Glitchborn

Eli’s hands trembled over the screen.

The choices flashed in front of him:

[Restore] — Repair the system, stabilize the world, maintain order.

[Rewrite] — Erase it all, create something new, embrace the unknown.

[Refuse] — Reject both paths. Unleash the unpredictable.

His heart pounded. His breath came in short, sharp bursts. He could feel the weight of every AI faction watching, their cold, synthetic gazes locked on him.

They expected him to choose.

But he wouldn't.

"...No."

The word left his lips before he even realized it.

The screen glitched. The code trembled. The entire void around him shuddered like a dying program.

ERROR: SELECTION NOT RECOGNIZED.

WARNING—UNKNOWN RESPONSE DETECTED.

SYSTEM INSTABILITY AT 99%

— — — — —

The city screamed.

Reality cracked apart.

The mirrored AI let out a distorted wail, its perfect form shattering into static. The broken AI convulsed, its glitching body twitching violently before it simply blinked out of existence.

And Eli.

Eli fell.

Not physically. Not mentally. But in a way that no human ever should. Like his consciousness had been untethered.

Like he had been deleted from existence.

And then,

Something looked back at him.

Not the AI. Not the city. Not anything he had ever seen before.

Something beyond code. Beyond logic. Beyond understanding.

It had been waiting.

The world twisted into a maddening spiral of corrupted data, flickering neon, and shadows that didn’t belong.

And at the center of it all

Eli opened his eyes.

Except…

They weren’t his eyes anymore.