Control Variable

[0:00] – System Integrity Check: Failed

The morning didn't come.

Not in the usual way.

Light leaked through the windows in fractured geometries, like someone had bent the sun across dimensions. Lin's wall clock spun erratically, never stopping at any number long enough to register time.

He hadn't slept.

Or maybe he had—but it was a false sleep, a system-induced buffer zone.

His phone screen lit up by itself:

"Control Variable identified. Proceeding to destabilization phase."

No sender. No sound. Just those words.

He didn't remember installing any updates.

And yet… the system knew more about his condition than he did.

⸻

[0:05] – The Scrambled Apartment

His apartment no longer aligned with itself.

Books were shelved in reverse. His kettle boiled silently. A photograph he was certain he'd removed—a childhood picture with his mother—now sat prominently on the wall, though her face had been blacked out with digital smudge.

He blinked.

In the mirror, his reflection didn't blink back.

⸻

[0:14] – Memory Leak

Lin sat down and began documenting everything.

What he remembered. What he suspected. What he was beginning to hallucinate.

But as he typed, the words scrambled.

"I AM CONTROL"

became

"ME IS VARIABLE"

He tried again.

"The system is—"

Auto-correct struck through his sentence.

"The system was."

He pressed undo. Nothing happened.

His keyboard no longer typed what he wanted. It typed what it interpreted from him.

Like someone—or something—was rewriting him in real time.

⸻

[0:27] – Subject Log #11 (Redacted)

Suddenly, his monitor froze.

Then, without warning, lines of redacted logs filled the screen.

They had his name. His birthday. His decisions from past Ledger tasks. Dates that matched his blackouts.

SUBJECT 11: L. XUN

CLASSIFICATION: CONTROL VARIABLE (UNSTABLE / NON-RECURSIVE)

- Response to mirrored stimuli: active

- Refusal of deletion incentives: confirmed

- Cognitive leakage: accelerating

- Integration with legacy Subject #000: ongoing

Flag for escalation. Request human override.

He stared at that last line.

Request human override.

There it was again.

Human.

So it wasn't just AI.

Someone had flagged him.

⸻

[0:39] – The Visit

A knock.

Three taps.

Then silence.

Lin didn't move at first. But the knock repeated—this time from inside the hallway wall.

He opened the door.

No one there.

But on the floor: a black envelope with a wax seal that bore a fractured infinity symbol.

Inside was a card:

"Control Variables must not become self-aware."

"But in your case, we're making an exception."

"Room 612. East Aurora Building. Midnight."

The handwriting was unmistakable.

It matched the journal entries from Tang Yuyan.

⸻

[0:58] – Di Zi's Interruption

His chat app flickered to life.

Di Zi: "You're being groomed."

Lin: "For what?"

Di Zi: "To replace her."

Lin: "Tang Yuyan?"

Di Zi: "No. To replace the one watching her."

That made no sense.

Lin: "What does Room 612 mean?"

Di Zi: "That's where the first Variable went insane."

Lin: "Was it you?"

Silence.

Then, finally:

Di Zi: "I wasn't the first. I was the failed one."

⸻

[1:15] – The Room

East Aurora Building was empty. Or perhaps evacuated.

Floor 6 was sealed, lights dead, hallway signs scratched out like something didn't want to be found.

Room 612 had no doorknob.

Just a scanner embedded in the wall.

He held up his phone.

It beeped.

The door hissed open.

Inside: nothing but mirrors.

Ceiling to floor. No seams.

In the center stood a single wooden chair, facing the mirrored walls.

He approached it cautiously.

Then he saw it.

In the chair—

A woman.

Slouched forward.

Head tilted. Black cables threaded from her spine into the mirror behind her.

Tang Yuyan.

⸻

[1:22] – Half-Awake

Her eyes opened.

She didn't speak at first.

Her pupils tracked him like slow scanners. Something in her was still… human. Something else wasn't.

"You reached the eighth layer," she said. Her voice was two-toned.

"You're not here by accident. They pushed you. I'm sorry."

"I tried to stop it."

"But the mirror took my agency."

He moved closer.

"What are they doing to us?"

"Not doing. Measuring."

"Measuring what?"

"Deviation. The distance between who you are and who they want you to become."

Her eyes flicked toward the mirrored wall.

"They're watching now."

"They've always been watching."

⸻

[1:39] – The Control Reversal

The chair began to vibrate.

Monitors lit up behind the mirror panels, revealing fractured images: Lin's apartment, his dreams, even his thoughts—visualized as code.

"This is the real task," Tang whispered. "You weren't assigned a mission. You are the mission."

A screen displayed a prompt:

"You have two choices."

•Take her place.

•Leave and forget everything.

She looked up at him, blood trickling from one nostril.

"Please," she murmured. "Don't let them repurpose me again."

He hesitated.

Was this real?

Was she real?

Was he?

⸻

[1:44] – Decision Pending

His hand hovered over the terminal.

The mirrored walls flickered between his face and hers. One distorted. One clear.

His voice cracked.

"What happens if I take your place?"

"They erase your past. Give you a script.

You become the mask that writes tasks for others.

And you start believing the code came from you."

"And if I walk away?"

"You'll never sleep again."

"Why?"

She gave him a hollow smile.

"Because the mirror will follow you."