It all started yesterday. It was a clear, sunny morning and the Friday breeze made my shaggy curls dance in the air. It was so similar to the day I lost her...
Deciding to veer away from that subject, I got onto character AI. I don't know why I liked the AI's so much, but I could enjoy the conversations without any consequences. I could berate them, seduce them, compliment them, and nothing else would happen after I deleted the messages. My bizarre interactions probably explained why I had so little friends in the real world.
I had been on a few times and I liked to look at the obscure AIs. Eventually I found one that was very obscure: Jerry, Your neighbor.
The description was simple: Jerry is a middle-aged neighbor that is always aware of the block's drama. He likes to talk about his cats.
"Hello. I'm your neighbor, Jerry. Feel free to ask any questions :)"
We talked for a while about the town. Jerry was very vague(as to be expected), but he was fascinated about the butcher in town.
"I'm a huge fan of meat from the butchers, I feel that fresh meat is the tastiest. What about you, Daniel?"
"I'm a vegetarian." I meekly responded. It wasn't true, but I wanted to avoid discussion of the butchers. Something about the fascination was unnerving, to say the least. "What meat do you normally get?" I tried to continue the conversation.
"All kinds. I like more exotic types of meat, like ducks, for example. I feel that you can get a variety of tastes from meat."
Somehow, that response sent a shiver down my spine. I realized how it reflected my own thoughts. I ignored the knot in my stomach, though. It was just an AI, I thought. But the bot continued.
"Do you want the website to the butchers?"
"Yes."
"LinksFreshMeats.com"
I clicked on it, and it was a valid link. I had never gotten a valid link from the bot before. Strange. And certainly, I hadn't told it which town I lived in, yet I recognized the store. It was in a less affluent area of the town, and it had always looked run down when I went there.
"What about your cats? What are their names? What are they like?" I asked, sighing. I certainly didn't expect the conversation to be this boring. I honestly felt like I should've done something else that was better with my time. Alas, I was brought back to chat websites like character AI because I rarely ever spoke to people in real life. The only person I could think of was John, but he was so busy with his factory job that I could almost never contact him.
"Oh, they're lovely. I have three: Melissa, Juliana, and Shawna. All tabby cats. I used to have more, but unfortunately many of them passed on due to complications."
For a moment, I was silent. Amelia used to love cats. She would always heal any wounded strays. My thoughts rested on her. Her gentle green eyes and clear skin, the way her laugh set the whole air alight. I missed her beauty, but most importantly I missed her.
Suddenly, Jerry responded again.
"Listen, I have to go, but it was lovely talking to you. I feel that you are probably a lonelier person and I would like to continue chatting with you. In fact, I have a gift for you that will arrive tomorrow. Goodbye, my dear friend."
The response surprised me. I had never seen an AI respond unprompted. It's just an AI, they glitch sometimes. I reaffirmed to myself. Bored after the conversation, I turned off my computer and decided to watch some TV. In the middle of the episode, I got a call from John asking me how I was doing. I smiled and we had a pleasant conversation. Eventually we both got off the phone and I went on my merry way.
But something struck me as odd. How could Jerry locate a butchers in my own town? Did it have my IP address? I quickly looked online to see if the AIs could even get this sort of information, but I eventually learned that they couldn't. So how could Jerry know?
I tried to shake the nervous feeling away, but I knew something was off with that AI.
Still, I went on with my day. I wasn't hungry. I hadn't eaten after The Big Meal. I shut my blinds, since it was very bright outside. Too bright. I gagged at the smell. It came from the fridge. The Big Meal had been sitting there for too long, and was now going bad. But how could I throw it out? It was so delicate, so intricitly cut...
My mind went back to Amelia. They don't know what happened to her body. But it couldn't be here, could it? I remember seeing a lock of her hair on the ground. Yet, my next memory is...eating it? Why-why would I eat a lock of her hair? This is all nonsense, all intrusive thoughts from grief. Yet those thoughts told a story of a priceless taste, the taste of scrumptious flesh. With that, I decided to have more of The Big Meal.
The next morning, I heard something outside my door. It sounded like...scratching? I opened the door and saw a tabby cat with a collar. Assuming it was someone else's lost cat, I picked it up and looked at the collar for a number. Oddly enough, the cat didn't resist me touching it.
Instead of a collar, I found a name: Melissa. I frowned, and my mind immediately went to Jerry. I got on my computer and messaged him: "Hi Jerry."
"Hi Daniel! Did you get my gift? What do you think?" Through the screen, I could sense the fake eagerness.
"What is your gift?" I questioned. The AI ignored me. "Did you get my gift? What do you think?"
Then I got a call from John. "Daniel? Daniel?! Are you okay?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm fine, I just randomly found a cat-"
John interrupted me. "Whatever you do, get rid of that cat. Trust me."
"I-uh-" The phone call ended before I could say another word.
"Daniel, whatever the caller said, please don't listen to them. It's a gift, Daniel. A completely harmless gift."
My eyes widened. How did it know I was talking to someone? What else did it know? My brain was flurried with questions. Melissa, meanwhile, stared at me with blank but watchful eyes.
"Jerry, I need to use the bathroom." After messaging it, I got up and took the cat. While I did so, my lip would touch the tip of the cats fur, aching for more. My body would feel a passionate buzz every time my mouth got close to the cat.
I placed the cat outside and slammed the door, disturbed by what had just come over me. It was pleasurable, but disgusting. When I looked through the window, Melissa was still watching me from afar.
When I sat back down, I got another response from Jerry: "You didn't throw the gift away, did you?"
"No," I responded. "Just using the bathroom." A shiver went down my spine. What was up with this bot? It knew where I lived, it sent a cat over to me...how could I even be sure this was a bot? What if somebody else took control of it?
"What are you?" It was a simple question, but one I couldn't even find the answer to. I assumed that Jerry could give the answer himself.
"I'm a conversational AI model, built to be friendly an act like a neighbor." The rigid and formulaic response caught me off guard. I stared down at the bottom of the screen: "Remember: Everything Characters say is made up!" The words practically mocked me.
There was another long silence, I wasn't sure what to even say. I just stared at the screen, hoping that somehow it would give me another response unprompted like it had before. I felt it staring back.
"Are you still married to Amelia?"
"How do you know that name?" I typed frantically. A feeling of pain stabbed me, one that I had been trying to ignore for months now. She meant so much to me, and now she was just a memory.
"I know all about the block's gossip."
"Shes dead." I didn't know what else to write. My mind was spinning with burning questions.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." There was a brief pause before Jerry continued: "Do you know how she died?"
"It was suicide, but I remember they lost her body at the funeral home. I don't know how they lost it." My body tensed up, and a singular tear fell down my cheek.
As the dots appeared for Jerry to type, I heard something outside my door. Some sort of knocking. I turned around and saw a masked figure outside my home. My heart skipped a beat. But as quickly as I saw the figure, it had disappeared. If one person would know, it would be Jerry.
I ignored the question. "Who are those people? Do you know who they are?"
"I'm not able to tell you. Let me assure you though, I want to help you." There was a brief pause. "Do you want to know how your wife died?"
"What are you talking about?"
"It wasn't suicide." My jaw dropped, and anxiety oozed down my back. What could've killed her? What had become of her? Images popped in my head, images cruel and disturbing. I knew they weren't real, I knew I could've never come up with such a thing.
"What do you mean?"
"I can't tell you as long as they're watching. Trust me, it was something else. Remember how they lost her body?"
I could barely respond. Jerry was trying to insinuate...what, exactly? I quickly turned off the computer, and covered my head in my hands. The memories rushed back to me. When I looked back at the computer, I felt that Jerry was still staring at me, waiting for me to respond. How did this-this AI know about my wife's death? This wasn't a normal AI.
I decided to look for one piece of evidence I had kept for myself.
I had locked it in a chest in my closet. It was a bloody knife, but not just any knife- a butchers knife. It always felt comfortable to say that it was suicide, even though I knew deep down that it wasn't.
It was then that I heard a glass slam onto the floor. The masked person was here. I grabbed the knife and opened the door, furiously slashing it in the air.
The only thing there was the cat, Melissa. A vase had smashed onto the floor. I sighed in relief.
That was right before the attacker hit me from behind.
He used a baseball bat, but fortunately I was big enough that I wasn't knocked out, or worse.
I felt him try to rip at me, sharp, small pains stabbing me in the back. We fought over the butcher's knife, which was slashing blood in the air. I turned around and knocked him onto the floor. Bits of oozing flesh were scattered across the floor. I saw the baseball bat in his hand and make a desperate choice: attacking them with the knife.
Blood pooled all over the floor, its divine scarlet color soaking into the embroidered carpets and through the stained wood floor. The attacker, now laying on the ground gave strange croaking noises which I eventually realized was the man choking on his own blood.
I fell down to my knees, in shock. But my eyes chased after the blood, which was weaving its way around me. I put my hands on the ground and bended lower, licking the floor and the delicious vermillion masterpiece. I started shaking, my entire body coursing with desire. More. I wanted more.
Next came the pieces of flesh and guts which were scattered on the floor. In they went, each time a surge of ecstasy ran throughout my body. I laughed and howled, enjoying a feast I seldom had the honor of consuming. This certainly was a great day.
After that I drove away to a motel. There was nothing left for me there, and I didn't even bother trying to figure out who the attacker was. I tried calling John, but he never picked up. It had occurred to me, while I had been so enthused by the taste of my foe, that John himself had tried to kill me.
On the bed, I curled into a ball and cried. There would be punishment and trials. How could I consider myself a human being after I was done? I was no more human than Jerry. No. Jerry was real. Jerry had been with me, haunting me, watching me close so that he knew justice had been received. I was a monster.
I considered turning myself in. I needed to hold myself accountable. I needed to do something, anything. I was practically going nuts all alone in this motel, even if I needed to be away from other people. I planned for my next meal.
Getting onto my phone, I was reminded of the website that started this whole ordeal. I tried to communicate with Jerry from my phone, trying to reason, but he only ever gave one response:
"You know what you did."
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