1. The narrator, an immortal mechanical being created by scientists, seeks death but is unable to die. They intervene to save a woman from being stabbed, killing the attacker. 2. A spectral being appears and tells the narrator they were created to help others. The being shows the narrator visions of their creation in a lab. 3. The narrator comes to accept their purpose is to use their gift of immortality to protect others, like a blind woman they save from attackers. The spectral being approves of their choice to keep living to help others.

1. 1 | P a g e
The ultimate “gift for humanity” is death itself
Though the flesh rots from my bones the gods will not allow me to die. Anubis,
Thanatos, Baron Samedi and countless others have refused to answer my prayers for
death and so I take my vengeance upon the criminals and scum of this earth. As
Sweeney Todd once put it “The lives of the wicked should be made brief; for the rest
of us death will be relief.”
I stare down the alley at a man that is ceaselessly stabbing a woman. The pleasure on
his face as the victim screams is akin to an orgasm. I bellow a howl of disgust that
rattles the walls causing the man to stare in horror as I lunge at him. Ripping his arm
clear from his shoulder, I then proceed to jam the severed limb down his throat
suffocating him until his retching is ceased and his eyes glaze over. Turning my
attentions to the woman giving her a cursory inspection; too much blood has flooded
from her veins, her breathing is laboured. Diagnosis is that there is no way to get her
to help in time. Raising the deceased villain’s knife I slide it across her throat in one
swift movement slicing through the carotid artery in one swift motion. Stepping back
to observe the grizzly scene as I wait for what is to follow.
A sudden movement catches my eye; I turn around as a shadow detaches from the
wall and slides across the ground like some form of liquid onyx rising up into the
form of a man wearing hooded robes that drape his skeletal frame. Cold grey eyes
observing me with the appearance of piercing my very soul. The eyes are the only
feature marking that this being before me is not entirely faceless. The spectre points
at the corpse of the murderer. Something shimmering rises and bursts into flames.
He points at the woman. This time the shimmering that rises out transforms into a
dove and soars away into the night sky. The spectre then turns his attention to me

2. 2 | P a g e
and opens the mouth previously hidden in the shadows of his hood showing a throat
full of blue flames as though a furnace of lost souls blazes deep within him. In a
voice like broken glass on gravel he begins to speak.
“I know what it is you seek but it is beyond your grasp. You were born in a lab not
of woman. You are immortal as you are a soulless being. Many would wish to have
the gift you possess and yet you wish it gone. Think on this, do not foolishly throw
away something so highly prized.”
The spectre raised a skeletal hand and waved it behind him making the air shimmer
and tear revealing a scene from my own past. I saw men in surgical gowns bending
over my lifeless body inserting cogs testing springs. Connecting the clockwork that
would give me life. Another scientist examines a computer screen downloading
knowledge and a digital conscience into my mechanical brain. With a wave of his
hand the image vanished.
“You were created for a purpose do not squander the gift given to you. We shall
meet again.” With this ominous speech the spectre sank back in the earth and
disappeared.
I walk the streets of the night thinking on the words of the mysterious being
eventually coming across a church where a priest was giving some kind of sermon. I
listen as he discusses the idea of man being made in God’s image watching silently
from just inside the doorway before slipping out thinking on those words. If man is
made in God’s image then what am I? A memory slips in from the remains of the
organic portion of brain in my skull. I gasp as I remember my own death; the
coldness spreading over me from an assassin’s blade, to save a stranger in a theatre.
The sound as he yells at the suited men around him to get me to help, the sound of
shots ringing in my ears as the men in suits gun him down and finally fading into
darkness.

3. 3 | P a g e
I stare wide-eyed into the darkness when the strange spectre from the alley
reappeared before me and nods.
“Yes you are not alive and therefore your soul is no longer with you. The man you
saved was an intelligent scientist who saved your body. He rescued you from death
recognising you as a selfless being but you escaped from his lab before he could
explain your purpose. You were given this unnatural gift in order to help others will
you accept it. I will leave you to think on this. When we meet again I will expect
your final answer.” With this he sank once more into the ground leaving me to
ponder on this new development.
I climb up a light post and leap to a nearby rooftop pondering over these events as I
wander along the flesh in my legs steaming as the pistons in my legs work to propel
me across alleyways. I stop when I hear a woman screaming in the night breaking
through my thoughts. I peer over the edge of a rooftop dangling from a chimney as I
peer down and see a group of men chasing after a woman. I watch silently as they
chase her down alley after alley following along the rooftops my gaze locked onto
them waiting for the opportune moment to present itself. When I see them finally
trap the woman in alleyway their eyes glowing brightly with intent as they advance I
throw back my head and howl the noise like thunder breaking in the sky I peer down
watching them look around anxiously starting to back up I leap across the alley my
shadow thrown across them making them gasp looking for the source then howling
again watching as they draw pistols staring up at the sky I drop down behind them
grabbing the man at the rear then jump back up with one bound his scream breaking
off as the bones in his neck crack dropping his corpse behind the group as they start
to gasp and yell shooting wildly I drop in front of them laughing as their bullets
penetrate me green ooze pouring out where blood would have filled anyone else and
charge grabbing one man and tearing him in half then another crushing his head

4. 4 | P a g e
between my powerful hands. I turn to the others my the crimson of my eyes reflected
in their wide eyed stares and growl as I grab one of the three remaining slamming
him into the wall with enough force to make the building quake then turning my
attention to the remaining two I laugh the sound cold and unearthly as I slam their
heads together cracking their skulls. I wait until my mind has calmed and turn to the
woman. She looks at me wide eyed but surprisingly calm. It is then that I realise that
this woman is blind.
‘I saw you coming in a vision, to protect me. I knew that these men would not be my
end.’ She moves forward to touch my face. I step back involuntarily an inexplicable
fear filling me.
‘Do not be afraid,’ she murmurs in a voice like silk gently touching my cheek. ‘I
cannot see you but I am a seer of sorts. I can see the aura around you. You are a good
man.’ I hear a rumbling behind me and turn to see the spectre rising from the earth.
‘Have you reached a decision?’ he asks me quietly in his rumbling voice. ‘Do you
wish to live or would you rather join these pathetic excuses for human beings in the
realm of the dead?’
I open and close my mouth trying to remember how to form words. Then finally I
answer in a quiet hoarse voice:
‘I sought my death but it would be wasteful when it could be better used to help
others. I think my purpose is to protect this woman.’
I look down as her hand slips into mine smiling and then I look back at the spectre.
‘Death can come for me when it is ready but for now I wish to keep this gift to help
others.’
The spectre nods as though this is the answer he had expected all along. Then turns
to the mess I had made lifting his hands and spreading them a large portal of fire
spreading and growing in his hands before stepping back as the portal hovers in the
air then pointing at the mound of corpses. I watch as they rise then disappear into the
portal the flesh searing off their bones as they spiral into the abyss. Then the spectre

5. 5 | P a g e
claps his hands the portal disappearing as though it never was. He turns to me and
nods before turning into a large crow then with a loud caw of farewell the spectre
flew off into the gathering darkness.
I turn to gaze into the milky white eyes of my sightless companion and together we
walk off into the darkness as the sun begins to rise before us glowing with the
promise of a new day.