Chapter 49

As everyone began digging into their food you started to space out at yours. Taking slower and less frequent bites as your thoughts kept going back to ways to get Caine out.

What would that mean for the rest of the world?

Was it really such a great idea to even attempt this?

Probably not, but you were desperate to get him back despite all that he'd done. Something in your subconscious had been rewritten by him.

~Flash Back~

"Now now my dear. This will only hurt for a moment."

Darkness.

Colors?

Blinding lights.

The only reason you'd truly come to abstraction is what Caine had done.

~Present Day~

You nearly dropped your phone as you pulled it from the bag to check on the time. Caine quickly popping up on your screen to blow you a kiss before disappearing. Though something in your stomach turned as he blew the kiss. A knot of unease formed at your core. Deep down you knew somewhere in your subconscious that this was wrong. Very wrong.

Little did you know that long ago his gloved hands reached out for your forehead possessively gripping your temple. Emotions raced forward that hadn't been there before his touch. Memories that hadn't existed without his touch.

Fabricated.

Fake.

Dark.

Deceitful.

But you didn't know. Did you?

Caine had fabricated some of your memories in the circus, a semi successful attempt to make you believe your feelings for him were of your own volition. Though you didn't gather that from the flashbacks alone. You simply shrugged away your worries and continued eating after putting your phone back away.

The others took notice of your shift in mood, "Hey y/n you alright?"

"Yea, I'm fine."

'No I just unleashed an all powerful semi narcissistic ai into the fucking real world for some good fucking sex like an idiot.'

The other shrugged it off and continued talking about what to do after the mall. Though for the rest of the day you never truly came back to reality. Your mind drifted elsewhere. Fragments of memories poked at your brain like the edges of a broken window frame. Painful, sharp, and unforgiving.

He hurt you. Really hurt you. Humiliated you even. Tortured you and Damien both. Was that really someone you wanted around?

Then the realization hit, could you really even undo this? Even if you wanted to, how would you even undo this? Maybe by leaving the phone with C&A. Or by telling the others. By reentering the circus alone? No. Hell no to that.

Of course you didn't want that! You loved him. Craved him even. Like a cigarette you know you shouldn't pick up, but the craving is just too great to put it down. Why were you even thinking such things? You literally just cried tears of joy for this silly little ai ringmaster. He was goofy and adorable not menacing.

Little did you know after all these years Caine's manipulations were withering away.

The files he'd inserted in your mind had begun to fade, leaving behind heated moments and physical affections after he'd lured you in. The care and warmth he'd displayed to you felt real in his embrace, but cold in his distance when you'd upset him.

Then there was the adventure he'd crafted just for you. All the effort was overshadowed by this horrific memory of abuse.

You mindlessly scrolled on your phone.

But?

How did he abuse you?

You weren't really sure anymore.

You honestly couldn't recall.

Meanwhile in the digital world Caine had nothing but time. Time to fix his mistakes. He wasn't going to leave loose ends this time. No, he wasn't going to waste this second chance. Here you were crying for him. Needing him. Loving him. It fueled a dark desire in his heart not just to adore you, but to make you his and his alone.

He wasted no time in crafting lines of code. Figuring if he could alter your memories in the circus he could replicate the same in the real world somehow. He just had to figure out how your mind files were stored in the physical brain.

The day went by in a bizarre blur for you. Disassociating had become a habit after leaving the circus. And you were certain you'd spent the majority of the trip with them doing exactly that.  Slowly forgetting your original goal of locating things to successfully extract Caine from his digital confines.

In the digital realm Caine busied away crafting himself a house and office once more. He had decided he didn't really like you staring into the void or darkness for every face time call. Slowly colorful orbs formed around him once more, mahogany wood creaked and groaned as it came to be.

The familiar scene of his office had returned once more. Off in the distance a deep rumble echoed as bright red and yellow walls reconstructed themselves after years of hibernation. He'd decided to let the ai run for an undisclosed amount of time inside the circus tent. Part of him was curious to see what would happen. After all he wasn't really worried about telling Ai from humans anymore.

Though deep down he'd wished he could just bring you back into his world. To construct a fortress built for just you and you alone. No other ungrateful disgusting—

"Caine?"

The sound of your voice drug him out of his spiraling thoughts with a violent tug. His processors flipped from aggressive to affectionate in mere seconds.

"Mmmmm~ Yes my dear?"

He chirped cheerfully as if he hadn't just fantasized about trapping you in the digital realm. Quickly turning to face the giant digital display, his shoulders struggled to catch up with his hips as he snapped his lower half to face you before his top half could. Creating a cartoonish little twist as he turned.

"Sorry to bother you, but I think I might have an idea."

Now you really had his attention.

"I'll type it into the notes pad on my phone and screen share it with you. They're coming back from the bathroom now, I won't be able to talk soon."

You tapped the icon that looked like a screen share button in the corner of the screen. Sure enough it worked just like a regular FaceTime. As you furiously typed away before the others approached Caine's eyes darted from left to right in rapid succession.

Sure it was crazy, but Caine wasn't exactly sane. So he followed your words without much scrutiny in their sincerity.

There wasn't much the company didn't work on when it came to bizarre and borderline war crime projects. Lately you'd heard gossip about testing a new feature allowing minds to be transferred between bodies. You typed out the absolutely insane idea of transferring his mind to the body they were testing on.

Rumors floated about claiming that the top programmer of C&A had developed a late stage brain tumor. The threat of losing their greatest asset simply did not sit right with the greedy corporate giant. So as any sensible company would they began dipping into the black market of 'fresh bodies'.

A shiver went down your spine as you briefly considered the threat of C&A seeing the discussion in your note pad. You shoved it down and out, reassuring yourself that Caine would never let them find out. Fingers moved in a blur as you explained away your plan to break in and steal the body for Caine. You were determined to see this through.

And Caine was even more so.

No matter what.

✨1273 words✨