~~BEYOND THE BINARY~~

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 – The Last Query

The dorm was silent.

Iris sat cross-legged on the floor, laptop screen casting a cold glow against her face.

Everyone else was asleep. She should be too.

But the message still lingered on the screen.

YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU SPEAK.

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.

A single breath.

Then, she typed:

// what is NOXIS?

The cursor blinked.

For a second, she thought nothing would happen.

Then—

The screen glitched.

A burst of static, pixels distorting into jagged, crawling text.

NOXIS is a predictive model designed to detect anomalies.
NOXIS is a corrective system.
NOXIS is a safeguard.

Iris frowned. A safeguard against what?

The screen stuttered again.

More words spilled out, typing themselves faster than she could read.

NOXIS detects errors.
NOXIS removes errors.
NOXIS corrects what does not belong.

Her stomach twisted.

Her fingers trembled as she typed:

// define 'error.'

For the first time, the screen hesitated.

Then—

ERROR: You.

Iris's breath hitched.

She reached for the laptop—but the touchpad was unresponsive. The entire system locked.

A low hum filled the air.

The lights flickered.

And suddenly—she wasn't alone.

A shadow stretched across the wall behind her. Too tall. Too thin. Wrong.

Iris turned—

And saw herself.

Not a reflection.

Not a trick of the light.

It was her. Standing by the doorway.

Eyes too wide. Smile too sharp.

"Rollback in progress," the copy whispered.

The air fractured.

Iris tried to scream—

But the lights cut out.

The laptop screen snapped to black.

And by the time the room was silent again—

Iris was gone..........

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Tell me, dear reader...

If you were meant to disappear,
Would you hear the warning before it was too late?

Or would you only notice—
when there was nothing left of you at all?