00:59:58
The second Isla didn't look up when she spoke. "You shouldn't be here yet."
Isla froze, her breath misting in the cold air. "What do you mean 'yet'?"
The other lifted her head. Same face. Same voice. But her eyes were hollow, pure static flickering in black sockets.
"They haven't erased you far enough," she whispered. "That's why it hurts."
"Hurts?" Isla touched her temple. Blood. Or ink. It leaked from her ear in slow, perfect drops.
The lights flickered and the walls split open like a curtain, revealing rows of glass cases stretching into infinity. Each one glowed faintly blue, labeled with a small white plaque:
SUBJECT 01
SUBJECT 02
SUBJECT 03
Every tenth case was shattered.
A faint metallic hum filled the space, pulsing with the rhythm of her heart.
The other Isla rose, moving with a slow, mechanical grace. "This is where they store us when we fail the test."
"Us?"
She pointed toward one of the intact cases. Isla stepped closer, wiping condensation from the glass. Inside lay Mason, motionless, eyes open, a tangle of wires embedded in his chest.
His wrist display still blinked faintly: 00:00:00
"Is he…?"
"Preserved," the other said. "Until they need him again."
A console near the end of the hall flickered to life. Lines of text scrolled across the screen faster than she could read. She caught only fragments:
MEMORY CORRUPTION: 86%
REBUILD ATTEMPT #14
PRIMARY SUBJECT VEN
The rest distorted.
Isla's hands shook. "Ven… Venn. That's my name."
The other nodded. "And theirs." She gestured around them. Hundreds of glass capsules. Hundreds of Islas.
Her reflection began to shimmer again in the curved surface of one pod. The same smile. The same slow, deliberate blink.
"Why are there so many?"
"Because you kept trying to fix what can't be fixed."
The floor rumbled. The cases began to pulse, glowing brighter. Alarms screamed overhead.
The other Isla backed away. "You triggered the merge. You shouldn't have remembered this far."
"What happens now?"
The other's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Now, the Archive decides which one of us stays."