Supposedly, my body was found under a tree in the local park, frozen to death.

Strange; I don’t remember dying at all…

I think I proved I wasn’t dead when I sat up in my coffin at the mortuary. I was cold; the place wasn’t heated, and I wasn’t wearing a great deal…

I managed to pull myself out of the coffin and went hunting for something to wear.

The morticians had made me look neat and tidy, even shoes, but I was still only wearing ‘inside clothes’. I was really shivering by the time I found the coat that someone had left hanging in an office, and I almost passed out.

Now a bit warmer, I headed home in the snow…

My frantic knocking woke my roommate, Abby, and she came down and opened the door.

“Who the hell…?”

She stopped, stared, then shrieked.

“No! It can’t be! You’re dead…!”

“I will be soon, if you don’t let me in to get warm”, I said, pushing past her. “It’s freezing out here!”

“How… how…”

“I don’t know. I’m still trying to work out why people think I’m dead, and why I’ve lost a whole day. I woke up in a coffin, for fucks sake!”

“What do you mean, a whole day”, Abby said. “You’ve been gone for a week, and dead for most of that…!”

Even inside the flat, I was shivering.

“Do you always keep it so cold in here?”, I asked.

“Evie, you’re so pale…”, she said. Her hand brushed against mine. “Dammit, you really are freezing…!”

She raced for a blanket and wrapped me in it. She was phoning the hospital as I passed out…

The doctor at the hospital shook his head, sadly.

“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do”, he said.

Abby was distraught.

“There’s no heartbeat, no pulse, nothing”, he said. “She’s dead.”

“No, she can’t be!”, wailed Abby. “Not again!”

I then shocked them both by sitting up again.

“I can’t get warm…”, I complained…

Abby lost it. Not at me, though; at the doctor.

“How can you tell me she’s dead, you quack!”, she said. “Look at her! Does she look dead to you?”

The doctor, shocked, looked at the instruments connected to me. They still registered nothing…

Heat blankets and hot water bottles were brought in, and I started to feel passably warm.

“It’s like some kind of extreme hypothermia”, the doctor said. Her readings are so weak, the instruments can’t register her.”

As I was getting warmer, the instruments were, impossibly, starting to register.

“Her blood pressure is still impossibly low. It’s a miracle she’s alive at all.”

Abby reached out to me and hugged me.

“Don’t leave me, Evie, please. I can’t lose you again!”

“I’m not going anywhere, Abbs”, I replied.

It was during one of the scans that they found what looked like a bullet inside me, tucked in low on my right side. This bullet seemed to be what was drawing all the heat out of me, as it flared really brightly on the scans.

Then it reacted to being scanned…

I screamed. I’d never felt pain like that before.

The technicians immediately stopped the scan and got me out of the scanner. I was crying, screaming. My side was a brilliant red; the bullet was being attracted by the magnets in the scanner, and almost being ripped from my body…

I went straight from the scanner to the operating table, and the bullet was removed. It turned out to be a metal capsule of some kind…

According to what the doctors told me next, I slipped into a coma as soon as the bullet was removed. It wasn’t killing me; it was keeping me alive…

One of the doctors, looking at she scans, then took a chance. He replaced the capsule back in me, where it had been originally placed.

I almost immediately recovered and sat up…

“From what we can tell”, the doctor told me, “It’s like a person having a pacemaker. That capsule in you is a medical implant of some kind. It’s keeping you alive. However, it needs a lot of power, and it’s taking that from your body heat. That’s why you’re cold all the time. It’s also why you don’t register on the instruments.”

“Where did it come from?”, I asked. “Who did this to me?”

“I’ve no idea; it’s way too advanced for anything we’ve got here. I’m only glad we managed to replace it. I’ve also found what it was doing; looking at the scans we managed to get before we had to stop, part of your heart is missing. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you had been shot in the chest…”

What the hell had happened to me…?

The doctors let Abby take me home.

There was nothing they could do for me; all they told Abby to do was keep me as warm as possible. She layered on the hot water bottles and blankets back home.

“I’d rather just have you…”, I said.

Abby’s eyes went wide.

“I never knew you were like that”, she said.

“Like what…?”, I asked.

“Into women…”

“Not women, per se, just you…”, I said, a cheeky smile on my face.

Abby slid under the blankets with me…

I felt a lot better after we had sex; I was more awake than I had been, recently. Abby looked at me.

“Wow! That’s really brought colour back to your cheeks”, she said.

“I feel a lot more ‘alive’”, I said. “Thank you.”

“Are you kidding? I haven’t had sex like that for years! Thank you, more like.”

“I love you, Abby”, I said.

“I love you too, Evie”, she replied, snuggling in closer.

After a night in which I managed not to die again, we started trying to work out what had happened to me.

There suddenly came a quiet knock at the door…

Abby went and opened it. A tall redhead was standing there, holding some kind of handheld device.

“Evie! Get out here, you slut!”, she yelled.

Abby, indignantly, went to slam the door in her face.

“I wouldn’t do that, if you want her to stay operating”, the woman said.

“What do you mean…?”

“Well, you know she’s dead, don’t you?”, the woman said. “That device of mine in her chest is the only thing that’s keeping her animated, and it’s losing power. I need to take her back home and recharge her.”

“Not without me, you’re not!”, said Abby, furious. “Also, how the hell did she ‘die’ in the first place?”

“Saving my life…”, the woman said, sadly. “I owe her everything. That’s why I can’t let her die. I owe her. I think I even love her…”

Abby’s mouth dropped wide open.

“Oh…”, the woman said, simply. “I didn’t realise…!”

“Neither did we, until yesterday”, said Abby.

“She has that effect on people”, the woman said, staring off into the distance.

While they’d been talking, Evie had unsteadily wandered out to meet them.

“God! You look awful!”, the woman cried, racing over to her. She then examined Evie’s side.

“Who’s been tampering with this!”, she said, indignantly. “No wonder you’re feeling like crap! I bet you’re freezing cold, as well…”

She placed her device alongside Evie’s side, and gently, caringly, moved it back and forth. After a few seconds, she stood back.

Evie visibly improved. Some colour returned to her cheeks, and she stopped shivering.

“Wow, that feels a lot better!”, she said. “Thanks, doc.”

“No problem”, the woman said. “Just come and see me in future, not those idiots at A&E. After all, you’re not human anymore, so you don’t need a hospital; you need a mechanic.”

“What do you mean by that…?”, Abby asked, hesitantly.

“The cylinder in Evie’s side contains a complete AI version of her. It’s what’s running her. The rest of the body is just for supporting it, allowing movement, making her look normal. Essentially, Evie is just a memory of herself. The real Evie died in my workshop, as I said, saving my life.”

Abby started crying uncontrollably. “But, I love her…!”

“I know, little one. You still can. Just bear in mind, any time she is ill, call me, not a doctor. I love her like a parent; she’s effectively my ‘baby’ as I gave birth to this version of her. I’m not in love with her the way you are…”

“It’s still me, Abby”, said Evie. “I’m still the person you fell in love with last night. I’m just not quite human anymore…”

Hesitantly, Abby reached out to Evie.

Evie was a lot warmer than she had been. She also looked a lot more cheerful.

“Please, Abby, don’t give up on me…!”, said Evie, plaintively.

Abby just didn’t know what to do. She just walked out of the room, saying nothing…

Abby was sitting on the sofa in the living room, trying to decide what to do, when she heard the sobbing…

She slowly walked back toward the bedroom door. As she did, she heard the woman’s voice…

“I’m sorry, Evie. It was too much to hope for. No one is going to accept you. You might as well come home with me…”

Evie and her ‘mother’ went to leave. Abby stopped them…

“Where are you going with my girlfriend?”, she asked. “Does she need more treatment?”

Evie squealed and flew into Abby’s arms. The woman smiled as well, then quietly let herself out…

“It’s just another illness, as far as I am concerned”, said Abby, later. “Once I’d thought about it a bit, it was just like me saying, for example, that I wouldn’t date you because you’re a diabetic. As long as you have regular treatment, you should be fine.”

“I’m so relieved”, said Evie. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Never…”