The machine glistened in the fluorescent glow of the light from my phone, illuminating the face of the machine. I flicked the switch labeled 'Shift' and stuffed the material into the opening at the far edge of the light. A sharp crunch echoed across the chamber as I slammed the door shut and a hot sweat poured over my hands. Despite the heat outside, my body was cool and shaking. Pulling the lever, the input moved through a tube above me slopping through the suctioning vacuum-like tube. A wet sound echoed across the room and I cringed in disgust.
I heard sirens approaching as the machine wrung to activity. I need to activate it before they get here. I need to use this chance to fix my mistake.
The lights slowly blink to life as the machine grinds the body into power. The more valuable the input, the more effective the machine, and a human life was the most valuable thing I could find. If I had more time, maybe I would've been able to discover something more effective, but the accident gave me the perfect source of energy.
The sirens were outside the building now, and the police were trying to call me outside. Soon giving up this attempt they approaching the door to force it open, however the machine was finally ready. The door cracked open as I clicked the "Activate" button, the device giving off a light like I had just entered a sun that had gone supernova. The police began to open fire and I felt the machine pull me in, my environment zapping away from me.
I appeared in the room the machine had previously resided, but it was devoid of both it and the police. I began to walk and heard a metallic creak emanate from my leg, which wasn't quite human anymore. Looking at the rest of me, I could see that I had become mechanical, and while my skin still appeared normal, it was definitely something less than. Moving my body, my "skin" stretched like latex, but my mind was still intact. I kept my sanity, despite it seeming like I'd fused with the device. My joints creaking, I stepped out of the room and walked towards my house.
I began to feel more comfortable as I acclimated to my new form. I walked through a path in the forest that surrounded the secluded warehouse which led to directly to my fiance's home.
Arriving at the door, I knock, but no response comes from inside the house. Opening the door, a strange silence permeates the house. An unnatural feeling attracts me towards the kitchen, almost as if a hunger is pulling me to the room.
I walk to the kitchen, wondering what drew me there. As I step into the room, my heart drops, and I find my fiance's dying body. She is curled in a ball, a knife protruding from her stomach. I run over, reaching out, and a shock jumps from her body to my hand. Her body is absorbed, filling me with a sense of consummation, and I feel myself zapped back to the warehouse the machine had been.
I realize where I am and sprint from the building, my mechanical limbs moving at inhuman speed. I rush through the front door and see myself and our fiance in a fierce argument. I run to the kitchen and tackle myself, bringing us roughly to the ground. His head cracks against the floor, his eyes go dull, and I feel energy running from his body to mine. My fiance screams, but a light emanates from my body ripples through the strings of the universe I now reside, returning it to the previous morning, but with me instead of the original.
I awake in the morning, a crick in my neck, but my fiance laying gladly beside me. I smile, then stretch my hand out to brush her hair, but I feel my arm pop with a metallic sound and the skin stretches like latex. I get a sick feeling in my stomach as realize I may never escape my reality.