A grin as sharp as glass cuts through his stern lips. He laughs, hands trickling around my waist. “You have a sense of humor,” he says.
This experience is unlike anything I have ever encountered in my thirty-one years of living.
Any of my actions can change the course of what happens here. This world isn’t real, but my footprint still echoes with importance. I’m not sure whether to smile or keep my mouth shut.
Before I can speak, he stands and pulls against my chains. “So, will you let me go?” I ask.
Is unlocking the AI this easy? No, Elon isn’t that shortsighted. He wouldn’t send me into this place without first strengthening the code. There’s more to this scenario than meets the eye.
I need to keep him moving.
“I don’t need to chain you up to keep you loyal,” he says. “Someone has injected you with a slow-acting poison. If you leave my side, you will die.”
My bones rattle, pulse throbbing, cold. “P-P-Poison?”
There is no way…
He nods. “Flowing through your bloodstream as we speak,” he says.
I swallow, throat as tight as a finger-trap, my heart beating rapidly.
It can’t be real.
But when I glance at the ditch of my arm, I see something impossible. There is a slight bruise where a needle has penetrated the skin. I cup my palm around the wound, sighing from a sudden onset of pain.
Fuck, Elon. Is he serious?
“Lucky for you, I know where the cure is,” he says.
I open my lips, but it’s difficult to breathe. I remember my father, the harsh reality he brought to the table. That pales in comparison to this.
I can’t do this. I can’t get away. Repeat after me: This isn’t real. I am in control.
“I don’t fear you,” I say.
But he calls my bluff, laughing like an evil deity sent to destroy this “Earth.” Without effort, he spins and slashes a villager’s throat. The head falls like a bowling ball, a clean break around the cartilage and bone. It rolls down the stairs, weight bouncing off my heel.
The blood drapes his masculine body, and I’m left to scramble away from him like a pathetic insect.
“Oh my God,” I cry. “You… killed… him…”
He isn’t worried about it. Not in the least bit. “I bet your pussy tastes sweet like nectar,” he hisses. “I have half a mind to fuck your cunt raw, to breed my species into yours. How does that sound?”
Did Elon program this filth into his speech patterns? If that’s the case, there’s a lot I don’t know about my cousin. If not, then he’s running off script.
But that would be impossible…
I crumple to my knees, face down. My fingers dig into the concrete floor, the smell of death hitting my nostrils. I roll forward and allow the weight of my regret to filter down onto my tongue.
“I should have never agreed to this,” I tell myself.
The stakes are real here. Possibly realer than what you get in the actual world. In the real world, everything is pre-defined. But in here, there are choices. Choices that define your story.
I think I’ve made the wrong one.
As soon as I blink, the brutal alien grabs the back of my neck, forcing me lower, until my spine is pinned to the floor like a butterfly in a display case. A driving pain shoots across the center of my back.
&