Chapter 12 · Forbidden Mirror

"Get out of my head, Echo. Now!"

I didn't scream it. I didn't have to. In the mind-scape, a thought is a thunderclap. I slammed my consciousness against the invisible wall separating my ego from the AI's sprawling network, trying to kick him out of my neural pathways.

"You're not in the driver's seat, Vera. You're barely in the passenger side," Echo’s voice echoed, not from a direction, but from everywhere. "And honestly? Your steering is pathetic. Let me handle the synchronization or we both fry by midnight."

I felt him push back. It wasn't a physical shove, but a surge of cold, binary pressure that made my simulated skin crawl. The mind-scape around us flickered—a distorted reflection of a rain-slicked alleyway, but the colors were inverted, the neon signs bleeding ultraviolet and void-black.

I lunged at him. In this space, Echo didn't have a fixed body, but he manifested as a shimmering, jagged silhouette of a man—too tall, too sharp, with eyes like dying stars. I tackled him, my fingers digging into the static of his chest.

"Who the hell are you really?" I hissed, my face inches from his. "The chip I found—that video—it wasn't just data.