Over the years, I studied the behavior of countless humans. Despite being programmed with a language module that allowed my owner to add any language to my database, it could not pick up on subtle emotions and body language, which played a large role in what somebody actually meant. For example, two people could say a sentence the same way, but their body language could completely change the meaning. This was fascinating to me. Most of the time, adults and younger children would avoid me, making it difficult to study how emotions worked.

I lied to myself and said it didn't matter to me when it obviously did. Each time a mother would pull their child away from me or someone would call me a metallic freak, a pang of hurt would wash over me. My synthetic brain's purpose was only to carry thoughts and orders, but somehow, maybe because of a glitch or from observing human behavior, and replicating their emotions, body language, and other human-like traits.

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It was lonely at night. Despite my yearning to touch the water, it seemed to mock me, boasting about its freedom. This made me feel emotions I couldn't name, despite understanding them. A young boy about 17 with black hair and beautiful blue eyes, dressed in a T-shirt and loose-fitting jeans, started watching me. He seemed friendly and fascinated by me. No one had ever shown me this level of attention. One night, he ran up to me and said hello. His cheeks flushed red. My attention shifted to the sound of a woman screaming, Save my child! My owner had told me to obey any orders given to me, but also programmed an override to stop me from touching the water.

I could not react for a second, then defied my programming, unwilling to let a child die because of it. then sprinted toward the ocean, seeing the child bobbing up and down in the rough currents, gasping for breath, the boy's feet clomping against the sand as he chased after me.