This is a short glimpse of the “Muse at Work” inspired by a pic provided by YAFF (YoungAdultFictionFanatics):

The Gears of Time

Traci Kenworth

My creator had left me here to be pulverized. I stared at the flesh overlaid on one cyborg hand. Once I had been needed. Loved even. Now, I was no more than a network of parts, discarded. True, my fall from grace hadn’t happened quickly or easily for him but when he walked away, he hadn’t looked back. It was like he figured I was just a dandelion in the wind. I blinked. But, I was more than that. And I intended to show him. So what if society had outlawed my kind? He could’ve fought harder, hid me even. To just let go—

I shifted on the hammock. Well, I couldn’t accept that.

My perfect vision peered through the walls of junk built around me and settled on the gears of some long forgotten clock. He’d wish he could turn that back before I was done. I heard the grind of the machines chewing up and spitting out blocks of useless things. Soon, they would reach me. Move feet. Carry me away from here. Why don’t you listen? Have you ceased to know how? Hurry. The commands refused to process. Had he damaged me somehow without me realizing it? He said he was doing this for my own good. I no longer believed that. It was all her idea.

 She’d been part of the team that decided my kind had to go. It hadn’t taken much more than a flick of her hair, a touch of her skin, a kiss to break him of his resolve. Oh, why couldn’t I curl my hand? Had all the basic information been deleted from my body? Dangerous, that’s what she’d called me. I was an opportunity to turn his back on humanity. Instead, he’d chosen them. Well, he’d be sorry. Oh, yes, he would. Boys and their toys were hard to separate. And this toy would prove that truth.

The compacters came closer, their hunger for my crushed existence insatiable.

Uncross your legs. Get up. Zip past all this. Sweat slipped down my brow. I could taste blood swelling in my mouth as the mass around me pressed in. Why hadn’t he turned off my intelligence all together before he left? Had he—wanted me to feel pain? Surely, he hadn’t been malicious by leaving me turned on? Or had she wanted that? I remembered the curl of her lips while she took in my appearance. I’d been blonde like her. Soft-skinned. A hint of color. My eyes were blue unlike her green. While my fingernails had been kept clipped, hers had grown long. Her nose had been smaller than mine, more designed.

More leftovers sunk into the jaws of destruction.

Break these damned high-heels he liked off. Roll down this swamp of metal. Freedom waited. Go. Still, the directions wouldn’t compute. It wouldn’t be long now. Those teeth would close around me and I’d be—gone. Erased. Forever. No. I wouldn’t let him forget me. I wouldn’t let her destroy me so easily. Deep within me, my motherboard hummed to life. I slipped down the pile of garbage, my hands gathering beneath to push me to my feet. The garish sight of braces shone through my peeled lips. Time for a visit to him and her. Afterward, well, the gears of time would take me where fate wanted. For now, it was enough I was reborn.

The End

 Photo Credit: Amber Jade Rain

Other YAFF authors with stories:

Rebekah Purdy