James' heart throbbed painfully, and he stopped right at the door at the last second. Just as he suspected, the family was beginning to hate him. James hesitated for a minute before opening the door, but the noisy squeak from the door hinges indicated his arrival.
"I'm sure that devil is here. Just look at him walking majestically like he owns the world".
The voices from Esther kept agonizing James as he passed the sitting room where Esther was sitting and using her smartphone and headed to his room. She glared at James as he made his way to his room. James closed the door and wanted to cry but laughed unexpectedly.
He did not laugh intentionally, he was only laughing at himself. "If I told my past self that this was how his life would turn out, he might find it impossible," James said to his reflection in his small mirror. He removed his uniform and neatly placed it on the hanger, before placing it inside his wardrobe.
James then took out two clean pairs of casual wear and wore them and proceeded to his desk. He opened his laptop and started learning deep aspects of coding.
"One day, just one day, I'll be able to build a company that would be building intelligent android," James said, oblivious of the dark irony behind that statement.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
"You know what, let me not force this robot to do impossible things, let me put simple commands as a starter" James decided after giving it a long thought. He took out the robot from under the desk and onto his table, then plugged it into his PC and began writing some code to the robot's chip.
James did not do anything much, except programming it to do simple tasks, such as detecting and picking up trash, fetching him drinking water, and recognizing his voice and face.
As expected, the process went flawlessly. The robot beeped to life and positioned his camera eyes to look at James' face.
"Identifying face… face identified and stored successfully, see logs…"
Identifying voice… please say the word 'hi robot'"
James said the words, and the robot beeped, receiving the words and processing them, before the blinking blue light on the side of the body turned green, an indication that the process was successful.
James then tested the robot "Robot, pick up the trash" he said, and the robot beeped and began to move slowly and clumsily to detect any trash and pick them. James smiled and focused on his screen to continue learning to code.
The time was 4 pm, and James began hearing noises from inside the sitting room. James stood up from his chair and peeped in the keyhole. He saw Martha with a grocery bag and the three kids coming into the sitting room. The kids were playing with each other while Martha approached Esther and said a few words to her.
James did not want to do this, but he felt the urge to turn on his telepathy to hear Martha's thoughts. The ones Esther had said had hurt him so much, but now he was scared at what Martha was going to say in her mind.
The moment he turned on his telepathy, the next thing he heard nearly broke his heart to pieces.
"How did he beat me here? Shit! I would have taken him to the school that was 10 kilometres from here and left him" Martha thought in frustration.
Martha had finally decided in her mind that she was going to prioritize her family over a kid. This kid had caused her so much trouble, even to the point of losing the home she married John on. She held a bitter grudged against James, so they tried all means to get rid of him.
So, what? what if these people take him and eventually kill him? People die every day, so an insignificant kid does not matter that much to the population, but her family do. Sometimes she cursed her sister for leaving her alone with this wretched kid. If she had known, she would have put James in an orphanage.
James heard every single thing Martha had just said, and his emotions began to boil. "Oh my god! Oh my god!!" James closed the door and crouched behind the door, as he attempted to muffle a cry. Just as he thought he was going to wail, all of his emotions just went out of the drain. He could not feel anything at all.
'What the hell?' James was slightly surprised. He could not feel sadness, anger, happiness, or any other variations of emotions anymore. "Oh my god, my body has undergone another evolution"
James voiced out his thoughts. He sat down on the bed and tried to jerk his emotions. He tried to think about a memory that would make him cry, but he was not able to feel anything.
This was the only thing remaining that made him human, now he's lost it. It was like anytime his body went to an extreme, it just snaps and stopped working. He became very exhausted, and now, he could not sleep, the estate was too silent, he was telepathic, and now he felt a strong emotion, and now it just stopped working.
The only thing James could do was to go back to his desk and study for his upcoming exam. "Wait, does it mean I can't feel anything for Sophia again? Oh no," James thought. All the emotions he felt anytime he thought of her, he was no longer able to feel it. Does that mean I would not enjoy her company anymore? Oh, man.
Esther walked in and looked at James. "Dinner is ready, or whatever," she said and promptly close the door. James watched the door close, before climbing from his bed and to the sitting room. This would be resolved later.