The window breathed and shuddered in the night. The bullet had missed Adele’s head by mere inches. Only some with great skill could shift their hand at the last moment to prevent the bullet from grazing even so much as a strand of hair.

The wind gently blew the curtains as Adele opened her eyes slowly. It took a moment to realize she was still alive. She looked up to see Malik lowering the gun to his side.

Her dark eyes were wide as she finally managed to find her voice, “Why? Why did you miss?”

Malik looked down at her, his cold eyes pinched as confusion swelled within them, “You seemed to know these things better than I. You tell me.”

She only gazed at him quizzly for a long moment before unfolding herself from the couch and standing. She had to look up a little to see peer into Malik’s face, “What happens now?”

He looked down at her, “My time to report to the City about you is close. If you aren’t dead…”

“Do you know why they want me dead?” Adele asked and Malik shook his head and answered, “I’m not privy to those kinds of things. I just follow orders.”

The young woman stood, walked to the window and peered out. No one would inquire about the gunshot. Such was this City. It was just background noise much like the traffic that mosyed down the street.

“You really think I have a heart?” came a soft and unsure inquiry.

Adele turned and looked over her shoulder as him. It was hard to tell his age. He could very well be from the last millennium despite looking like he was in his 30’s. But his eyes looked too old for his face as if he had seen a lot. He was a tall and imposing man yet looked like many of the children that came to her.

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“You made your own choice to miss. Does that not answer your question?” Adele asked instead.

Malik shook his head and responded slowly, his dark eyes fixed on the carpet beneath them, “I...I remember things I’m not sure if they're memories or…..” He paused and glanced up at Adele. Finding no condemnation he continued, “Sometimes I remember a world that isn’t this one. Where the talk of heart, love and peace is a reality. But I do not understand what I see.”

Adele’s head bobbed once in thought, “If you were mortal before becoming a prototype it’s not impossible you might have been from the millennia past and your body carried those memories all these years.”

Malik’s eyes widened. He had never inquired into his past or anything before he woke up as a Prototype PseudoMor. All he knew was that he felt nothing since then.

Oh so he thought.

He felt a lot when it came to Adele Zoeway. A myriad of emotions that made his head spin and his heart constrict.

But above all he felt a sense of stability and peace at Pastel Cafe and with her that he never felt before. Such things were dangerous in this world. If a prototype was compromised they were captured and deactivated. He had seen it once with his own eyes as an example of what not to do. He felt nothing then but now chills ran down his spine at the thought.

Malik looked down to see his free hand being cradled by another, making him look back up.

Adele looked up at him, “Are you going to complete your assignment?”

A pause and he swore he felt the room hold its breath.

“I don’t want to.”, he finally admitted.

Even such words felt foreign on his tongue. No one asked a Prototype PseudoMor for their opinion. No one asked if they did or did not want to do something. They were given orders and expected to obey. If they didn’t they were deactivated and the task passed on to someone who would obey. Malik had been such a perfect prototype until now. In such a short time he was loathed to imagine a world without Adele.

When Adele gave a brilliant smile, Malik found he was glad to have said such a thing, To his remembrance it was the first time that he managed to make her smile like that at him.

Adele released his hand and Malik’s fingers flexed once, “Then we will have to think of something, yeah?”

“Run away with me.”

He was doing a lot of impulsive blurting out tonight he was finding. This suggestion shocked even.

However Adele seemed to take it in stride, “To where?”

Malik noticed she didn’t ask why. She didn’t seem to miss a beat.

So he didn’t either, “To your oasis….”

.

End.