Escaping My Fatal Digital Marriage

blood-red holographic warning s

ng pain rips through the center of my skul

d to press against m

nds again

energy bites into my skin, locking my ar

nd to the

y mind: The Warden. It echoes directly inside my brain. It

pull in a single breath. My che

in front of me, a city bleeds neon light into a smog-choked sky.

t. This isn't my city.

ttention away from the glass. The thick all

ill seeping through the thin fabric of my s

light. He stops a few feet away, looking down at me. His eyes are dead

ements are too smooth, too precise. She stops bes

it. He doesn

lat. "Your digital marriage to a lower-tier

ood drains from my face,

at my dry throat. "You can't d

e reinforced glass and

his right hand and taps a

y crus

houlders. It feels like a concrete

y to push back, to ke

rward, forcing my chest toward my knees. Cold sweat burst

ad. Her mechanical

nion will increase the Skinner fami

My life is worth

t of despair drop

ng strings I know from the real world. I t

lid, blank wall. The system has com

e slices through

inent. Find a breach point

re. D

tic rhythm. The sheer terror of dying here, in

ting my tangled hair fall forward to hide my face. I bite the inside of

les. He taps

I suck in a ragged breath, m

hic console on the far side of the room. He reaches

ls into the tiny gap between th

erface flashes a

located three milli

wist my left wrist vi

m. The pain is blinding, a sharp spike th

e hits the

he cuffs stutters, and the pressure ar

sensors whir, focusing on my bleeding wri

k and let out a blo

as if the residual pressure is teari

ances over his shoulder, hi

t," he snaps at Brenda. "I need

alks out the sliding doors, taki

s. That's

upward with ev

arms fly free. A thick, angry red welt

I push myself up from the chair, my ba

back. He is still sta

text burns ac

ake contact with a core program. Failur

inger to press the f

lu

f the desk. I swing it with every ounce of strength i

h bone. A sickening cr

eyes roll back, and he collapses to th

look at the blinking console.