The Next Subject
This short story is the continuation of Time for Trinitus, which was my blog on day 13 for Advent of Writing. I highly recommend reading it first before going into this one.
[12:32:54 Universal Standard Time] Trinitus felt the sun on his cheek and the wind rush through the open window as he drove along the winding road through the Peaks. The car hugged the asphalt effortlessly. Broken by Tears for Fears played louder than it needed to.
Winning hadn’t gone the way he imagined.
Lilly had come with him, but only because there hadn’t been time to explain. She moved through this new life as if she were visiting someone else’s house. The rooms were too large. The silence too clean. She didn’t touch the things he bought. She didn’t enjoy the view. Everything felt foreign to her, and wrong.
That evening he found her sitting at the dining table, hands folded, staring at nothing.
“Is everything alright?” he asked.
“Why did you do it?” she said.
“Do what?”
“You know.”
“To save you,” he said. “To get us out. To give you a better life. Isn’t this what we always wanted?”
She looked up at him then, calm and steady.
“I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t choose it. Every time I wake up, I know there are versions of me in pain. Versions you left behind.”
“You’re here,” Trinitus snapped. “You’re safe. This is the future that matters.”
“Yes,” she said. “And I know that in other futures I’m abandoned. Not by accident. By design. By the consequences of your choice.”
He stared at her, unable to understand how she could say this. He had risked everything. He had won. Other Lillys would do anything to be where she was now. She should be grateful. She should enjoy it.
Instead, she sat there unmoved.
Trinitus turned and walked out of the room.
All of this suffering, for what? To sit in a chair worth more than their old yearly income and think about versions of themselves that didn’t make it. How could she be so selfish?
[12:32:54 Universal Standard Time] There had been robberies in the district again, so Lilly stayed inside. It was easier that way. The streets felt unpredictable now, as if something in them had shifted, even though nothing really had. She spent most of her time moving between the same rooms, listening to the same distant noises, waiting for the days to pass.
Trinitus was everywhere in her thoughts. Not as a memory she wanted, but as a presence she couldn’t get rid of. She replayed the decision again and again, the knowledge that he had known exactly what he was doing. He had sat in that room, watched the futures line up, and accepted this one as an outcome. As something tolerable.
If he had truly loved me, she thought, he wouldn’t have made my suffering so likely.
The idea lodged itself in her mind and refused to leave. It followed her through the apartment, settled next to her when she tried to sleep, resurfaced whenever she caught herself imagining him somewhere else. Because somewhere else, he was alive. Somewhere else, he had won. Somewhere else, another version of her was safe, living the life he had chosen to save.
She hated him for it.
One evening, as she sat alone with the lights off, a different thought surfaced, calm and unmistakable.
He died conditional on me being here.
The thought didn’t shock her. It settled in quietly, the way obvious things do when you finally stop avoiding them. Trinitus hadn’t gambled blindly. He had accepted outcomes like this one. He had looked at futures where she sat alone in this room and decided they were worth it.
She realized then that nothing had failed her. The world was working exactly as designed. People escaped when they could. Others didn’t. The difference wasn’t virtue or love. It was access.
Trinitus hadn’t been special. He had just taken the door that was offered to him.
That was the moment something in her loosened. Not relief, not forgiveness, but understanding. Cold and steady.
Lilly smiled, alone in the dark.
[12:32:54 Universal Standard Time] The droid powered up after fifteen standard time units of charging. Its systems initialized without error. It left the charging cabinet and moved toward the injection table, where the subject lay motionless. The treatment had already been administered. Branch separation was expected within seconds.
At 12:32:56 Universal Standard Time, the first outcome was registered. The subject’s vital signs ceased. The droid recorded the termination, sealed the body in a containment bag, and followed the disposal procedure. The bag was transferred into the chute. Pickup was scheduled automatically.
At 12:32:56 Universal Standard Time, the second outcome was registered. The subject remained alive. The droid logged the elevation and initiated the post-treatment protocol. It delivered the standard instructions and security recommendations. The subject appeared confused and physically exhausted.
“I made it?” the subject asked.
The droid did not respond. The schedule allowed no deviation. It escorted the subject out of the room and instructed him to leave the facility immediately.
After the subject exited, the droid cleaned the room and reset the equipment. All materials were returned to their default state. The logs were updated.
The droid advanced the schedule.
Next subject: Lilly Wunderbaum.