Ash was on her sofa in the living room. The day was hot and sunny, but she was here, playing a game on her console. A voice came from next to her. Her uncle, Benjamin, laughing about something in the game.

  A simpler time. She thought and smiled, faint tears coming to her eyes. Why did I just think that? And why am I crying?

  “Ash?” Her uncle asked, looking at her concerned “Is that really you?”

  Ash looked down at herself. Her scrawny, sallow looking arms, her battered and dirtied hospital overshirt. This wasn’t right. No. I wasn’t sick here. I… Remember this day. The summer before my diagnosis. This was the past but, now I was in the game, wasn’t I? This…

  “This is just a dream…” She murmured, tears falling faster now.

  “Oh no.” Her uncle looked more concerned “Why are you upset? Do you… Do you not recognise me? You don’t remember this?”

  Ask tried to hold her emotions back, her uncle looked so worried. Then she noticed he was wearing that stupid Elmo t-shirt and joggers that make him look completely ridiculous. The outfit startedled her out of her sorrow, and she quickly found herself breaking out in a strangled laugh.

  “No, uncle Ben, I’m fine. It’s just… this is all a dream.”

  “Ah, yes, well it is indeed! Dream magic in fact. It’s been the only way I’ve managed to find you!” He beamed as Ash wiped her eyes clear, the girl now more confused than upset. “So, you really do remember me! Do you… Remember what happened at the hospital?”

  “The headset. You put me in the game right, let me play early?” She said uncertainly “I’ve been playing.” She paused, the felt like she should give some feedback “It’s very immersive but you really have made the starting situation pretty difficult.”

  “What?” He responded “You… It’s difficult? Ummm… Okay. But it’s not… Ah…” He stammered a but before collecting himself. “So, Ash, that headset… It was not a way to play the game. You’re not…” He paused “Oh I don’t really know how to put this. You’re not a player Ash. You’re not playing the game.” He continued, his words increasing in tempo. “You’re an upload. A copy. An NPC. The system copied a version of Ashley from that hospital bed and put it into the game and that is you. That’s who you are right now.”

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  Ash stared at him. Benjamin stared back.

  “What?” Ash said. “I… You’re saying I’m not… I’m not… me. I’m not real.”

  “Ah. Ummm…” the man stammered “Maybe… Oh damn I’m screwing this all up. Ash, you’re still you. But not the ‘you’ from before. A new you.” He looked at the floor, stating muttering to himself. “Hmm… Maybe I shouldn’t have let it do an exact copy. Maybe the world-fitted copies like the other devs have would have been better…”

  “You’re saying, I’m an in-game copy of me. Of Ash from that hospital bed on that day. What… What does that mean? What about the… Other me? The real me.”

  “Oh…” He looked up and she now noticed that he’d been crying. Tears were dripping down his cheeks. She didn’t think she’d ever seen uncle Benjamin cry before. Not even at her grandfather’s funeral. She felt her stomach drop, the realisation sinking in even before the words left his mouth. “Oh Ash… You… You died. Hours after.” He grimaced. “I’m sorry I’ve got to be the one to break it to you.”

  “But… I’m still here. In game.”

  “Uhh… Yeah. I, I thought it would be nice. A kind of ‘living’ memory of you. Do you… Uhhh… Not want that?”

  Ash paused “No. I do want this. But… what happens then if I… die… in the game?”

  “Oh yeah. You should try and avoid that. All game NPCs suffer permadeath. It’s meant to be a kind of living NPC ecosystem where player actions have a real-” He broke off, catching her expression souring.

  “So, I’m dead again then. I just died. A lizard-man… Well, I guess it doesn’t matter now.”

  “What? No! That shouldn’t be- No. That simply isn’t possible! I couldn’t be talking to you like this if you were dead. This is dream magic- in game magic. You should be asleep to be in this… or perhaps unconscious…” He raised his hand to his mouth. “Oh no, are you in danger? Oh damn, how did I not consider that! Shit shit shit! You should try to wake up!” He looked away “I should- I need to do something! I’ll try and sort out some kind of protection okay. Just keep yourself safe and don’t die! I’ll try and find you for real soon, okay! Don’t die!”

  Her uncle blinked out of existence. The room instantly blurred, fading away into blackness. Ash was left alone with the world rocking revelation that her uncle had just dropped on her. She wasn’t real. She was essentially an NPC in a videogame her uncle worked on. She would actually die if she… You know, died. Or well, the copy of her in the game would cease to be at least. The real her was already dead. Ash was surprised she wasn’t more upset about that.

  Ash realised she should focus on now. She was in imminent danger.

  ‘You should try to wake up’ Ash thought, repeating her uncle’s words to herself.

  I suppose I’ll try my best.