@2bvirtuous
The end of his second week in this city draws to a close, one where he feels as far away from finding the truth behind this place as he was at the end of the first. He’d read so many books. He’d investigated so many local businesses. And yet nothing indicated what the sensible truth of this place was. It had a history, yet its population consisted of creatures that history said were livestock, and a bizarre collection of beings that were seemingly plucked from their own worlds at random, with no similarities between them – not even humans. He ought to be able to connect the dots. But there were no dots to connect.
Even if he should expect no reason for anything anymore, it still makes him frustrated. If they were going to take him from a state like that, there had to be something...
He stops, in the middle of the street, the moonlight that was still so strange to him lighting the pavement up white. A horrible, ominous sense of deja vu rises up, so strong that he questions what he’s seeing at all. It’s A2. They have the same face, after all. It’s just like that first day. But it isn’t. It isn’t. A2 doesn’t make him feel like that. A2 wasn’t, wasn’t the reason –
“2... 2B.” His voice is weak, weak as his knees as he feels himself growing lightheaded, the ghost that’s been haunting his every living moment having materialised without warning. Rational thought goes out of the window, as a warm, yet distinctly unstable feeling bubbles up. 2B. She’s here. I’m so... happy. But she isn’t. He knows that. He’s seen it over and over, over and over – from the day he lost her, to the times they have come face to face since, not one of them real, not one of them sparing him the distinctive feeling of his sword slicing through ‘skin’. Again, again. It’s happening again. I have to fight her... a... again.
He clutches his head. His body feels sapped of all its strength. Then, so be it. One hand finds its way up to his eyes, tugging at his blindfold, the other falling limp at his side. He won’t draw his sword. If you’re here to kill me, then so be it.
The strip of cloth concealing his eyes drifts to the ground. His breathing light, his mouth curves up into a broken smile. “If you’re here, this really is a simulation, isn’t it? This world.” His breaths come out in weak gasps. “Though... I guess I’m still... kind of glad...”










