Obsidian-Sanctuary

It is the first day the man resumed that the bot noticed that he spent long hours cleaning it. The other janitors had barely given it a glance, focusing more of their time on the floors and baskets overflowing with wastes. Granted, those were usually the dirtiest areas in the building. The building, housing over two hundred members of staff of a foremost tech firm, often reeked of dirt; scientists weren't often the neatest folks around. The janitors usually found it hard to keep up, and often left just after a few months.

However, the bot often wondered if the janitors could spare some of the time they spent on the floors and window lanes and overflowing trash on her. So, when the new janitor came and she noticed that he exercised so much care cleaning her crevices, soaping and wiping down, and repeating the cycle again, the bot was both scared and elated.

The bot is stationed in a glass enclosure, mostly forgotten. She was the earliest version of a group of bots that were supposed to mimic human interactions. At the early stages, the scientists had been experimenting with creating dolls that could give sexual pleasure as well as provide the same level of intimacy absent in sex dolls.

The scientist who created the bot, a creative genius from Harvard, spent so much time tinkering with her, and speaking to her and even claimed that one time the bot laughed at one of his jokes. No one confirmed his theory. It was chalked off as one of the weird things scientists were wont to say.

The bot was the first prototype. She had the anatomical features of a woman. And was powered by nuclear particles. She was so outstanding and was such a huge financial success that it was reported that in many cases men mistook her for the real thing.

However, with time, several enhanced, better versions of the bot were created. She would have been discarded save for the fact that the young scientists refused. He kept her in a glass casing in the hallway, often coming back to marvel at the work of his hands.

*

Over the course of weeks, the bot noticed that the janitor spent more time with her than usual. Even the scientists in the building began to notice and would tease him of being in love with the bot. The janitor neither affirmed nor denied it. He would often run his hands through the features of the bot, sighing in pleasure.

*

The janitor began coming with sheaves of paper. He would, after thoroughly cleaning the bot, begin drawing it. He went at it for weeks, and the bot often wondered what it was about her that the janitor wanted to capture. No matter how long he drew, he was never satisfied. He always came back the next day with new sheaves of papers, working feverishly at the job.

The bot wondered where the man kept the pictures, what he did with each of them, what the pictures looked like.

She brimmed with curiosity, but there was no way she could get to the pictures without alerting the janitor. He made sure to keep the pictures far away from her whenever he wanted to clean the casing. With time the bot's curiosity turned to frustration. The man spent time drawing her but she could not see what it the outcome of the job was. One day as the janitor was wiping her down she reached out and struck him in the face. The man fell, his head making contact with the concrete floor and a huge gash appearing. He seemed nonplussed, and shocked, staring at the bot. She saw that he tried to make sense of what happened. He traced the place he had been standing, looking around as though searching yo see if he slipped on something. When he looked up he had a knowing grin on his face. But when he was asked what happened, he simply said he fell, because he knew that if he narrated what really happened, the bot would be taken away and locked up forever.

The bot watched everything that happened to feel neither remorse nor shame, feeling nothing.

One day she decided to find out for herself what exactly the man was hiding.

She got down from the box. It was the first time she was attempting to walk. She walked beyond the walk area. It was late. All of the other scientists were gone. The janitor had said he had to visit his sister across town.

She knew the whole company by heart. Standing in the hallway, she was privy to a lot of the conversations a lot of the scientists had. She knew the janitor's room was at the back. She walked quickly, knowing that if she was ever seen, it would create a buzz all over the scientific community. At the moment, there was already the question of whether robots had sentience, and if she handed them some proof that bots actually walked, and had feelings, it would cause a revolution in the work. That was the reason she stayed mute in her glass casing.

After a few wrong turns, she found the janitor's room. It was dark. When she turned on the light, she saw herself splayed on the walls. The sketches he had been creating were so beautiful. And it was not just the drawings, it was the way he drew her, it was as though he saw her, beyond the plugs sticking out of her nostrils, he saw her soul, even in a way she didn't. A sob escaped her, and then she heard the janitor's voice from the door,

'I knew you'd come'