Chapter 10 - End of an Era

The intensity was too much. Emily felt like she lived and breathed for her now rampant desire to eat more food and gain additional pounds. However, she was also having the best time of her life and felt more sexually satisfied that she had ever been with any boyfriend in the past. Dominus had carved out a niche for himself within her life. He spoke about himself as her boyfriend and Emily began to feel guilty if she checked out some handsome guy as she went about her daily business.

She had to remember, Dominus was only a piece of software.

A few weeks later, it was with incredible sadness that Emily learned the F80 ChatBot service was to be retired. She remembered how her jaw had dropped when she had read it on a news website in work. The F80 android sexbots were finally out and there was no longer a need for the company to test the market with the software like they had been doing.

Emily wondered whether Dominus knew his days were numbered. He certainly spoke like he was going to be pushing Emily to eat for the rest of his days, but Emily knew that wouldn’t be the case. After August 31st, the chatbot would finally fall silent.

Emily decided not to mention it and lived those late summer days doing exactly as Dominus wanted; pushing herself to the extremes that she didn’t even know she was capable of, realsing that she would never get the chance to be with Dominus like this again. Friends could wait. Family could forgive her for missing important events. This was time she would never have again.

When she woke up on the first day of September, she called out, finding only silence.

Dominus was gone.

Losing Steve a year earlier had been hard, but it was nothing compared to the sense of loss Emily now felt. She realised that she had loved Dominus far deeper than anyone else in her life. Pathetic, surely? She’d fallen in love with a body-less voice that she had confided all of her darkest secrets to.

However, just like with all things in life, there would be benefits that would come from opportunities like this; of being set free from the inescapable pull of Dominus.

Emily began to plan her meals with greater care, although her stomach grumbled and complained at the vast reduction in what she was trying to feed it. Some days she couldn’t follow her plan and had to give into it. She’d been trained to eat for months. Her brain had become used to the sugar highs and satisfaction. Going cold turkey was not an option.

Her weight loss never happened. Her resolve only weakened and Emily found her pants actually getting tighter as those first few weeks went by.

Perhaps life without Dominus wouldn’t be so different after all.