Glitch #ONC

Chapter Five

Luke's mood soured on the journey home, his mind in overdrive. He stared out the window intensely. The answers to his questions had been within his grasp, now he was driving at motorway speed from them. His fingernails bit into the tender skin of his thighs through his jeans.

Is she real, Melody, or just a figment of my imagination? A human with memories or programmed code?

Melody tried to focus on the road, but the icy silence from the passenger beside her felt like it would suffocate her if she let it carry on. "What did you and Alex talk about?"

Mel's voice sounded like she was talking from a neighbouring room rather than beside him. It struggled to pull him out of his thoughts.

He was about to give her a false answer when a thought crossed his mind.

Are they programmed to deflect attention from the outside?

"Nightmares."

"What?" Mel furrowed her brow. Her hands tensed on the wheel as she swerved to miss a falling branch.

"Turns out I'm not the only one to experience them. The same dream. Freaky, huh?" He didn't look at her directly but used his peripheral vision to see her bristle at his comment.

"It's been known to happen, our nightmares often share a common denominator. Almost everybody experiences dreams of falling that cause them to wake." Her jaw set and she could manage no more than a flickering glance in his direction.

"I suppose." He tilted back to the window. His body exhausted, but his mind igniting. A spark that allowed the tinder of half baked theories to ignite into a wildfire of conspiracy.

"You need to go careful with Alex. He's good at his job, can't fault him for the job he did on this beast," she tapped the dashboard affectionately, "but I can't say he is the best... person. Now I'm not saying he's out to be bad, but his moral compass doesn't quite point north if you know what I mean."

Luke nodded, but not in agreement with her. Her dismissal and tarnishing of the man with the answers proved his theory. It stung to think of his life as an illusion. He wanted to howl at the days he had put into the endeavour, to produce horses that would simply cease to exist once he traded them on. Useless megabytes of data.

That's all she is, Melody. Not your girlfriend of five years, future wife or mother of any children I might choose to have. Just bits of data, drawn upon my ideas of what makes a perfect partner.

"Your mum should call us this afternoon, I think she'll be glad to hear your voice. I scared her a little bit in my panicking." Mel's voice might as well have been the radio for all Luke heard of it.

Mother? Do I have one? Is she real or a childhood fantasy of a mother figure?

He racked his brains to the point of a headache trying to push his mind into the furthest recesses of his memory. Flashes of his mother figure appeared in his head. Her fussing over his prom suit and taking photos, her baking his 18th birthday cake and her happiness at meeting Melody. He sucked hard on his emotions but a couple of memories escaped his eyes and trickled down his cheeks.

He could tell from Mel's intake of breath that she noticed. His hand instinctively called to wipe the wetness from his eyes, but he forced it to stay still. He wanted her to know how much he hurt, perhaps then the creator would stop. Her hand found him, it felt warm.

But this world is full of deception.

The view of the farm from the road brought bittersweet emotions. Luke was glad to be home, but it twisted the knife of his reality.