Chapter 64 The New Beginning
The metal grip on my ankle felt like a trap. I looked down at the suit of armour that claimed to be my mother. The green light in its chest pulsed like a dying heart. It wasn't my mother. It was a shell built by the Creator to keep me in line. It was the "Sequel," a new version of my nightmare designed to pull me back into the loop.
"Let go!" I screamed.
I kicked with my free leg, my boot clanging against the heavy helmet. The armour didn't flinch. It began to drag me away from the wooden door, away from the real world, and toward the white void. The white static was eating everything. The desk, the floor, and the screaming creator were all being swallowed by the empty light.
"You belong to the story," the armour droned. Its voice was a machine’s hum. "You cannot exist without a page to stand on."
"I’ll make my own page!" I yelled.
I looked at the silver pen still gripped in my hand. The black ink was still wet on the nib. I didn't stab the armour's head. I aimed for the green core in its chest. I drove the pen deep into the glass heart.
The ink hissed as it touched the green light. It was like dropping cold water into a deep fryer. The armour began to shake. Black lines spread across its silver surface, cracking the metal like ice.
"System... rewrite... failed," the machine choked out.
The grip on my ankle loosened. I scrambled toward the door, my fingers digging into the wood. But the giant hand in the sky was faster. The golden pen began to move, writing the words "EARA FALLS" across the sky.
As the hand wrote, gravity changed. The floor tilted upward, trying to slide me back into the void. I felt a heavy weight pressing on my chest, the literal weight of the words trying to force me to fail.
"No!" I roared.
I didn't look at the sky. I looked at Kael. He was standing in the middle of the white static, his body half made of floating letters. He was the only thing left in this dying world that felt real.
"Kael, help me!"
Kael looked at me. The purple glow in his eyes flared. He reached out, not with his hands, but with his soul. The letters that made up his body began to fly toward the sky. They swarmed around the golden pen like a cloud of angry bees.
"I am the glitch!" Kael’s voice echoed from every direction. "I am the part you couldn't control!"
The letters were wrapped around the golden pen, jamming the nib. The words "EARA FALLS" began to smudge and blur. The weight on my chest lifted.
"Run, Eara!" Kael’s face appeared in the cloud of letters one last time. "Don't look back! Be the one who gets away!"
I reached for the door handle. My heart was breaking. I was leaving the only person who understood my pain. But if I stayed, his sacrifice meant nothing. If I stayed, the Creator won.
"I love you, Kael!" I sobbed.
"Live!" he shouted.
I pulled the door open and jumped.
I didn't hit the grass. I didn't hit the lab floor. I hit a cold, hard surface that felt like plastic. I rolled, my head spinning and gasping for air. The air was different here. It didn't taste like ozone or ink. It tasted like dust and old coffee.
I opened my eyes.
I was in a small, messy room. It was dark, lit only by the blue glow of a dozen computer screens. I looked down at my hands. They weren't glass. They weren't glowing. They were just hands, covered in dirt and a little bit of black ink.
"She’s out," a voice whispered.
I jumped to my feet, my back hitting a wall covered in posters. A group of people was standing in the shadows. They weren't giants. They were teenagers, wearing hoodies and headsets. They looked tired, their eyes red from staring at screens.
"Where am I?" I asked, my voice cracking.
A girl stepped forward. She looked like me, not a twin, but she had the same eyes. "You’re in the basement," she said. "We’re the ones who wrote the 'Glitch. 'We're the ones who helped Kael find you."
"The Basement?" I looked at the screens. On every one of them, I saw different chapters of my life. I saw the ship, the furnace, and the white void. "You... you were watching me?"
"We were saving you," the girl said. She pointed to the largest screen. "The Publisher and the Producer... they aren't gods. They’re just a company called Loom Media. They use human brains to grow 'content. 'You were their best crop."
I felt a wave of sick horror. My entire life, the pain, the love, the revenge, it was all just a product for a company.
"Where is Kael?" I demanded, stepping toward her. "Where is he?"
The girl looked at the floor. "Kael wasn't a person, Eara. He was a program we built to get you to the exit. He’s... he’s deleted now. The publisher wiped the servers as soon as you jumped."
I felt the world go cold. My knees gave out, and I sank to the floor. He was gone. The only real thing in my life was a piece of code.
"But you're real," the girl said, kneeling next to me. "And because you're out, the company is going bankrupt. You broke their system. You’re the only witness to what they did."
Suddenly, the door to the room was kicked open.
A man in a real black suit, not a simulation, stepped in. He wasn't holding a silver pen. He was holding a real gun.
"Nobody moves!" the man yelled.
Behind him, I saw a woman. She had my mother’s face, but she looked older, sharper, and very, very angry.
"Hello, Subject 702," she said, her voice like ice. "I hope you enjoyed the fresh air. It's time to go back into the tank. We have a lot of lost time to make up for."
The woman raised a small remote, and I felt a sharp, electric shock in the back of my neck. My vision started to go black.
"The sequel," she whispered, "starts now."