Love Bites (Or How It Should Have Happened)

The scientist watched his computer intently, pushing up his wire-rimmed glasses with his index finger. The camera feed flickered before splashing across his screen in vibrant color. Pine trees swayed in the wind, needles falling to the ground. Today was the day, the proving day for his work.

On screen, the girl and the boy stood in the middle of the meadow. The breeze blew wisps of the girl's hair around her face, but her eyes remained fixed on the boy, as if she couldn't look away. He, likewise, gazed into her eyes, but retained more animation, raking his hands through his copper-colored hair.

The boy flung his hands down. "Don't you see? It's not safe for you to be around me."

The girl didn't blink, or form an expression of any kind. "It doesn't matter. We're in love."

The left side of the scientist's mouth curled up as the two gazed at each other a moment longer before kissing ravenously. It was a necessary side effect of the experiment.

The boy leaned back, hands up defensively, eyes glinting feverishly. "You don't understand. I could lose control at any moment and kill you."

"It doesn't matter. We're in love." She said this with the same inflection as before.

The boy frowned, creases appearing in his marble forehead. "The idea of a horrifically bloody death doesn't bother you?"

"It doesn't matter. We're in love."

The boy stared at her. She stared back, unblinking.

The scientist swore and began pounding his keyboard. She wasn't supposed to keep repeating the exact phrase, just the sentiment. How had he commanded that incorrectly? He'd programmed out the glitches. He knew he had. Who would have sabotaged this? He gave up and watched, head in hands, as the boy inched closer to the girl, pulling her hair away from her neck to expose the shining metal button at the base of her skull. Hands trembling, the boy pressed the board. Her head split open to reveal a mass of wiring and circuit boards.

The boy stepped back and fell to his knees, looking up at the sky. "Damn you, fiends! She was the only one I ever loved!" The clouds roiled, and thunder cracked as he began sobbing into his hands.

The scientist calmly took remote control of the girl, using a joystick to pivot her, glassy-eyed, so she was facing the boy's back. He pressed a key, and her hand fell off, revealing a sharpened fence post. He smiled, and he pushed the red button on the joystick. The stake shot from the girl's hand and through the boy's back, into his heart. He collapsed, soundlessly, before shriveling into a pile of ash. There was no blood.

The robot blinked as he released it from the remote control. She glanced around, looked at the ground, and saw the ash, and the stake. In the same place, she collapsed, sobbing. "Edward! No! What have I done? I loved you!"

The scientist touched her face on the screen. "I'm sorry, Isabella. It had to be this way." Laughing to himself, he turned in his chair and stood as the head of the department came in.

"Excellent work, Dr. Van Helsing," the woman said. She handed him a tablet PC. "We just need your signature to release certain details of your experiment to the public."

Dr. Van Helsing grinned, and signed. "Certainly, Dr. Meyers. Feel free to embellish to your heart's content."