Jay's POV
In the echoes of the simulation's rebuilt hallway, the light flickers unnaturally. Not a system bug— something worse. Something familiar.
It wasn't just a presence. It was like watching a memory rot in front of me.
Null.
That thing that looked like me. Thought like me. Maybe even bled like me.
But he wasn't me.
...Right?
He said things only I should've known—lines from choices I never made, regrets I buried so deep the system itself couldn't track them anymore. He walked like someone who had seen every version of this world— every failure, every reset, every discarded ending.
I try to laugh it off, like always.
A shrug. A quip. A lazy "Well, that's not ominous at all."
But it doesn't land. Not this time.
Because deep down, I felt it.
Null wasn't just a glitch. He was the cost of my survival.
And maybe...
...maybe he's the one who paid it for me.
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Alicia's POV
