI at their front desks to help alleviate the stress of layoffs that happened over the past few years due to the pandemic, and it was also much safer for the individuals working the desk as they were unlikely to get sick if they were AI.

‘Greetings, how may I be of your assistance?’ it asked in a flat, monotone voice.

Just as robotic as anything else, there are no surprises there.

I hated all this new-fangled technology, the world was so much simpler during the time with just television, or just cellphones, but AI? Hasn’t anyone seen those artificial intelligence movies with the robots that turn on you as they gain a larger sense of intelligence? Like that one with Will Smith in it. What was it, iRobot or something like that?

I was never much for the sci-fi world. I was always more into fantasy myself. Sci-fi just got too complicated and had too many gadgets and had to have explanations behind why they happen and they usually sound so convoluted I get lost in the details. Whereas in fantasy, anything can happen for literally no reason and it's just accepted because it's magic and magic is well, magical.

I was just waiting for this thing in front of me to turn on me and attack me.

But the next thing I heard was not what I would’ve expected from an AI.

‘Hey, you. Yeah, I’m talking to you, you got to help me out of here.’ The mouth on the animatronic did not move.

At first, I almost didn't believe it was the animatronic. I looked around curiously to see if anyone else was trying to get my attention, but there again, I heard that soft, female voice.

‘Please, I beg of you.’ The animatronic continued to smile at me with its menacing ventriloquistic ear-to-ear grin. 

I crept closer to the animatronic's mouth and put my ear close up to its mouth.

‘Help me…’ 

It came out as a low whisper, and when I looked into the eyes of the animatronic, they looked back at me with genuine fear and panic.

From behind me, I heard the quiet shuffle of feet, getting closer and closer. Whipping around, everyone in the room stood up and started to make their way towards the front desk. Or rather, towards me.

'Join us, join us,' they chanted softly with their unmoving mouths. 'Join us, join us.' The girl at the desk behind me grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head down to the desktop, banging the back of my head in the process.

'Let go of me, bitch!' I yelled as the people got closer and closer.

I tried to fight back, but to no avail, there were too many of them.

One of them had something in their hand, while another pried my mouth open. I gagged on the object as they forced me to swallow it.

Immediately I felt violated and beyond disgusted, and now I was starting to feel strange. Slowly, my body began going limp, I slid down to the floor, and the people let go of me and just stood around me, watching. Waiting, for what was to come next.

'What did you do to me?' I demanded. 'What did you fucking do to me!?'

But nothing came out of my mouth. I didn't feel my vocal cords vibrate, or my mouth move, but I definitely heard my voice, clear as day.

My body then began moving on its own.

'Hey, where're you going, feet? What're you doing?'

Again, nothing came out. My legs began moving towards the group of people, my mother among them and they patted me on the back as we walked out the entrance of the hospital and down into the empty street.

The street didn't stay empty for much longer. All of a sudden a whole slew of people came out of every building along the avenue and walked out into the middle of the street.

More and more, all like a hive mind, we walked together and congregated near Centertown, which was a long walk, and yet, I didn't feel anything. In the center of the villa, everyone who had gathered looked up at the sky and opened their mouths.

A loud high-pitched screech emanated from them, myself included. It was the most gut-wrenching sound I'd ever heard.

It was a cross between a wounded animal, air raid sirens, and a whistle. From our mouths came a pale blue light that shone upwards in multiple beams, eventually merging into one and meeting up in the clouds.

No clue as to what the light was for or who it was calling, all I could do was stand there and watch as it all happened behind a glossy lens that were no longer my eyes, as I was no longer in control of my own actions. It felt disorienting and dissociative, feeling this almost surreal out-of-body experience while being in body. Like someone stuck their hand inside you and was controlling you like a puppet or marionette. It felt detaching, isolating. Though there were people crowding the streets around me I felt everything but safe and surrounded, I felt alone and abandoned. Especially with my ill mother finally on her feet after months of not being able to walk. It hurt me to see her being possessed by the same thing that controlled me.

The sound went on for what felt like hours, the ringing and screeching, grating on my ears, and after it was done, my ears were ringing even worse than the sound was.

My vision started to go black and I felt my legs going limp again as the ground reached up to meet me once more and I blacked out.