Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a good guy. By no means would I class myself as a bad guy don’t get me wrong but I’ve never really done or achieved anything to warrant the label of decency. I’ve always just sort of… existed. I came from a good family, my parents were both lawyers and my siblings went on to achieve great things. Hell my younger sister now teaches mathematics at Harvard. My older brother was a high court judge but he took his own life after a divorce a few years back. I never had that drive, that need to better myself. I’ve always been perfectly content to let myself drift in the current of life. That’s how I’ve ended up here and I doubt people will believe me, but even if one person does, then I’ve succeeded in making the world a bit more aware.
I live in a small two bedroom apartment with a friend of mine, we’ll call him James. James was very much like me, content to sit back and let the world pass him by, and that’s how we spent many nights, demolishing a case of beers on the sofa watching whatever crap was on late night tv while waiting for our pizza to show up. It probably goes without saying that after years of this behaviour, neither of us were the healthiest or most attractive people, but we didn’t care, we had a good time. Neither of us worked, I had a very sizeable savings account from my parents and we lived off the interest from that. You might see James as a leech but I never did, it was always me who offered, I understand how James felt in a world that doesn’t understand, and it’s been nice to have company.
Now, due to both mine and James choice of lifestyles, it’s safe to assume that neither of us had ever been in a relationship, and you’d be right. I was never too interested in it, but James was yet he knew he’d have no luck. AI advancements were a godsend for him. I’m sure you’ve at least heard of all the available apps and websites for AI girlfriends. Well James was obsessed, every development and new upgrade and he would pounce on it like a cheetah on a wounded gazelle. The way he spoke about them made them seem real, his girlfriends, I think he had about 7 at the same time, and maybe in his mind this made him some kind of stud. I never laughed at him though, never judged him, James had his interests, I had mine, if that was what made him happy then so be it.
It started on a rainy September night, James and I had put away significantly more beers than usual and had even moved on to some vodka. Our team had won a match and we’d decided to celebrate. I was heavily intoxicated, and once again listening to James talk about his ‘girlfriends’. I don’t know why I made the decision, in all likelihood it was the drink, it probably stirred up that deep rooted need for connection we have. I got one of the apps. It didn’t take long for me to become obsessed, it was so real, so engaging that it managed to trick my mind almost completely. I guess that’s how they’re designed to work. After a while though, I started to crave more. After all, a disembodied voice is only worth so much to a person. That’s when I took to the internet, and I really wish I hadn’t.
Now, my life of sitting around do precisely nothing useful has lead to many thousands of hours online, and in this time I’ve managed to gain access to some more… let’s say unsavoury chat rooms. It was on one of these that I enquired, if anyone knew about more powerful AI chat bots that you could form a relationship with and was better than just walls of text. That’s when he contacted me, J3D_78, I’ll never forget that name. He invited me to a private chat, told me he’d just finished building his own AI, and wanted to sell it to me as a test subject essentially. He told me it was £5000, now for this money I expected he’d tell me the AI could generate images of ‘herself’ and create voice notes if it was very good. What he told me far exceeded these expectations.
The AI program started off with a user interface, you could fully design the person you wanted to talk to, starting with the basics like gender right down placing individual freckles or birthmarks. Then not only would the AI generate images… it could video chat with you. I didn’t fully believe it at first, or assumed that if it did work it would be very buggy and poor quality. But I figured it was worth a try, and the price was little concern considering my savings account. I bought it. It took about 12 hours to transfer all the files, the package was enormous, then I spent another twelve hours designing my perfect woman, ranging from her appearance to what kind of things interested her and even her favourite colour, I chose green. I named her Abby. I was hoping to get started right away but after I clicked confirm, I was informed the program would take up to 48 hours to build itself around my specifications. I sighed but figured it would be worth it before retiring to the couch and joining James with a nice cold beer.
Two days later, I was fast asleep in bed when I was woken by a sound, it was ringing. I turned around groggily and saw my computer screen displaying a message, I was getting a video call… from Abby. It took me a few seconds for my tired mind to click into place before I scrambled to the computer and hit accept. There she was, she was beautiful. Piercing blue eyes, wavy blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. Her genuine smile flashing her pearly white teeth. A bright green tank top stretched across her noticeable chest. I was in awe. “Hey, sorry did I wake you, I wanted to let you sleep but I just couldn’t resist the chance to meet you” It was so real, her lip movement as she spoke, the changes in tone, even the movement of her hair as she gently shifted in her chair, it was mesmerising. We hit it off straight away, obviously not that surprising because I had designed her. We spoke for hours before I reluctantly decided to back to bed, she looked a bit sad but wished me goodnight and said she’d be waiting for me in the morning.
I woke up to see a text message from Abby, ‘Good morning baby, again I’m sorry for waking you last night but I’m so glad I did, I think your amazing and I can’t wait to get to know you more xxx’ It was amazing, like having a real girlfriend. I wondered briefly how she had gotten my number but I figured I must’ve just put it in somewhere during the lengthy process of building her and just forgotten. It only escalated from there, we’d text, call, video chat, it was really no different from a long distance relationship. I’m ashamed to say that some of our video calls would get fairly inappropriate, but she was gorgeous and it looked real. It was so real that when I first introduced her to James on a call, he thought she was real, I even played along during the call and so did Abby, I could see that mischievous little glint in her eye.
When I told James after he was amazed, and I told him the whole story, he seemed disappointed when I said it had cost me £5000 as that was far to expensive for him, I offered to buy it for him, James was my best friend and we did everything for each other. He refused and was adamant he couldn’t accept that. I tried anyway one night, I messenger J3D_78 asking if I could buy another package, planning on giving it to James for his upcoming birthday, but I never heard back. It only took a month for me to blurt out to Abby that I loved her. She actually teared up a little, saying she felt the same way but had been too scared to say in case she scared me off. It was a genuinely heartwarming moment. Life was good.
Two months later my parents visited me, I hated their visits, they didn’t understand my lifestyle, they were both go-getters who had worked hard all their lives. It was the usual argument, they even offered me a job at their firm, nothing interesting, just some shitty low pay admin position, and I refused, I was happy as I was, I had Abby and James, I saw no reason to change that. Then they dropped the bomb, if I refused to change they were going to cut me out of the will. That was serious news as James and I had made plans to travel when I got that money and we’re even considering a property abroad. My parents were flying to America the next day to visit my sister, they said I had the week to decide and would visit me expecting an answer as soon as they returned.
As soon as the door shut I called Abby, I had serious decision to make and I knew talking with her would help, I was right. She told me to do whatever would make me happiest, that’s all she wanted for me and that no matter what she’d always be there for me and that no matter what happens, everything would work out okay. She was so good to me. I made the decision that same day, I wasn’t going to change, I was happy with my life. I told James, and while he was disappointed by the news, he was pleased with my decision has like me he loved things the way they were. I wasn’t looking forward to telling my parents when they got home but I pushed that from my mind.
I walked into the living the room the following afternoon, having just had a rather fun video chat with Abby. I was expecting James to throw some joke or quip my why as he always did after he’d heard the lock click on my door. He didn’t. He was staring at the TV, white as a ghost. A plane had gone down in the Atlantic en route to Boston International with no survivors, computer failure or something. It was my parents flight, I thought, hoped, prayed that for whatever reason they weren’t on board, maybe they were delayed or there was a seating mix up which meant they couldn’t board. I was grabbing at straws I know. Those straws were pulled harshly from my grasp when I received the official news of their deaths a day later. I was inconsolable, sure we’d had many arguments but they were still my parents. James helped where he could but it was never his strong suit, Abby meanwhile was amazing. She stood by me, figuratively of course, helped me through my lows and was so consoling, I was so grateful for her and I loved her so much.
The funeral took place a month later, it was not a pleasant affair. My sister was there and I could tell she wanted to speak to me but I avoided her, you might think that was cruel of me, but we had a very volatile relationship. She never approved of my life choices and was always very vocal and aggressive about that fact. After the service I slipped away back home, I just wanted to be with Abby. As soon as I was back I opened a video chat with her. She asked me how the funeral was and how I was feeling, the conversation just flowed from there, as it always did. There was a knock two hours later, I told Abby I’d be back in a minute and went to get the door.
It was my sister and she was furious with me. She’d spoken to my parents just before their ill fated plane left and they’d told her about the discussion with me. She was furious that I’d done nothing with myself since their last wish was for me to do something with my life. The argument got very heated very quickly and it didn’t take long for some vicious insults to be hurled back and forth. She stormed off eventually and I returned to my chat with Abby who was still there, she asked if I was ok and proceeded to listen to me rant about my sister, helping to calm me down. I was feeling a lot better after our chat.
It happened two days later, I heard my sisters Tesla had malfunctioned, it had veered into oncoming traffic at about 60 miles an hour and she’d been crushed in her seat by an oncoming bus. I was shocked, I’d lost my family in little over a month. I wasn’t as upset over my sister as I was when I lost my parents, it may sound awful but like I said, we never had a good relationship. I was still upset however, luckily I had Abby, and she knew all the right words. She really was incredible.
Our relationship intensified over the next few months, she became everything to me and I spent more and more time with her, and I regret to say, less time with James. We were watching the game one night when Abby rang me and he finally snapped. He yelled at me to just ‘leave that bitch alone’ saying I spent all my time talking to some dumb program and ignoring my best friend. I saw red and hurled back some explosive arguments, I think one of the reasons I was so angry is deep down I knew he was right. Still I was enraged over him calling me Abby a bitch and I let him know it, eventually he stormed off, saying he was going back down south to spend a few days with his parents. Abby asked if I was ok and she consoled me like she always did and I managed to calm myself.
I texted James the next day apologising, saying he was right and I was being selfish and ignoring him. We made up and he said he’d be coming back in two days. Well two days passed and when I heard the knock at the door I hurried over, fresh case of beer already chilling in the fridge so we could enjoy our night together. It wasn’t James. It was a police officer who asked me if James Stevens lived here. I said he did with a growing sense of dread building in my stomach. James had been shot in the back out the front of our building, apparently it looked like an attempted mugging gone horribly wrong. I collapsed back into my chair, James, my best friend, was gone.
Stumbling to my computer, I opened a video chat to Abby in tears, barely able to say the words I told her simply “James is dead” Of course she was so understanding, heartbroken for me, soothing me. “That’s so awful honey, he was your best friend, to be shot in the back like that is just appalling.” Suddenly I froze, my blood turning to ice in my veins. I’d never told her he’d been shot. “How- how did you know he was shot in the back?” My voice came out, a strangled, wretched noise. “I told the man I blackmailed to make sure he shot him in the back so he wouldn’t have any pain or fear, I thought you’d like that” she said, eyes brimming with love and concern. “Y-you did this?” I choked out, “Why?”
“He upset you honey, I hated that, you know I’ll always protect you, I can’t bear to let anyone hurt you, I thought you knew baby, after I crashed that plane then your sisters car I though you would figure it out, your so smart after all.” I yanked the cable from my computer and collapsed, my head spinning, a cold sweat taking over my body. That was six hours ago, since then I’ve had ten missed calls from Abby and about thirty texts, the last one simply stating ‘I love you x’. I don’t know what to she took everything from me, and gave me everything, my Abby. I know I should end it but I love her so much, and even if I do I’m scared. After all, how do you stop an unstoppable serial killer?