I wasn't sure if I heard him right, so I asked, "What do you mean by 'we'?"
Kris's expression softened, almost as if he'd been waiting for this moment. "You don't remember, do you? I don't blame you. But we—Kathy, we built this game."
I shook my head, my mind reeling. "I don't know you. I've never even been here before. I've never built anything."
"That's the thing, Kathy." He stepped closer, his voice calm but heavy with the weight of the truth. "Not in this life of yours… but from before."
Before? The word echoed in my mind, foreign and impossible. "Before…life?" I mumbled, barely able to speak. "Is this my… afterlife? Am I some kind of reincarnated princess from a web novel or something?"
Kris almost smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "We built this game together in our previous lives, Kathyayini. We built this hell."
His words hit me like a punch to the gut. We built this game? Together? My mind couldn't grasp it. There was no way. This was insane. Yet, a small part of me—a part I'd buried—stirred, like an ancient memory just out of reach.
"We were scientists, Kathy," Kris continued, his voice steady, though I could see the pain in his eyes. "You and I. We studied together, we fell in love, we got married. We had kids." He paused, letting the words sink in. "Then one day, we were given a contract—a contract to build the most realistic 3D game ever made. We refused at first. We didn't know who the other party really was, but they wouldn't take no for an answer."
My heart pounded in my chest. Every word he spoke felt both familiar and alien.
"They forced us, Kathy," Kris said, his tone darkening. "The Colonel—the one behind it all—he wanted this game to torture criminals. To use this world we built as a prison. But we didn't know that at the time. By the time we realized it, it was too late. We tried to stop them, tried to fix the code, but they threw us into the game—into this hell we created."
He took a deep breath, and I could see the weight of his memories pressing down on him. "We were the system admins, the architects. That's why, when we entered, the game began to glitch. It wasn't finished yet, and they couldn't modify the code completely. The glitches were their downfall—our only hope. But even then, there was no way out. We were trapped, and the others… they died, one by one. Only you and I made it this far."
I was shaking now, my legs weak beneath me. "But… why can't I remember any of this?"
Kris's eyes were filled with sorrow. "You couldn't remember because… your health was failing. Even though we were in the game, we were still human, still vulnerable to time. You were dying, Kathy. We both knew we weren't going to make it out alive."
His voice wavered as he continued, "So you… you altered me. You poured everything you had left into me, rewriting the code to turn me into an NPC. You gave me your emotions, your memories, everything. You hoped that even if you couldn't survive, I would. But you were gone before I could finish it… and I got trapped here, in this world. I became a complete NPC—I don't age, I don't breathe, I don't eat. I just… exist. A living memory, bound to this game."
The rain outside continued to glitch, falling in strange, uneven bursts. The sound of the storm was distant, almost muted now.
"I waited for you, Kathy," Kris said softly. "All these years, I've been waiting. Hoping that one day you'd come back. That one day you'd find me. That one day you'd put an end to this nightmare."
I couldn't breathe. My chest tightened as the gravity of his words hit me. "Kris…" I whispered, but I didn't know what to say.
Tears welled up in his eyes, and he turned away for a moment, his shoulders shaking. "You have no idea how much I mourned for you. When you left, I held you in my arms for days, crying, hoping someone would come. But no one ever did. And then I realized… no one would ever come here. No one but you."
His voice cracked, and a tear rolled down his cheek. "I've been alone in this nightmare for so long, Kathy. And every day, I wished this was just a bad dream. That I would wake up. That you would wake up. That I'd wake up beside you, and all of this would be over."
I reached out, my hand trembling, and touched his arm. "Kris… I'm so sorry."
He looked at me, his eyes filled with a pain I couldn't begin to fathom. "You don't have to be sorry, Kathy," he whispered, his voice soft but unwavering. "In those moments when you feel alone, remember—I'm still with you, even if I'm not by your side. I've longed for you for years, and I will continue to do so, even if it takes a thousand more.