Part 1

Helia scrubbed the coffee mug, staring beyond the window blinds.

From the kitchen, outside visibility was limited to the neighbor's window, straight across. Based on the state of the window, no one appeared to live in 12B. Though, it had been occupied since as long as Helia could remember.

Her thoughts made her sloppy, causing soapy water to slosh onto her face.

"Shit."

Her eyes stung, and she wiped at the wetness with her sleeve. When her vision cleared, she focused once more on the neighbor's window. A dark void, in rectangle shape. Then, a flicker of movement, so unexpected, it jarred her heart.

Bright, beady eyes stared out from between heavy curtains.

Helia jumped, the mug slipping from her hands. She winced in anticipation of a complete shatter, but the it only thumped on the kitchen rug.

"She came over here again," Ty tossed out from the living room.

Helia retrieved the mug and frowned. The she her father had mentioned was the owner of beady eyes, and apparently a nosy neighbor.

"And you told her..."

Ty picked up the thread of her sentence, as he often did. "I told her I have a doctor, and don't need her voodoo."

As if to contradict the statement, her father erupted in a coughing fit, the kind of coughing that made you feel uncomfortable. It seemed endless, underscored by an unknown...wetness.

With damp hands, Helia rushed to the living room. The coughing scared her, and this time, it sounded particularly bad. When it petered out, she offered her father a glass of water, and a paper towel to wipe his mouth.

Only a few months ago, when she had tried to help him, he'd railed at her, throwing things, and shouting. Even set in his wheelchair, the behavior had been terrifying. Ty was a large man, but had lately started to diminish. A breakdown of muscle mass was to be expected, as per the latest doctor assessment.

Now, Ty accepted Helia's care with grace, swearing he was fine, just hungry, thank you very much. He also insisted she leave him alone in favor of getting to work.

Helia eyed Ty, intent on hovering, like those helicopter moms other people complained about. Then, she glanced at the clock, and begrudgingly heeded her father.

~*~

Fifteen minutes later, Helia emerged from her bedroom, dressed in worn down, but comfy, blue coveralls.

She reached to tie her long, thick hair into a bun, amused and proud of the scene taking place.

"Swallow."

"I'm full, thanks." Ty waved the bot off, but it insisted.

Waving the spoon in his face, the bot repeated, "Swallow. You'll feel worlds better."

Ty chuckled, and the bot took the chance to shove the spoon in his semi-open mouth. Half-choking, half-laughing, Ty glared at Helia.

Though she knew it might hurt his feelings, she couldn't help dissolving in giggles, like a kid. Then again, watching a bot spooon feed her father was every child's dream, or maybe just hers.

Helia's dreams had shrunk of late, ever since she'd received the call that pop had collapsed at work. Without hesitation, she'd left her dorm and small computer business two-hundred miles behind, resettling at home.

Two years back, and she still promised herself a quick return to school. Just another six months.

The cerulean bot tapped her shoulder, taking Helia from her thoughts. Its shining plastic and lucite form looked out of place against the backdrop of the dilapidated apartment. Paint peeling, and tattered curtains. She fleetingly considered programming the bot for remodeling and construction, but its current caretaking duties were more than enough.

"The task of feeding your father is complete," it said.

She led the bot aside to discuss the feeding routine, a program that needed constant tweaking, like others.

"A good start, but one spoonful is insufficient."

The bot asked, "Would five bites be sufficient?Ten?"

She wondered how to word the command simply. Having been a courier bot, it relied on exact instructions: point A to point B. Yet, in delivering packages, there were alternate routes, and the bot had to analyze traffic patterns, deciding which way to go. That was the A.I. interface Helia tinkered with, tapering it to her needs, or whatever her father needed.

"Stop when the client says they're full. Repeat input command."

The bot straightened and complied. "Feeding parameters adjusted to 'when client says they're full'."

Helia flashed a thumbs-up. "Sweet."

Mimicking her, the bot bent its fingers one by one, forming a thumbs-up at a snail's pace. "Awesome!"

"Thing sure sounds like you, sometimes, but still creeps me out," Ty grumbled, chewing the oatmeal with a frown. "It's that uncanned shit."

This time Helia did chortle. "You mean, the uncanny valley."

Ty nodded. "Yeah, that." He swept at the invisible lint on his blanketed lap. "Not everyone is a programming genius."

Helia stopped laughing. She crouched, resting her butt on the soles of her shoes. Then, she placed a finger under her father's chin, gently raising his eyes level with hers.

"Hey, I didn't mean to laugh." She cocked her head to the side. "Well, least not that much." Ty laughed. "And I'm no genius." Helia gestured at the bot, who stood at the sink.

Methodically, it swished a wet rag across a glass plate, rinsing it, and setting it on the drying rack. For a moment, it seemed to rest, hands at its side, staring straight ahead. It then picked up the same dish, and commenced washing.

"Just makin' sure it's extra limpio," Ty noted.

"Hey," she fingered a battered charm hanging from his neck. "What's this?"

Ty squirmed, not really answering. Helia squinted, grimacing at the inlaid details. What initially looked like a silver fish was in fact a topless mermaid. Two emeralds glittered where the eyes should've been.

"Nothing, just something I found," her father finally admitted, his face sheepish.

"Right," Helia said, grabbing her knapsack off the hallway table. "When I get off my shift, I'll work on more protocols. Love you." She kissed her father's weathered cheek.

As she closed the door, she heard him call after her, "Go on a date instead!"

Helia shook her head, intent on hurrying down the stairway to the monorail. She paused mid-step, chewing on the inside of her cheek.

The auto-loop had her worried. Any sort of looping machine could be an indication of darker things, greater programming errors. She couldn't leave a malfunctioning bot with her father.

Though it was the last thing she wanted to do, Helia turned and walked back the way she'd came. The neighbor was only one door to the left, but they barely spoke. As was the case with most neighbors, they went weeks, if not months, without so much as seeing each other.

Helia's boots scraped the wooden floor with each step. She hugged herself, checking the huge air conditioning vent on the ceiling. Caked in dust, the thing didn't seem like it was on, let alone working. Yet, the icy air indicated otherwise.

The short walk brought her to the red, weathered door. Helia further hesitated before knocking, drew a deep breath, and resolutely rapped her knuckles on the rough-hewn surface.

~*~

Nothing happened. No rattling of a knob, and no one muttering on the other side of the door.

Helia shook her head, and turned to leave.

"Yes?"

The word was really more of a rasp, with the 's' stretching on.

Though it had been closed a second before, the door was now a wide open maw. At its center stood a petite woman with hair almost as tall as she was, but she wasn't that tall at all. Her caramel skin appeared flawless in the muted light of the hallway. Helia tilted head, wondering if the woman had intentionally covered herself in glitter, or if she were seeing things.

However, her skin and diminutive stature were her best attributes. It was her angled face, or more specifically, her eyes. They were as large as almonds, and dark as coal. There was something alien about her, nearly feral.

In taking in everything she could about the stranger, Helia had forgotten why she had knocked in the first place. Then, her wits returned to her.

"I, uh," she coughed, the sentence catching in her throat.

A slow smile spread across the stranger's face, pulling at her features harshly.

"Is he hungry yet?" she asked.

Helia stepped back, more than a bit thrown.

"What?"

"He will be, soon." Each syllable slithered from the red slit of a mouth. "I've made him better, stronger."

Several places away now. "Ya know what? Stay away from my father. He's sick, and doesn't need...false hope."

The woman said nothing, the ever-present smile speaking volumes.

Because she wouldn't, Helia spat out, "Bye," before rushing off.

Part 2

It was a weird necklace.

Not even pretty.

"Some dudes like to wear jewelry," Kenneth told her, after he'd laughed over her story about the dish-washing bot.

Kenneth was her oldest friend, and had set her up with a job at the car factory. They were two out of ten human employees on the 200-acre premises. Since bots assembled everything, their job was to make sure the bots were glitch-free.

"I guess," she said, removing the patch from the bot in front of her.

She patted its head, indicating it was good to go. The gleaming form rose, marching back to the assembly line to join the dozens of others.

"I'm just worried about dad, and always will until I've perfected the caregiver program. Nearly there."

Kenneth eyed her, amusement twisting his light brown face into a grin. "And how far is your progress, dishwasher master?'

"It fed dad today."

Kenneth's grin faded. "For real?"

"Yeah," Helia replied, a tad defensive.

He got closer, practically in her face. "Like, it didn't just shove the spoon down his throat this time?"

"Well, sort of. I still have to work on some protocols, but it'll all be good soon."

Kenneth's brow rose by no less than a foot, and Helia smiled, shoving him away.

"Hey," he started as she cleaned up her workstation, "I gotta admit, I never thought you'd get that fourth generation delivery bot to do much. But," He shrugged. "I'm impressed. You could show it to Revner, and maybe find a buyer."

Revner was their boss, and a tool, but he had industry contacts.

Without turning, she said, "You haven't even seen it yet."

"The developing protocols are impressive enough." Gently, he turned her to face him, gesturing to the assembly line. "These things are built for one purpose, and you've expanded that."

Helia backed up, put off at how nice his cologne smelled.

Uncomfortable with anything resembling praise, Helia said, "Let's finish up the last two check ups, and get out of here."

"Good idea," Kenneth drawled. "Then we could go see a movie."

Helia laughed. "Uh-huh."

"I'm serious. I'll drop Keke off so nannybot can watch everyone. A trial-run. I could even help with diagnostics, fix the repeat-o glitch."

She gazed at him, disbelieving. "Seriously?"

"As serious as a firewall matrix," he quipped.

"You trust that...thing?"

He grabbed her hand. "I trust you."

Helia smiled, still unsure how her latest shift had evolved into this. But, she was willing to go with it.

Like a splinter, her mind returned to the sight of the necklace. A close look at the figurine revealed a snaking tongue, forked at the end. And why had she thought the eyes were emeralds? They were red rubies. Blood red.

Helia rubbed at her temples, willing the vision away.

"Okay. Let's go."

~*~

When they returned from the movie, Keke was curled up on the couch, asleep.

The bot greeted them with glasses of water. When Helia asked about her father, she learned he was asleep in his bed. Keke's four-year-old shenanigans had both amused and tired him.

Helia walked Kenneth to the door. His daughter was draped over his shoulder. The sweet scene shook her, and when he leaned down to kiss her, she met him halfway.

"I'll come back another night, to tinker with the bot," Kenneth promised, eyes glittering.

Later, she peeked in on her father. His door was cracked open, snores rumbling from his throat intermittently. A red glint caught her eye, and Helia noticed the necklace, hanging crazily to the side, appearing almost to strangle Ty.

Worried, Helia strode forward to fix the chain around her father's neck. When she touched the charm, her fingers sprang alight, and her head contorted with intense pressure. She dropped it, settling for adjusting the charm's position.

Her father snorted, rollingover and out of reach.

"Sleep tight," she whispered, kissing his cheek.

~*~

Helia did the opposite of sleep tight. She tossed all over the place, because she didn't want to think too hard on protocols, or the necklace.

When she finally woke, her body protested the whole getting out of bed thing. Her brain tried to warn her that she'd slept too long. Eventually, she couldn't lay anymore, as the urge to pee trumped everything else.

She passed by Ty's bedroom. Rhythmic snoring followed her down the hallway and into the bathroom.

Helia rinsed her face at the kitchen sink. The splash of the lukewarm water refreshed as much as it annoyed her. When she turned off the faucet, she still heard water dripping. It was coming from the bathtub.

With a dramatic rip of the curtain, Helia witnessed the result if her father's secrets.

He lay hunched over in the tub, head down, and naked, save for the necklace. Helia shook him by the shoulders, and wished she hadn't.

Ty pitched forward. He strained against her hands, as though trying to break free, or get at something. Eyes closed, he moaned and thrashed in the water.

Then his eyes opened. But it wasn't him anymore, not really. The irises were pitch black.

"Help," he gasped.

Water had spilled over the sides of the tub, with little to no bubbles. Even still, the water was filthy. Minute flakes floated on the surface. An unknown creature swished back and forth near Ty's toes.

Ty spit another word out, but Helia couldn't make it out. She scrambled from the bathroom, in search of her phone.

"I'm gonna call for help, dad!"

She dialed 9-1-1. Hitting send did nothing. Her signal was non-existent.

"Piece of crap!" Helia held up the phone, but there was no change to the signal.

Those eyes...same as the neighbor. She had done this, and Helia would bring her here ton explain how to fix it.

Yet, when she marched down the increasingly cold hallway, she found an empty space where the door had been. Just more wall. She ran her fingers over the plank wall and trim.

"No..."

It wasn't real. Or perhaps, it hadn't been real.

She ran back to the apartment.

"Dad!

A metal hand grabbed her upper arm. Helia tried to brush it off, but the bot spun her to look at it.

"You know what you have to do," it told her, staring deeply with its green, human-like eyes.

Half-crying, she asked, "I do?"

"You have to take care of him," the bot gently insisted.

Blood red eyes. So very red.

For a moment, Helia could picture nothing else.

She sighed.

"Come here."

And she gave the bot detailed directions.

~*~

Soft waves drew back, and then returned to shore. The crash of the surf was calming, reassuring Helia she was doing the right thing.

One push. His body barely budged. A shove.

Oh, god!

She recalled Kenneth crying out, clinging to her at his moment of pleasure.

It hadn't taken much to convince him to go on another date. A picnic dinner at the beach, under the full moon. Romance, plus sexy promises. And Helia had delivered on all of it, but only because she had to.

After dinner, and rutting in the sand like teenagers, Kenneth had fallen asleep.

Helia had lain next to him for hours. She was contemplating the turn of events in her life. A day before, she had nearly gained the promise of a career opportunity. She had felt the old her returning. But, it had been a dream.

This was her life now.

Helia stood, the slight wind scouring her naked form with sand. She kicked at Kenneth's prone body, and he finally began to roll.

Moments later, he rolled right into a foam wave cresting at the shore. Kenneth sputtered, flailed.

He was drowning. But that's not what would kill him.

Two arms wrapped around Kenneth's torso, and pulled. He was dragged under the surf, gurgling and screaming as he went.

Helia couldn't quite make out the shape of what took him, and didn't have to.

She had heard stories about majestic creatures, beautiful sirens drawing men into the sea. This was far removed from the stories.

Something splashed a few yards out into the dark spread of water. She thought she spied a pair of fins retreating back into the depths.

A familiar metal claw patted her shoulder.

"I did as instructed," the bot said.

It stood shoulder to shoulder with Helia. They must've made quite a sight, she mused. A carbonite delivery bot, and a naked woman, contemplating a black ocean.

Suddenly, the bot was gone. In its place was the diminutive stranger, smile as big as ever.

Helia stained to catch another glimpse of the fin.

"You'll see him again," the stranger promised, her voice like silk.

Cold metal pressed into Helia's palm. She looked down at what the woman had given her.

In the middle of Helia's hand lay a necklace with a silver charm.

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