Final Part – You Are Not Afraid

Chapter 26 – Escape

Marley found herself sprawled out on a floor. Her eyes squinted against an overwhelming light. She shielded her face with a hand and glanced around. Her house had taken on a broken but cube-like shape. Bits of furniture and decoration found themselves spread across a wall like putty stretched too far. Cautiously, she got to her feet.

She didn’t need to call out for the others because Olivia was on the ground nearby clutching herself. Marley helped her up. The others were scattered in a line like breadcrumbs across the blurred surface of the room. Looking around, Marley could no longer tell if they were inside or outside.

Once together, they ventured to an area that felt like it was outdoors but still had a sense like a massive interior space. Portions of their street looked like a glitched video game with order and structure twisted about. Olivia thought of an amusement park they’d been to once where the houses were like something out of a cartoon. Marley noticed the familiar submarine form of hallway showed up in bright colors as pipes and vents wedged into the dirt but still belching steam.

Marley said only, “Be careful. She’s here somewhere.”

It didn’t take long before Marley found her twin wedged between two trees. Blasting ahead of the others, she seized both trunks and began pressing them together against Simona. Groaning, Simona stretched her arm out. A console appeared in the air behind her as her arm got longer and longer.

Nicolas ran over and a patch of ground rose up and crushed the console. Grunting as the tree surrounded her, Simona focused as a console came up on the trunk of the tree below her. Marisa seized her arms, but Simona glared and grew a new arm to tap on the console. Olivia focused and her spare arms melded with the form of the tree. With each of them focusing, Simona couldn’t get any further.

Leaning her head back in a gesture devoid of submission and full of contempt, Simona noted, speaking with Marley’s voice, “So…you were in the boxes…clever. But whatever powers you had there won’t last in the main system. I’m in charge here.”

Marley slapped a patch of wood across Simona’s mouth. She quickly spat it off and looked over at the only one of the group who hadn’t done anything against her. Jessica arched her back and clenched her eyes with her hands wrapped around her stomach.

With a smirk, Simona stated, “I shouldn’t be surprised. Shame she’s no more than an echo and the only real things she’s feeling are my thoughts eating her from the inside.”

Marley resisted spitting on Simona as she demanded, “You let her go now!”

“No…she’s mine. You’re all mine. This pitiful rebellion is pointless. No matter what you think you can do, this is my world and it bends only to my will. Have your fun for now. Blow off a little steam. Then my turn will come.”

Clenching her teeth, Marley pressed the tree together as Simona cackled. Despite being crushed, she looked like she was enjoying herself. Trembling in fruitless anger, Marley could’ve tried to hurt her in a dozen different ways. Instead, as the trembling started to settle, she realized the only solution was to get into her head like she got into theirs.

“We have your life support program codes.”

Slipping her head through the trees, Simona’s amusement faded as she answered firmly, “Impossible. They’re locked into my personal system. You can’t touch them.”

Mona, like a whisper of a ghost, hovered like she did before. She got closer to Simona as she slipped out of the tree. She shadowed her as her eyes darted about in search of an invisible structure. The others lingered back with Marisa clenching her fists and wanting to do more. Nicolas bowed his head and glared at Simona as Olivia watched her big sister. Jessica pressed a hand over her mouth, as though suffering a sudden bout of nausea.

After a minute of stern miming, Simona relaxed and declared, “I knew you were bluffing. You’ve got nothing. Escape out of wherever you were hiding to sock me in the gut. It’ll get you nowhere.”

Behind her, Mona gave a brief smile and a look in Marley’s direction. Folding her arms, Marley approached Simona and said, “I promised I would kill you. I wasn’t bluffing. And you’ve given me plenty of reasons to do it. You’ve kidnapped and hurt my friends. You’ve put me through immense pain. All so you can live as a frail, decaying brain in a fantasy world…”

Simona bent her head back as she said, “You’ve been an amusing challenge, Marley. I never expected the cowering, whimpering parody of a person I made from borrowed energy and my weak thoughts would amount to much. I’m almost tempted to save and study you like an insect. But you’re just too much of a threat. I will be turning off the save program and purging all your files and backups. I need to start from scratch with something even more submissive.”

Marley shook her head as she asserted, “You won’t stop me. And you won’t harm any of us.”

Simona put on an expression of annoyance as she sighed and asked, “And why is that? The hallucination of a nicer Sim getting you feeling overconfident? No matter what other programs are in the system, I’m no match for them. I am the God of this world. So, have your fun while you can. At any moment, my automatic console will activate. “

Mona floated over to Marley. She whispered, “I have a plan”, then gave her the details.

Marley gave only a slight nod in response. A glow clustered around Simona’s fingers and she muttered, “It’s about time…” Before she could take further action, Mona’s hands swirled around Marley.

Simona paused. In her head, an image flashed. Shaking, shivering. The feeling of hiding behind a couch, the worry that her father might be coming home soon. But she wasn’t in her home anymore. Behind her, for the others to see, was a glimpse of Marley’s memory as Simona was feeling it. Simona shook her head and growled, “What are you doing?!”

Marley smirked and told her, “You said we were made of you. All our memories, all our thoughts, just echoes of you. Time to put some of those memories back.”

Clenching, Simona felt a new memory from Marley. The feeling of meeting Seth, the sensation of fear waning in her presence, a friend, a kindred spirit in this place, a chance of hope. Between it came appearances by Sim and the desire to cower. Simona fought against the feeling. She murmured, “Impossible! You can’t do it!”

“Watch us!”

Mona moved around to the others. She stirred up a cavern of lost memories as Isaac became Marisa. Simona pushed back the pain of Marisa being shot by Oswald. And then she drifted in confusion as things changed. Finally, she made Simona feel the terror of being purged and deleted, followed by emptiness spliced into an imagined lifetime of a girl who wanted to see more girls.

Fighting off the swirl of thoughts and feelings being downloaded into her, Simona howled, “This means nothing! YOU ARE NOTHING! Just useless data!”

Nicolas came next. The anguish of someone who just wanted to help. His whole world crashing down around him, followed by the feeling of a puppet on a string. Simona didn’t frown, but her expression shifted when she looked at Nicolas’s expression, similar to an unimaginable, heartbroken one on Steven.

Olivia’s thoughts were blank of Oswald, composed of pink ponies, playful thoughts, and a dash of sibling rivalry seasoned with love and admiration. Simona almost looked on Marley with kindness before pushing it away.

Jessica’s thoughts weren’t strong enough to reach, so Marley used the ones Seth had left her. Echoes of confusion inside a box. Becoming someone else with fears about lying. Fears about darkness. Finding friends. Pushing forth in a world gone mad. Then the loneliness which split between the two of them. The agony which Marley spewed on Simona came back to her again. They could see it in her eyes despite how many times she tried to push it away. Simona wanted Simona dead as much as Marley.

Back and forth, she pushed the memories into her but held back the most recent ones, for the sake of the plan. Like waves, Simona felt the crushing fear of death, the one feeling which hit her deepest in her aged body, a distant specter she always tried to forget. Then, she rose with the kinship of those around her, her classmates, her sister, her best friends.

For a fleeting moment, it seemed like the rush of sensations was enough. It seemed like something new was emerging in her gaze. Then Simona returned, her teeth bared like razors. She stretched her arms out and roared.

Flames leapt from her arms and twisted around the trees and street like an infernal tempest. Before long, several buildings were aflame. Eyes glowing, Simona said only, “Run…or burn.”

They huddled close together, dodging the firestorm as Simona directed it towards them. Reaching a hand out, Marley pushed the flames away. They scorched a circle all around them as Mona lingered behind Simona and focused.

Panting, Simona’s flames retracted as she snarled, “You….are pissing me off! Time to bring in a specialist…”

With a dash of her hand, male Seth appeared beside her with a calm and familiar look in his eyes. It didn’t take Simona’s explanation for them to know who it was.

“The newest version of Sim. I was working on him when you all decided to show up. He made you so similar to me that you managed to intrude into MY system. Now, he’s going to unmake that.”

This Sim was different from the cruel one Marley had destroyed but also different from the first one they’d met who wanted to rule. He looked submissive when turned towards Simona, but there was still something of that same presence in his gaze. It was like that version of Sim was shackled like a slave and only begrudgingly cooperating.

He gave a few bends of his head before offering, “The process of making them…was challenging. Introducing all those elements. It can’t readily be…undone…without the permission of one of them…one of the more complete ones.”

Simona frowned and resolved, “So, I’ll just use Seth. I’m already inhabiting her, and she gave me her permission.” Jessica winced and cowered in the group as Marisa supported her.

Sim shook his head. “That won’t work. It has to be one which hasn’t been used yet. Otherwise…you won’t be able to tell where the process began.”

Grumbling to herself, Simona said, “Useless. Fine! One of you…”

Simona dismissed Nicolas with a gesture and instead focused her attention on Marley, “You…you’re the complete one.”

Marley clenched her fists and said only, “So?”

“So…you’re going to do just like your friend did. You’re going to give yourself up. I’m going to dissect you, and then Sim will remove the powers you have in this world. The powers you’ve stolen, which are rightfully and solely mine!”

“And why would I do that?”

Clutching her hands together, Simona intoned, “Because you have no other option. Escape is impossible. You’re just ones and zeros stored in an advanced medium I made. And because you know I can make things painful for you…”

Marley gave a snort as she said, “You tried pain on me before. You tried hurting my friends before. It didn’t work. Why do you think this will?”

Simona tipped her head forward with Marley’s hair slipping over her eyes like a dark curtain as she said. “Because you have others you care about as well. Mother and father…friends and classmates. They’re not real, but I can burn them. And you know there are people that run the system with their minds, sleeping in comas. The rejects, retards, and refuse of humanity’s leftovers. Would you like me to get destructive with them too? Your choice…”