This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/Artistic_Penalty8195 on 2024-10-20 22:08:17+00:00.

I was a mess after the breakup. You know that feeling of emptiness you just can’t describe?  Nights were brutal. I’d sit in my tiny little house, staring at the ceiling or mindlessly scrolling through my phone, desperate to escape my thoughts. But nothing worked. Music, TV, even the booze I was drowning in—it only muffled the noise in my head for a while.

One night, after finishing off another bottle of cheap whiskey, I decided to take a look on the dark web. I wasn’t looking for anything specific, just something to make the emptiness stop, something to hit harder. I’d given up on caring by then.

Clicking through all the shady sites, my screen occasionally had some pop-up every once a while. But one had caught my eye: Life-Sized Robot Dolls.

“The hell?” Was all I could think of.

I’ve seen some terrible things on the dark web, but what came to my mind when I saw this ad was those horror stories where people would get murdered and turned into dolls and be sold on the dark web.

A sane person wouldnt dare to click it, but in my half drunken state, I was too curious. I hit the pop-up, and there they were. Dozens of them, laid out like some twisted shopping catalog. Blondes, brunettes, redheads, every type of woman and man, every shape and size, all perfect in that eerie manufactured way.

I didn’t plan on sticking around, but my fingers betrayed me. I clicked on the redhead girl, just to see. The bigger image popped up, along with details on the side—her height, eye color, body type. She was priced at $25,000, which made me chuckle.

There were things you could adjust below the purchase button. You could change her voice or personality. There were even more…erotic things you could change, which wasn’t surprising.

I stared at the image of her. Yeah, she was realistic looking in the photo, but it was obvious she wasn’t human. Her eyes—there was something empty about them. That’s always the giveaway with robots. They can get everything else right, but those eyes—they’re never quite alive.

I clicked off the page and kept browsing. I shouldn’t have, but I did. I spent a few minutes scrolling, telling myself I was just curious. But the truth? A part of me wanted one. Not to fulfill some twisted fantasy, but to fill the empty space in my home. To fill the hole left by my ex.

I filtered the page by price, and that’s when I saw her—the cheapest female model. $1000.

I clicked her image. A petite girl, black hair, brown eyes, slim frame. Nothing special compared to the others, but that didn’t bother me. She didn’t need to be special.

I read through the details, and when it all seemed fine, I scrolled down to the purchase button. My heart was racing. I paused for a second, looking at the adjustable options. I hesitated, then clicked on “personality.” A blank text box appeared. I guess I was supposed to type in what I wanted.

I stared at the cursor, wondering what to do. For some reason, I typed in: “protective, cute, sweet, funny.” It was my ex’s personality—at least, the parts I liked about her. I hit enter, then moved the cursor over to the purchase button.

I sat there, thinking. Was I really about to do this? I knew it was stupid, but what did I have left to lose? If I got scammed, so what? Life would go on, right?

With my eyes closed, I clicked “purchase.”

I followed the instructions to pay with Bitcoin, my hands trembling the entire time. Once it was done, the screen went black. White text appeared: “Purchase successful.”

A few days passed, and though it was a ridiculous purchase, I completely forgot about it. So when I came home from work to see a giant wooden box sitting on my steps, my heart sank. I stood there for a moment, just staring at it. A part of me hoped it was a prank, but I knew better.

I walked around it cautiously, my heart pounding. It wasn’t labeled, no markings, nothing. I felt a swirl of emotions, but mostly fear. My mind jumped to the worst conclusions—what if someone was inside, waiting to jump out and kidnap me? Turn me into a doll like those horror stories? It wouldn’t have been the first time someone fell for something shady online.

But then again, no one would’ve waited for me to get home just to kill me, right?

I swallowed my fear and, with shaky hands, hoisted the box up. It was heavier than I expected, and I struggled as I carried it inside. Of course, that damn Chihuahua next door started barking. I hissed at it to shut up, kicking my door closed with the package finally inside.

My nerves were shot. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen, just in case. If someone jumped out, I was going down swinging. I started to pry open the box, every sound making my heart race faster.

The wood creaked as I finally got it open, and then—my knife clattered to the floor. Inside the box stood the girl from the website. Same height, same hair, same everything.

She looked real. No—she was real. At least, she looked that way. Her eyes were shut, head tilted down, slumped against the side of the box like she was powered off.

I bent down and picked up the knife, my hands trembling. With the tip of the blade, I poked her arm. The skin moved. It actually moved, like real human skin would. I froze, fear twisting in my gut. This couldn’t be synthetic. Could it?

I panicked. What if this was a dead woman? What if I had just spent a thousand bucks to smuggle a corpse? I tapped her shoulder repeatedly, my heart in my throat.

Nothing. Not until her eyes flickered open, sending me stumbling back in shock. I held the knife up, like a child hiding behind a blanket.

She blinked a few times, her metal joints softly clicking with each blink. Her neck turned in small, precise motions, like she was calibrating herself.

I watched in absolute horror as she scanned the room, then locked her gaze on me. Her eyes narrowed slightly, then dimmed.

“Scanning complete. Hello, Michael,” she said, her voice monotone as she stepped out of the box like it was no big deal.

My throat tightened. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. “Are… y-you… real?” I stammered, barely holding it together.

She let out a laugh, sounding almost human. It was unsettling. She took a step closer, but I backed away, still gripping the knife like it was my last line of defense.

“Of course not—well, I’m here physically,” she said with a cheerful tone, far from the robotic voice she’d used before. “But if you’re asking if I have awareness like a human? No. Now, please put the knife down and get up off the floor, hun!”

I hesitated, my mind spinning. But something in her voice, or maybe the fact that I was just too exhausted to fight, made me put the knife down. Slowly, I stood up, taking cautious steps closer. Her eyes followed my every move, locked onto me like a predator tracking its prey.

“P-Prove it…” I demanded, my voice shaky. “Prove you’re a robot.”

She sighed, rolling her eyes, and then, without warning, grabbed her face and began to pull. I watched in a mix of disgust and horror as she opened her face, revealing a mess of wires and circuits beneath. Her robotic frame gleamed, reflecting my own terrified expression back at me.

I rubbed my eyes, blinking hard to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

She closed her face back up with a click and smiled. “Believe me now?”

I nodded slowly, swallowing the lump in my throat. “I don’t understand… if we have this kind of technology—robots that look and act like people—why isn’t it out to the public?” I muttered, more to myself than to her.

She shrugged, completely unbothered. “Who knows. But I was made to be your companion. That’s my job. That’s why you bought me—to protect you and to make you feel better!”

Strangely, that made me smile. There was something comforting in hearing that, even if it was from a robot. I cautiously stepped closer and, for reasons I still don’t fully understand, wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into a hug. Her skin was soft and warm, but beneath it, I could feel the cold, hard metal of her frame.

I heard her arms raise, and she hugged me back, the embrace feeling almost human.

I pulled away, still a bit uneasy. “So… what do you do?” I asked, trying to break the tension.

She giggled, shrugging again. “Whatever you want me to do!”

I glanced around the room and pointed at the fridge. “Can you… get me a whiskey?”

She looked at the fridge, then back at me with a nod, before walking over in a way that was almost too smooth. No robot should move like that, I thought. I half-expected her to malfunction, but instead, she opened the fridge, grabbed a whiskey, and walked back, handing it to me with a smile.

“Here you go!” she said cheerfully.

I took the bottle from her, dumbfounded. “Th-thanks… Do you have a name?”

She shook her head. “No. You must name me.”

I took a sip of the whiskey, thinking. “How about… mAIve? Like mauve, but with ‘AI’ in the middle, since, y’know, you’re AI.”

She tilted her head slightly, and for a moment, I felt like she was judging me. But then she lit up. “I love it!” Maive exclaimed, her tone bubbly.

After that, I tested her limits. I had her clean up, cook me food, even give me a massage. The more commands I gave, the more comfortable I became around her. She wasn’t just some clunky robot—she held conversations, laughed at my jokes, and responded quickly like a real person. By the end of the day, I was lying on her lap, laughing at some dumb TV show as she stroked my hair.

Maybe… I cou…

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