What Lies Behind: A New Adult Dark Science Fiction Romance by Travis Simmons

when they entered, and then took another puff of her cigarette. She hissed the smoke out and started rocking her leg that was draped over the other.
    “Another doctor’s visit?” Natalia asked.
    “You could say that,” Brandon said. “How was work?” He kicked off his shoes, but before he could cross the room to Natalia, she stood.
    “You might want to put your shoes back on, because you’re not staying,” she said to him, putting her cigarette out.
    “What?” he asked.
    “I’m trying to figure out what your obsession is with my machine lately,” Natalia said. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him unblinking.
    Cass closed the door. Her hand was shaking again. She didn’t have a good feeling about this at all. Suddenly she was very aware of the lavender dress she’d taken from Natalia’s closet that morning.
    “What are you talking about?” he asked, spreading his hands wide.
    “Why are you spending so much time with her?” Natalia asked. “Actually, I think I know. You need to leave.”
    “Um…”
    “No, there’s no arguing this,” Natalia said. She went to the door, ignoring Cass as she passed her. She jerked the front door open, and snapped her fingers, pointing outside and staring at Brandon as if he were an animal she was shooing away. “Leave please. We will address this later.”
    Brandon cast a glance at Cass. He wanted her to go with him, that much was obvious. She shook her head ever so slightly. If she went with Brandon, it would only make things worse on her.
    “I said leave, now !” Natalia picked up Brandon’s shoes and threw them out the door. She was reaching for his arm, but he jerked away and stomped out the door. He turned to say something, but Natalia slammed the door in his face and threw the bolt, locking Cass inside with her.
    Natalia stood facing the door for several moments, her back to Cass.
    “Did you think I didn’t notice that you were combing your hair in the morning?” Natalia asked. Her voice was low. “I didn’t give you permission to do that.” She turned to look at Cass. Her brown eyes took in the entire outfit the automaton was wearing. “So do you fancy yourself a pretty girl now?”
    “No,” Cass shook her head.
    “Are you sure? You seem to be going out of your way to doll yourself up.”
    Cass didn’t say anything. Her hand shook harder. She clasped it in a fist behind her back to stop the nervous tick.
    Natalia crossed over to Cass and ran her hand through her hair. “It’s so real feeling. One could almost imagine you weren’t a machine.” She spoke softly, staring into Cass’s face. “I know the difference. Do you know how?”
    “No,” Cass whispered.
    “It’s right there.” She jabbed a finger into Cass’s infrared eye.
    Cass stumbled as the world around her blurred and went fuzzy. Natalia balled her hand in Cass’s hair, not allowing the robot to fall.
    “Did that hurt? Machines don’t feel pain. Did that hurt?” Natalia said. Her voice was dangerously low.
    “No,” Cass whimpered, shaking her head. The room was coming into focus. “I’m a machine. Machines don’t feel pain.”
    “And they don’t almost strike nurses. And they don’t fall in love with humans because they can’t feel love and they aren’t human.”
    Cass steadied herself.
    “Did you think I wouldn’t know about the incident with the nurse?” Natalia asked. She was steering Cass across the living room by the hair of the head. “The doctor’s office called me when you left to tell me. I know that you should have been home much earlier that day, and that you didn’t need to rest when you got here. I didn’t want to believe it at first. I didn’t want to think that my boyfriend who I’ve given so much of my life to would be a fucking circuit breaker.”
    She yanked open the closet door and pushed Cass inside. Cass fell to her knees, her face inches from the stool where she powered down at night when Natalia was sleeping. There on