October 26, 2015.
SPOOKTOBER STORY #20:
The human-flesh devouring robot from the future (disguised as a regular human) is chewing on a ricotta ravioli and thinking "This is the nicest date I've ever been on," right as the first alert comes in, flashing mildly in the lower right of his cone of vision.
CORE TEMPERATURE RISING. DEVOUR HUMAN FLESH TO AVOID OVERHEATING.
The robot disguised as a regular human frowns. This is very bad timing.
"Is something wrong?" Megan asks him. Her eyes are intelligent and robin's egg blue. During their conversation about beekeeping, before the food came, the human-flesh devouring robot noticed that when she gets excited she brushes her strawberry blonde hair repeatedly behind her right ear. A piece of chicken is suspended on her fork as she reads his face. She looks worried. The robot realizes it is because he's frowning. He stops frowning and smiles instead.
"Oh, no! I got a piece of spinach in my teeth. I'm having a really nice night. I mean, time. Also a nice night, though."
"Me too," she says, and pops the piece of chicken in her mouth.
CORE TEMPERATURE RISING. DEVOUR HUMAN FLESH TO AVOID OVERHEATING.
"Excuse me, I'm going to go deal with this, uh..."
"Spinach situation?"
"Spinach situation. Pardon me."
The robot stands and walks through a small hallway into the men's room. There's no attendant, which is good. There are no other humans to eat, though, which is bad. The temperature alert is flashing more urgently now. He is getting pretty worried, if he doesn't eat a human in the next five minutes he will probably burst into flames and that will not only ruin his date with Megan but it will also kill him dead.
CORE TEMPERATURE RISING. DEVOUR HUMAN FLESH TO AVOID OVERHEATING.
He decides to perch on the counter, out of sight of the door, and dive on the first person to walk through it. He could run outside and gobble up the maître d' in full view of the house, but that would ruin his chances with Megan, and the robot is having a really nice time talking to her. She could be the one, he thinks, and smiles despite the increasingly anxious warnings in his visual display.
Minutes pass. No one enters the bathroom. The alert changes, flashing hugely, nearly blinding him:
CORE MELTODOWN IMMINENT! DEVOUR HUMAN FLESH IMMEDIATELY!
He sighs and climbs down off the counter. Why did he ever think he could live a normal life, maybe meet someone nice, compartmentalize his need to devour human flesh and live simply with a woman like Megan? Once she sees him murder and eat the maître d', that is going to be that. No more hope for a normal life.
Suddenly, the door bangs open. It's Megan, tears streaming down her face. He reels in surprise. "Megan, what's wrong?"
CORE MELTDOWN IMMINENT! DEVOUR HUMAN FLESH IMMEDIATELY!
"There's something I have to tell you, and I'm so sorry, I wish to God that things were different," she gasps out. "See, the thing is: I'm actually a robot from the future, and I have to devour human flesh in order to keep from overheating. This wasn't supposed to- I was really having a nice time tonight, but I have to..."
She embraces him tenderly and unhinges her jaw to chomp down on his neck. Her teeth sink through soft flesh and muscle, and clink against his steel-reinforced robot skeleton.
Understanding washes over Megan's and she looks up at the robot disguised as a human, tears starting to trickle down his cheeks as well.
"I was having a really nice time tonight too," he says, as they burst into flame.