Lord of Perverted Ladies

"You’re late."

The little girl stood in the middle of the street, holding the wooden toy car between both hands.

Nobody moved.

I couldn’t either.

There was something about her that made every instinct inside me scream.

Not because she looked dangerous.

She didn’t.

She looked completely ordinary.

A little girl in a yellow dress, barefoot, with messy black hair and a tiny scratch across her cheek.

But I had seen that toy before.

I had held it.

I had watched it pass between versions of myself.

And now it was in her hands.

Noah slowly stepped beside me.

"Adrian..."

"I know."

Ryan whispered,

"Please tell me that’s not another cosmic entity."

"I don’t know."

The girl smiled.

"You’re thinking too loudly."

I frowned.

"I can’t read minds anymore."

"You don’t need to."

She tapped her forehead.

"You’re easy to understand."

My father stepped forward.

"Who are you?"

The girl looked at him.

"I don’t know."

"That’s impossible."

"Is it?"

She looked genuinely curious.

Then she turned toward me.

"Do you know?"

"No."

"Then we’re both confused."

Ryan looked at Noah.

"She’s terrifying."

Noah nodded.

"Very."

I walked toward the girl.

She didn’t move.

"Where did you get that?"

I pointed at the toy car.

She looked down.

"This?"

"Yes."

"You gave it to me."

"I never met you."

"Not yet."

I stopped.

"Then who are you?"

She smiled.

"I’m the question."

The words sent a chill through me.

"The next question?"

She nodded.

I looked at the sky.

Nothing.

No System.

No messages.

No cracks.

No strange symbols.

Everything looked normal.

That somehow made it worse.

"What do you want?"

"An answer."

"To what?"

She held the toy car toward me.

I took it.

The moment my fingers touched it, a memory flashed.

A white room.

The first version of me.

The Origin.

The Guardian.

Then something else.

A door.

A very small door.

I had never seen it before.

Behind it was a child.

Me.

But this version was younger than every version I’d ever encountered.

Maybe three years old.

He was sitting alone.

He was crying.

Someone stood beside him.

I couldn’t see their face.

The figure whispered,

"One day, you’ll forget me."

The child looked up.

"Why?"

"Because you need to."

"Will I remember?"

"No."

"Then how will I know you existed?"

The figure placed the wooden car in his hands.

"You won’t."

The memory ended.

I dropped the toy.

The girl caught it before it hit the ground.

"You remembered."

I stared at her.

"Who was that?"

"You know."

"No."

"You do."

I shook my head.

"Stop saying that."

She smiled.

"Okay."

She walked past me.

"Then I’ll show you."

The street changed.

Everyone disappeared.

The buildings faded.

The sunlight became gray.

My friends were gone.

My father was gone.

My mother was gone.

Only the girl remained.

She walked toward the center of Alisster.

I followed.

"Where are we going?"

"To your first mistake."

"I thought the first question was the beginning."

"It was."

"Then what’s the first mistake?"

She looked back.

"Creating something you didn’t understand."

I frowned.

"What did I create?"

She stopped.

Then pointed ahead.

A building appeared.

I recognized it immediately.

The laboratory beneath Alisster.

The place where everything had started.

The doors opened.

We entered.

The laboratory looked exactly as I remembered.

Machines.

Screens.

Containment chambers.

Research notes.

But there was one thing I didn’t remember.

A chamber at the very back.

It was small.

Barely large enough for a child.

I walked toward it.

The girl followed.

"What’s inside?"

"Look."

I opened the door.

Inside was a chair.

On the chair sat a small figure.

A child.

Three years old.

Me.

He was asleep.

I stared.

"What is this?"

"Your first body."

I felt my stomach drop.

"But my first body was created by my mother."

"No."

She shook her head.

"Your mother gave you your second body."

"Second?"

"Yes."

"Then what’s this?"

"Your first."

I stepped closer.

The child opened his eyes.

He looked directly at me.

"You’re late."

I stepped backward.

"No."

The child smiled.

"You said that last time."

"Last time?"

"When you abandoned me."

I looked at the girl.

"What’s happening?"

She didn’t answer.

The child stood.

"I remember everything."

"Who are you?"

"You."

"I know that."

"No."

He shook his head.

"I’m the part of you that never became human."

The laboratory went silent.

I felt something inside my chest.

A faint pressure.

A memory trying to surface.

The child walked toward me.

"When you decided to become human, you had to leave something behind."

"What?"

"Everything that made you the Creator."

"Power?"

"No."

"Memories?"

"No."

"Then what?"

He touched my chest.

"Your certainty."

I froze.

The ability to know.

The ability to understand existence.

The ability to know exactly what I was.

I had abandoned certainty.

That’s what allowed me to become human.

But I had assumed that part of me simply disappeared.

It hadn’t.

I had left it behind.

Here.

With him.

The girl smiled.

"And that’s your first mistake."

I looked at her.

"You separated yourself."

"Yes."

"And he remained here."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you were afraid."

I looked at the child.

He was staring at me with an expression I’d never seen before.

Not anger.

Not hatred.

Loneliness.

"You left me alone."

I swallowed.

"I’m sorry."

He shook his head.

"Don’t be."

"Why?"

"Because you had to."

The child walked past me.

"You couldn’t become Adrian while carrying everything you were."

He pointed toward the laboratory.

"So you left it here."

I looked around.

All those machines.

All those records.

All those years of research.

The Scriptorium hadn’t discovered me.

They had discovered this place.

They had found the part of me I’d abandoned.

That’s why they knew so much.

That’s why they had been obsessed with understanding me.

They had been studying my discarded certainty.

The child turned toward me.

"They wanted to use me."

"What happened?"

"I refused."

"How?"

He smiled.

"I learned something from you."

"What?"

"Choice."

I stared.

"You created Choice."

"No."

He shook his head.

"You created the possibility of choice."

"The Guardian became Choice."

"But I..."

He touched his chest.

"...became Will."

I felt the room tremble.

The girl laughed softly.

"Now you’re getting it."

I looked at her.

"You knew this."

"Of course."

"Then why bring me here?"

"Because you need him."

"For what?"

"To answer the question."

"What question?"

She looked at the child.

He looked back.

Then both spoke together.

"If you can choose who you are, can you choose what you become?"

I stared at them.

That was different.

The first question had been about existence.

The second about meaning.

The third about creation.

This one was about identity.

I’d chosen to be Adrian.

But had I actually chosen?

Or had I simply rejected being the Creator?

There was a difference.

I looked at the child.

"What do you want me to become?"

He smiled.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"You keep thinking you have to become something."

"Creator."

"Listener."

"Human."

"God."

"Monster."

"Hero."

"Villain."

"You’ve spent your entire existence choosing labels."

He stepped closer.

"But you never asked whether you needed one."

I went silent.

The girl walked toward the laboratory’s central computer.

She placed the wooden toy car on it.

The entire room activated.

Screens turned on.

Thousands of memories appeared.

My life.

Every choice.

Every mistake.

Every version.

Then the screen displayed one final message.

IDENTITY IS NOT WHAT YOU WERE CREATED TO BE.

A second line appeared.

IDENTITY IS WHAT YOU CHOOSE TO CONTINUE BEING.

I stared at it.

The child smiled.

"Now answer."

"Answer what?"

The girl looked directly at me.

"Who are you?"

I almost laughed.

"Adrian."

"That’s your name."

"Yes."

"Not your identity."

I thought about it.

I looked at my father.

My mother.

Noah.

Ryan.

Everyone who had stood beside me.

The people who remembered me.

The people who hated me.

The people who loved me.

Then I looked at the child.

At the part of myself I’d abandoned.

"I don’t know."

The girl smiled.

"Good."

The child laughed.

"That’s the correct answer."

The laboratory shook.

The screens shattered.

The walls began disappearing.

The little girl picked up the wooden car.

"Now you can choose."

"Choose what?"

"Your future."

She tossed the car toward me.

I caught it.

The world disappeared.

I opened my eyes.

I was back in Alisster.

Everyone was there.

My father.

My mother.

Noah.

Ryan.

The city was normal.

The little girl was gone.

The child was gone.

The laboratory was gone.

I looked down.

The wooden toy car was still in my hand.

Noah stared at it.

"Where did you get that?"

I looked at him.

"I don’t know."

My mother immediately began crying.

I turned toward her.

"Mom?"

She walked toward me.

She touched the toy car.

"I thought it was gone."

"What is it?"

She looked at me.

"Your first memory."

I frowned.

"The first memory?"

She nodded.

"When you were very young, before you became Adrian..."

She stopped.

"What?"

"You asked me something."

"What did I ask?"

She looked directly into my eyes.

"You asked whether you were allowed to change your mind."

I froze.

"And what did you say?"

"I said yes."

My mother smiled through her tears.

"And you said..."

She paused.

"...then I choose again."

I stared at the toy car.

The words echoed inside me.

Then I choose again.

The sky suddenly flickered.

Everyone looked upward.

No message appeared.

No System.

Instead, the clouds formed a single sentence.

THE NEXT QUESTION HAS BEEN ANSWERED.

I waited.

Nothing happened.

Then another sentence appeared.

BUT THE ANSWER CREATED A NEW PROBLEM.

The sky turned black.

A massive crack appeared above Alisster.

My father immediately raised his weapon.

"What now?"

I looked upward.

Something was coming through.

Not the Origin.

Not the Guardian.

Not the Unasked.

Something completely different.

A hand emerged from the crack.

Then another.

Something pulled itself into reality.

It had no face.

No body.

Only a cloak of darkness.

But in its hands...

were hundreds of wooden toy cars.

The creature looked at me.

And every car began moving by itself.

The little wheels spun.

One rolled toward me.

I caught it.

A voice came from beneath the hood.

"You chose who you are."

Another car rolled forward.

"Now choose who gets to remember you."

My blood went cold.

The creature raised its head.

For the first time, a face appeared beneath the darkness.

It was mine.

But unlike every version I’d seen before...

this one was smiling.

And behind him stood thousands of people I had forgotten.

Every single one was holding a wooden toy car.

The creature whispered,

"Welcome to the Memory War."

Then the entire city went dark.

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