The Girl & the Machine Read online

  Franklin pulled his t-shirt off and dropped it at Heather’s feet.

  “Okay, so this part may actually hurt just a little,” Heather said, holding the needle. “You should maybe shut your eyes.”

  “Where are you putting that thing?” Franklin said, staring at the long, gleaming shaft of metal.

  “Just trust me. It won’t hurt that much. And you’re going to thank me after.”

  Something about those words…those words sounded familiar.

  But he did it. He shut his eyes and turned away. In a moment, a hard, cold feeling rushed into his body, and he cried out in pain.

  “Holy shit,” he screamed. “What was that?” He looked down at the trickle of blood sliding down his chest, at the tubing connected directly to his heart. “Ohmygod, did you stick that thing in my heart? Holy shit, holy shit!”

  “Calm down,” Heather said, pressing her hands into his bare chest. “Calm down. It’s not that big of a deal.”

  “There is a needle in my heart!”

  “You’re fine,” Heather said.

  “You said this was going to be simple!”

  She shrugged. “I lied.”

  A thin line of red pulsed out of one end of the tube—his blood. Franklin shivered. Another line of something almost silvery with shimmering blue specks was pumping in through the tube, filling his heart with cold.

  “What are you doing to me?” His hands went instinctively to the tube.

  Heather glanced at him. “Pull that out, and you may go into cardiac arrest,” she said. When he didn’t move his hands, she added, “You could die.”

  “You said this was simple; that it wouldn’t hurt!”

  The look on her face dismissed his words completely. “You told me that once as well.” Franklin stared at her, unable to understand her words. “So, anyway,” Heather continued in her cool, scientific voice, “your blood is currently being scanned and the machine is fueling up.”

  “Thank goodness; then I can get out of here, right?”

  Heather smiled. “This liquid, here”—she tapped the other tube, the silvery-and-blue one—“is pumping cryostasis liquid into you.”

  “Cryo-what?"

  “Cryostasis liquid. It will actually slow down time for you. You won’t need to eat or sleep or use the bathroom. Once I shut this door, you’ll be living in your own personal loop of time, basically. Five years will feel like five seconds.”

  “What?” Franklin asked, but the word came out slow.

  Whhuuuuuuuuuuut?

  Heather nodded to herself and checked something on a chart by the door. “It’s starting to hit your system, good. Before I close the door—before I complete the process—I want you to know that I couldn’t have done any of this without you.”

  Franklin stared at her.

  “‘Just trust me. It won’t hurt that much. And you’re going to thank me after.’” She said the words in a cruel, mocking tone. “I will never forget when you said those words to me. You said them over me, while you were over my body, while your voice overrode my own. You didn’t even recognize me today, you asshole. And today, you bragged about what you did to me? That raping me made you the man you are?” She glared at him, derisiveness seeping from her body. “I was just learning how to be normal, and you yanked that away, just like you yanked my clothes off me.”

  Horror filled Franklin’s chest, a hot sort of feeling drowned quickly out by the cold pumping through his body.

  “You had no idea who I was. You had no idea what I was capable of. It didn’t take me that long to track you down. I didn’t want to believe that you had this impossible ability, but I watched you. You never noticed me. You never notice anyone but yourself. I watched what you did, and I realized how you could get away with it all.”

  Heather put her hands on the door to the little metal coffin. Franklin struggled to move, to stop her from closing him in, but he couldn’t. She moved so fast, and his body was so, so slow.

  Before she closed the door, she paused, turning to face him. “At least I’ve found a way to make your power useful.” She snorted. “You thought you were some hero in the future, didn’t you? You really bought that I met future-you at that party. Nope. Just past-you. Just-asshole you. That’s who I met. There is no future-you. This is your future. All you are now is a battery. A battery to fuel my machine, to let me travel wherever I want, in the past, in the future—anywhere. And I’m not going to be like you. I’m going to be the hero you never could be.”

  She slammed the door shut. The hydraulics hissed, and a wisp of smoke or steam or something clouded the glass faceplate. When it cleared, Heather’s face filled Franklin’s vision.

  “You took a lot away from me that night,” she said, loudly enough for him to hear her through the glass. “But all I’m going to take from you now is your time.”

  She flicked a switch, and a metal screen slid down over the faceplate.

  Franklin was trapped in the darkness with nothing but time.

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  I hope you enjoyed this short story!

  “The Girl & the Machine” is a part of a larger collection of science fiction short stories. You can find it and five other short stories and novellas in The Future Collection. Also included are sample chapters of my latest book, The Body Electric, and notes about the inspiration and development of each story.

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  About the Author

  Beth Revis is the New York Times bestselling author of the Across the Universe trilogy, as well as the companion novel, The Body Electric. Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies and magazines. She currently lives in rural North Carolina with her husband and dogs.

  For more information

  @bethrevis

  authorbethrevis

  www.bethrevis.com

  Also by Beth Revis

  Novels

  Across the Universe

  A Million Suns

  Shades of Earth

  The Body Electric

  Short Story Collections

  The Future Collection