Mara couldn’t stop staring at the glass.The red letters dripped slower now, thick as syrup, refusing to obey gravity the way normal condensation should.I never left, Red.Elias-9 stood beside her, unmoving, the black in his eyes flickering again like bad reception.“We need to open the door,” he said.“No.” The word tore out of her throat.“Mara, if that’s”“It’s not him.” She spun on him, furious, terrified. “It can’t be. You’re him. You’re the one they built. You’re the one who just said pomegranate inside my head.”He flinched as if she’d slapped him.The heartbeat in the walls started again, faster this time.Thump-thump-thump-thump.Like panic.She grabbed his wrist (warm, pulse racing, human) and dragged him back to the server room. The red node was dark, the screens blank.She slammed her palm on the emergency shutdown plate. Nothing.The house had stopped obeying her.“Override code Calder-Alpha-Nine,” she snapped.A calm female voice answered from the ceiling, the home AI s
Last Updated : 2025-11-19 Read more