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She was on the floor of the basement, feeling a bit numb. She let out a long sigh, and Loir’s face appeared above her.
“Thank you,” he said with a large smile. “How did you escape the snake, by the way?”
“Data glitch. I figured the simulation would try to save both the snake and the wall and would be stuck if it had to make a choice between the two...”
“Oh, that’s my girl.”
He disappeared from above her, and she heard him roll his chair back to the keyboard. Eden sighed and touched her SIN, still hot.
“...How long was I in there?”
“Less than fifteen minutes. You’re not far from your personal record. That wasn’t such a big server, anyway... Oh, they really shut it down. A phobia simulation... Oh, so middle-aged, are they?”
“They looked real,” sighed Eden, sitting up.
“Did they? It looked like an amateur job to me... I bet I could do better.”
“Of course you could,” groaned Eden.
The pups suddenly made some cute attempts at barking and walked to her, sniffing her. Eden smiled and grabbed the two pups, petting them. They began playing on her lap, but Eden’s eyes went past them, to her legs.
“Hm... Having regrets?” asked Loir.
“...About the puppies. You promised, Loir,” she retorted, ignoring his question.
“Of course, of course. Just send me the bills... They are so cute! Do you know what you’re going to call them?”
Eden chuckled, looking down at them.
“Yeah. Beer and Bullet.”
CHAPTER THREE
Eden felt the pain before opening her eyes.
Like blades piercing her legs, fire devouring them. She whimpered in pain and opened her eyes, full of tears already. She tried to breathe, inhale and exhale, but her whole brain was focused on the scorching pain. She cried out loud and grabbed the mattress, using all of her arms’ strength to sit up. She was sweating, shivering with a terrible fever.
As she finally sat up, Eden looked down and grabbed the upper end of her legs, or what was left of them. She glared at the empty space on the mattress.
“It’s not real,” she groaned. “It’s not real, you fucking stupid brain...”
Clenching her teeth, she kept breathing, trying to fight the pain. It was still horrible. How could she feel pain when there was nothing there to feel pain from? Eden cried between her teeth and curled over, glaring at the phantom limbs as if she could convince them to appear.
Suddenly, a little sound on her left caught her attention. Amid the tremendous amount of pain she was feeling, she glanced to the side. Between her blonde locks, she spotted Bullet sitting down and staring at her. The pups... She had forgotten about them. She looked around, locating Beer curled up on the left side of the mattress. Seeing the little dogs so calm and quiet felt odd in comparison to the nightmare she was experiencing.
Eden took deep breaths and glanced up, trying to calm down once more. Bullet suddenly ran to her, climbing onto her lap and yelping. She looked down and grabbed the puppy, hugging him against her chest. Feeling his short fur and warmth helped her calm down a little. Unhappy, Bullet began growling and biting her hand a bit, but it actually made Eden chuckle. The pain slowly subsided. It didn’t disappear at once, but it gradually faded as she was focusing on the pup instead.
Hearing his brother being so noisy, Beer woke up slowly and climbed on her lap too, wondering what was so interesting.
Once she calmed down enough, Eden sighed and put Bullet down, both puppies staring at her. She smiled at them, a bit relieved. So she hadn’t taken them in for nothing, in the end... They climbed down from her lap and began playing together on the mattress, ironically where Eden’s legs should have been.
Eden stared at her prosthetic legs, waiting on the side. Those damn pieces of metal were giving her more trouble than she had thought… Back then, she had believed it was a good deal to get a more expensive model, but now they were too expensive to take care of. She grabbed them and reattached her bionic limbs with a few movements. Her SIN sent a little tingle, and she tried moving her feet, which indeed followed each movement she intended. Eden was finally able to get up.
However, as soon as she got up, she raised her mattress, opening the little tear inside, and took out a little sachet. It only contained three little white pills. She grimaced and put them back. At least she didn’t need one today...
“Beer, Bullet. Come on.”
Following her voice, the puppies barked and came down from the mattress, running in circles and playing. Eden quickly changed into another bodysuit, a black one with a turtleneck and some jeans. She took her large jacket and left the apartment, her stomach a bit noisy. The two pups followed after her, excited to go out. However, Eden first stopped by the basement to see Loir.
