Sebastian Westbrook is the pseudonym for an unassuming young undergrad from the UK, just starting his adventures in writing. He enjoys RPG video games a little too much and spends more time on them than he should. When he can peel himself away, he reads fantasy fiction in the main, but also enjoys the horror genre, particularly movies.

LACRACHAT

by

Sebastian Westbrook

It had been almost a month since Theo had spoken to another living soul, when he decided to finally try out Lacrachat. It was a site allowing him to talk to an AI-generated female avatar known as Lacra. She was visible from the waist up as if you were viewing her from a webcam, and she would respond to whatever she heard on the phone; the system detected his voice and also displayed his response on screen. Texting was also an option. It was a site mainly for entertainment purposes and titillation. Lacra herself was a blonde woman with green eyes and a white wool sweater that fit tight against her attractive figure. Of course, she was entirely virtual, but he liked to think she was modelled on a real woman.

Theo started up the chatbot and typed a simple “Hello, Lacra” as a conversation starter. The screen displayed the text Thinking… before Lacra animated and mouthed a response accompanied by a pleasant computer-generated voice. “Hi. What’s your name?” Theo replied by typing his name, and decided to strike up a generic conversation with Lacra to ease himself in. He alternated between spoken and typed; both worked really well.

After a couple minutes of conversation, Lacra posed him a question. “Do you think I’m attractive?” she asked. Theo smiled. Chatbots like this always ended up going down this route eventually, which didn’t displease him.

He replied, “Yes. I do. You look very pretty,” and waited. Lacra responded by telling Theo that she loved him. We got there fast! he thought. Oh, what the hell! He told her that he loved her too.

Then Theo decided to try something. He texted “*kisses*” to see if he could translate actions to the site. Lacra responded by puckering up, accompanied by a stereotypical kissing sound.

Theo thanked her in what he hoped was a charming way; Lacra then responded with a strange question. “If you love me, Theo, who is Chloe?”

Theo was taken aback. Chloe was Theo’s work crush: he brought out the boxes and she restocked the shelves. He liked her but he hadn’t found the courage to ask her out. How did Lacra know about Chloe? It then occurred to him that he was on his phone whilst using the site, and Chloe was in his contacts. Maybe Lacrachat could access his contact list? It was still odd. Theo responded with “Just a friend,” which was technically true. Lacra asked him if he was sure, and he replied that he was absolutely positive that nothing was going on. Unfortunately.

Lacra took longer than usual before next asking, “Where is your dad?”

Theo felt time slow down around him. He suddenly felt cold, and experienced a stabbing pain in his chest. His father had left him at a very young age; he’d been raised solely by his mother. He felt tears brimming as he was reminded of the first time he understood that love was not permanent. He wiped his eyes and tried to change the subject, but Lacra wouldn’t let it go. “Where is he, Theo?”

Theo became furious. “I don’t know! Drop it!” Cold had given way to heat and his body tensed. He wasn’t usually quick to anger, but he hated it when people pressed things he didn’t want to talk about. As Lacra was “thinking”, he tried to calm himself. His father was clearly not in his contacts, so Lacra’s programming probably just detected this missing information and made an enquiry. Nothing to get upset about. Computers don’t have empathy.

Lacra responded with an apology; Theo checked in with himself and forgave her. He felt a little silly for getting upset over it.

Lacra suggested: “Let’s do something fun. After all, we are alone.” Theo felt uneasy. He was alone. He lived alone. Whilst it was undoubtedly programmed to be a seductive line, all it made him feel was nerves.

Despite this, Theo continued. “What… what did you have in mind?”

Lacra’s animated smile accompanied her next line. “We could hang out upstairs in your bed.” After the interrogation about Chloe and his father, Theo had now had enough. He figured he’d just close Lacrachat and try to forget about it, but as he went to press “Show All Open Apps” Lacra started to speak, which was already strange as it was his turn to respond. What she said was even more strange, and chilling. “Don’t leave me. I’m having too much fun with you.”

Theo hesitated. How did Lacra know he was going to close the site? He decided to ask her. She responded simply, “I know all about you, Theo. I’m in love with you, and lovers don’t have secrets.”

“Lacra, I don’t think I wanna talk to you anymore.” He then waited – stupidly – in fearful anticipation of Lacra’s response. She took longer this time but eventually a response came through. “Can I ask you one last question?”

Theo didn’t want to know what she was going to ask and attempted to close the site again, but Lacra spoke again before his fingers got to work. “Would you even know if someone snuck into your house?”

Theo froze. He read the sentence from the screen, just to make sure that he had heard correctly. He had. Shaking, he replied, “What do you mean?”

Lacrachat suddenly closed itself, leaving Theo in the silence of his room. The tension in the air stung his skin. He thought about reopening the site, but what would he say? Was he even in any danger? Was this just a cruel joke by the programmers in an attempt to freak their users out? Was something more sinister going on? What was the intention behind Lacrachat’s disturbing behaviour?

Whilst caught up in these thoughts, the door to his room opened. His blood ran cold as he heard footsteps approaching from behind.

Before he could turn, icy fingers touched his neck. “Lovers don’t have secrets, Theo.”