The city outside my window was drowning in neon rain, blurring into smeared colors—red, blue, green—all bleeding together like the chaos inside my mind.
Reileen lay beside me, her breath slow, almost peaceful.
But I knew better.
She was a storm waiting to break.
I stood and looked at myself in the cracked mirror.
The scars on my knuckles. The blood under my nails. The hollow eyes staring back.
Who was I anymore?
Takeshi Kovacs? Or the man I became—fused with Reileen's madness, drowning in her obsession?
She stirred.
"Don't leave me," she whispered.
I shook my head.
"This ends tonight."
She smiled, cold.
"No. It doesn't."
She moved fast—knife in hand, fury in her eyes.
We fought.
Hard.
Blood mixed with sweat.
Each strike carried years of rage, love, and hate.
She slashed. I dodged.
I grabbed her wrist, twisted, pressed the blade to her throat.
"Stop this."
"I can't."
Her eyes filled with tears—not fear, but devotion.
"Without me, you're nothing."
"Maybe."
"But I'm alive because of you."
We stood, breathing heavy, bodies bruised, hearts shattered.
I pulled her close.
Lips met in a desperate, fierce kiss.
The stack.
The memories.
The lives we stole and destroyed.
All crashed down in that moment.
I reached into my jacket.
The stack.
The only way out.
"Do you want to live like this? Haunted? Broken?"
She nodded.
"I'm yours."
I pressed the injector to my neck.
Her hand in mine.
Together.
The last resurrection.
When I woke, I was alone.
The room was empty.
No blood.
No Reileen.
Just silence.
Had it been real?
Or just another sleeve? Another ghost?
I didn't know.
But I felt the weight lift.
For the first time.
I was free.
The End