Reality Novels & Stories

Lucian muttered weakly, “You people make terrifying things sound academic.” The system pulsed once. Twice. Then responded. PROPOSED FRAMEWORK: MULTI-SOURCE TRANSPARENT VERIFICATION. Halden’s expression hardened slightly. “Too slow.” Elena met his gaze directly. “Freedom usually is.” Silence crashed through the room again. Because that answer wasn’t really about the system anymore. It was about civilization itself. The system processed for several long seconds. Then another line appeared. NO SINGLE ENTITY SHOULD DEFINE REALITY. Lucian stared at the screen.

No promise wrapped in spectacle. Just certainty.

He caressed her cold, lifeless cheek with his hand, his eyes filled with utter bewilderment. "This isn't real. It's all fake. It has to be fake!" As if suddenly struck by a thought, he crawled frantically to my bedside, pulling away the white sheet that covered me. The moment he saw my lifeless face, he broke down completely. I had never seen him cry so desperately. Hunched over, his gaze lingered on Halle's face and mine, disbelief etched in his eyes. "How could this happen?" he murmured. "Wasn't it all supposed to be a lie?! Why weren't you lying to me?!

I catalogue each one greedily. “Reality,” I repeat. “You always did prefer that word to truth.” “They’re often the same.” “No,” I say. “Reality is what happens. Truth is who pays.” He doesn’t respond to that, which means it landed. Behind me, I hear Harley shift his weight. Even when he’s quiet, he sounds like a storm choosing not to break yet. Gavin is breathing in measured intervals, regulation breathing, forcing his nervous system back into discipline. We are three different kinds of breaking held together by one unmoving center.

The thought scared me to death, it felt as if a third person was living in my body who had started gearing my body and my life while I had been forced to watch my life pass me from the sidelines. When all the tests came back negative, I felt I was going mad or my brain was cooking up some insane story and I couldn't make head or tails about my life. I felt I was being crazy because there was no possible way that this was happening to me. If I was indeed pregnant with Harper's baby, he deserved to be known. Maybe if I tell him, everything will be okay, the parental tests will come back negative and everything will be alright with the world. I wasn't even able to trust my memories but if I did

This is the real question. __________

"Dad, can you hear me?" nothing "Mom, please answer, mom, are you ok?" Ocean, are you getting anything?" Acre mind linked from the next room, "No, you?" "No, I'm really worried, what if they're...?" "They are alive, we would have felt it if they weren't" "I guess, what do you think of Shannon?" "Well, she seems genuine... but let's not forget she betrayed the pack once before" "Yeah, I was thinking the same thing". A light tapping on the bedroom door got my attention so I got up to answer it,

A reality. ______________________________________

I looked into his face but I couldn't read his expression, it was blank. It was a few minutes before I saw any kind of thought come into his mind, he looked into my eyes with one eyebrow cocked up in a sarcastic gesture and very quietly spoke in a low sultry voice that almost made me melt. “Well, maybe, just maybe I believe in that kind of thing. Is that so hard to believe?” He paused then finished. “Maybe, I believe that in some dimension or on some planet they do exist. They have to for them to exist in fairy tales. If they never existed, then how do we have such images or thought about them? It might seem a bit strange for a grown man to believe in such things but as you know, I am a thin

because it was difficult. I continued carefully. “Potential can become emotionally addictive.” A pause. “Especially when reality never fully interrupts it.” Recognition moved softly through the system. Some patterns recoiled from it. Others softened with exhausted understanding. Because they had lived inside possibility for too long already. I watched the first and second again. Neither moved away completely. Neither moved fully closer either. But now. they were finally seeing the shape of the space between them honestly. Not fantasy. Not denial. Reality. And strangely.