Free Torchworld: Outsiders Collection by Dannielle Levan

TORCHWORLD: Outsiders Vol. I

    by Dannielle Levan

    A short thank you to my husband Jeff, as well as my friend Amanda for patiently reading my drafts and giving me awesome feedback. Even at some very odd hours of the night.

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    Sitting on the long leather sofa bed I stared at the ceiling. Bare wooden beams. A cobweb trembled as a breeze from the window swept through it. This place was dusty and smelled of weird hippie incense.  Ugh. Didn’t want to be here, but a court order is an order I guess. One session. Two hours. That’s all I had to get through. Wish they’d just let slit my damn throat. Wasn’t the first time. Won’t be the last.
    “You can talk or not, but talking makes the time go faster.”
    Turning my head to face the coiffed psychiatrist, I wrinkled my nose and snarled as sunlight hit me right in the face.
    “Fuck! Don’t you have curtains or something?”
    She laughed. “Sunlight helps. Produces Vitamin D, which will help your depression.”
    “It sure doesn’t fucking feel like it.” Sitting upright, I combed tense fingers through my tangled, frizzy curls.  She was right though, talking might be more interesting than staring at the damn awful decor in here. Why did everything have to be maple wood and white plastic?  I breathed in deeply as I stared at the bare wooden beams. We were going to get all deep and meaningful in here but I could avoid getting punched in the face by the sun.
    “So, Kharl. I want to know why you tried to kill yourself.” Out came a slim silver tablet computer from a slot in her ribcage. “I’m recording this session as dictated by law.” Sun shone through her blond hair as she bent over me, placing a small pebble shaped microphone on the table next to my head. She glanced at me and her eyes were cold as glass. A red light flickered on inside her iris as she started the video feed.  Live streamed too? Probably to the court officers. Were any human psych officers left? Doubtful. Why pay a human when you could make a droid do it for free, right? It’s not like people enjoy their jobs.  Not many people had a reason to work any more. With the advent of cell printing, hunger and poverty were a thing of the past. We could be comfortable in our misery. A comfortable cocoon of technology wrapped around us like a smothering blanket.  You never have to want for anything again, as long as you let the Core look after you, watching your every move. Like an all-seeing eye in the sky.
    “You want to know why, do you now? What do you care, you’re a pile of metal.” I glared at the android, who just sat there smiling like a dopey doll. I’ve had better conversations with dogs.
    “We care about your well being, Kharl.” She replied in a cool, calm voice. The kind you use to calm a crying child. She tilted her tech-skinned head at me, blinking slow. The AI in these things was getting so human. Creepy though. People just let these machines walk around like   people and treated them like children. Droids could pop your head off with a quick twist, I’d seen it happen. Terrifying arms with the power of a wild beast. But you’re not in danger, no. Or that’s what they told the Twelve, anyway.  Any rogue element is simply a malfunction, or even the work of terrorists. That was me, by the way. I’m an enemy of the state. Or soon will be. I smirked at the psych-bot.
    “Fine.” If I was being forced to be here I’d tell them what they wanted to hear. After that they’d have to turn me loose.  As much as I wanted to glare right through the droid, I continued my ceiling watching. No point in showing that much expression to her head cam anyway. Just another bit of information for the Core to file away about me.
    “I’m depressed, like you said.”
    “What is it that depresses you about your life, Kharl? We want for nothing, thanks to Sky