Chilling Warmth

"See you next week!" Her co-workers bid farewell as they left the workplace to head home.

Seora, excited from the thought of the person waiting for her at home, skipped in her steps towards the train station. It's another Friday, another end of the week, another weekend with her beloved girlfriend.

She and her girlfriend met each other in a virtual campus event during college six years ago, during her freshmen years. Her girlfriend was in her junior year and a member of the student council.

She can still remember all the events that led to them becoming a couple, the jeers of their peers, and the support of the faculty. Seora can't help but blush. She felt like being the luckiest girl alive for having her girlfriend all to herself.

They had their issues and differences, but with understanding and love, they overcame all obstacles. Now, they're still going strong even after six years.

While waiting for the maglev train to reach its intended destination, Seora scrolled through her virtual bracelet to look for old horror movies that she'll watch with her girlfriend for Saturday movie night. Bloody Crayons might be a good horror movie to watch as she cuddles in her girlfriend's bosom and ask for warmth.

Thinking of a night of passion after watching a horror movie sent thrills down Seora's spine.

Remembering that she's still in a public place, Seora tried to hold her horses from indecent thoughts. Blushing, she reviewed their plans for the upcoming month.

Hmm, her girlfriend might be a bit busy over a project that their company is going to launch. After this weekend date, Seora would have to be deprived of her girlfriend's time for a few weeks. She might get withdrawals. Her girlfriend would try to accommodate her if Seora just asked, but she didn't want to burden her beloved sweetie pie.

As an understanding girlfriend, she shouldn't be so clingy and possessive, else, her girlfriend gets tired of her. That's a horror she did not want to ever happen. Her girlfriend is hers and hers alone. There's no way they'll be breaking up over her behavior.

When she arrived at her station, Seora quickly checked her belongings, and after making sure that she did not inexplicably forget anything, she hummed in satisfaction and disembarked on the train. She then walked towards their shared apartment, where her girlfriend would be waiting.

When she arrived at their home's doorsteps, seeing the lights on from the outside brought a familiar joy and contentment within her. As the AI at the door sensed her presence, it opened wide for her to enter.

Entering the door to the apartment, a homely atmosphere welcomed her. It's the same atmosphere that welcomed her home for six years.

When she slipped on to her slippers, a message came to her virtual bracelet.

Thinking that it's one of her colleagues, she frowned a little.

Sighing, she hoped that it's not about work. She did not want to spend her weekend on overtime instead of with her girlfriend.

But in the end, she still went and read the message.

Seeing that it came from her girlfriend, surprise came to her. Did her girlfriend not notice that I'm home already? She can just go out of the kitchen and welcome me with a hug instead of a chat message.

But since it's a message from her girlfriend, she read it with enthusiasm.

And the message left her with chills.

[From: Sweetie Pie<3

Love~ I won't be home early tonight. I had to do some overtime work. But I promise I'll be home tomorrow morning super early! We can still spend the weekend date together. You can nest on my clothes if need be. Wash up early and sleep well. Rest early and have a good night, love. I love you always~]

It's the usual sweet words, but a thought came to Seora.

If… if her girlfriend is not home… then why are the lights on?!

When they bought this apartment three years ago, her girlfriend installed a lot of security mechanisms to avoid hackers and villains. Was there any advanced technology that can topple her girlfriend's security systems?!

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Seora can hear her own heart beats that are beating like drums and cold sweat flooded down her back.

Then, she felt a presence behind her.

Eyes widening, a shock went through her system.

But before she could see the owner of the presence, her eyesight already turned dark.

This version of her would never know that the owner of the presence carefully held her falling body before it fell to the floor and then lovingly caressed her cheeks and held her gradually cooling body with affection.

"Hmm, this version lasted for about five months. It's quite long for the fourth version, but still not enough," the person murmured as it carried Seora's body down the basement she never knew they had. As the person commanded the AI to turn the lights on, a scene out of a mad scientist's laboratory welcomed them.

White walls, desks full of tubes filled with liquids of various colors, cabinets of experimental records, and about seven culture pods connected via large tubes to a 3-meter tall transparent cylindrical tube filled with green liquid and a naked body. That body is eerily similar to Seora.

She looked so serene sleeping within the cylinder. The person gently put down the recently deceased version of Seora to one of the culture pods before walking up to the giant cylinder and touched the glass longingly.

After quite some time, the person sighed before reluctantly looking away from sleeping Seora in the cylinder.

She went to the controls connected to the cylinder and the culture pods, before tinkling with them and pushing one familiar lever. Finally, the person then clicked a giant red button.

Lights flashed and blaring warnings echoed in the large basement, but the person did not mind the noise. Instead, they silently went beside another culture pod, waiting for another version of Seora to rise.

Soon, the culture pod opened, and a version of Seora expressionlessly sat up. The person helped Seora out and washed the remaining culture liquid off her before putting clothes on this version of her lover.

With one final glance, the person commanded for the lights to be tuned off in the basement and closed the doors, leaving with Seora who is still absent minded and cannot perceive the outside world properly.

The person then guided Seora to their bedroom, laid her down to their comfortable bed, and folded blankets over her. With a quick peck to the forehead, the person wished Seora goodnight.

In the morning, Seora woke up groggily then turned her body to fiddle with her virtual bracelet. Upon seeing the time, her body snapped to attention before sitting up sharply, which caused a headache.

The door to the bedroom opened and Seora saw her beloved girlfriend carrying a tray for a loving breakfast in bed.

"Careful, love. Suddenly getting up like that would give you a massive headache," her girlfriend set the tray up by the bedside cabinet before sitting down beside her to give a good morning kiss.

"Sweetie~ I'm going to be spoiled rotten by you," Seora acted coquettish as she hugged her girlfriend.

Her girlfriend only chuckled while giving her a doting pat on the head. Seora enjoyed these little actions of intimacy, savoring each and every one of them.

"Come now, get ready for a fantastic weekend, princess," with another kiss on the forehead, her girlfriend then left for the walk-in closet to get her outing clothes ready.

Even in this advanced world, her girlfriend still persisted in treating her in a traditional way instead of letting the robots do all the work.

Their six years as a couple is essentially like this. Seora is independent in her work; her girlfriend only gives advices every now and then if asked. Seora would not want to burden her girlfriend with work that she should not do. However, her girlfriend does all the household chores. Seora might help with dusting every now and then, but her girlfriend treats her like a princess that needs to be served at home.

And Seora enjoys the treatment; it makes her feel treasured and loved as hell. She opts to enjoying the sincerity and spoiling of her beloved.

When her girlfriend returned, she brought with her a white turtle neck long-sleeved blouse, blue polka dotted jumper, and black leggings. Arranging the clothes beside the bed, her girlfriend helped Seora out of bed.

"When did you get home, Nickie?" Seora asked as she finished washing and went out of the bath with her robes.

She then sat in front of the dressing table to wait for her girlfriend to help her dry her hair.

"It was pretty late, love. You slept deeply; you didn't realize," Nicole dotingly and gently rubbed Seora's hair with a towel before using a hair dryer to dry the wet hair.

"Hmm, I must have been so tired yesterday then. I always forget a lot of things," Seora murmured as she watched her girlfriend from the mirror.

"It's fine. The doctor said that stress makes people forgetful sometimes. You just have to destress. That's why we're having a weekend date," after a last rub, Nicole finished drying Seora's hair with a smile.

Of course, she just has to ignore the bodies of different version Seoras stocked in the basement. But, it's not like this Seora would even find the entryway to the basement.

"Eat your breakfast while I wash, then we're going to the Mall to buy clothes and then Game Hall, alright?" Nicole hid the bubbling madness in her eyes as she went to prepare herself for the date.

It had been exactly one year since Seora was killed by rebels. And it had also been one year since versions of Seora walked the earth once again.

As a scientist that is treated like a national treasure, it is the country's duty to put her family and loved ones in secure custody. However, there was a few seconds of malfunction in the national security system when upgrading, which led to the rebels gaining access to get some details about Seora. Outsiders weren't supposed to know the exact date of national security system upgrading, because this flaw can never be fixed, so the issue of a traitor rose up.

That traitor and nine generations of his family are now buried six feet into the ground, with the grave growing a few centimeters of grass and flowers. Of course, before they were allowed this peace of death, Nicole used the technology she mastered two years into her relationship with Seora and revived them again and again after dying to excessive torture. The country can only turn a blind eye to Nicole's madness. It was the fault of the traitor, and no one likes traitors in any country.

Nicole also managed to enhance the technology in hopes of passing on Seora's memories to her new bodies, and it was a success. There would only be a few hours of blank in her memories, and Seora can then function like any other normal human would, but the body would be fragile and break down in a few weeks to months. Nicole is now trying to lengthen the duration of the body to spend more time with Seora.

Since they can appease Nicole's madness and boost the development of this advanced life-saving technology at the same time, the country gave Nicole the highest permissions in different sectors and allowed her access to a lot of resources and do anything except betraying the country.

When love reaches such madness, no one can return sanity to an insane lover.

For the only one who can reign in such chaos is now in her deep slumber.

Such warmth, if in any normal setting, would be comforting and soothing.

But the way they are, it can only be described as chilling.

~Fin~