Author's note: Sorry for the incredible lateness, reality happened. From now on I'll only post the first chapter of a series when I've finished writing the entire thing, because this is so embarrassing. Really.
Noise of the everlasting summer nights
Repeat 594
Back-up
by Synaps
I had stabbed Ko.
Part of me was shocked at my action. Which is probably why she hadn't seen it coming. I was panicking just a little bit, because it was so stressful. I needed to complete my plan and she was in the way.
She fell to the floor without making a single sound.
Still, that would hardly be enough to do any permanent damage. If that was the case my life would have been so much easier.
Ko rose to her feet carefully. She was looking a bit confused, but alert to any further attacks.
If I only could defeat her, to keep her from interfering with my plan... Then I could win.
I should have continued attacking while she was down, why didn't I just do that?
Wrapped up as I was in my own thoughts, I failed to notice that she got up. Without saying a word, she attacked with a knife that appeared out of nothing. I was barely able to dodge. It seemed like this really was the type of place where your every thought changed the world. She attacked again, I countered and we were both thrown away from each other because of the shock wave. In one small moment, she was distracted. I simply thought it, and I had reached her and struck her down.
It had been a short fight.
"I'm... I'm sorry. But I can't let this go on. You are jeopardizing everything I've ever worked for."
I left her there, lying on the floor. She was not dead, and I wouldn't be able to kill her just by killing this manifestation of her.
It was time to enact my plan.
Through the corridors I walked. All while thinking. My plan, as it had been, wouldn't work. The clues left by Ko proved as much.
Well, I guess I had to improvise a bit. My original plan had been to remove my memory of the repeats, starting just before where Ko first made her presence known. It had now clear she had been in my mind even before that. I now knew when exactly she first was born. If I searched my database for traces resembling that moment, I could delete her for real. No memory loss required. If anything it was an improvement.
I finally reached the Memories. It was a large room, whether the walls were black and far away or simply didn't exist was hard to say. One thing that was sure though, was that it was filled with floating, glowing bubbles. As I reached out for one, is slowly sunk into my hand. It shimmered, glowing in every and any colour one could imagine. I pulled my hand closer to me, standing in the glittering wonder. I closed my fingers.
Author's note: Yes, this ending might have been written this way because I really wanted to finally finish it already. I have no love for this story. Also, I'm a little sad about how all the chapters had different lengths, that's something for me to work on next time. (Also, "Have you ever felt like you've been cheated?")