Cycle: Uncatalogued
Subject Link Detected – Unscheduled Sync Event
Jonah
He wakes mid-stride.
Running. Rain in his face. Shoes smacking pavement. Sirens wailing like dying machines. His lungs are on fire.
He turns a corner—and there's Elias.
Soaked under a flickering streetlamp. Still as a statue.
"What the hell is this?" Jonah pants. "Where are we?"
Elias doesn't answer. Just stares past him. Jonah turns.
The truck.
Old. Rusted. Running. Doors flung open. Cereal boxes spill into the street.
Blue cereal. Dozens of them.
"I've seen this," Jonah breathes.
Elias: "So have I."
They walk—no plan, just pulled forward. And in the truck, they see her.
Lily.
And beside her—Caleb. Scraped knee. Wide eyes.
They smile. Together.
"Hi, Daddy," they say.
Jonah staggers. "No. No, she's mine. I remembered her first—"
"Don't," Elias snaps. "Don't do that. You don't know what's real."
"Do you?"
"No," Elias says. "But this... this isn't right."
The sky cracks.
Not thunder. A glitch. Like torn film. Buildings stutter. The truck melts at the edges. The kids freeze—stuck between laughter and screaming.
Then comes the sound.
Typing. Rapid. Panicked.
Jonah grips Elias's arm. "We're not supposed to be here."
"No," Elias says. "But we are."
The ground drops.
Just before it does—Lily turns. Really turns. Looks Jonah dead in the eye.
"She's watching you," she says.
---
Link Severed
Unauthorized Dreamlink Terminated
Cross-Memory Fusion Logged
Security Breach Flagged
> REVIEW REQUIRED: Subjects are accessing memory threads outside protocol. Core instability increasing.