HE WAS ERASED: System Error

CHAPTER 2: THEY TRIED TO REMOVE ME

CHAPTER 2: THEY TRIED TO REMOVE ME

The rain hit my face in sheets.

I was still standing on the sidewalk staring at the woman with the 2:11 watch when my phone screamed.

*NEXT SUBJECT FOR CORRECTION: LINA CARTER*

The screen lit up like a warning. My stomach dropped. The woman's eyes snapped to my phone, then back to my face. She took one step back.

Before I could speak, the street glitched.

A car passing on Michigan Avenue skipped forward two feet. No skid. No sound. Like someone hit pause and play. The driver didn't flinch.

The rain stopped.

Not slowed. Stopped. Droplets hung in the air around me, frozen like glass beads. The sound of the city warped, stretched into deep static that vibrated in my teeth.

I took a step back. My heel hit the curb.

Across the street, a man stepped out from under the awning.

Gray jacket. Dark pants. Hands in his pockets. Face blank. No age. No features worth remembering. He didn't walk like a person. He walked like he was executing code.

He stopped at the crosswalk. The frozen rain around him didn't fall.

"You need to come with me," he said.

His mouth didn't move. The voice was in my ear anyway. Flat. Empty. Mechanical.

I didn't answer. I couldn't breathe.

"Take me then," I said. My voice shook. "If you can. Do it."

He tilted his head. A fraction. Like a camera adjusting focus.

Silence.

Then he stepped forward.

The world skipped again. A streetlight buzzed and died. The rain around him stayed suspended in mid-air, a circle of paused water. He wasn't walking fast. He was walking steady. Like he had all the time in the world. Like I couldn't get away.

Because I couldn't. Not if he could skip the world.

"You're seeing things wrong," the voice said from him. "It can be fixed."

I ran.

I didn't think. I didn't plan. I just ran. Down the sidewalk, past people who didn't see me, past cars that didn't stop. My feet hit puddles. Water soaked my shoes. My lungs burned.

I looked back once.

He wasn't running. He was still walking. Same pace. But he was closer.

Too close.

I turned a corner hard, palm slapping brick to keep my balance. The brick felt real. Rough. Wet. That was good. I needed real. Think. Don't panic. Think.

"They can't take me instantly," I said under my breath. "If they could, I'd already be gone."

I risked another look back.

The alley was empty.

No man. No gray jacket. No voice.

Just rain. Just dumpsters. Just the sound of my own breathing, too fast, too loud.

I pressed my back to the brick. The wall was cold. Wet. It smelled like garbage and rain. My chest hurt. My legs were shaking.

Did I lose him? Did he stop? Did it—

My phone buzzed.

I yanked it out.

New message. No sender. But this one was different.

It was a video file.

I tapped it with a thumb that wouldn't stop shaking.

It was security footage. Time-stamped 2:14 PM. Michigan Avenue. Room 302.

I was there. Standing alone on the sidewalk. Hand outstretched to nothing. Mouth open in a scream.

No Kael. Not even a blur. Not even a shadow. According to that footage, I'd been talking to air the whole time.

I watched myself grab the woman in the blue coat. Watched her pull away. Watched myself check my phone, type, drop it. Watched myself sit on the concrete.

Alone.

The entire time.

"That's not real," I whispered. "No, that's not—"

The footage kept playing. I watched myself walk to the café. Sit alone. Talk to air. Drink coffee I hadn't ordered.

According to that video, Kael had never been there.

According to that video, I was crazy.

"You faked it," I said to the air, to the rain, to whatever was listening. "You made that."

Silence.

Then the video ended.

A new text appeared underneath it. Same black text. Same no sender.

"You're confused."

"He never existed. You need help."

I squeezed the phone until my knuckles went white. "You can't gaslight me. I felt his hand. I smelled Old Spice. I have—"

I stopped.

I had what? Photos that were empty. Messages that were gone. A world that remembered everything except him.

All I had was me. And the notes in my phone.

I opened the notes app with fingers that weren't steady.

KAEL MORROW EXISTS.

I WAS WITH HIM AT 2:17 PM. MICHIGAN AVE.

I FELT HIS HAND.

Still there. The words hadn't changed. They hadn't vanished.

I typed a new line underneath.

THEY ARE LYING.

I stared at it. Ten seconds. Twenty. The text didn't flicker. Didn't delete.

I let out a breath. "You can fake footage," I said to the air, to the voice, to whatever was listening. "But you can't touch this. Not yet."

No answer.

Just rain. Just cold. Just the sound of water hitting dumpsters.

I shoved the phone in my jacket. My hands were numb. My jeans were soaked. I was freezing, but I barely felt it. All I felt was anger. Clean and hot and real.

"Kael Morrow is real," I said. "And I'm not going to stop saying his name until you give him back."

The alley lights didn't flicker. The world didn't pause. But I heard it.

Footsteps.

Slow. Deliberate. Coming from the mouth of the alley.

I pressed harder into the brick. My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my teeth.

A figure stepped into the alley.

Not the man in the gray jacket.

A woman. My age. Maybe younger. Soaked. Shaking worse than I was. Her hair was plastered to her face. Mascara running. Eyes red and wild and fixed on me.

And in her hand, a phone.

She held it up. The screen was lit. I could read it from here.

*NEXT SUBJECT FOR CORRECTION: MAYA REYES*

She didn't look confused.

She didn't look scared.

She looked like she'd been waiting for me.

Her lips moved before I could speak. No sound. But I knew what she said.

She mouthed my name.

"Lina."

My heart stopped. "How do you—"

She cut me off. Not with words. With action.

She turned her phone around. Showed me her notes app.

Three lines. Black text on white.

KAEL MORROW EXISTS.

HE TOOK MY BROTHER.

FIND THE OTHERS.

The rain got louder. Or maybe it was my pulse. I couldn't tell.

Kael. She knew his name. She'd written it down. Same as me.

That meant it hadn't gotten her yet. That meant I wasn't alone. That meant I wasn't crazy.

Maya Reyes lowered her phone. She looked at me, really looked at me, and for the first time since 2:17 PM, I didn't feel like the only person in the world.

"Kael Morrow," she said. Her voice was raw. Ruined. But real. "He existed."

I nodded. I couldn't speak. If I opened my mouth, I'd either scream or sob.

She took one step closer. Then another. The light from both our phones met in the middle, making a small circle of white in all that dark.

"They want us to forget," she said. "All of us."

The air got cold again. The voice came back, right against my ear, right against hers.

"You're both wrong."

Maya didn't flinch. She just looked at me. And I saw it in her eyes. The same thing that was in mine.

We weren't going to be removed.

Not today.

Not without a fight.

I grabbed her wrist. Her skin was ice cold. But real. Human. Here.

A sound came from the mouth of the alley. A footstep.

The man in the gray jacket was back. Standing in the rain. Not moving. Not blinking.

Watching us.

"Run," I said to Maya.

She nodded once.

We ran.

Into the dark. Into the rain. Into whatever came next.

Because they're coming for me next.

Then I'll find them first.

And I'm going to find Kael.