Link to Part 1:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/13ozznt/jake_doesnt_like_coffee_anymore_part_1/
I feel weak inside on hearing what had happened to Jake. And the conviction: it’s my fault, it’s all my fault. I should’ve never let him go there ….
I try to pull myself together.’Is he … he’s going to be alright?’ Stupid question. She would’ve told me that herself if she knew, at this stage.
I’m not surprised when she doesn’t reply immediately. Then, ‘Well, they don’t rightly know yet. He’s in the hospital, of course ….’
When she finally rings off a few minutes later, I just sit for a while, feeling numb.
Update.
Well, actually, it’s good news.
Jake’s woken up, after just three days, and as far as the doctors can tell, he seems to be OK. Still groggy, of course, but he remembers who he is, his friends and family and work and all that stuff. In fact the doctors are optimistic that he’ll make a complete recovery, after some rest.
Great news.
So, why do I still feel so uneasy?
In fact, so uneasy that I don’t even go to see him in the hospital. Pretty awful of me, right?
But when Lucie suggests we can go together, in her car, I decline, so quickly that she looks at me at first curiously, then a little suspiciously.
‘What’s up?’
Really, I’m hopeless at covering for myself. ‘Nothing. I mean, I just … don’t feel so great. Just everything that’s happened lately, I would be pretty lousy company.’ I end off with a lame laugh that grates on my own ears. For Christ sake, you could’ve managed a bit less clumsily than that.
She continues to look at me for a bit, but thankfully doesn’t press me any further. She brings back a glowing report of how well Jake’s doing, that he’s likely to be out in the next day or two, although with some continuing observation for any lingering ill-effects. As to what actually happened, other than it was electrical in nature, they don’t seem quite to know. Still investigating. Jake doesn’t remember himself, apparently, and maybe he never will.
Everyone else is pleased, naturally, at Jake’s progress, but I’m still not reassured. I don’t know why. Those emails and things really have been messing with my head.
‘He really is doing well, then.’ I try not to make it sound too much like a question.
‘Oh yes,’ Lucie replies brightly. ‘Although,’ she adds, ‘it’ll probably take a while to get fully back to normal.’
I look at her. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
She looks surprised at my sudden. sharp tone. ‘Why .. it doesn’t mean anything much, maybe.’
‘There’s something you’re not telling us?’ Thank goodness, Brandon’s asked the question so I don’t have to.
She shakes her head, doubtfully. ‘Maybe with a bit more time he’ll …’ She pauses. ‘It’s just that - well, Evelyn (his girlfriend) was leaving just as I was going in, and, well, she was rather upset. He didn’t ..’ Again, she hesitates.
‘Recognize her?’ Brandon puts in helpfully.
Lucie looks away for a moment. ‘Apparently, he’d just dumped her.’
This news about Evelyn sets off all my fears anew. More than ever, I don’t want to go to see him.
And I’m not looking forward to seeing him back at work, although that shouldn’t be for a few weeks yet.
But, actually, he’s back before the end of the week.
And there’s no doubt now that he has changed. I mean, his personality. In other ways he’s fine, perhaps even better, I mean in terms of work performance and all, but even the more unobservant types in the room are talking about how he just doesn’t seem his old self. He’s become - distant, not the friendly helpful person he once was.
Except to me.
He’s become way too friendly to me.
I notice he’s stopped calling me Lis, though. He just uses my full name now. And he’s always at my desk asking me out. Not in a terribly serious, I’ve-fallen-hopelessly-in-love-with-you kind of way, just to lunch and stuff. A few weeks ago, that would’ve suited me, but now it - well, it almost scares me. it feels somehow - unnatural. But he’s so insistent, and with poor Evelyn apparently now well out of the picture, I finally accept his offer just to go out to lunch, just the two of us. It’ll be fine, right? In a public place and all. Maybe I shouldn’t’ve caved in, but I tell myself that it’s just this one time. I won’t accept again, if he keeps it up.
Now, you probably think that’s pretty odd reasoning on my part. To tell you the truth, I think it’s more curiosity, just to see how exactly he’ll behave when it’s just the two of us. Anyway, it’s going ahead. I feel it’s something I have to get to the bottom of, really. All mixed up with those crazy emails and the old office and …..
Oh yes, I forgot to mention it. The emails have stopped. They stopped right after Jake’s accident. And he’s never mentioned them again either. Of course that’s not surprising after what he’s been through, but it all adds to my uneasiness, my growing fears. I feel it’s all connected in some way.
We don’t go anywhere special for lunch. I was expecting him to opt for a coffee place, but he doesn’t. We just go into this small soup-and-sandwiches place, which always does the business. I was sure Jake had been here before, but he doesn’t seem to remember. At least he doesn’t object to actually ordering from the menu, as I’d half-expected. But then, when our orders come, he barely touches his.
‘Not hungry?’ I ask. He just shrugs.
I smile at him, encouragingly. ‘Well, you’ll have coffee anyway, right?’ He’d always been known as a coffee nut, but maybe that’s another facet of his personality that’s changed. Come to think of it, I hadn’t actually seen him with the stuff in the office the past week.
‘I don’t drink coffee - as a rule.’
I feel a sudden chill.
‘Since when?’ I try to make it sound casual.
He looks straight at me. Those eyes … his eyes sure have changed. I mean, the expression ….
‘I’ve never liked it.’
I try to laugh it off. ‘Oh c’mon, we both know that’s not true -‘ Suddenly I dry up. The email, that damned email, about coffee. Sharing a coffee. It comes rushing back into my mind with full force.
He doesn’t seem to hear me.
‘I have had it - more than once,’ he says, slowly. ‘Not just with you. It was never my choice, though. I don’t know how you -‘ he seems to catch himself. ‘I don’t know how you can like it. I don’t know how any of you can like it.’
At last the fear, all at once, takes terrifyingly clear shape. This can’t be happening, not in real life. It’s - absurd. I almost laugh out loud. Yes, it’s absurd, that’s what it really is. But I remember that corner of the old office where my workstation was and where, apparently, he’d been found after the accident, I remember the coffee I used to drink there, and once when it spilled over the keyboard -
Well, it all ties in, in an impossibly weird and wonderful way. Or maybe I’m just losing whatever sanity I’ve ever had. After all, on the face of it, it’s just some goddammed small talk about coffee.
‘Actually, I’ve had more than my fair share,’ he goes on, reprovingly. ‘You lot can be so careless, you know.’
I draw in my breath.
‘You mean, us humans?’ The words seem to come unbidden, surprising me far more than him.
He looks coolly back at me. ‘You office workers, anyhow.’
Are we really having this conversation, seated at the most ordinary table at the most ordinary of lunchtime eateries? Do we really understand each other? Or are we just talking at cross-purposes? I glance around. The place is buzzing at this hour, at least no-one’s taking any notice of us.
I take a deep breath. I feel now that now I’ve begun, I have to keep digging. Have to see this through.
‘It was you, wasn’t it? Those emails?’ I look him straight in the eye. I can’t believe I’m doing this. And I’m not addressing Jake. Not the old, real Jake.
He smiles. ‘The ultimate cyber-stalker.’
I feel as I should be totally having a nervous breakdown by now, but somehow I’m not. ‘But why me? And why take over Jake?’ Even as I say it, I know damn well why.
‘He was starting to get too close for comfort. Too close to you. So I took the chance when I could. It was on impulse, actually. I never planned it.’ As if that made it any better. ‘But it works better this way - don’t you think?’
Somehow, I still manage keep it together. ‘Why me?’ I ask again.
He smiles again, without warmth, without mirth. ‘You were lonely, Alicia. I could sense that. But you were happy to be with me.’
True, I did use to bury myself in my work, but - God, I had never expected an outcome like this. Who ever would?
He’s staring intently at me now. Demanding. Demanding some kind of response.
What do I say? I’ve never had to try to turn off a guy like this before.
Oh god. What a choice of words. Turn off ….
I just manage to keep down the rising hysteria.
He smiles again. ‘No, you can’t turn me off. No-one can anymore.’
And with that he takes my hand.
I close my eyes. I can feel the electricity in the air alright. Oh god, what am I doing? Why am I letting myself be sucked into his madness? Why am I playing along, making it worse? He’s just Jake, it’s just the turn he had after the accident, it’ll take a while to get back to normal …. he ought to go back for another check-up, he was discharged too soon …. Shit. Even the word ‘discharged’ is taking on another meaning.
With an almighty effort, I manage to snap out of the swirling confusion. It’s like I’ve just opened my eyes after heavy sleep. It’s still the same situation though. The lunchtime table, the steady hum of the lunch crowd. And I still feel the pressure of his hand on mine.
I jerk my hand back. ‘I’m sorry. You know - you know it couldn’t really work, even now ….’
I see the first, faint flicker in his eyes. ‘Why not?’
‘It - it just - couldn’t,’ I repeat feebly.
His eyes bore into me for a moment, expressionless once more.
And then he gets up and leaves. Just walks out, leaving me with two orders that are going to spoil. Not to mention the entire bill.
For a few moments I sit there, stupefied.
Finally, I come to. It’s a lady looking at me out of the corner of her eye from the next table that does it. I can’t go on sitting there like a zombie even if my date has stormed out on me following a surreal, if not downright bizarre, conversation. Because, essentially, that is just what happened, isn’t it?
I pull out my phone, call work. I try to explain the bare facts of the situation as briefly as I can, that I had met with Jake for lunch, but he was acting kind of weird and just left abruptly, and that I’m feeling shaken up and probably won’t make it in for the rest of the day. Of course they already know that things have not seemed altogether right with him after the accident, and they’re quite accommodating. They also agree it’s probably best if he could be persuaded to go back for another, full medical check-up.
Lucie calls me later in the day to ask how I’m feeling and to inform me that Jake never turned up at the office that afternoon, either. No responses to any texts or calls.
I don’t know what to think.
What the fuck really happened? Did I really manage to persuade myself that I was talking to the - well, the spirit of my old work computer, or something, through Jake? Why the hell would a damned AI become infatuated with me? With any human? Especially at work? Talk about messed up.
This isn’t some old sci-fi yarn - is it?
And, more importantly, what’s Jake going to do now? Disappear in an almighty huff, or turn into a proper stalker, trying to break down my door and coming after me with a hatchet? Shouldn’t I try to get a restraining order, or something?
But he hasn’t actually done anything, yet ….
I can only hope that, somehow, he will revert to his old self.
Update.
I’ve taken some sick leave, but I don’t just mope at home the way I used to before all this crazy shit started. I try to have people around me as much as possible, and still for my own safety, although at least there have been no more emails.
And Jake seems to have disappeared.
At any rate, he’s not been seen or heard from in the last few days. People are becoming concerned, alright, wondering what might’ve happened to him, or what he might do - in view of the change in him since the accident. I’ve had to talk to the police, but I certainly didn’t tell them of my real suspicions. I don’t want to be hauled off for some sort of psychiatric evaluation, or something. Although, with the way things are going, it probably will come to that in the end. I’ve not really been able to confide properly in anyone else either. It’s not easy to break the habits of a lifetime.
And I’m too busy wrestling with myself, in any case. Because, if I’m totally honest, there are times when I don’t even know what I want him to do anymore.
After all, whatever else might have happened, he still is Jake physically, right? Not really such a bad deal when you come to think of it, even if he’s become - erratic. And maybe, just maybe I could help him with whatever he’s going through? Although I fucked up on our lunch-date alright, but given another chance …?
I’m just deceiving myself, aren’t I?
But I have to admit I never really felt an electric spark with anyone else.
Maybe I’ve just become crazy like he has.
What do I do?