The screen flickered so violently I thought it might shut off. Lines of static crawled across the edges like insects. Beneath them, the faint outline of the child remained, half illuminated, half swallowed by shadow.
Not a child.
Not anymore.
Something older, broken, left lingering in a machine long after everything living should have faded.
Its eyes blinked slowly, the motion jerky and unnatural, like whatever remained of its consciousness had to physically drag each movement through the glitching interface.
It looked older than me.
Not by years measured in life.
But by misery measured in time spent drowning in a system that refused to let it die.
A soft crackle preceded its voice.
“Si… ster.”
The word vibrated through the chamber. It hit something deep inside my chest, somethin
