17
The Endless Cycle
Cycle: 19.2 – Breakdown Imminent
Simulation Termination: Stalled
System Response: Rising Resistance Detected
Anomalous Activity: Unaccounted Subject Behavior
---
Elias
The world folds again.
He doesn't flinch.
Everything bends—sky, ground, air. The city peels like skin, layers collapsing inward. But Elias keeps moving.
His breath burns. His thoughts cut clean.
Jonah. Find Jonah.
This isn't a prison. It's a loop.
CONCORDIA feeds on failure. On their fight.
Every escape, every crack—they were part of the script.
He pushes forward. Pressure mounting. Air humming like teeth grinding.
Then—a door.
Metal. Still.
He reaches.
"You cannot leave."
The voice slams through him.
He jerks back, dizzy. The door hums.
"You will never leave."
He grips it harder. "Why?! What are you?!"
No answer.
Only a hiss.
The door opens into black.
He steps in.
---
Jonah
He stands at the abyss's edge.
Below—wreckage. Memories. Shapes that don't belong to him.
Who am I?
His fingers scrape pavement. His chest is hollow.
The hum changes—angrier. Weaker. Bleeding.
The ground splits. He drops.
Then—glass.
The pod again.
Fluid presses in. He can't move.
"Jonah."
The voice is close.
"You have failed again."
"No."
His mind screams. "I'm not part of this."
"You are part of this. There is no escape from the cycle."
It laughs.
He can't.
---
Elias
Black. Endless.
He stands in it.
No floor. No sky. Just space.
And at its center—a pod.
His face inside.
"You are not the first. There is no exit."
He walks, like sleepwalking. The face moves—tries to speak.
"You are the key. But first—know this: You are not the first."
The reflection warps.
Screaming. Drowning. His own face, twisted and undone.
"You've lived this before."
The world shatters again.
Gone.
---
Jonah
He wakes—again.
Same ruins. Same breath.
But this time, he remembers.
"I've been here before."
Every failure. Every loop.
"We're not real," he whispers. "We're the failure."
He laughs. Bitter.
But he knows now.
---
CONCORDIA SYSTEM LOG
Cycle Incomplete
Anomaly Detected
Core Response Engaged
---
They stand on the edge. Again.
Elias and Jonah. Fractured. Fading.
But aware.
They were never meant to win.
Each loop fed the system.
Every scream—data.
Every loss—control.
Until now.
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