“It's true! I saw it. You've got to believe me; please, listen to me. I'm not crazy; I'm not. He really is a vampire, or a werewolf, or a goblin, even an ogre maybe. I saw him . . . I saw him change. He's not what you think!” Eugene struggled against his bonds, his eyes wild with pleading. Constance had no choice but to bring him down to the psych ward; he had shown no sign of mental breakdown. His last routine evaluation came back normal, and in all the years they had been together Constance had known him to be faithful, reliable, and quite sane. Eugene had planned a surprise candlelight dinner for the two of them; she could tell something was bothering him as he poured the wine, and the uncharacteristic shake in his hand as he gave the toast caught her attention, but she was not prepared for the violent outburst when he cut into the duck.

For a brief moment she feared for her life. No matter how sane one had always been, and no matter what guarantees, a madman holding a knife and passionately discharging his brand of insanity is enough to make even the most brave person start in alarm. Constance was fortunate enough to recall some of her early training and with a few simple commands was able to calm Eugene enough that he set the knife down and sat on the couch while Constance called the psych ward for an escort.

“And you said nothing out of the ordinary has been occurring in or around your house, no recent job changes, no new construction, no change in your relationship? Anything at all, no matter how nugatory or seemingly inconsequential will help” Dr. Orlok asked Constance.

“None at all. Everything has been the same as it has been for the last seven years.”

“I see. Do you know if Eugene was originally programmed as a nanny, or to work with young children at all?”

Constance furrowed her brows. “I really don't know. I acquired him through an online auction and the seller didn't say what Eugene was originally programmed for, only that he was now equipped to function as my companion. Are you thinking this outbreak might be the result of some former programming leaking into his consciousness?”

“It is possible. We've seen it in similar cases.” Dr. Orlok flipped through some documents. “Eugene was not originally produced to be a paramour and re-impriting, if not done properly, can leave old data intact. It's not too common these days, but it happens.”

Blushing slightly Constance asked, “But why would being a nanny be important?”

“Ah. Well that would explain some of his outburst. Most nanny models come equipped with a library of fairy tales, and if any of that data were in his memory it could explain these rather superstitious and rather alarming accusations he's been making.”

“I see. If that's all it is it would be a simple fix, right?”

“Not too hard, no, assuming it's only a small fragment of data. It's probably that one of his components is finally wearing out and some data became corrupted. We've got some backups on record from the last time he was here so we'll be able to find the affected area. Worst case scenario we'll have to replace some components and restore portions of him from backup. Nothing to worry about.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

“Hard to say. We'll have to get the results of the diagnostic before we'll have an idea of what is involved.” Dr. Orlok looked at his watch. “As a guess, I shouldn't think it will take more than three days.”

“Three days? Why so long?”

“Normally we'd have the AI do most of the work for us, but in cases like these it requires more human intervention. I'll have the best team in my facility look after this, but I must warn you they only work at night. You know how us techies are,” he smiled warmly at her. “We'll get in touch with you when we know more.”

Constance, a little crest fallen gathered her things, shook the Doctor's hand and strode to the door. Dr. Orlok winced painfully as the door swung open and a stray ray of the sunset invaded his room. “Vampire indeed,” he muttered.