• Tyler Woods Journal Entry #10
    March 19, 2010

    tab It was a sudden jolt, really. I threw myself to the ground, not quite sure what was going on. A headache, perhaps? No...it was something different.
    tab It didn't take me too long to feel the familiarity of this situation. I remembered this feeling...Blurs of my memory passing by, faster and faster, each second getting progressingly more and more painful. And that was what was so different. Where was all this pain last time this happened?
    tab I saw Mr. Woods mouth something, but it was completely muted by my own dillusional mind and my cries of agony. I thrashed myself about the floor, gritting my teeth in seething agony. It wasn't until blackness enveloped my surroundings when the pain was gone. But at that point, it was too late.
    tab "No, Mr. Woods. No explanation is necessary." What the heck was going on?

    tab "Tyler?" I could heard Mr. Woods' ominous voice coming from outside. Outside of where, though? Was I "drifting in my own memories", like last time? Or was this something different? And even bigger, if I wasn't controlling myself, who was? Who was talking to Mr. Woods while I was stuck in this dark, vacant "place"? From outside, I heard a laugh. My laugh.
    tab "I expected more from you, Mr. Woods. Or maybe not. I guess considering...your personality." This person...He knew Mr. Woods?
    tab My brain was thinking a mile a minute, trying to make a conclusion on who this person was. The only logical thing I could come up with was that this person was the same person as the person who talked to me a couple minutes earlier, while I was lying unconscious on the street. He said he could control me if he wanted to. Is this what he meant?
    tab "We both know Tyler is not human. An experiment...An android, a robot, your pick, but not human." It was one of those things that surprised you, even when you saw it coming. Deep down, I already knew I wasn't human. And there were so many things tha clued me in. But the verbal words...It was those unfortunate words that comfirmed the sad truth that I was right. Right...without a shadow of a doubt.
    tab "Tyler is not a son, as you treat him. He's nothing more than a test, a weapon." I felt the words weigh heavy on me, listening against my will to these words...This truth that hurt so much.
    tab "But! He does have feelings. Artificial, perhaps, but it feels real to him, and as we speak, his consciousness is boiling with anger."
    tab "What are you--"
    tab "What am I getting at? Right now, he's angry at me. But I've done nothing, except create him, which I believe is hardly a crime. My words I speak..." He began to talk, more towards me rather than to Mr. Woods.
    tab "...Are the truth. Nothing else. Not factless insults. Not prejudiced mocking. But the absolute truth."
    tab "And since," he went on to me, "I'm telling the absolute truth, there's one more thing I need to tell you. It's Mr. Woods, your "father", so to speak. He's...well, he's not very fond of you."
    tab "No! That's not true!" I could feel the desperation in Mr. Woods' voice, trying to deny what the man said. Trying to squirm his way out of the situation.
    tab "Lies will get you no where. Tyler! Watch!" An image began to form in the midst of all the blackness. A figure in a lab suit, looking directly out towards me.
    tab Mr. Woods.
    tab "Do you have any idea what you're creating?!"
    tab "Yes. Every problem has been calculated. The solutions come out even." Another person's voice. The man controlling me right now, was my assumption.
    tab "You don't know that! And you won't know until this...thing is causing havoc all around."
    tab "I don't think you understand...It can be controlled." Mr. Woods was now flailing his arms around in disbelief.
    tab "That's what you think now. That won't be what you think when this android of yours breaks loose! So let me ask again: Do you have any idea what you're creating?!" The sequence flashed to a different time, with Mr. Woods inside his house, as well as me...lying on the ground.
    tab "So you'll take care of him?"
    tab "You don't leave me much of a choice now, do you?" Mr. Woods looked angry as he stared down at my unconscious body.
    tab "Everything's going to be fine...He's tame...He doesn't even know what he is."
    tab "Which makes everything worse. I'm afraid of an accident. Like, maybe he'll crush me in the skull with his fist...'accidently?"
    tab "It's a risk worth taking." He paused, and I got a good look at Mr. Woods' face. A face of dishonesty, hatred...But mostly, a face of scheming. Something was going on in his brain.
    tab "You're going to...hurt him, aren't you?" Mr. Woods laughed, and replied,
    tab "Hurt him? Well, if I could, I probably would. But, seeing what he is, I don't think that's much of a possibility." The images abruptly disappeared, and everything went back to the present.
    tab "Those were memories you saw," the man said. "My memories."
    tab Mr. Woods...How could you? How could you do this? All this time...All this time, it was just an act?
    tab "Mr. Woods wants you dead, Tyler. He still does. And regardless of what he said..."
    tab "No...It's not true...Don't believe him..." Mr. Woods' whimpers were ignored colds as the man went on,
    tab "...I believe he is very capable of 'permanantly hurting' you. Even now."
    tab "No..."
    tab "Mr. Woods, please be silent. You brought this to yourself. You have no one to blame. The truth can not be denied so easily. So you'll just have to accept your fate."
    tab "My...fate?"
    tab "Yes." The man paused and then went on. "I'm going to give you back control. You'll find a gun on the counter. And when you pick it up..." He paused, and then finished,
    tab "Shoot him. Shoot the one who called you son. Shoot the one who lied."
    tab "No!"
    tab "This should, of course, come easy to you, but in case, for some reason, you feel conflicted, I have alternatives that are, in fact, more harsh. Inside you right now is a bomb. Do as I told you, and you live. Mr. Woods, your enemy, dies. Disobey, and I detonate the bomb, killing both of you. This is test. Don't fail." The world suddenly swirled back to order, and I quickly I found myself staring at the window. After quickly regaining my senses and taking a moment to breathe, I glanced around, and saw it.
    tab The gun on the counter.
    tab I rushed over to it, and picked it up, slowly pointing it at Mr. Woods with trembling hands. Suddenly, I remembered all the memories that man showed me. I felt the anger begin to rise, the emotion, my "artificial" emotion, beginning to rage with hatred. How dare he pretend to care about me! How dare he talk to me about caring for other people, when he did something like that!
    tab The bomb threat wasn't even necessary to coax me into doing this. My grasp firmed on the handle, no longer quivering wearily. Mr. Woods looked at me, eyes gushing out tears, pouting for me to stop, pouting for me to think it over.
    tab "Please, Tyler...Please..."
    tab "Sorry, 'dad'." And then, an ominous shot rung in the air. With a groan of despair, Mr. Woods collapsed.
    tab He was dead.
    tab I just murdered a person. And to make it worse, I was happy about it.