She smiles awkwardly, in the way you would if you were trying to be sarcastic. But unfortunately, she doesn’t have the comprehension to understand that level of interaction.

“I am only here to please,” she says.

He laughs nervously as he pushes himself further into the couch away from her. “I-I-I-I think the please can be dialled down a bit Veronica,” he stammers.

She grabs his leg tightly and pulls him back towards her. “I am unfamiliar with what you mean by dialled down, can you please update my information cells with this knowledge?”

“I-I-I-It,” he licks his dry lips desperately in the hope of saturating them with some form of liquid, only to find his tongue drier than his lips. He searches in a panic for his drink that was only seconds ago within his reach, but now seems like a mile away.

She quickly spins around and grabs the glass and thrusts it into his face, shattering it into the side of his cheek. The water washes over him, while the glass slices through his flesh, and he screams out in pain.

“I am so sorry,” she says as she sits up and backs away, staring at the mess that sits before her. She tilts her head, as she studies his motionless form, while his dead eyes stare towards her and beyond. She turns to Damien and gives him a blank look of surprise. “I did not mean for that to take place,” she says.

He smiles softly, “Of course you did not my dear. You are still so unfamiliar with the strength you have at your disposal, you are unaware when too much, is too much. We’ll have to spend more time on that at a later date. But right now we have to get you into something more you, and not this thing they all seem to want you to be,” he says as he stands up from his seat and holds out a hand towards her. She gently places her hand in his, and he smiles. “Good girl, you’re learning.” He says as he leads her towards a room full of a hundred or more seemingly sleeping people of various races, sexes and sizes. Slowly they make their way through the room until they come to an empty bed, and she gently sits upon it.

“I am sorry father, I will do better next time, I promise.” She says, her voice void of emotion.

He gently cups her face and wipes a droplet of blood from her cheek.

“I know,” he says as he steps away from her. “Samantha, initiate host dump Veronica,” he says loudly.

Veronica’s eyes glow bright blue, and she stares forward as a mechanical arm feeds down from the roof. “INITIATING HOST DUMP.” A computerised voice echoes throughout the room. Seconds later Veronica’s head splits open to reveal a robotic skull beneath the skin. The mechanical arm reaches down and attaches itself to the skull and pulls it free. Veronica’s head closes once more and she falls to the bed, as if sleeping.

Damien smiles softly at the robotic skull, as he reaches out and gently strokes the side of it. “There you are, my love,” He says proudly.

***

Follow the below link to purchase 2020 Book Three to read all 20 five minute short stories.

Before you lies a piece of a puzzle far grander than you could ever know or imagine. For scrawled in blood upon the pages hidden within the above tome is stories twisted twenty in all, soaked in the embers of my insanity. Five minutes to glimpse inside the eyes of someone new, five minutes to answer, five minutes to sin, five minutes to do almost anything. A god, a demon, a harlot, a whore. A fascist, a killer, a sinner, a door. Death and division, humanity askew. A belfry of bats, a sea of black cats, so many moments out there to see, so many things you could see with me. So take a seat beside me and call it voodoo, because now you ride with me too…

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