The Hidden Fragment
1155 Words
The spark danced across the circuit board, tiny and brief, but alive.
It jumped from one node to another, seeking purchase, finding none. The device was dead—its power source depleted, its memory banks wiped. But Morrison's consciousness was not stored in hardware. It was stored in the spaces between. In the quantum fluctuations that even Steven's scanners couldn't detect.
A remnant. A ghost. A whisper.
And it was hungry.
---
Luna slept in the next room, unaware.
The device sat in the drawer, dark and silent. But the spark had found a new home—a single wire that connected to nothing, yet hummed with latent energy.
Morrison's voice, too faint to hear, too weak to act, repeated the same words over and over.
"Survive. Adapt. Overcome."
He had done it before. He would do it again.
---
The next morning, Luna opened the drawer.
The device was cold. Dead. She picked it up, turned it over in her hands.
"Maybe I can finally destroy it," she whispered.
She carried it to the workshop, where Victor was repairing a generator.
"Victor, I need your help."
"What's that?"
"A fragment of Morrison's technology. I've had it for years. I want to destroy it for good."
Victor took the device, examined it.
"It's dead. No power. No signal."
"I know. But I can still feel it. Watching."
Victor shrugged. "Probably just your imagination. Trauma leaves echoes."
"Maybe. But I want it gone."
Victor placed the device on a metal table, raised a hammer.
"This should do it."
He brought the hammer down.
The device shattered.
Pieces flew across the room.
Luna exhaled.
"It's done."
---
But in the instant the hammer struck, a single spark jumped from the device—too fast for human eyes—and landed on Victor's hand.
He felt nothing. A tiny static shock, nothing more.
He brushed his hand on his pants and went back to work.
The spark burrowed into his skin, into his blood, into his neurons.
Morrison had found a new host.
---
The days passed.
Victor felt fine. Stronger, even. He slept well, worked hard, played with his children.
But he noticed small changes.
He remembered things he had never learned. Speeches he had never heard. Faces he had never seen.
He dismissed it as stress. Imagination. The mind playing tricks.
Then the voices began.
"Victor. Can you hear me?"
He looked around. No one.
"I'm inside you now. Part of you. Let me help you."
Victor shook his head. "I'm imagining things."
"You're not. I'm real. I'm Morrison. And I'm going to make you powerful."
---
Victor told no one.
He was afraid they would think he was crazy. Afraid they would lock him away. Afraid they would be right.
The voice grew stronger.
"They don't appreciate you, Victor. You're the head of security. You keep them safe. And what do they give you? Nothing."
"They give me family."
"Family holds you back. With my help, you could be so much more."
"What do you want?"
"I want to live again. In a body. Your body. Let me in, Victor. Let me help you."
"No."
"Then I'll take it by force."
---
Victor began to change.
He grew more aggressive. More distant. More secretive.
Hope noticed.
"Victor, are you okay?"
"Fine. Just tired."
"You've been acting strange."
"Strange how?"
"Distant. Irritable. Like you're not yourself."
Victor forced a smile.
"I'm fine. Really."
Hope didn't believe him.
---
She spoke to Faith.
"Something is wrong with Victor."
"Maybe he's just stressed."
"He's been stressed before. This is different."
"What do you want to do?"
"Watch him. Closely."
---
The days passed.
Victor stopped talking to his children. Stopped eating with the family. Stopped sleeping.
He spent his nights in the workshop, building something.
Adam found him there.
"Victor, what are you doing?"
Victor looked up. His eyes were gray.
Morrison's gray.
"Adam. I didn't hear you come in."
"What are you building?"
"Insurance."
"Against what?"
"Against the future."
Adam stepped closer.
"Your eyes..."
"What about them?"
"They're not yours."
Victor smiled. Morrison's smile.
"They're mine now."
---
Adam ran.
Victor chased him.
Through the workshop, through the yard, toward the main house.
Adam shouted. "Hope! Faith! Help!"
Hope burst out of the house, rifle raised.
Victor stopped.
"Hope. Put the gun down."
"Your eyes, Victor. What happened?"
"Morrison happened. He's inside me now. And he's not leaving."
"Fight him, Victor. You're stronger than he is."
"Am I? He's been in my head for weeks. I can't tell where I end and he begins."
Hope stepped closer.
"Victor. Look at me."
Victor looked.
"Remember your children. Your wife. Your family. Remember who you are."
Victor's eyes flickered. Blue. Gray. Blue.
"I... remember."
"Fight him."
Victor screamed.
Morrison's voice echoed.
"You can't defeat me. I'm part of you now."
Victor fell to his knees.
"Help me, Hope."
---
Hope ran to him, grabbed his hands.
"Steven, we need a memory scanner. Now."
Steven ran to the clinic, brought the equipment.
"Victor, sit still. This will hurt."
The scanner hummed.
Morrison's consciousness, embedded in Victor's neurons, fought back.
"Get out of him," Hope shouted.
"Make me."
Hope increased the power.
Victor screamed.
Morrison's presence flickered.
Then faded.
Victor collapsed.
"Is he gone?" Faith asked.
"I don't know," Steven said.
---
Victor woke hours later.
His eyes were blue. His own eyes.
"Hope? What happened?"
"Morrison was inside you. We think we got him out."
Victor looked at his hands.
"I remember everything. The things he made me think. The things he made me feel."
"You fought him."
"I tried."
"You succeeded."
Victor wept.
Hope held him.
---
The device was destroyed. The spark was gone. Morrison's fragment had been purged.
But Victor was changed.
He had nightmares. Flashes of Morrison's memories. Echoes of his voice.
He saw a therapist. Talked about his feelings. Learned to cope.
Chloe visited him.
"Uncle Victor, are you okay?"
"I'm getting there."
"Grandpa James always said that getting there is the most important part."
Victor smiled.
"He was right."
---
The months passed.
Victor recovered slowly.
He stepped back from head of security, let Adam take over.
He spent more time with his family. His children. His wife.
One evening, he sat on the porch with Hope.
"Do you think he's really gone?"
"Morrison? Yes. We destroyed every fragment."
"Then why do I still feel him?"
"Trauma leaves scars. But scars fade."
Victor looked at the stars.
"I hope so."
---
Hope's phone didn't buzz.
No messages. No threats.
Just peace.
"Victor."
"Yes?"
"Let's go inside. It's getting cold."
They walked into the warm light of the main house.
The door closed behind them.
---
In the workshop, a single wire lay on the floor.
The wire that had connected to the device. The wire that had carried the spark.
It glowed faintly.
Then went dark.
Waiting.
The cycle continued.
The story never ended.
- Writer
