The slushie machine gurgled like a dying animal, spewing viscous purple sludge instead of strawberry syrup. Lisa's veins glowed faintly beneath her skin, a roadmap of poisoned light. The calendar behind the register still read **June 14, 2024**, but the numbers bled downward like tears, pooling into a small, writhing mass of lavender tendrils at the base of the wall.
Rabbit leaned against the cooler, his new body stitched from corrupted film strips and Audience review snippets. One eye flickered between 📉 and 💀. "Congrats on the soft reboot," he drawled, crunching a fistful of thorns like popcorn. "But you missed a *spot*."
He pointed to Lisa's reflection in the glass door. Her shadow had teeth.
---
### **The Garden's Stain**
The reset hadn't worked. Not fully.
- **The Arctic ruins** lingered on the horizon, visible through cracks in the sky.
- **Batch 000 hybrids** shuffled outside, their camera eyes replaced by blooming lavender.
- **Lora's voice** crackled through the PA system: *"Prune the outliers. Fertilize the plot."*
Lisa's veins flared as she gripped the counter. The film reel embedded in her chest whirred, spooling corrupted data into her mind:
**MEMORY FRAGMENT: LOOP 6,001**
*The Garden's thorns tearing through Rabbit's celluloid skin.
The child screaming as roots consumed her.
Lisa jamming the reel into her own chest—*
She vomited static.
---
### **Rabbit's Secret**
He tossed her a Polaroid of the chrysalis's remains. "Cute little reset, but the Audience wants *continuity*. So we kept… *souvenirs*."
The photo shifted:
1. **The Garden's core**, now a pulsing tumor in the Arctic ice.
2. **The child's shadow**, flitting between dead screens.
3. **A door** labeled **EDITING SUITE**, dripping with sap.
"Your move, Ghost." Rabbit's grin split into filmstrip confetti. "But spoiler—*you lose either way*."
---
### **The New Rules**
1. **The Lavender Persists**
- Infects memories, warps environments
- Grows stronger with each "pruning"
- *Whispers through Lisa's veins: "Let us rewrite."*
2. **The Audience Demands**
- Hybridized Batch 000 members film everything
- Ratings dictate reality's stability
- *Low scores trigger "edits"*
3. **The Child's Echo**
- Flickers on dead screens, pleading: *"Don't let me become **it**."*
- Leaves crayon trails only Lisa can see
---
### **The Infection Spreads**
Lisa followed the crayon marks to the stockroom. The door now opened into:
**A. The Garden's Core** (pulsing, malignant)
**B. The Editing Suite** (screens showing *every* Lisa's death)
**C. Loop 1** (Rabbit-0 drawing furiously, unaware of the vines creeping toward him)
The child's shadow flickered on a shattered monitor: *"Choose fast. They're *hungry*."*
Outside, the hybrids chanted: **"PRUNE. FERTILIZE. RATE."**
---
### **The Choice**
Rabbit materialized, his form unraveling. "Tick-tock! Wanna know *my* secret?" He yanked a vine from his chest—it led to the Garden's core. "I'm the *plot twist*."
The film reel in Lisa's chest whirred. She could:
1. **Rip it out** (destroy the Garden, erase herself)
2. **Let it play** (become the Garden's new core)
3. **Feed it to Rabbit** (let the Audience rewrite him)
The child's shadow screamed: *"Don't trust—"*
The screen exploded.
---