Page 59 of GlitchBorn Heart

“Alive!” Ash finishes for her, his eyes pulsing with excitement. “Alive in here. Trapped in your machine.” He extends his arms to the confines of the lab, pointing to all the tech machinery around us. “LINK has a roommate.” He laughs to himself.

His humor bounces off me. His words slice me open.

Alive. Trapped.

The core system hums louder at the accusation, like it wants to agree but mock me. The whir of data being sent over the drives increases to a steady buzz, and I realize, it’s very, very angry. Lights flash, alarms ping, and static breaks through intermittently on the monitors.

My stomach knots. This isn’t just the result of Vikktor’s virus. It’s something else entirely. A type of anomaly I’ve never encountered before, and one that could threaten to breach the entire grid.

I’ve never felt overloaded before. This lab has always been an extension of me, silent, disciplined, contained. Control has never slipped here—not until now. This lab is mine, built to obey, designed to submit.

“Out!” I snap. “Both of you. I need to think.”

I pace, hands buried deep in my pockets, as the hum of the mainframe swells, rising in my ears with each step. It’s loud, no longer ignorable. It beats like a heart syncing to my pulse, echoing too closely to my own.

Hers.

Her heartbeat and mine trying to find the same rhythm, echoing through the circuitry of the lab. I suddenly realize I’ve sabotaged every barrier I’ve put up to protect myself from wanting, from attachment, and I didn’t do it by accident. Every mantra, every thought shoved down, every wall I put up, only kept me from being human.

I’m not a lone wolf anymore. Right now, I’m alone inside myself, and the worst part is, I don’t want to be.

There’s a pull where there’s never been one. A presence pressing back when I press on. Lyra didn’t just rewire my whole system, she rewired me. How did this happen so quickly?

Ash and Ember give each other a look, some silent exchange I don’t care to decode, and head toward the door of the lab. Ash lingers before stepping out, his mouth already curving into some warning, some truth he thinks I’m ready for. For once, I’m not ready for any of this.

“Not another word...” My voice cracks like a whip across the room, sharper than I intended. “Not now.” I soften.

He stiffens, but he nods once and disappears through the door. Ember follows, her expression fading, though her hesitation tells me more than I want to admit.

They know I’m lying to myself about still being in control.

Then it’s just me and the silence.

Except it’s not silence, the noise of my thoughts, so many thoughts, are vibrating through me. Pressure builds again in my veins like my blood is fighting to stay contained. Colors flicker across the monitors, violet stains now spread like bruises through my perfect order. I stare in disbelief, as a shimmer of a being, half-formed, appears, then dissipates before revealing itself.

I walk up to the shifting lights on the screens, apprehensive about what I’m doing next. “Little Taiyō...if that’s you...” The words fall out of me in a whisper that I can’t hold back. “Show me a sign, give me something, so I know.” I’m still doubting the plausibility of this entire situation, but hope lies underneath, ready to bloom.

The hum spikes with an unbelievable answer; digitized cherry blossoms explode at me from all screens. I flinch as if they’re a real and tangible thing about to collide with my being. It’s both beautiful and tragic.

Fuck. Ash might be right. My mind immediately goes to its darkest place. If this is her, then Lyra knows I’ve trapped her. She knows the system has caged her in its inner depths, in the processes I built to stop any threats from destroying my domain.

She’ll never forgive me.

So, this is what it’s like to feel human.

23

TerribleLie

Playlist: Terrible Lie - Nine Inch Nails

Kael

I wake, hunched over my desk, jaw stiff, a line of drool running down the sleeve of my tailored suit. I don’t remember falling asleep. I only recall hours of pacing, rewinding logs, reading journals, and combing data until my eyes burned.

Who am I kidding? That wasn’t sleep. It was a restless half-state of research and denial, my mind looping the same question into my skull.

How the hell did she get into my system?