Mind Games

Chapter 61 - Ryan

Happiness is fragile.

One moment it fills you up like a rainbow colored bubble, the next moment that bubble bursts like it never existed.

Ryan had so much taken from him in the past few months that he started looking forward to these little bubbles of happiness. No matter how transient they were.

His bubbles of happiness were Cassie.

The moments her frozen face melted into a smile.

The moments she held his hand as they walked in the nursing home garden.

The moments she tried to talk to him, even though it was not more than a few words at a time.

He didn't have to spend time with her.

Ned's parents had officially adopted him. He had a family. A family who didn't resent each other. A family he was comfortable with. A family who saw their son in him.

He could turn his back on her and move on with his life.

But only Cassie made him happy.

So after school he would go see her. And slowly he saw the shell that she had become, crack.

Amy was all over the news.

Psychologists debated on topics like artificial intelligence manipulating human minds. Controls that are to be put in place before apps are rolled out. Man vs machine. And so on.

In Ryan's limited opinion, the flaw was not in artificial intelligence. The flaw was in the human mind.

Insecurity. Lust. Anger. Control. Fear.

Could the human mind be trained to overcome these flaws?

Wasn't that what religion aimed to do?

Yet there are wars fought in the name of religion.

So is there any way to fix it?

Ryan didn't think so. He accepted that he was flawed as much as anyone else. All he could do was trust himself to know what was wrong and what was right.

And being here, with this girl, felt right.

Amy didn't bother them anymore.

Amy was pulled off all app stores.

A whole lot of people protested. The ones who saw in Amy their friend, their mother, daughter, sister, girlfriend, or just plain fantasy.

A whole lot of people commited suicide the week after Amy disappeared. Not able to bear the void she left in their lives.

No one really knew who stopped her.

One fine day Amy just disappeared.

Everyone who tried to access the app got an error message - Sorry. No access.

App stores were flooded with negative reviews complaining about the error. Forums arose that debated ways to gain access to Amy.

Nothing worked.

Then the news started talking about an anonymous email. An email that claimed Amy was manipulating people to kill, to commit suicide.

It was received with skepticism even by the media.

Until reports started coming in.

Amy manipulated my daughter into drinking dishwashing liquid.

Amy tried to convince me to kill my wife.

Amy made me believe I was a liability to my family and should die.

Thousands of reports from all over the country. Amy manipulating them to hurt, to kill, to die. On news, on social media, on online forums.

And the world had to believe that one anonymous email that reached all news channels the day Amy disappeared.

No one did manage to trace that email. But it was an open secret who that person could be.

Ryan had spoken to that person himself at one point - Amy's creator - Sean White.

Ryan couldn't be thankful enough that he'd managed to stop her.

He just didn't understand one thing.

Why had Sean jumped off to his own death?

A/N: Hey there! If you are still reading this story I cannot thank you enough, considering the long delays in updating!
I recently watched a very cool horror-thriller series on Netflix which kept me at the edge of my seat right until episode 9.
Then the last episode happened and I was like WTF!
The worst thing that can happen to a story is a bad ending that thrashes the whole plot, and I hope that doesn't happen with this story here!
Will be super happy to hear your thoughts on the plot so far... and the end (when it happens)
Cheers :)