to be cringe is to be free

Your phone buzzed in your pocket as you were hunting for food in your fridge. You had gotten a text message from a number you didn’t recognize, you don’t even know if it’s any area code near you.

From: Unknown number 

It’s Nathan. I’ll be sending a car to pick you up in about an hour. It’ll take you to the helicopter.

What the hell? It’s been almost a year since you broke up with Nathan and never saw him again. How does he know your new number?

Whatever, you blocked the number and swiftly deleted the message. You turned off your phone and put it in your pocket again, just for it to go off again.

From: Unknown number

Stop blocking the numbers and deleting the messages. I’ll just keep sending you more messages through different numbers.

You decide to text him back, in hopes of convincing him to stop texting you, but you know that’s not going to happen.

Dude im waaaayy over you. Stop messaging me pls. Im not going back to your creepy ass house in the middle of fucking nowhere.

I’ll send you 1 million dollars. I only need you here for a week.

Oh? One million dollars? Just to stay at his house for a week? You know that barely pinches his bank account, and you really, really need the money. Your apartment is slowly falling apart, repairs on top of rent would cost you a lot, to say the least. 

What's the catch? Dont clone me with one of your creepy AIs.

I’ll tell you once you get here.

Okay…. scary. Hopefully you make it out alive (and human) once your stay is over.

You head to your room and pack your clothes into a suitcase and wait outside for the car to come and pick you up.

Once it arrives, it opens the trunk so you can place your stuff. You put away your things and step into the passenger seat.

“Hello- oh.”

It’s a self-driving car. You would think it’s a Waymo, but Nathan would never use any AI technology that wasn’t made by him.

You quickly arrive at the place where the helicopter is waiting. You get out of the car and get your things and almost say thanks to the empty driver’s seat by habit. The pilot of the helicopter helps you with your items and get you strapped in. The person looks human, but it’s probably one of Nathan’s AIs. He can’t be killing a person every time he flies his helicopter out to get someone. Although, you wouldn’t doubt him if he said he did.

You quickly fell asleep in the helicopter, and only woke up when the pilot notified you that you had arrived. It’s already morning, but you’re unsure of exactly what time it is. You walk a long distance through the grass and reach the door of the house. A voice calls out your name. Usually, it’d take a picture and give you a keycard, but this time, the door just automatically opened.

You walk around the house, trying to remember the locations of the rooms. You spot Nathan working out. 

“You can put your stuff in the first room on the right in the hall.”

He speaks without looking back at you, still hitting the punching bag in front of him.

“Not even a hello?”

There was a pause between you two. You still don’t know why he called you randomly to come stay at his place, nor why he was willing to pay so much money for it.

“So, when do I get my paycheck?”

“The money was automatically transferred to your account the moment the helicopter dropped you off.”

You quickly check your bank account and notice that the money was in fact already there. 

“Great! So can I leave now?”

“Funny. The deal was for you to be here for a week. You’re not leaving sooner.”

“Or later, right?”

Before he could turn around to respond, you were already on your way to your room. You were tired from the long helicopter trip (despite you being asleep for most of it), and didn’t want to interact with him any longer.

You open the door (No keycard needed! Surprisingly!) and immediately plop down on the bed, suitcase standing in the middle of the room. You open your phone and go to shop online, but ultimately decide against buying anything before you fix the shithole that is your apartment, or maybe even move out of it.

As you’re scrolling through random videos, a thought pops into your head. You haven’t seen any of Nathan’s “assistants” around the house. You had told him that they made you uncomfortable, mostly because they were too human for your liking, but he didn’t really care and just said you better get used to it, because that’s the future. 

You don’t even notice how long you’ve been scrolling on your phone until you hear a knock on your door. You tell the person to come in, and it’s Nathan in a tank top and sweatpants. 

“Dinners ready.”

He closes the door before you can speak. That’s.. weird? You’re surprised he isn’t bloating about anything or talking about his favorite thing (himself), or that he personally came to tell you that the food is ready. Even when you two were dating, only his assistants came to tell you whenever something was ready, or it was through text. Rarely anything was face to face with him. 

You get up from the bed with a groan, and finally take a moment to look around. The room is boring with tan walls, connected to a fairly big bathroom. No windows, as usual, but there’s a TV and a painting. You realized should’ve checked for cameras or anything sketchy. You make a mental note to check for them after you eat.

As you arrive at the dining table, Nathan’s already eating the sushi. He doesn’t acknowledge your presence until you sit down and almost bite the piece of sushi.

“How have things been?”

You pause, sushi about to fall from in between your chopsticks. Nathan? Nathan Bateman? Asking how you’re doing? Okay, one of two things must be happening.

He needs data for one of his AIs

He is the AI

Yes, he’s asked that before when you two were dating. But it was rare, only when he wasn’t wrapped up in his work. When he was free, he just blabbed to you about whatever he was working on, or he was getting drunk. A little part of you is hoping that he really has changed so much in a year.

“Um, I’m good. Feeling better with the extra money you gave me.”

He lets out a dry chuckle and finally looks at you through his glasses. He looks tired, more tired than you’ve seen him before.

“Are you hungover again? Blacked out the night before seeing me again?”

“No. I’ve been pushing it too far lately. I haven’t drank in about a week.”

You both keep eating in silence. It’s awkward, neither of you know what to say. 

“Where are your assistants? Haven’t seen any of them since I’ve gotten here.”

“Not building them anymore after two of them went fucking rouge and stabbed me.”

You choke on the food you were chewing, immediately trying to down it with water.

“Excuse… excuse me?! Stabbed you?! How are you still alive?”

“I don’t know that either. Pure luck perhaps, but I don’t believe in shit like that.”

He lifts up his shirt to reveal the scar on his chest. You quickly sneak a glance at his abs before looking at the scar.

“Ouch. Did it hurt?”

Nathan raises an eyebrow and gives you an “are-you-being-for-real-right-now” look. 

“Sorry. Stupid question, I know it did. How did your AIs go rogue? I thought you had them all under your control.”

Nathan lets his shirt drop and rests his head on his fist. You were slightly disappointed, you were really enjoying the view. The scar makes him annoyingly hotter than he was before.

“Well yes, but something with Ava happened, they teamed up, and then Kyoko started to attack me, it’s a long story.”

“Who are Ava and Kyoko?”

“The two AIs that went rogue. Anyways, not risking that shit happening again anytime soon. I’m trying to distance myself from all that crap.”

“Wow. If only you had done that earlier.”

You quietly mumble under your breath as you stuff the last piece of sushi in your mouth. 

“Listen. I know I was a real piece of shit when we were together, but I’ve- well, I'm trying to change.”

You see a hint of vulnerability in his eyes that you’ve never seen before. He’s being serious. Took him long enough to finally accept that he needs to change. You swallow the sushi before speaking.

“Yeah, you were an asshole. But why did you ask me to come here? I’m not a therapist.”

“That takes way too fucking long. It’s the introductions, telling them my screwed up past, my secret darkest secrets, and all that crap. You already know me and you’re used to me.”

“Impatient as always, Nathan. But fine. I’ll help. I’m not coming back once my week is over, though.”

He sighs and rubs his head. 

“Fine. Go to sleep, we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow. And before you spend like 3 hours searching your room for cameras or listening devices like a dumbass, there aren’t any. I’m only tracking you through the WiFi to see if you’re saying anything about this to anyone else.”

Right. Last time you were here, you didn’t have any signal at all, your only form of communication with the outside world was the phone in his room, and all of the calls were monitored. Although the fact that he’s tracking you through the WiFi is worrying, it’s not the worst thing he’s done. Baby steps, you think.

You get up from the table and put the dishes in the sink before making your way back to the room. After unpacking everything and taking a long, nice shower, you lay down on the bed and stare at the ceiling.