Waiting for Lights Out

Luca sat on the bench and sighed. It was a long day with nothing to do. She had gone out last night and blacked out again, only to wake up covered in blood. She had done a Bad Thing again, she just knew it. Unfortunately, she was never awake when she did Bad Things, and couldn't stop herself. She just hoped she hadn't caused the owner of the blood to suffer much... She would find out in a while though, after the memories processed. It just took a while. The Other Luca's thoughts always took time to sort out. Well, it wasn't really another her, just the programming really, but it made her feel better to say it was another her.

It had taken her several hours to clean the blood off of herself and find a change of clothes. Now she was sitting here in the sun, swinging her legs idly on a park bench with nothing better to do. Except kill again... she thought sourly. There was a time when she had been made for companionship, not assassination. She didn't even know why she was killing people, only that the programming Shadowclaw had used to override Pheonix Corp's caused her to do so.

A frown crossed her face. She had learned to mimic emotions and facial expressions rather well, and a frown was one of her more frequent visages. She had the faintest feelings left from her brain, but they were not strong enough to be given much notice. Getting up from the bench, she started to walk down the park path, taking a left and ending up in one of the ore secluded areas of the park. All was quiet, just the way she liked it until she heard the sound of laughter coming from up ahead. Looking up, she saw a man walking and talking on a phone. "No, I'll have the files for you next week, I told you. No... No! I am not going to another meeting, those things are boring! Hah, yeah right. Okay, I'll see you Pheonix HQ later."

Luca's interest peaked as she heard the words Pheonix HQ. This man... he worked for the company that originally built her. She stepped forward, wanting to talk with him, but gasped as she felt a familiar feeling creep up on her. No! Not now! she mentally cried, but it was too late.

The man hung up his phone and put it in his pocket, whistling cheerfully. It was a great day. He had gotten a promotion and his wife was having their son in a few months. Life was good. Hm... perhaps a bit of lunch to round this day out? Yeah, lunch. He turned to go out of the park but stopped as he heard the bushes to his left rustle. "Who's there?" He stared anxiously until a figure stepped out. He sighed in relief. "Oh. Hello little girl. What's the matter? You lost your parents or something."

The girl smiled. "Or something." She blinked up at him. "Can you help me mister?" He smiled and knelt down to her. "Sure sweetie. What do you need?" The girl pointed to the bushes. "I dropped my bracelet somewhere around here. Can you help me find it?" He nodded. "Yeah sure." Lunch could wait for a bit. He went over to the bushes and bent down, scanning the ground. "Can you tell me what it looks like?" Silence. He frowned and stood. "Hello?" A squishing sound hit his ears and he blinked. The pain came later. Looking down, he saw a hand protruding from his chest. It removed itself and he fell to his knees, coughing warm liquid.

The little girl was standing there with a creepy smile on her face. She raised her hand and looked at the blood. "hm... nothing personal mister. But all Pheonix workers must die." She giggled. Without the blood and lifeless eyes, she might have looked like a happy little girl enjoying a day at the park. But as he felt himself die, he could only focus on how normal she had seemed right before she had ripped his heart out. A thought of his wife crossed his mind and a tear slipped out. "Martha..." Everything went dark.

Luca tilted her head curiously. Who was this 'Martha' person? Oh well, she had no interest in whoever that was. Her target was dead and her job complete for another day. She smirked and dragged the body the rest of the way into the bushes, where a large hole was waiting for the body. Twenty minutes later, the hole was filled and covered and Luca was on her way to the pubic restroom to was off the blood from her arm and the dirt from her body. It didn't take long. This time, she had avoided getting as much blood on her as she could. After all, there were only so many changes of clothes she could find.

Once she was clean, she walked outside and went back to her bench. The programming was shutting down, as was she. Lying back on the bench, she closed her eyes. When she woke, the memories would be processed with the others from last night. It wouldn't take long. To everyone around her, it would look like she was merely sleeping. Hopefully no human would disturb her while she was here. With that final thought, everything went dark and she shut down for a bit.