The Voice Inside Me Was An AI, Not A Demon Chapter 04

The Voice Inside Me Was An AI, Not A Demon Chapter 04

Halfway through the party, Angelica brought a group of friends over to where I sat.

“Wait, wasn’t Raphaela possessed? And you’re just letting her walk around at a party?” someone asked.

“Oh, she’s definitely got a demon in her. But now she’s my little puppet.” Angelica laughed, not bothering to hide it. “She does whatever I say.”

“Oh my God,” someone said. “You actually got her to hand over her Aldercrest admission?”

Someone else wasn’t buying it. “She actually does everything you say? You’re making that up.”

Angelica lifted her chin. “Don’t believe me? Watch.”

Her finger hit the controller.

“Raphaela, pick up that fruit knife and cut your hair off.”

I could only watch as my body stood, picked up the silver-handled knife next to the cheese board, and started sawing off my hair one lock at a time.

Angelica and her friends froze for a second. Then they burst out laughing.

The excitement on their faces was sickening. Like kids who’d found a new toy.

“Let’s do something crazier. Make her strip.”

Angelica hesitated, her eyes flicking toward Adrian across the room.

Then she turned back to me with that vicious smile I knew by heart. “Fine.”

“Let him see what you really are.”

“Raphaela, take off your clothes.”

By the time the noise brought Adrian and my parents running, my dress was already half torn off.

My body followed the command precisely, jerking through stiff, grotesque movements to the jazz music.

People jeered. Others called me shameless. Phones came out, recording everything.

My dad’s face went dark. He crossed the room in three strides and slapped me hard across the face.

I hit the floor. Adrian hauled me up, his face twisted.

“Rafa, have you completely lost your mind?”

“It’s one college admission. You’d degrade yourself like this just to get back at everyone?”

I turned my head slowly. My eyes were empty. Nothing behind them.

Blood from my dad’s slap was still wet at the corner of my mouth.

Adrian lifted his hand, almost reaching for my swollen cheek.

But I pulled away from him and walked back into the middle of the crowd.

I turned, rolled my hips, and kept ripping what was left of the dress off my body.

Someone whistled.

Adrian went white. He stripped off his suit jacket and wrapped it around me.

“That’s enough! Rafa!”

Angelica’s face darkened for a split second, then snapped back into her sweet, dutiful mask. She hooked her arm through mine.

“She didn’t mean it. She’s been so quiet lately. Adrian, let me take her upstairs and check on her. I’ll change her clothes and see if that thing is back.”

Her fingernails dug into my arm as she hauled me toward the stairs.

The second her back was to the guests, every trace of sweetness dropped off her face. What was left was pure venom.

“Why? No matter what I do, Mom and Dad still won’t let you go.”

“Why does a pathetic reject like you still get someone like Adrian?”

“This family only has room for one daughter, and Adrian is mine.”

“Your degree, your future. All of it should be mine.”

She smiled and pressed the button.

My body froze mid-step.

Angelica wailed on cue. “Rafa, don’t be mad! I’ll leave! You can have Mom and Dad and Adrian, all of them!”

Every guest looked up at the stairs.

In front of everyone, I raised both hands and shoved Angelica down the stairs with everything I had.

“Angie!”

Screams, sobbing, cursing. The party collapsed into chaos.

Adrian charged up the stairs, eyes bloodshot, and locked both hands around my throat. “Why do you keep trying to kill her?”

“Rafa, when did you turn into this?”

“There’s no demon inside you. You ARE the demon.”

My mom was on me too, hitting me over and over. “Angelica is your twin sister! How could you do this to her?”

My dad was screaming. “If we’d known you were this heartless, we never would’ve brought you home!”

“Angie’s the only daughter we need. Raphaela, why don’t you just die?”

Something inside me snapped. I heard it.

The last thread of free will I had left.

My father’s words cut through it, and it broke.

The finger that had been trembling, fighting to be noticed, finally went still.

I stopped fighting. Stopped trying to claw my body back from the chip.

I nodded. Accepted the command. “Okay, Dad.”

Then I walked to the terrace, pushed the door open, climbed over the railing, and stepped off.