Chapter 18 - Snooping around

Slowly, I pushed the double door open. A large walk-in closet waited on the other side. Most of it was empty. Only two closets were occupied by what seemed like V's usual shirts and pants, all in nearly identical shades of grey and white.

I couldn't help but let my hands trail along the fabric of his shirt. My eyes scanned the wardrobe, but nothing was interesting here.

Another door stood on the left, and I pushed it open, expecting to find his bedroom.

Instead, it opened on a spacious office with a massive desk in the middle. It was made of dark wood, with a comfy brown leather chair behind it. The opposite wall was filled with more books than I had ever seen at the clinic's Information Center.

The desk was buried under dozens of papers and notebooks. In the middle of it sat a large tablet, a similar kind to the ones we used at the clinic to fill out questionnaires. Next to it was a weird keyboard, one that looked very old.

I picked a notebook and flipped through the pages. It was filled with handwritten notes. I couldn't understand most of it, first because of V's chaotic handwriting, and then because it seemed to be a lot of technical words I didn't understand.

Some capitalized words stood out more than others.

OXTR.

FTO variants.

Was V truly a doctor? Styla had called him this way, Doctor V.

I checked the drawers. The right side had a fingerprint lock, and I didn't even bother trying to open it. The left side opened on a velvet-lined drawer where dozens of beautiful pens rested in individual slots. I picked one up, surprised by its heavy weight, and admired the intricate golden engravings on its surface. I carefully placed it back, aware that this was probably something precious and expensive I shouldn't be handling.

I flipped through another notebook and found sketches.

2128, I read the date above the detailed drawing of a brain. CT, 7 years old.

Some unreadable annotations pointed at areas on the brain that had been darkened with a pencil.

I turned to look at the books behind me. Some were medical books while others were fiction.

But they all looked so old.

Frankenstein, I read on the spine of a book so ancient it showed the stitching around the pages. Another read, The Case Against Perfection: Ethics in the Age of Genetic Engineering. I didn't understand most of the words on them.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Selfish Gene

The Psychology and Biology of Strong Relationships

I held another old book in my hands.

Never Let Me Go

My fingers traced the ancient lining of the cover. I remembered that book. I had seen it before.

A teenager at one of my last clinics had been hiding a copy inside her mattress. Everyone knew we weren't allowed to bring anything out of the Information Center, let alone into the dormitories. Still, firing her for it felt excessive.

We all assumed she'd be transferred to another clinic. But there was a rumor that she'd been sent to one of the Union Belt's factories. I never saw her again. Not at that clinic. Not at any of the others I worked in.

Also, I always wondered where she had found that book in the first place. I knew it had not been at the Information Center. I would have read it otherwise.

My eyes darted to the other side of the room when I heard a noise coming from it.

It was Polybot, the cute cleaning robot.

It had taken advantage of the door I had left open to enter and started buzzing around the wardrobe, looking for any speck of dust. I put the book back in place and rushed to catch it between my hands.

I turned it around, in the direction of the hallway. It resisted against my hand, as if disappointed to be kept away from a new room to clean.

"It's OK. Not now. Ssssh," I pushed it away with a light tap on the head.

When I got back up, something caught my attention behind the door.

There was a blackboard hanging on the wall behind it, with white writing on it. I moved the door to reveal the whole thing.

The board was divided into two parts, with a white line in the middle. At the top of the left side, a name was written in capitalized letters.

VINCENT.

Below, a few more annotations have been added.

Standard Oxytocin receptor gene expression.Normal empathy and attachment markers.

On the right side of the board, there was no name but similar notes written in the column.

Genetic anomaly discovered in OXTRAbsence of FTO variantsLack of BNDF

Vincent was probably a patient.

If V was a doctor, what kind of doctor?

I took a step back, my mind even more confused. I had no idea what I'd expected to find by snooping around in his personal space. I wanted a reason for him to let me stay, some justification for my presence here... Instead, all I had done was give him another reason to send me away! I had disobeyed the very first instructions he had given me.

Before leaving, I took one last look around to make sure everything was just as I had found it.

That was when I noticed something I hadn't paid attention to before.

The window here was the same as the one in my room, facing that wall of greenery outside. Except, below the window was a built-in bench, like the ones in the living room.

And this one was being used as a bed.

A small pillow, a wrinkled sheet, and a thin blanket were gathered loosely on one side.

Did he...?

I felt even more confused now. I scanned the room, trying to understand what I was seeing.

Was V sleeping here?

My fingers brushed the rough fabric of the blanket.

Of course he was.

While I had spent the past week sleeping in that enormous bed, enjoying the comfort of having my own bedroom... The owner had been here, sleeping on that narrow bench!

There was only one bedroom. One bed.

And he had given it to me.

The irritation I brought into the room slipped away, replaced by something far heavier.

I covered my mouth with my hand, too stunned to take my eyes away from what I had discovered.

No wonder he wanted me out!

🌱

This day felt like the longest one.

Every sound made my skin crawl. I was expecting the Love Machina Inc. staff to kick my door, push me back into the pod, and ship me back to the Union Belt any moment now.

My mission will be canceled, my debt will remain the same, and I'll return to the clinic.

Except, I'll have all the memories from this wonderful world.

How was I supposed to return to my routine life when I knew everything waiting for me here?

Tomorrow was supposed to be my first Machine Learning meeting, with all the other Love Machinas, real and fake ones, from the same district. They had sent us a message with the time and place, and I had been looking forward to exploring the City again.

Why did it have to happen so soon? Couldn't I get just one more day of this life?

Do you have plans for tomorrow? Chandra texted him again that afternoon.

I couldn't care less anymore about solving the mystery of who she was or what their relationship was.

In the evening, I chose my last meal. I had breakfast for dinner, wanting to cry over the tiny pieces of delicious mango bursting in my mouth.

V had not come back from work yet.

I went to bed, wondering if I would see another morning here. Now that the end was near, I almost wanted it to be over soon. Rip the bandage off as soon as possible, the same way they would do at the clinic. There was no need to drag it off. I didn't want to see more of this world, more things I will miss when I'm gone.

I jolted beneath the covers when I heard the front door unlock. I remained in my room, afraid that this would be the moment he came to deliver the bad news.

I just wished for one more night. One more morning waking up to the beautiful greenery outside before going back to the grey dirt.

When the sun would come out again, I would accept my fate and step back into the pod.

I heard his steps go up the stairs and stop in the hallway.

I held my breath, my heart seeming to stop in my chest too.

But the owner never came to knock on my door. I heard him take a shower, then retreat straight to his room.

As the house fell quiet again, my thoughts started to race. Why wait until morning if he had already made up his mind?

I pictured him lying on that small bench by the window, cramped and uncomfortable, while I sprawled diagonally across this bed without a care.

This man was impossible to understand.

I reached for the tablet on my nightstand, expecting my access to be revoked. Maybe the safe would be locked, or the home systems disabled.

But everything was still there.

Nothing had changed.

And somehow, that indecision felt even worse.

If I had any use for you... His words echoed in my mind.

A small icon I had never seen before got pushed to the front on the tablet's home screen.

I suppose I would let you know...

I clicked on it and my eyes widened. That was it!

As it stands, I don't.

But I was about to give him a reason.

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🗓️ Next chapters: this Thursday, July 24th 🗓️

(I'll be posting two chapters or more with each update, hoping to take you on that new ride as fast as possible 🥰)

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