Davids words hung in the air, like a voice not wanting to be forgotten.
What are you?
I wanted to say my name, to say "I'm Adrian" but my name felt too familiar it was unfamiliar.
The name 'Adrian' felt overused, like a hundred Adrians all at once.
Behind David I could see, a giant library filled with books, all with the name Adrian.
The question rang on my head again, "Who Am I?"
Why am I so overused? Am I that important?
Just then, a mechanical voice echoed across the room, alerting both David and I.
⌞Unit 091: Merging…
001-090: 45%⌝
David's face paled as the mechanical chime cut through the air. He didn't focus on the sound, he kept his eyes on me, they were full of worry.
"Adrian, look at me," David pleaded, his voice cracking mid-sentence. "Don't listen to them, you're… you're okay, so please, look at me."
I tried to nod, but my neck felt stiff.
My body… wasn't mine anymore.
When I opened my mouth to speak, I felt the library vibrate—a book fell.
Pain shot through my head instantly. It felt like it was splitting to a million pieces. I grabbed my head, losing balance.
David rushed to help me, but the system anticipated his move and struck first.
David's eyes rolled back as he collapsed onto the ground with a heavy thud.
The headache continued to overpower me, a low groan escaped my lips.
The pain intensified, I dropped to my knees and closed my eyes shut.
My shouts for pain only grew louder.
The system chimed once again.
⌞Unit 091: Threshold Reached.⌝
⌞Commencing Personality Compression⌝
I didn't hear the system warning me, instead, I heard myself.
"David! Look at this cool skin I got!" One voice chirped in my ear—the sound of a younger me, maybe in another universe where he was happy.
"Move, Manager. You're in the way." Another barked—sharp, cold, and hollow.
I screamed, but the sound that came out wasn't simply mine. But a chord. The sound that came out wasn't mine alone, but ninety versions of me trying to breathe through a single pair of lungs .
Lucian was right, I am a monster.
Oliver was right.
Every single person who looked at me, was right.
I stared down to the still unconscious David. My heart—the cowardly, human part of me—wanted to crawl to him, to feel the warmth he always gave me. But my body won't move. One leg shifted to stand tall, the other buckled to my knees.
I became a puppet with too many people pulling the strings.
"What… are… we?" I wheezed.
This time the library didn't vibrate. It melted. The books, the shelves, reduced to ink that spilled under my feet.
⌞001-090: 52%⌝
⌞Error: Vessel is attempting to categorize non-existent data.⌝
I reached out a hand towards David, but as my fingers got close to his face, they didn't tremble with fear. They curled into a fist.
I hate him, one whispered.
I love him, another cried.
I don't know him, a third, indifferent voice stated.
I was becoming more than a monster. I was becoming a crowd. And in the middle of that crowd, the me that David knew, loved and cared about, was being stepped on, crushed, and slowly forgotten.