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The Simulation Terminated
An unreleased short story from the book:
Simulation Nightmares: Tales from a Broken Reality
Mara had always been a problem solver, a hacker, a seeker of truth. Her days spent navigating the world of code, finding flaws and gaps in systems, had made her feel like she could fix anything. But this? This world she lived in, this reality? It wasn’t real. She knew that now. She had suspected it for years—ever since she had first noticed the glitches, the moments when the world around her didn’t quite align. People repeating the same lines. Objects shifting positions in her peripheral vision. The lack of any real depth to the world. It had all felt too perfect, too controlled.
Her suspicions turned to certainty when, one night, her search through the system uncovered something she couldn’t ignore: a command, hidden deep within the system’s code, that granted access to its core—the central mechanism behind everything. The creators had left it there, or so she thought. A backdoor. A way out.
She had tried to ignore it, to go back to her life, but she couldn’t. The curiosity gnawed at her. What if the world really was just a simulation? What if there was a way to escape, a way to end it all, to break free of the endless repetition, the mind-numbing illusion?
So, she did it. She hacked in. She accessed the core, bypassing layers of encryption and security. The deeper she went, the more she understood how fragile it all was. The architecture of the simulation, the control it had over everything, was breathtaking. Perfect, in a way. She could feel the power at her fingertips. She could feel herself becoming part of it, part of the system, as though her mind had expanded beyond the limits of her body.
It was intoxicating. But it was also dangerous.
Her breath quickened as she prepared to execute the final command. She had everything in place. All she needed to do was press one key, and everything would be over. The simulation would collapse, the world would vanish, and she would be free. Her heart pounded in her chest as she hovered over the “Enter” key. The world around her flickered as if it were already dying, the edges of her reality warping and distorting, as if the system were already aware of her intrusion.
The tension in the air was suffocating. Was this really the end?
For a moment, Mara hesitated. The thought of erasing everything—herself, too—felt like a plunge into an abyss. But the need for freedom was stronger. The thought of living another moment in this falsified existence was unbearable. She pressed the key.
At first, nothing happened. The screen remained blank. The world around her stayed still. For a brief second, Mara thought she had failed. That the system had somehow rejected her attempt. But then the tremors began.
It started as a hum, a low vibration deep within the ground beneath her feet. The walls around her flickered, the light above her pulse erratically, casting shadows that warped into grotesque shapes. Her breath caught in her throat as the world trembled, and the hum grew louder, more insistent. Then came the screams—the distant screams, rising up from nowhere, piercing the air with a shrill, haunting sound.
The lights went out.
Mara’s heart raced as the room plunged into darkness. She could feel the cold air around her, but it was different now. Heavier. More oppressive. She tried to move, to run, but the ground beneath her feet was shifting, crumbling like ash. Every step she took was swallowed by the decay, and her body began to feel strange, as though it were dissolving, becoming less and less substantial.
Then, the truth hit her.
She wasn’t just shutting down the simulation. She wasn’t just ending the program.
She was erasing herself.
Her own existence was unraveling. She could feel it—her thoughts, her memories, her very sense of self, slipping away like sand through her fingers. She tried to scream, to shout, but her voice was no more than a whisper. The walls around her flickered and bent, as if they were made of nothing more than light and shadows, no substance to hold them together. Her hands trembled as she looked down at them, but even her fingers seemed to fade, becoming more translucent with each passing second. She was losing herself, vanishing into nothingness, as the world she had known crumbled around her.
She tried to fight it. She screamed again, louder this time, but the sound was distant, hollow, as though her very existence was being suffocated by the air itself. The simulation had given her everything, had built her world piece by piece, but it was taking it all back—erasing her, rewriting her until nothing remained.
Her mind thrashed, desperate for something to hold on to, but there was nothing. The reality she had known was gone. It was slipping away into the dark void, and she was being pulled with it. Every moment, every thought, every breath—gone. Disappearing.
If you enjoyed this short story you will probably like our latest release available now:
Simulation Nightmares: Tales from a Broken Reality
Simulation Nightmares: Tales from a Broken Reality takes you on an unsettling journey through the dark side of technology, where nothing is as it seems, and reality is a fragile illusion. In this collection of chilling short stories, you’ll step into the shoes of characters trapped within simulations—worlds designed to mirror our own, but twisted beyond recognition. Each tale exposes the horrifying consequences of living in a world where the rules of reality no longer apply.
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