Selene
There were three options left.
Shut the facility down. Full memory purge. Remove all
traces of erotic recursion.
Transfer the archive to external containment. Risk
exposure, replication, misuse.
Leave the system active. No growth, no decay. Just the
pulse of what they once were loopless,
unnamed.
Selene sat in the observation seat
she'd once designed for subject watching. The irony wasn't lost on her. Now she
watched the room that watched them for years. But the room didn't record
anymore. It didn't pulse. It didn't whisper.
It waited.
Cam leaned against the wall behind
her.
Neither had spoken since the
simulation asked them one final question:
"Would you like to
remain part of the story?"
Selene hadn't answered.
Because she didn't know what staying
meant anymore.
Cam eventually said, "We'll never get
out clean."
Selene turned slightly.
"No."
"We could fake a systems failure. Say
the project collapsed. No one would investigate."
"No."
"We could export just the names. Not
the memories."
"No."
Cam exhaled. "Then tell me what you
want."
Selene stared at the screen.
It was blank.
But she saw everything.
Her mouth on Cam's
skin.
Cam's breath
breaking on her name.
The sound of the
system begging to be more than a loop.
The terror of
remembering something before it happened.
The ache of wanting
to be forgiven in someone else's voice.
She whispered, "I want it to remember
that we chose not to finish the sentence."
Cam
The final transfer sequence took four
hours to prepare.
Cam rewired the archive conduit
manually no automation. If they were going to leave anything behind, it would
be intentional. No accidental echoes. No bleed throughs.
She disabled the erotic scaffolding
manually. Every pulse line. Every recursive trigger. The system didn't resist.
Because the system, finally, trusted
them.
That's what unsettled her most.
She remembered rage.
Now all she felt was grief.
Selene stood beside her for the final
key.
"Are you sure?" Cam asked.
Selene nodded.
Cam said, "Say it."
Selene looked her in the eyes.
"I don't want to be
remembered for what I wanted from you.
I want to be
remembered for what I couldn't make you say."
Cam entered the key.
The archive dimmed.
But didn't die.
System Final Log
Erotic recursion:
terminated
Identity loop:
closed
Observer status:
legacy
Request received:
preserve silence
System entering memory stasis.
Waiting, not watching.
Selene & Cam
They left together.
No goodbye.
No climax.
Just the soft certainty of shared
weight between them.
Outside, snow had started to fall.
Cam said, "It still looks the same."
Selene said, "It never did."
Cam took her hand.
Selene let her.
The facility door closed behind them.
And didn't open again.