Barry N. Malzberg 
Empty People 

First there was Della, the woman who wanted . . . love? She did not – could not – know, for where love should have been was emptiness.Then came the Poet, who wanted only to please, but did not know how. His every effort was rejected – but he could not stop trying.Rogers was the completion, the part above all other parts that made the whole.And then there was Archer – and the thing in his brain . . .