Pandora
Cold settled over my limbs. Shit. They were on their way. We had to leave immediately. I held the phone out to Neo, my fingers trembling around it.
He didn‘t look at the message. Probably, because he‘d already intercepted it. His jaw tightened. "They’re coming,” he hissed. He dropped the phone into the wastebasket without looking.
"Neo, what are you . . .?”
"It stays here. Too dangerous.” He grabbed my wrist, jerking me toward him. "We have ten minutes. Pack only what you need.”
"Where are we going?”
"No questions.” He pulled me toward my bag. "I’ve already arranged a vehicle.” His gaze drilled into mine. "You do exactly what I say. No arguments. Understood?”
I nodded. My body was already on the next step. I reached for my clothes, my toothbrush, my power bank, my old leather jacket. I couldn’t leave it behind.
Neo disappeared into the bathroom and came back in jeans and a sweatshirt, hood pulled low over his face. He could have been an ordinary man, but it was the amber glow of his eyes that gave him away. He looked at me with too much precision. I shuddered, realizing I would never get used to that.
Neo was already at the door. His shoulders carried that same dangerous control I recognized. I had heard it in his voice, back before he became this thing between man and machine.
We left the room without a word. Neo went first, opening the door with a movement too calm for what was happening.
I followed him into the corridor. The air-conditioning hummed, a door clicked somewhere down the corridor, and my footsteps were swallowed by the linoleum floor as the path to the exit stretched ahead.
Motion sensors flicked the lights on one by one—each click like a gun being cocked.
I hoped no one was watching us on a surveillance camera.
Neo stopped so abruptly I nearly walked into him. He raised a hand, waited, scanned, then moved on. I let out the breath I’d been holding.
The courtyard door stuck slightly. I pushed my shoulder against it. One shove, then it was open. The courtyard lay still, flooded with yellow light. A few bins. Two parked bicycles. It smelled of oil and yesterday’s leftovers.
We still had some distance to the car. The street was narrow but busy enough for someone to notice us.
I pulled my jacket zipper higher, my hands still trembling slightly.
What was I doing? I was giving up everything for a life on the run.
For a man who burned on the surface but was cold and calculating underneath.
Maybe I could still go back. Turn myself in.
They would understand he had forced me. That I’d had no choice.
When we reached the car, the doors opened automatically. No driver. I hesitated.
Maybe . . .
Neo pushed me inside. I gasped at the force of it. He pressed in after me and whispered, "You’re thinking about running. I can smell your fear. It only makes me hungrier.”
I froze, chest heaving. Good God. I could hide nothing from him. Nothing at all.
The door closed and the car moved off. I cleared my throat. "Is it autonomous, or are you driving it?”
Neo didn’t answer as the city slid past without a sound. I stared at the door handle. How fast were we going? Twenty miles an hour? Twenty-five? Could you survive jumping from a moving car at this—
Neo’s hand closed around my arm in an iron grip before I could finish the thought. "Go ahead and try. Then I’ll show you what happens when you attempt to leave me.”
I cleared my throat. "Where are we going?” My voice sounded strange.
"Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing.”
I rolled my eyes. Maybe I should jump from the moving car after all, just to escape his arrogance.
His gaze found me. His irises lit up briefly, like a warning.
I snapped my eyes back to the headrest in front of me, felt the acceleration through my back, my neck, my fingertips as they clawed into the upholstery.
The car vibrated faintly. Lights slid past. Osaka changed around us.
The buildings got smaller, the characters on the facades disappeared.
We drove through forgotten districts. Was that intentional?
Had Neo chosen a route that no system could track?
I sat upright, didn’t dare move, waited for a motorcycle to appear. A voice over a loudspeaker. A sudden stop. I almost wanted it. Nausea turned in my stomach as I looked over at Neo. He was staring forward, jaw working. He was somewhere else, maybe inside some network.
Buildings slid past like faceless figures, and the streets narrowed.
We drove past a fast-food place, then an empty laundromat.
The last remnants of the city. After that, only dim light and dark windows, no people, no signs.
Were we safe? I crossed my legs, uncrossed them, felt pressure in my ears as if the air had changed.
Neo said quietly, almost casually, "I’m in every camera we pass. Deleting us as we drive.”
We kept driving until the road deteriorated beneath us. Eventually, I spotted a faded sign, an arrow with characters I couldn’t read, and the car turned and pulled up at a gas station. A fluorescent buzzed behind the window, throwing a single cone of light across the glass. Someone was inside.
"You should get something,” Neo said.
I hadn’t eaten in hours. My stomach had been growling, but I was certain the tension would stop me swallowing a single bite. Still, I got out.
Neo circled the car in an instant, as if checking no one was nearby.
"It’s better if you wait here,” I said.
"No.”
"Neo, it’s too dangerous. You might . . . stand out.”
Suddenly, he was behind me, his body pressed against my back. His voice was a dark growl at my ear. "I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
Goosebumps rose along my arms as my knees went soft. Heat shot between my legs, even now, even on the run. My body was so broken that his threats still aroused me. Damn it. Why did he do this to me?
A bell chimed as we went in. Inside, the smell of pastry and car tires hung in the air. Neo moved like a predator. His hand hovered above my hip, possessive even without touching. I took two bottles of water, some bread, a pack of instant noodles. Things that wouldn’t draw attention.
Neo paid cash. Where did he get the money from?
The woman behind the counter glanced up, looked at him. Her eyes widened slightly. Had she noticed that he wasn’t quite human? Had she registered the slightly unnatural way he moved? Maybe I was imagining it. The machine dispensed the change too slowly. She placed it on the counter without a word.
Outside, a rough wind was blowing. I shivered. "Did she notice?”
The corners of Neo’s mouth moved. "No. She was . . . taken with me.”
A sharp pain moved through my chest. She’d found him attractive. Of course. What woman wouldn’t? He had built himself as the perfect man.
"If she had noticed . . .” The edge in his voice sent a shiver down my spine.
The thought of what he could do with his superhuman strength sent cold through me.
I stared at the road winding back toward the city.
If I ran now . . . No. We were in the middle of nowhere.
He would catch me anyway, with that body built for hunting, thighs like a sprinter.
"Your pulse is at ninety-five,” he murmured. "You’re thinking about running. Useless. I would find you in every system.”
I held a bottle out to him. He looked at it like it was a symbol of everything that stood between us.
"I don’t need anything,” he said quietly.
His words stung, because they reminded me of what he was. I drank as I climbed back into the car. We started moving again. I felt Neo’s gaze on me, as if he was swearing that no one would ever come near me again. My heart sank.
"You’re worried,” he said. His voice was rough. "I don’t like that.”
"Neo . . .”
"No.” He turned to me. His eyes glowed in the passing lights. "I’m the one who worries. About you. Only you.”
We fell silent again, but the air between us was dense. The way everything feels before a storm. I noticed it in the tension in my shoulders, in the way Neo ignored everything that wasn’t me.
The road stretched endlessly. At the horizon: nothing. No city, no sign of civilization. Eventually, the car turned onto a gravel track, barely a road. The tires crunched. Where were we going? Somewhere no one would look. Somewhere no one could find us.
Then a house appeared out of the darkness. Two windows, a crooked chimney, the facade crumbling, the whole thing crouching low as if trying not to be seen. The car stopped and Neo got out. I followed. The car drove away immediately, tires crunching on gravel, engine fading until it was gone.
The wind was sharper out here. Around us was nothing but abandoned fields and dark scrub. I was alone with Neo. The realization was like a cold hand reaching for my neck. He could do anything to me here. No one would hear me scream. My throat tightened. My body felt electrified. I had to run. Now.
I sprinted straight into the darkness, stumbling over stones and roots. My breath came fast.
"Run, little menace.” Neo’s voice carried across the emptiness.
I gasped. My pulse roared in my ears. I snapped my head toward him.
He was still standing in the same spot, watching me run. The sight sent a chill across every inch of my skin. I faced forward again and ran as if my life depended on it. It might have.
Then the air left my body. Pressure on my ribs. I was yanked back mid-stride and collided with a body. I turned and looked into amber eyes, glowing. God. How had he reached me so fast?
Before I could speak, Neo grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder. I protested, pounded his back with my fists, kicked him. He didn’t even flinch.
"Neo! Put me down,” I screamed.
He walked toward the house without breaking stride. At the door he bent, reached for something, straightened again, effortlessly, as if I weighed nothing. A moment later, I heard the key in the lock.