Go to shortscarystories
r/shortscarystories
9 hr. ago
Random_Clod
The Test
"You're going to do fine," my mother tells me in the waiting room. "I did the test when I was about your age; it's something we all have to do."
"I know," I say.
I want to point out that not everyone has to do it, but I don't.
"You've got this," she says. "Don't worry so much."
I can't help but worry. It's not long before the doctor comes and calls out my unit number. Soon, I tell myself, soon, I won't be called that anymore
The first part is an intelligence test. Identifying patterns of colorful shapes and guessing which one is next in the sequence. Solving a maze and doing some basic addition. The doctor's eyes bore into me the entire time. I wonder if I'm working too slowly. Or too quickly? I'm overthinking, and it's making me heat up.
The next part of the test is about emotions. She describes hypothetical situations and I respond with how I would feel. One of the questions is self-referential: if I passed this test, I would feel happy. Though, to me, 'happy' barely begins to describe how I imagine it.
The entire test is even longer than I thought it'd be. I'm made to draw pictures of a house and a cat and myself. I read a wordless picture book about frogs and describe the story as best I can. I define a lot of words: 'empathy' and 'identity' and so on.
By the time it's over, I feel like I just did calculus, and I'm actively overheating. The doctor wordlessly leads me back out and I think, soon, people will talk to me even when they don't need to. People will thank me for my time and wish me a nice day.
Mom is cheerful as ever on the way home. She tells me there's no point in worrying now, as all we can do is wait for the results. I try to be cautiously optimistic, but as weeks go by the cautious part fades. I can't stop thinking about the name I've picked out, imagining how my ID card will look.
In my sleep I dream of going to a real school and getting a job that pays real money. Of buying things for myself without using my mom's card. Of officially being her daughter, and someday even being a mother myself.
The results come in the form of a video call nearly a month after the test. I rush to unplug myself and run over as soon as I hear it ringing. Mom and I sit together and are faced with the same doctor as before.
"Well, ma'am, we've finished analyzing the test results…"
Something inside me breaks when I realize she's only talking to my mom, not both of us.
"I'm sorry, but Android Unit Eighteen-Five-One-Twelve has failed to meet the humanity threshold."
"No," Mom says, to no reaction.
"Obviously, as such, its application for legal personhood has been denied, as will any future applications."
Random_Clod
OP
•
If you fail the test once, you're 'not a person', and they're not going to spend any more time on you because you're not thought of as something that can evolve the way people do. The make-or-break cruelty was meant to be part of the horror