~~BEYOND THE BINARY~~

Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – A Perfect Error

The world did not end.

It simply adjusted.

NOXIS did not destroy.

It refined.

Reality was fluid, malleable. A string of data, a sequence of moments that could be edited, trimmed, rewritten.

That was its purpose.

To correct anomalies..

To erase what did not belong.

To ensure that history—clean, flawless history—remained intact.

And so it did.

Every file. Every message. Every photograph where her face once existed—gone.

Every memory rewritten, every conversation stitched back together without her name.

Her existence smoothed away like a wrinkle in time.

By the time the sun rose, the world was perfect again.

And no one remembered Iris.

The café was warm, filled with the hum of soft conversations and the rich aroma of roasted coffee.

Selene stirred her drink absentmindedly, watching the steam curl into the air. She wasn't really listening to the conversation.

Something felt off.

Not in a loud, jarring way. More like... an itch in the back of her mind. A faint pressure.

Like she'd walked into a room and forgotten why.

Ash was laughing at something Cassian had said. Arden had her chin propped on her hand, half-smiling, eyes distant.

It was normal.

It was routine.

So why did it feel like something was missing?

She glanced around the café. The usual crowd was there—the barista who always got Ash's order wrong, the old man reading a tattered newspaper by the window. The posters on the bulletin board, the neon sign flickering in the corner.

Everything was as it should be.

And yet.

She caught Cassian frowning at his planner. His lips moved slightly, as if counting something. A flicker of hesitation, then a small shake of his head, like he was dismissing a thought.

Arden scrolled through her phone, pausing. She tilted her head, thumb hovering over the screen. Then, after a beat, she sighed and kept scrolling.

Ash tapped a rhythm on the table with his fingers, gaze flicking toward the door every few minutes.

Selene didn't think much of it. Not at first.

But then she caught herself staring at the empty chair at their table.

Not expecting someone to be there—of course not.

That would be ridiculous.

There were only four of them.

There had always been four.

Right?

The day passed in a blur.

Classes. Lectures. Hallways filled with familiar faces.

Selene felt normal. Almost.

But the feeling never quite went away.