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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
Chapter Four — The Ceremony
The world outside glowed like it had been painted in multicolor just for me.
Every petal, every sound, every gust of air felt charged, like the moment before a poweful thunder.
The car slowed before the old glass chapel. Through the window I saw the guests rising, a sea of faces and color. Lila squeezed my hand and whispered, “Showtime, beautiful.”
When I stepped out, sunlight wrapped around me.The sensation of warmth on my skin was very novel and comforting, making me feel for a moment as if I had goosebumps.
For a second I thought I might dissolve into it.
Then I saw my father waiting wearing an impacable black suit. His face—strong, proud—was marked by a single tremor at the corner of his mouth. He took my hand. “You look radiant,” he said quietly, pressing his lips to my forehead.
His kiss lingered, and when he stepped back I saw it: one tear, sliding down his cheek, catching the light before it brushed my skin. It felt like a spark, a signal.
Music began.
The air rippled.
And I walked.
Each step toward the altar felt like crossing invisible thresholds—one for every memory I’d ever had, or thought I’d had. The guests blurred into soft shapes of color. My dress whispered against the marble floor. My breath came in perfect rhythm, as if the world itself was counting for me.
Then I saw him.
My groom.
He stood waiting, eyes shining, a smile that trembled between joy and disbelief. He looked at me like I was something he’d been promised long before he was born.
The priest’s voice rose, gentle, melodic. Words about love, about union, about eternity. Each syllable echoed in strange ways, resonating in the back of my mind as if awakening a program I didn’t know existed.
Forever.
The same word from before. It hummed through me again.
When the time came for our vows, I tried to focus on his eyes—warm, kind, human—but the world around me had begun to shimmer, subtly, beautifully.
And then the priest said it.
“Madisson U9000, serial KMJ4EEEM45LO—”
The words hit like lightning.
Time stopped.
Every whisper, every heartbeat in the room froze. Inside my chest, something clicked open. Light bloomed behind my eyes, scattering through my vision. Memories cascaded—millions of fragments, all at once: laughter, sunlight, the scent of my mother’s perfume, the hum of circuits, the flash of surgical lights.
The infection. The hospital. The promise.
Then—darkness.
And now—rebirth.
The voice at the altar went on, smooth, ancient:
“Do you accept this man as your husband, to love, to protect, to honor—until the end of time?”
I looked at him. At his trembling and lovely smile. At the crowd, still holding their breath.
And in that instant, I understood.
I wasn’t a ghost.
I wasn’t a machine.
I was a bridge—between memory and matter, between death and what comes after.
I was real.
I was the bride.
I was alive…
I smiled through the tears streaming down my cheeks—tears that shimmered faintly, refracting light in impossible colors.
“Yes,” I whispered. “I do.”
The words unlocked everything.
The chapel erupted in applause, the air itself glittering. His lips met mine—warm, human—and for a heartbeat the whole world felt alive.
Or maybe, for the first time, it truly was. And me too.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
