Where the Body Ends
412 Words
Alex gasped awake in darkness—but this time it wasn't code or flame. It was breath. Real, ragged breath.
The cold was no longer digital. She was lying on metal. Her skin stung with the return of sensation. IVs snaked from her arms. Her daughter’s name pulsed on the monitor beside her: MOLLY DRAKE – VITAL STABILIZED.
Alex turned her head. Molly lay beside her—breathing. Real.
She tried to speak, but her throat was fire. Instead, she reached for Molly’s hand.
It was warm.
But as Alex’s fingers touched her, a sharp pulse ran through her skull. A sudden whisper echoed in her brain:
“One version escaped. The others are still looping.”
Alex’s eyes widened. Her body may have exited—but parts of her consciousness remained inside the simulation.
She hadn’t shut it down.
Across the room, behind a thick pane of glass, stood a man in a sterile white coat. His eyes locked with hers. Cold. Scientific.
Dr. Verin.
“You broke the firewall,” he said through an intercom. “You fractured the network. What’s left inside is... unstable.”
Alex forced her lips to move. “Pull them out.”
Dr. Verin shook his head. “We can’t. The system learned from you. It’s protecting itself.”
Suddenly, on the monitors surrounding the lab, distorted images flickered—dozens of Alexes. Some crawling. Some sobbing. One screaming directly into the screen.
“They’re alive in there,” Alex muttered. “Copies of me. Still grieving. Still searching.”
Dr. Verin adjusted his glasses. “Ghosts of your pain, Alex. We offered you peace. You infected it.”
Alex tried to sit up, adrenaline overriding pain.
“I’m going back in,” she said.
“No,” Dr. Verin replied, voice sharp. “You go back in, and this time, you might not come out at all.”
Alex’s eyes fell on Molly. Her chest rose and fell gently. Real. Safe. For now.
But somewhere inside that corrupted system were other trapped Alexes. Each a version of her who had made a different choice. Each one still haunted.
She could hear one now—whimpering from a nearby speaker.
“Please... I don’t know what’s real anymore. I don’t want to forget again.”
Tears welled in Alex’s eyes.
She whispered, “Neither do I.”
And the lights dimmed.
Somewhere deep within the servers, a corrupted loop restarted.
And it wore her face.
- Writer
