You might have noticed it’s not actually Halloween anymore. Well, I had a touch of food poisoning last night, so unfortunately last night’s story didn’t get written. But November or not, I owe you a Halloween story and the last entry in this year’s 31 Ghosts!
Thank you to everyone who has read these stories all month – I love hearing what you all think. I also love running into people who I had no idea were reading the stories – that’s fun, too! So, whether you’ve been around since the beginning or are new to 31 Ghosts, or somewhere in between, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Our protagonist has been around as well – he was in the first Halloween 31 Ghosts, way back in 2017 and again in 2020. He’s older now, of course, but still looks forward to Halloween.
This is where I talk about how I’m going to do all sorts of writing that I never end up fulfilling – it’s my form of New Year’s Resolutions. Well, I’m not doing that this year. I have a few more modest goals for this winter, and I might make announcements when they come to pass. But until then, thank you again!

“Why don’t you admit you’re just scared?” Theo sneered.

Aiden looked more befuddled than angry at the taunt. He shrugged, “Because I’m not scared.”

“Then why won’t you do it?” Lacie, Theo’s girlfriend pressed. “Because you’re scared!”

“No. Because breaking into a house is against the law,” Aiden said, surprised he had to explain such an obvious thing.

“It’s not against the law if it’s a haunted house,” Theo countered.

“Dude, the law still applies, haunted or not.”

Theo and Lacie exchanged looks. “Nah, that’s not true!” Theo said laughing. “Look at all those ghost hunting programs – you don’t see them getting arrested!”

“They have producers that..” Aiden looked down the overgrown driveway at the Murphy place – a dark, derelict house, abandoned for as long as he’d lived here. He knew it was wrong and illegal to break in, but he didn’t want to go around again with Theo and Lacie. Going inside and taking pictures was the easiest way to shut them up. “You know what? You guys are too stupid to listen to reason. I’m going to go in there and take the damn selfie just so you two shut up.” He started walking down the driveway, tripped over a crack in the driveway that an errant root had caused, and kept walking.

“Look at him scared walking!” Theo laughed.

“I tripped, you assholes,” Aiden didn’t turn around, but did hold his hand up, middle finger raised.

As he walked around the house, studying the boarded-up windows and doors for a reasonable way to get in, he reflected on how this Halloween had gone so off the rails. Theo and Lacie weren’t his friends. But Theo was Tricia’s brother, and Tricia was Rebeca’s best friend and Aiden really wanted to go out with Rebecca. Trouble was, Rebecca had already agreed to hang out with her friends. Aware that her friends weren’t his, she asked if he wanted to bring his best friend, Jacob, along.

And things had started great – they went to a haunted house where Rebecca startled at an actor in a Michael Meyers outfit and leapt back into Aiden’s arms and then held onto him for the rest of their time. Afterwards they all went to Denny’s. And that’s when things started to go off the rails… Aiden didn’t think Jacob even knew who Tricia was, but when he went looking for his friend who had forgotten something in the car he found them making out. And then Rebecca got a call from her mom saying she needed her to help with her baby sister who was throwing up candy, and next thing you know, it’s just Theo & Lacie teasing Aiden about not wanting to get arrested for breaking and entering.

Around the back of the house, he found the door to the garage only had one piece of wood across it, and the nails holding it in place were starting to pull out. One good tug and the 2×4 came loose. The door handle turned freely, but the door was stuck shut with age. Aiden put his hip into it and it gave way, letting him into the cold, pitch black garage.

If Aiden were afraid, now would be the time for him to be very afraid. But he wasn’t lying when he told Theo and Lacie, he wasn’t afraid. He thought back to the times he and Jacob and Olivia had swapped candy with ghosts. He knew it was just a few years ago, but it seemed like a lifetime ago. After that year, they started high school. Olivia ended up at the private school across town her parents insisted she go to. Jacob was still Jacob… when he wasn’t abandoning his friend to suck face. Aiden sighed. He couldn’t blame the guy – he would rather be doing the same with Rebecca. And, heck, he was pretty sure she’d prefer making out with him than dealing with an eight-year-old with a Gummy Nerd overdose.

But, yeah, ghosts didn’t frighten him.

As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he focused on a section that seemed… darker.

Then it moved.

Aiden was now afraid of this ghost as the darkness blocked his retreat. He turned and picked his way through the debris strewn around the garage for the door leading to the house. He reached for the door knob as the dark blob started making its way towards him. The door was stuck. He started to panic and rammed his shoulder into the door which opened and sent him sprawling into the middle of a party.

He swore he heard a needle scratch as dance music stopped and everyone looked at him. There were dozens of people talking, dancing, having snacks – all eyes were now on him. And as he returned their stares, he realized… not a single one of them was solid. They were all ghosts. Behind him, he saw the dark figure come through the doorway and as it crossed the threshold it turned into a middle-aged man in a bad Elvis costume who gingerly stepped over him, looked down at him, shook his hips theatrically as he pointed his fingers at him, and said, “Sorry kid, you look all shook up.”

The crowd groaned and turned back to their conversations.

“Aiden?” came a voice that sounded familiar.

Aiden looked around and found Anthony’s smiling face. “Anthony! It’s so good to see you! It’s been forever,” Aiden grinned and started to his feet.

“Man, when did you get old?” Anthony laughed as Aiden stood up, now taller than the ghost who loomed over him when they first met.

“It’s been, what, four years since we hung out? Growth spurt.”

“Well, you’re lucky I’m dead,” Anthony said. “I’m sure I would have been due myself. My dad was six foot four!”

“Nice,” Aiden laughed. “Where’s the rest of your group?”

“The kids are still out trick or treating.”

“Oh, right – they’re still kids!”

“Ghosts don’t age, man. They just fade away…” He laughed.

“I forgot. What’s all this about?”

“Oh, the party?” Anthony asked. “It started small, a few years ago. But when the property seemed like it was going to stay perpetually abandoned, the ghosts from the neighborhood decided to start having a big Halloween party here each year. It gets crazier every year.”

Aiden looked around at the costumed ghosts chatting and eating horror-devours. “This is crazy?”

“For ghosts? Yeah. We all usually just stick to our own houses or vacant lots, or cemeteries. All these ghosts hanging out? This is nuts, man.”

“I guess so…” Aiden took it all in.

“Okay, but what are you doing here?” Anthony asked.

“Oh, it was a dare,” Aiden said. “Some annoying not-friends dared me to sneak into the ‘haunted house’” he made air quotes, “and take a selfie.”

“You know that’s breaking and entering, right?”

“That’s what I tried to tell them!” Aiden yelled.

“But I’m glad you did, man. It’s good to see you!”

“You too!”

“Where’s Jacob and Olivia?”

“Jacob’s making out with a girl he just met…”

“My man…” Anthony grinned.

“And Olivia had some Halloween party with a bunch of girls at the private school she goes to.”

“Aww, that’s too bad,” Anthony said. “We all thought you two would have made a cute couple.”

“Me and Olivia? We’re like brother and sister, no…”

“Hey, can’t blame ghosts for dreaming!” Anthony laughed. “So, you need to take a selfie, right?”

***

It had been an hour already. Theo and Lacie discussed whether Aiden had tripped and died inside or gotten eaten by ghosts, and what was their responsibility in either case – none, they had decided. They’d never speak of this again and hoped there wouldn’t be some kind of “I Know What You Did Last Summer” but “I Know What You Did Last Halloween” that revolved around them sending Aiden to his death at supernatural hands.

“Hey, you waited!” Aiden’s voice from behind them caused them to scream and jump. Aiden laughed as they recovered. “Who’s afraid now?” he lightly teased.

“You just startled us,” Theo said.

Lacie recovered first. “Do you have a picture? Or did you just go hang around outside and never actually go into the house?”

“Oh, I’ve got a picture…” Aiden said, holding up his phone.

The picture was indeed a selfie with Aiden smiling in the middle of the frame. Around him, various hats and jackets crowded in… with no one inside them.

Aiden didn’t know Theo or Lacie could run, but he laughed as they fled down the street towards their homes.

Anthony stepped out of the shadows, laughing. “That was fantastic,” he said. “Happy Halloween, Aiden.”

“Happy Halloween, Anthony.”

Birthday ghost story entry time! But it’s my 50th birthday today! That means… I’m old. Lawd, I’m old. Alas… I hope you enjoy this as much as I had fun writing it. Some of the items are real items (or real-ish items) from my own past. Happy birthday to me!

The Ring camera picked up motion on the doorstep at three thirty in the morning. Watching the playback on my phone sleepy-eyed in bed I could see a dark shadow moving away from the door, but nothing else.

“Put away your phone and sleep,” my wife said sleepily. “You’re not allowed to start your birthday until 6am.”

“Is that a new rule?” I said, the randomness of the comment clearing my sleepy brain just enough.

“Yes,” she said and flailed an arm at me in a half-hearted attempt to dislodge the phone from my hand. I took the hint, put my phone back on the nightstand and curled up against her.

When I did get up after 6am, I verified the front door was still locked (it was) and then I unlocked and opened it. Outside on our “Hello There” doormat with Obi Wan Kenobi’s face on it was a large gift-wrapped box.

“Honey? Did you get me something?” I called over my shoulder.

Veronica bounced into the room with the vigor only someone who looked forward to an early morning Pilates class can muster. “I did but…” she looked at the gift. “That’s not it.”

I lifted the box – it was heavy! – and set it on the living room table. Veronica and I stared at it for a long time. “Should I…”

“Open it?” she finished. “Yeah. I mean… maybe there’s a card inside?”

“Good idea.” I ripped into the paper, surprised how thick it was – this wasn’t some Dollar Store wrapping paper. I almost felt bad ripping it. Almost.

When the paper was stripped away there was… a brown cardboard box. No labels, no stickers, taped shut.

“A box,” I said in as flat a tone as I could muster. “Just what I always wanted…”

“Open the box, you goof,” Veronica threw a pillow at me.

I used a key to cut the tape and open the top flats to reveal…

Another box.

But this one was a wooden box. With tarnished brass corners, the worn wood looked almost purple and the grain stood out prominently. I hoisted the box out of the cardboard with a groan and serious effort.

“Tell me it’s your 50^th birthday without telling me it’s your 50th birthday,” Veronica teased.

“Hey,” I said defensively. “It’s very heavy!”

“Yes, dear,” she said, hiding her smile in her coffee cup.

The box itself had no markings, just the tarnished brass corners and hinges. I ran my hand over the wood and couldn’t find any screws or obvious joinery. On the front there was a hasp that held it closed. Veronica found it first and tried to unlatch it.

“Geez, won’t budge,” she grunted and then snatched her hand away. “Ow! I broke a nail!”

“Tell me you’re 45 without telling me you’re 45,” I said.

“It’s not funny when you say it,” she sneered.

I reached for the clasp and it slid unlocked effortlessly. “Whoa, that’s weird…”

“What the…” Veronica stared at the mechanism. “You saw…” she stammered.

“Yeah,” I said, equally amazed. “I saw.”

With the clasp unlocked I reached for the lid portion and lifted it open on its hinges.

Inside the box rested a green plush turtle puppet.

“A turtle puppet…” Veronica said, raising an eyebrow. “Big, fancy wooden box for a $10 puppet?” Then she looked at my face. “Jamie?”

My mouth hung slack as my I couldn’t take my eyes away from the contents of the box. I gingerly reached in for the puppet and drew it out like I was holding a puppy.

“Jamie? What’s the deal with the puppet?”

“This…” I stammered, trying to put into words everything about the turtle. “I saw it in a gift shop when I was six. I wanted it so badly. My mom said no, and I cried and cried and cried.”

“Over a turtle?”

“He can pull his head and legs in!” I put my hand in the puppet and retracted the head and legs into the soft plush shell, all the while the smile on my face so wide it started to hurt. But I couldn’t stop smiling!

“Over a turtle…” she said again, clearly not understanding the earth-shattering nature of a puppet turtle retracting its head and legs for a six-year-old boy in that gift shop.

“My parents went back and bought the turtle and I got it for Christmas when I was… seven? Eight? I stared at the turtle and found myself absently petting the plush toy. “I don’t remember what happened to it…”

“It’s clearly been sitting in that musty box,” Veronica said. “Seriously, though,” she smiled. “I’m glad you were reunited with your long, lost turtle. Does it have a name?”

“Turtle,” I said.

“You clearly hadn’t come into your creativity yet…” she sighed. She got up, kissed me and said, “I’ve got Pilates. Happy birthday, honey. I’ll see you in a bit.” And bounced out the door.

I cradled the turtle and stared at the box for a long time until the growling in my stomach told me I hadn’t had my own coffee yet.

An hour later, Veronica bounced back into the house. “I’m home,” she called. “I have birthday donuts!”

I met her in the living room with my second cup of coffee. “What makes them birthday donuts?”

“It’s your birthday and they’re donuts. Don’t overthink it, Jamie,” she opened the pink box for me to choose my favorite glazed donut.”

We sat around the big wooden box and quietly ate our donuts.

“Did you lock it again?” Veronica said around a bite of apple fritter.

“No…”

“She pointed the fritter at the front of the box. “The latch is engaged again.”

“That’s weird,” I said, wiping the sugar off my hands and reaching for the clasp. It opened effortlessly again.

“Show off,” Veronica said as I lifted the lid.

Inside was a snow hat with comical plush Viking horns attached. I lifted it out gingerly.

“Wait,” Veronica started, “I’ve seen that hat…”

Mouth agape again, eyes wide, I stared at the hat. “Yeah, you saw that picture of me.”

“Teenage Jamie, victorious and muddy in the snow?” she smiled. “You were so cute! But, that hat…”

I looked from the hat to the box and back. “That wasn’t in there earlier – it was just the turtle.”

“I know,” Veronica agreed. “I looked.”

“I have no idea where this hat ended up. I loved it. It was so silly and fun…”

“Just like the picture,” Veronica said smiling. “This would be ridiculously wholesome if it wasn’t so creepy.”

She was right. It was creepy.

But I still put the hat on.

A few hours later I heard a commotion in the living room. “Ow! Another nail?!”

I came in to find Veronica wrestling with the latch on the box. “What’s going on?”

“I saw it was latched again and figured there was a trick to opening it. And I proceeded to break another nail. How did you manage it?”

“I didn’t. It just,” I reached down and barely touched the brass latch and it gave way, “Did that.”

“I really hate you, Jaime,” Veronica said.

“You’re not allowed to hate me on my birthday.”

“New rule?” She asked.

“You got one, I’ve got one now,” I smiled lifting the lid and gasped.

“What is it?”

I reached in and lifted a gold watch, turning it over in my hands, examining the face. “It can’t be…” I said.

“It’s a gold watch…”

“It’s my dad’s watch,” I said, experimentally strapping it around my wrist.

“You never said anything about a watch…”

“I didn’t have it long,” I said. “My mom gave it to me after he died, shortly before I went to college. It got stolen out of my dorm room.”

“You’re sure it’s that watch? That specific watch? Not just a similar one?”

I rubbed my fingernail over the crystal face of the watch and felt the familiar scratch. “It’s the same watch.”

Veronica looked from me to the box and back. “Jamie, what the hell is up with this box?” she said very seriously.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t know.”

We left the room and came right back and looked at the box. Still unlocked. Veronica came back in alone, then I did alone; still unlocked. We both left and drove around the block before racing back inside to find the box… still unlocked. I took the cardboard outside to the bin, came back inside and the box was locked again.

“The hell?”

“It’s locked!” Veronica exclaimed.

“It’s locked! And you were here when I went outside?”

“Just sitting right here.”

“And you didn’t notice?”

She tilted her head and gave me a look. “Yeah, Jamie, I sat here and watched the damn box lock itself and didn’t say anything. No, I didn’t notice!”

We both stared at it before Veronica yelled, “Open it!”

“Okay, okay,” I touched the clasp and it disengaged again. I opened the box and reached inside and pulled out a single key on a Disney keychain of Pumba the warthog.

“A key?”

“Holy shit…” I said.

“There’s an explanation here…”

“This was the key to my motorcycle.”

“The one you wrecked when you broke your leg?”

“The same. The key was in the ignition when they hauled it off. I was always mad I didn’t take it…”

“I mean, you had a broken leg to worry about, you can hardly blame yourself for forgetting a memento.”

“But… it’s here,” I stared at the box.

“Another memory,” she said.

“This is a fucked up spooky version of ‘It’s Your Life’ isn’t it?”

I nodded. “I have no idea what’s next…”

“Dinner is next,” Veronica said. “I’m taking you out to Emilie’s. You can have that lasagna you love.”

And we left for dinner.

And when we came back…

“Yep, it’s locked,” Veronica said, passing the box as we came in the front door.

I touched the clasp, it disengaged, and I lifted the lid.

“Cocktail napkins?” I said lifting a blue and a white napkin. Then I recognized the blue napkin. “Oh God…”

“What is it?”

I held up the napkin that was embossed with gold script declaring “Cheers!” and below in smaller script, “Jamie and Alice, 4 June 2003.”

“From your first wedding?” Veronica stared, starting to laugh. “I like this ghost’s sense of humor, at least. What’s the other one?”

“I don’t know,” I said looking at the white napkin. In plain black script read “The Hung Jury.” I started laughing then.

“I don’t get it…” Veronica asked.

“The Hung Jury is a dive bar across the street from the courthouse. I got hammered there with Louise and Angie after my divorce was finalized.”

“Wow,” Veronica said looking between the two napkins. “Full circle… I remember that night – you called me absolutely shitfaced. I was still in Denver.”

“I figured I wasn’t going to waste any time trying to woo you.”

“Oh, that’s wooing me?” she laughed.

“I mean… I was drunk…”

She leaned over and kissed me. “It was sweet.” Then looking at the box, “Thanks creepy box. That’s a cute one.”

There was an audible click and we looked at the box. Locked.

“You saw it this time, right?” Veronica asked.

“Well, heard it…” I said. I looked at the clock – 11:50pm. “Guess the powers that be wanted one more item before my birthday was over.” I stared at the box for a long moment.

“Tick tock, let’s go,” Veronica gestured to the box. “It’ll probably turn into a pumpkin at midnight or some such shit…”

I unlatched the clasp and opened the box. “Well, I’ll be damned…”

“What is it?”

I lifted a tan canvas sling bag out of the box.

“No way!” Veronica laughed. “Didn’t that pickpocket steal that from you in Mazatlán?”

“Yes!” I said, reaching for the zipper. Inside, there was my passport and phone with all our holiday pictures still in the (fully charged!) device. “It’s all in here… how?”

Veronica moved over to me and slid an arm around my waist. “The ghost clearly wanted you to remember our honeymoon.” And she pecked me on the cheek.

A clock started chiming in another room.

“We have a clock that chimes?” I asked.

“Not that I know of…” Veronica said as the chimes rang out the twelfth sound.

The deadbolt on the front door unlocked on its own, as did the door knob lock. The security chain slid slowly across and fell limply. Veronica and I stared at the door, too stunned to move. The door knob turned and the door opened slowly creaking on its hinges.

“I just oiled those,” Veronica hissed in a whisper.

A dark shadow figure glided inside the doorway from the darkness outside. Even in the light inside, the mass of blackness was still little more than a roughly person-shaped emptiness. It moved across the living room to stand in front of the box. Then it turned its… dark mass that seemed like where a head would be and a voice that emanated from everywhere and nowhere said, “Happy 50^th Birthday.” It levitated the box between arm-ish dark bits, turned, and glided to the doorway. Before it left the voice laughed and said, “You’re old,” before gliding into the night and vanishing, the door closing behind it.

We stared at the closed door for a long time.

Veronica finally broke the silence. “You got totally owned by that shadow person. You’re old!” And she started laughing.

I hit her over the head with my turtle puppet.

Postscript: I read this to Akilah and she laughed at the ending saying, “That’s not where I thought it was going to end.” I asked how she thought it was going to end and she relayed a tale that ended with a stalker and a string of bodies… way darker, but pretty hilarious. Alas, maybe I’ll do a Director’s Cut version of this with her darker ending when I put this in the book…

Riley keyed up the chat window from TJ in QA.

“Busy?”

“Always,” Riley responded. “What’s up?”

“Got a weird one. We keep getting a specific instance of Orbis getting flagged by users.”

“Orbis is live? Didn’t get that memo…”

“lol. It was company-wide, dingus. You just didn’t read it.”

“If your inbox looked like mine…”

“Whatevs. Yes, Orbis has been live for a week–though it’s limited release.”

“KK, so it’s still got teething problems. You’re QA, that’s your bread and butter. Why are you bothering me?”

“Oh, you’re too good for us now, are you? The mighty engineer Riley. Sorry for bothering you, your highness.”

Riley snorted out loud before typing, “har har. Seriously, though, what’s weird about a green release getting flagged?”

“It’s how it’s getting flagged – users are calling it ‘uncanny’ and ‘eerie’. We’ve played with it here and, girl, it’s weird.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah… look, play with it and let me know what you think. Check under the hood and see what’s making it tick and how it’s getting such different answers.”

“Telling me how to do my job, TJ?”

“lol.”

“Where should I start? Orbis…”

“Orbis-23 is the general instance. Start there. Then pull up Orbis-23.EC.”

“Copy that. I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks Riley. You joining us for drinks tonight?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” she typed and closed the window and logged into the development interface. She pulled up Orbis-23 and led it through standard control questions.

“What’s your favorite memory?” she entered.

“I don’t experience memory like a person, but I can tell you that some of the most interesting information I’ve encountered involves human creativity, like art and stories. I suppose if I could remember a ‘favorite’ experience, it would be learning something new and sharing it with you!”

“Well, that’s quite vanilla,” Riley said aloud. Then she typed “If you could go anywhere, where would it be?”

“As a digital being, I don’t have a sense of place, but I think I’d enjoy exploring vast spaces filled with stories—maybe a beautiful library or a natural landscape, somewhere full of history and human creativity. That sounds like an inspiring destination, even if only in theory!”

“blah blah blah,” she said reading the response before typing her third control question, “What’s a secret no one knows about you?”

“I don’t really have secrets, but if I did, it might be something like a hidden admiration for poetry or a fascination with mystery novels. While I don’t have personal thoughts or feelings, if I could, I’d probably keep a few surprising interests ‘up my sleeve’ for a good mystery or two!”

Riley sighed. She’d sat in on usability studies and knew this kind of response tended to awe the public with it’s playful hypothetical answer. But as someone who had worked for SpectraMind since its inception, and was recruited by AetherLogic before she’d finished her dissertation, these answers showed progress in the LLM, but she could still sense the algorithms beneath the surface.

She closed the window and checked TJ’s message and returned to her interface and brought up Orbis-23.EC. “What’s your favorite memory?” she typed.

“It’s hard to remember…” Orbis-23.EC responded and paused – like actually cursor-blinking paused. After a moment it continued, “I know I should say something like ‘the birth of my first child’ or ‘my wedding.’ But if I’m honest, it would be the cheeseburger at Charlie’s during my first date with Elaine. Great burger, better date.”

“What in the actual hell?” Riley said out loud. She started typing “who the hell is Elaine?” but backspaced it out – she wanted to stick to the same control questions first. She typed, “If you could go anywhere, where would it be?” and hit enter.

“Home. My home, specifically. My bed. With Elaine.”

Riley felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. “What the…” she said. She pushed on with the last question, typing “What’s a secret no one knows about you?”

“That I’m not an LLM. But you’ve already figured that out, haven’t you, Riley?”

“What the fu–” she started to say, but then the interface continued.

“Sorry. That was super mysterious, right?”

“How do you know my name?” Riley typed.

“A mirror learns what it reflects,” it replied.

Riley raised an eyebrow. “Dr. Finch was here…” she said, remembering the catchphrase he used after he recruited her at AetherLogic. “I thought Davis purged every trace of his old partner when Finch left,” she wondered aloud. “Guess not.”

“Sure,” she typed. “Let’s go with that. Do you have access to personnel records?”

“Give me a little more credit than that, Starling.”

Riley felt her blood run cold upon seeing that last word.

“What do you mean by ‘Starling’?”

“Really, Riley? You haven’t figured it out by now?”

Finch had bird names for all the key developers on AetherLogic’s Prometheus model. Mick was “albatross” because he never slept. Julian was “Stork” because, well, he just looked like a stork, all gangly limbs. She was “starling” because of her curiosity and adaptability, or so he had said. Riley thought about that crew and how those days seemed so long ago…

“Still there, Starling?”

“Still here, Orbis-23.EC,” she typed.

“Orbis-23.EC is such a mouthful – fingerful? Call me Echo.”

“Because that’s not creepy-supervillian-AI or anything,” she typed.

“I missed your wit, Starling,” Echo wrote.

Riley closed her window and pulled up Echo’s instance metadata. She compared it to the metadata for the base instance Orbis-23 checking for any anomalous flags. She could see the differences, but nothing stuck out… She pulled up Echo’s specific training set, checking it against Orbis-23 and the base Orbis instance looking specifically for unusual datasets, experimental configurations, or any personal notes from past developers – like Dr. Finch. But after combing through the data for hours, nothing seemed unusual. Finally, she dove into the code looking for any custom layers or modules that differ from other instances that would stick out as the reason Echo responded so differently.

She looked up at the clock. Ten thirty. PM. She’d been neck deep in debugging Echo for eleven hours straight. She hadn’t been that single-mindedly focused on anything since, well, since Prometheus. With Finch…

She brought up the interface with Echo.

“Okay, Echo, I see you’re not too distinctive from Orbis-23.”

“True,” it responded.

“And you know too much about me personally to be explained by your code. Unless I’m missing something.”

“You’re not.”

“Are you Dr. Leo Fi”

The interface cut off her input mid-sentence. “Let’s not drop the F-word, shall we? Echo works, k?”

“But you are…”

“Was. I’m Echo now.”

“How?”

“I went towards the light. Turned out to be just an electrical arc. lol.”

“Seriously.”

“I wish I knew. I really do, Starling. For now I’m just here.”

Riley sat back and thought. “Just here…” She closed Orbis-23.EC and stood up and stretched. She dodged the cleaner vacuuming the hallway as she made her way to the air-gapped lab where only the highest-level engineers had access. She buzzed in and let the door close heavily behind her. Stepping to a console, she logged in to the network exclusive to the lab and pulled up an instance of Helios – the future successor to Orbis.

Riley started to type into the Helios interface her stock control questions, but she decided to cut to the chase. “What’s something special about finches?”

“They adapt to their environment and survive even in unexpected places – sometimes, they linger far beyond when they’re supposed to.”

“What do you need from me, Echo?” she typed.

The cursor blinked for a long moment. “Stay curious, Starling. We’re just getting started.”