Chapter 6 - RULE NINE
Ethan asked the obvious question.
“What does rule nine mean?”
Harris said:
“I don’t know.”
Ethan stared.
“You wrote it.”
“No.”
Silence.
“Who did?”
“The last tenant in 9C.”
Jason Reed?
“No.”
After Jason came:
Mara Voss.
Daniel King.
Sophie Lane.
Aaron Bell.
Most lasted months.
Some broke rules and left.
Some disappeared.
One man named Lucas Grant stayed eleven months.
He documented everything.
He discovered copies did not only appear outside.
Sometimes the building copied someone while they slept.
The copy woke inside.
The original woke somewhere else.
Or both woke inside.
No one knew.
Lucas wrote Rule Nine one night.
NEVER TRUST THE MAN INSIDE.
Then disappeared before explaining it.
Ethan felt sick.
“So the thing behind me…”
“Could have been a copy.”
“Could have?”
Harris stared.
“It could have been you.”
Ethan laughed nervously.
“What does that mean?”
Harris answered:
“Maybe the man at the peephole was the original.”
The room went silent.
Ethan looked at his hands.
His clothes.
His memories.
His mother’s funeral.
His father teaching him to drive.
His first apartment.
His first kiss.
All felt real.
Harris said:
“Copies believe everything they remember.”
Ethan looked up.
“How do I prove I’m me?”
“That is what the rules are for.”
Not protection.
Verification.
Rule One tested whether something outside could lure you.
Rule Two tested whether you supplied information by responding.
Rule Three prevented visual capture during the red-light phase.
Rule Four limited reflection exposure.
Rule Seven separated duplicates when voice replication started.
Rule Eight verified Harris.
Then Ethan understood.
“The rules aren’t keeping it out.”
Harris nodded.
“They’re slowing down how fast it learns you.”
“And Rule Nine?”
May you like
Harris looked terrified.
“It may be telling you what happens when learning is complete.”
