Days. It had to have been days.

It appeared to be on an endless loop, the same four things over and over. There was a point when it sounded like it was getting increasingly menacing.

But nothing was happening.

The computer let her sit there, her arms around the weighted companion cube, her face pressed hard up against it like it would be forcibly taken from her the moment she let a sliver of light crowd between them.

This was important, to keep in direct contact at all times.

So she could hear it.

She could feel the grime in her hair sliding down her face and collecting in the cold sweat above her eyes. Her uniform was soaked through. It was insane to be sweating this much, how cold it was. She had the computer to thank for the temperature, she was certain.

The cube had started talking to her. It certainly never threatened to stab her. It didn’t call her mean names or slam her head against a wall or shoot bullets at her. It didn’t force her to use experimental and possibly life-threatening technology to propel her body like a rag doll at high speeds across dangerous gaps in order to move onto the next horrid test. It didn’t sound insincere when promising a reward to it all.

The companion cube was nice.

It said sweet things to her.

It swore that even though she was covered in grime and her own filth, she smelled fine.

It told her to kill it.

“I can’t.” She moved a palm across its surface, where the scorch marks were. “You’re the only friend I have.” She remembered she had tried to move fast, she really did, but the pellet scored two more hits before she reached the end of the hallway. A wave of sorrow crashed into her gut and twisted her empty stomach into a tight strand. She fought back the urge to cry and flexed the muscles in her right shoulder, where a bullet round was dancing near her clavicle. A fitting punishment for-

The cube interrupted and told her not to think like that.

Within the economy of the universe, her life was much more valuable than its own.

It would do anything it could to protect her.

The cube said that if it were ambulatory, if it had the ability, it would jump into the furnace on its own so she could finish the test. And eat. And live.

She sighed, trying to drown out the companion cube’s words. It was on another rant, one that was sure to be more convincing than the last one.

There had to be a way to solve this. If everything was a test, there was another way to open the door, one that didn’t involve murder.

No use.

“Let’s sit here awhile longer…” she mumbled after licking her lips. She moved even closer to her companion, facing it directly, her legs sliding across the floor and meeting on opposed corners. She shivered. The computer repeated again. The cube said, there is a way to get warm, isn’t there?

She should go into the next room and open the furnace, warm herself against the flames. The cube could even go with her. She could hold it over the fire and the residual heat could last for some time.

She wasn’t being fooled. She pressed her body against the cube, its corner bisecting her body. Her eyes squeezed shut and she tried to grip it tighter.

This won’t work, the cube said.

“Shhh.” She brushed her lips against the top and the computer’s voice droned on once again, unheard.

This was solving the temperature problem, all right.

Uh, the cube said.

There was no need for her to fantasize about anything. Except for the scorch marks, the cube would fine as it was. It was perfect.

Um, the cube said, as she pressed herself harder against it. She’s watching.

“Let her.” She grabbed the front of her uniform and tried to find a way to get it off.

And then the entire thing went wrong. The cube went lifeless in her arms, as unfeeling as the portal generator she had to lug around. Another useless prop. She dropped back to the floor and let her arms hang.

She had to fight not to hate it as the life returned to her only friend. “Okay.” She spat quietly. “Okay. For a few minutes.”

She retrieved the portal generator from the corner and used it to pick up her friend. She noted that the heart was upside-down as she shuffled to the button and pressed it and watched the fumes rise out of the furnace. The countdown began. The computer repeated itself.

It was boiling down there. Definitely real.

Stretching her arm out, she kneeled at the edge of the circle and held the cube to the fire, listening for the sound of the door closing. As she did, she stared at the upside-down heart of the cube, the heart that was turning red. It really did want her to do this. Honestly, it was nothing more than those other cubes, except for the heart on all sides. And the computer gave it emphasis. A personality. She remembered that love was really about projection, projecting what you want onto that person or that object and justifying the disappointment as a mutation. So far, the cube wasn’t letting her down. It was consistent. She loved it the more it spoke, and never hated it for being the rational one. She wouldn’t change a thing about it. Except, she regretted not turning it right-side up before bringing it here.

The cube said, you’re going to be late to the party.

Her finger slipped off of the trigger and the cube began its decent into the flames.

“NO!”

She jumped down after it, a free hand grabbing the lip of the furnace and the other shooting after the cube and depressing the trigger. She caught it and hanged there, the apparatus on her feet growing red hot.

How long had she stood over the fire? Not much time left. All of her energy poured into her arm and she brought the cube over her head and set it down at the top of the pit.

And then she dropped the gun.

The alarms she heard after that, she knew were coming. She just incinerated an expensive piece of hardware, possibly the only kind ever produced. That made her smile. She edged her way out of the hole, up to her chest. The alarms were getting louder, and there was a small sound under it, like a door opening or…

Flesh singed as she wrapped her arms around the cube. She absorbed the heat on her checks and she felt her ribs crack and her spine sever and a lot of what made her tick fall out of her body into the flames below, and still she held on, still she managed to say

“I will never let you go.”