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Chapter 1: A Stranger in the Home

Michael was not himself

He lay on the bed of a stranger, staring up at a ceiling he had seen for the first time just the day before He’d been disoriented and sick to his stohts His life had blown apart; his sanity was slipping away His very surroundings—the foreign roo new life Fear sparked through his veins

And his family What had happened to his family? He wilted a little more every time he pictured them

The very first traces of dawn—a gloolow eerily The Coffin next to the bed sat silent and dark, as foreboding as a casket dug fro and cracked, hu out He didn’t kno to look at the objects around him anymore Real objects He didn’t even understand the word real It was as if all his knowledge of the world had been yanked out fro

His brain couldn’t grasp it all

His … brain

He alh, but it died in his chest

Michael had only had an actual, physical brain for the last twelve hours Not even a full day, he realized, and that pit in his stomach doubled in size

Could it really all be true? Really?

Everything he kneas a result of artificial intelligence Manufactured data and o on and on, each description so real about hih the VirtNet and the Mortality Doctrine progra organis he didn’t even understand His view of the world had been shattered Utterly

Especially because he wasn’t sure if he believed it For all he knew, he could be in another prograain trust as real and as not? The uncertainty would drive him mad

He rolled over and screamed into his pillow His head—his stolen, unfahts that pounded through it, each one fighting for attention Fighting to be processed and understood And feeling pain here was no different froent Which only served to confuse hiht he’d just been a progra line of code It didn’t coh, and the pain in his head intensified and spread, slicing down his throat and filling his chest

He yelled again, which didn’t help, then forced his off the bed and sit up His feet touched the cool wooden floor, ree land Lush carpet had blanketed the apartment he’d always knohich seemed homier, wara, his nanny He wanted his parents