Page 50 of GlitchBorn Heart

I let the darkness creep back in and close around me, familiar and controlled. I let it shut down my feelings once more.

I slam my fist on the console finalizing the chapter. Ember flinches at the sound but she sees it for what it is. Anger. It’s also an obsession spiraling. She interjects to lighten the air. “Well she’s not gone...gone. Technically her body is dead but we’re still seeing brain activity and anomaly disruption from her magic.”

The words fill me with a sense of hope. That’s my girl, Ember—always loyal. I stand and drag both hands through my hair, pacing like a caged predator. Indignation hardens across my face. “Vikktor’s virus did this, but the void surge amplified it.” I pause to look her square in the eyes, daring her to lie to me, “Did you know? That it was a virus? That it could have destroyed our entire lab? Everything we’ve built?”

Ember swallows, unsettled by the conviction in my tone. “No.” Her eyes look down at the cold floor “He told me it was an update. A necessary update. It was supposed to immobilize the non-citizen sector, instead, Eli’s power surge made it fuse with DreamNet, binding thousands of minds into our neural AI system, eventually crashing it.”

She continues with a pleading look. “I haven’t heard of anyone being destroyed by it except for Lyra. Maybe just proximity? Being so close to a void.” She pontificates as she walks toward the sliding doors. “He threatened me if I didn’t upload it. I’m sorry, Dr. Ryudon...Kael.” Tears swell in her eyes as she looks over her shoulder.

I return to my office, the chair cold and hard as I sit behind my desk. Eli’s anomaly is staring at me, flickering faintly but there. An amber magic aura, floats above the towers, almost appearing like a satellite over VikkCorp. My insides twist, a small spark of hope, of obsession, of denial, all tangled together. I easily forget every tool I’ve just used to bring myself back to level.

You’re not gone. Your signature’s still here, Little Taiyō. I stare into the faintly blinking light. And I’ll find you. And when I do?

I’m going to keep you.

19

VirtualAwakening

Playlist: Alive - Rufus Du Soul

Lyra

The first thing I know is nothing; not blackness, not even silence.

Nothing.

My eyes shift, noticing a steady pulse. Thin, metallic, like a heartbeat throbbing through static, coming from a silent void. My chest heaves, but there’s no air. My throat burns as if I’ve swallowed white-hot fire, and my body feels crushed, every muscle screaming in agony with each passing second.

I open my eyes, maybe? I’m not sure I even have eyes anymore. The dark unfolds in jagged fragments, shapes flickering into existence like corrupted code: half a digital staircase leading nowhere, a corridor of glass that shatters when I blink. Each digital shard suspends midair, refracting neon light that doesn’t seem to have a source. It strikes like lightning, zapping my vision, then disappears, back to pitch black.

My reflection stares back from one broken pane remaining. It’s me...and it isn’t. My hair bleeds with iridescent magenta streaks brighter than they were before, my eyes now glow bright gold and amber, searing into the dark. My outline flickers, threatening to collapse into static.

“Hello?” My voice is hoarse, but it echoes, not in sound but in code, shattered, layered, glitching. It bounces back at me like an error message in the air. Sound visualizes instantly.

Fear surges up my spine and on impulse, I lift myself and run. My footsteps rupture the gridlines beneath me, sending ripples of static outward. The further I go, the more I can feel the darkness crowding me, pressing in like hands at my throat.

Somewhere deep inside my mind, buried DreamNet memories claw for purchase: the sunset beach, Kael, his lips on mine, the way he smelled, the warmth of his hard body against me. The thought is destroyed by Eli screaming for me, a promise broken. I was supposed to protect him, stick together forever.

I’m a liar.

This must be it. The thought settles inside me with a strange calm, like a conclusion I’ve finally reached after a lifetime of worry. They must have come for us while I was selfishly lost in DreamNet with Kael, pretending the world couldn’t touch me there.

So, this is death. Except...it doesn’t feel like I expected it to.

There’s no pain, no pleasure. Just a hollow stillness. My mind is sharp though. Too sharp. I’m fully aware of my thoughts and can hear myself talk into the endless dark.

I can’t be dead.

Dead people don’t think like this, don’t cling to unfulfilled promises. Dead people don’t feel that tight, aching pull in their chest when they think of someone else.

Eli.

If I’m here, wherever here is, then where is he? Did they take him too? Did he run? Did he...Die? I wince.

I can’t bring myself to think about it. Whatever happened to me, whatever this place is, I don’t have time to question it. I have to find him. I have to know he’s okay. Even if this is the afterlife.

My ears perk. I hear a voice, smooth and artificial. It’s not from outside, not coming from one centralized place. It’s coming from everywhere.