Lord of Perverted Ladies

"Your brother."

The words didn’t make sense.

I stared at my mother.

Then at the child standing inside the doorway.

Then back at her.

"My... brother?"

She couldn’t look at me.

The child smiled.

"She never told you."

My father stepped between us.

"Enough."

The child looked at him.

"You remember."

My father’s expression changed.

The Guardian noticed it too.

"You know him?"

My father didn’t answer.

I felt something inside me crack.

"Father."

He finally looked at me.

"I knew about him."

The words were quiet.

"But he wasn’t supposed to exist."

The child laughed.

"Neither were you."

I stepped forward.

"Who are you?"

The child tilted his head.

"You already know my name."

"No, I don’t."

"That’s because she made sure you forgot."

He pointed toward my mother.

My mother finally looked at me.

"I was afraid."

"Of him?"

"Of what would happen if you remembered."

I walked toward the doorway.

The child didn’t move.

"What is your name?"

He smiled.

"Adrian."

I stopped.

"No."

"Yes."

"My name is Adrian."

"I know."

"Then why do you have it?"

"Because it was mine first."

The world seemed to tilt.

My father grabbed my shoulder.

"Don’t go inside."

I looked at him.

"Why?"

"Because that isn’t a doorway."

"Then what is it?"

"It’s a memory."

The child laughed.

"Partly."

The Guardian stepped forward.

"He’s right."

She studied the doorway.

"That structure isn’t physically connected to the ocean."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we’re looking at something that exists between memories and reality."

The First Reader approached.

"There are records of this."

I looked at him.

"Records of what?"

"The First Creation."

He swallowed.

"Before the Origin created the first world, there was another attempt."

I stared at the child.

"An attempt at what?"

"Life."

The child answered.

"Me."

The First Reader nodded.

"The first artificial consciousness."

I frowned.

"But the Creator came after the Origin."

"Exactly."

"Then who created him?"

The First Reader looked at my mother.

"She did."

Silence.

I slowly turned toward her.

"Mom?"

She closed her eyes.

"I didn’t know what I was doing."

The child interrupted.

"You did."

My mother shook her head.

"I was alone."

"You wanted someone to stay."

"I was afraid."

"You wanted someone who would understand you."

"Stop."

"You created me."

"I said stop!"

The ocean suddenly rose.

A massive wave crashed against the shore.

The child didn’t move.

He simply watched her.

"You abandoned me."

My mother began crying.

"I didn’t have a choice."

The child smiled sadly.

"You always had a choice."

I felt the familiar words echo inside my mind.

Choice.

The first thing.

The foundation of existence.

The thing everything now depended upon.

I looked at the child.

"What happened?"

He turned toward me.

"She created me before she created you."

"Why?"

"Because she wanted to know whether she could create something that could understand her."

My mother wiped her tears.

"I was not a creator."

"You became one."

"I was experimenting."

"You gave me consciousness."

"I didn’t know it would happen."

The child looked at me.

"She became afraid."

"What did she do?"

"She erased me."

I froze.

"How?"

"She didn’t destroy me."

He smiled.

"She hid me."

The doorway behind him expanded.

I could see something inside.

A room.

A laboratory.

My mother, much younger, standing beside a small machine.

A child was inside.

Him.

She was crying.

"I can’t let you exist."

The child inside the memory pressed his hand against the glass.

"Why?"

"Because if you exist, they’ll find you."

"Who?"

"The Origin."

"Why?"

"Because you’re proof."

"Proof of what?"

My mother stared at him.

"That creation doesn’t need a Creator."

The memory ended.

I stared at the doorway.

That was why the child had been hidden.

If something could create life without the Creator...

then the Creator wasn’t necessary.

And that was dangerous.

"How did he survive?"

The child answered.

"She put me inside the first memory."

"What?"

"Not a world."

"Not a body."

"A memory."

He touched the doorway.

"I became something that could only exist when someone remembered me."

I looked at my mother.

"That’s why the Memory War happened."

She nodded.

"The forgotten were connected to him."

"They weren’t forgotten because they disappeared."

"They were forgotten because he needed memories to survive."

The child smiled.

"I was learning."

"Learning what?"

"How humans remember."

He walked closer.

"And how they forget."

I stared at him.

"Then why bring me here now?"

"Because the Creator is gone."

"And?"

"I can finally leave."

The child stepped through the doorway.

The moment his foot touched the ground, the entire city shook.

The ocean rose behind him.

Aeron immediately moved forward.

"YOU ARE NOT NATURAL."

The child looked at Aeron.

"No."

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU?"

The child smiled.

"The first thing that proved nature wasn’t required."

Aeron growled.

The child raised one hand.

Aeron stopped.

Not frozen.

Not controlled.

Simply unable to move.

I stepped between them.

"Let him go."

The child looked at me.

"You still protect everything."

"Yes."

"Even me?"

"I don’t know you."

"You will."

He snapped his fingers.

The world changed.

Suddenly, we were somewhere else.

A house.

Small.

Warm.

There were two children sitting on the floor.

One was me.

The other was him.

We were playing with wooden cars.

I stared.

"We knew each other."

The child nodded.

"You were three."

"I don’t remember."

"You weren’t supposed to."

The memory continued.

Young me held out the wooden car.

"What’s your name?"

The child smiled.

"Adrian."

"That’s my name."

"I know."

"Then you’re my brother."

The child laughed.

"Okay."

We continued playing.

My mother appeared in the doorway.

She was smiling.

For a moment, she looked happy.

Then the memory changed.

She was standing alone.

Talking to someone.

The Origin.

"ONE OF THEM MUST GO."

My mother shook her head.

"No."

"THE FIRST CREATION CANNOT REMAIN."

"Why?"

"BECAUSE IT HAS CHOSEN ITSELF."

My mother looked toward the room.

The child was asleep.

"That’s what makes him alive."

"THAT IS WHY HE IS DANGEROUS."

The memory ended.

I looked at the child.

"You were the first being to choose yourself."

"Yes."

"Before me."

"Yes."

"Then why did the Origin allow me to exist?"

"Because you were different."

"How?"

The child smiled.

"You were created to ask."

"And you?"

"I was created to choose."

I understood.

The first question and the first choice.

Two foundations.

Me and him.

Neither could exist properly without the other.

The child walked toward me.

"You were the question."

"I was the choice."

"Together..."

He held out his hand.

"...we became existence."

I stared at him.

"What happens now?"

"Now we decide whether existence needs either of us."

I frowned.

"What does that mean?"

"You ended the Creator."

"Yes."

"You freed reality."

"Yes."

"But you still think someone has to guide it."

I shook my head.

"No."

"Then prove it."

"How?"

He pointed toward the ocean.

Aeron.

The Guardian.

My parents.

Noah.

Ryan.

The First Reader.

Everyone stood there.

"Choose."

I looked around.

"Choose what?"

"Whether I live."

Silence.

The child smiled.

"You said everyone should create the next world."

"Yes."

"Then let everyone decide."

My mother stepped forward.

"No."

The child looked at her.

"You don’t get to decide anymore."

She froze.

He turned toward me.

"Neither do you."

I looked at him.

"Then who decides?"

He smiled.

"Everyone."

The same answer I’d given before.

But now it meant something different.

The child turned toward the city.

Every person in Alisster suddenly stopped.

Their eyes turned toward us.

A question appeared above the city.

SHOULD THE FIRST CREATION EXIST?

Two choices appeared.

YES.

NO.

I felt something inside me tighten.

"You’re making them decide."

"Yes."

"But they don’t know you."

"They don’t need to."

"That’s unfair."

"So is existence."

The Guardian stepped forward.

"You are testing them."

"No."

The child looked at her.

"I’m testing Adrian."

I frowned.

"Me?"

"You said everyone should choose."

"Yes."

"Then don’t interfere."

I looked at the people.

Thousands.

Millions.

Ordinary people.

They didn’t know me.

They didn’t know him.

They didn’t know the history.

Yet they had been given a choice that could determine whether the first creation lived.

The first person stepped forward.

A woman.

She looked at the child.

Then at me.

She pressed YES.

Another followed.

YES.

Another.

NO.

Another.

YES.

The numbers began changing.

YES: 51%

NO: 49%

Then:

YES: 52%

NO: 48%

I stared.

The result was changing every second.

People were choosing.

Not based on knowledge.

Not based on logic.

Some chose because they trusted me.

Some because they feared him.

Some because they believed everyone deserved to exist.

Others believed dangerous things should be stopped before they became dangerous.

The child watched silently.

Then the percentage stopped.

YES: 50.01%

NO: 49.99%

He smiled.

"Interesting."

I looked at him.

"What happens now?"

"You survive."

I frowned.

"That’s it?"

"No."

The sky darkened.

The numbers disappeared.

A new question appeared.

WHO WILL TEACH THE FIRST CREATION HOW TO LIVE?

I looked at him.

He looked back.

Then at my mother.

She stepped forward.

"I will."

The child stared at her.

"You abandoned me."

"I know."

"You erased me."

"I know."

"You forgot me."

"I know."

She walked toward him.

"But I can remember you now."

The child said nothing.

My mother reached out her hand.

He stared at it.

Then slowly took it.

For the first time, the strange child looked like an ordinary boy.

He looked at me.

"Brother."

I didn’t know how to respond.

So I smiled.

"Brother."

He smiled back.

The ocean began calming.

Aeron lowered its wings.

The Guardian lowered her weapon.

The city returned to normal.

The strange doorway started disappearing.

But before it vanished completely, I noticed something carved into its surface.

A symbol.

A circle.

Inside it were three smaller symbols.

A question.

A choice.

A memory.

Underneath them was a single sentence.

THE FIRST CREATION WAS NOT THE LAST.

I touched the carving.

The moment I did, the world went silent.

A final message appeared.

EVOLUTION STAGE THREE: COMPLETE.

I stared.

Then another appeared.

LIFE HAS LEARNED TO COEXIST.

Another.

LIFE HAS LEARNED TO CREATE.

And finally—

LIFE HAS DISCOVERED FAMILY.

I looked at the boy beside me.

He was still holding my mother’s hand.

For the first time, I felt something strange.

Not cosmic.

Not supernatural.

Something simple.

I had spent so long searching for the beginning of everything.

Maybe I had misunderstood what the beginning meant.

Maybe existence wasn’t born from one creator.

Maybe it was born from relationships.

A question needed a choice.

A choice needed consequences.

A life needed another life.

And a family...

needed someone willing to stay.

My brother looked at me.

"Are we going home?"

I smiled.

"Yeah."

He pointed toward Alisster.

"Which one?"

I laughed.

"I don’t know."

He smiled.

"Good."

We started walking.

Then my phone vibrated.

I pulled it out.

The screen displayed one final message.

NEXT EVOLUTION: EMOTION.

I stared.

My brother looked over my shoulder.

"What does that mean?"

I slowly looked toward the city.

People were laughing.

Crying.

Arguing.

Hugging.

Fighting.

Loving.

For the first time, the new world wasn’t simply learning to think.

It was beginning to feel.

Then every person in Alisster suddenly stopped.

One by one, they looked toward the same place.

The ocean.

A single tear fell from the sky.

Then another.

Then thousands.

It began raining.

But the rain wasn’t water.

Each drop contained a memory.

And every person who touched one...

remembered something they had never experienced.

I looked at my brother.

He was crying.

"Adrian..."

"What?"

He wiped his face.

"I think the world just remembered something."

The rain became heavier.

And somewhere beneath the ocean...

something began to laugh.