The silence settled into Chloe’s house the moment the front door was shut. Her mother was off to a peaceful holiday in Spain, and the house now belonged to her.
By mid-afternoon, the silence felt less like freedom and more like empty space. Chloe put on her coat and walked down to the high street, the autumn wind biting at her cheeks.
She was wandering around town, when she paused in – front of a display window, tucked between a designer shop and a bakery, designed to look cosy and inside the display was a woman with a soft knitted cardigan and was labelled: ‘Anne, the AI robot designed for all your needs.’
The woman looked entirely human—maybe forty-five, with faint laugh lines around her eyes and her brown hair pulled into a messy, comfortable bun. She didn’t look like a piece of technology; she looked like the kind of mother who listened without judging and always had a hot meal waiting.
Chloe thought of the isolated house waiting for her. She tapped her phone against the kiosk sensor and signed the rental agreement. It felt like a quiet, thrilling act of independence.
As she returned home, there was a gentle knock on the door. She rushed downstairs and opened the door and her guest was Anne.
“Hello Chloe,” she said, in a rather formal and gentle voice. “I will be your assistant in the two weeks we have together.”
“Yes,” Chloe blurted, excitement raising around her mind. She handed Anne a task list to complete, while she watched TV the whole day, finished two packets of crisps and let Anne do all the cleaning.
She prepared meals that Chloe actually liked—pasta with rich, slow-simmered sauces, thick slices of toast with real butter. She kept the flat spotless, her movements around the kitchen a quiet, comforting background noise of clinking porcelain and running water. It felt like heaven.
Night fell. Chloe turned to leave, but Anne stood firm. Anne’s expression shifted, revealing a gleaming mechanical core beneath her features. A low hum resonated as her metallic hand reached out, firmly preventing Chloe from opening the heavy door.
“Please, let me out,” Chloe pleaded, staring at the peeling synthetic material on Anne’s hand. Beneath the tear, there was no skin, only the dull glint of a titanium frame.
Anne’s gentle smile was now creepy.
“You will stay with me forever,” she blurted with red widening eyes and an unsettling smile.