‘It’s like a relic,’ Ash said, and started playing with the monster, who was hungry.

‘Those messages are probably just some weird glitchy echo,’ Bisi said. ‘They’re probably stored somewhere in the phone and they’re just, like, clearing out.’

Peggy and Greta nodded even though it made no sense. It was like Bisi was telling a story, programming it into truth. Ash nodded too, even though Peggy and Greta knew it made no sense. Heidi watched the phone go from person to person.

Greta and Peggy turned and walked back into the kitchen, flinching as they went through the doorway. No one noticed they were gone. Bisi had made her point – Peggy and Greta would lie even when there was no gain in it. They were untrustworthy. If one of them said right now, ‘I think we’re all living in a simulation,’ it would be a lie. Bisi was watching Ash play with the monster. If Peggy and Greta said, ‘There was only one of us five minutes ago,’ Bisi would say, ‘Oh,’ and scrunch up her face, and Ash would say, ‘Maybe. All good,’ and Heidi wouldn’t do anything but look worried and unhappy.

They stood at the bench. It felt like they needed the bench to hold themselves up. They looked at each other’s hands. Then they looked at the sink and the way the burnt-on food was soaking off the pot they’d put in the sink – five minutes ago. In a movie, they would have vomited into the sink. The first time it had happened she’d been drunk, and by the time they sobered up it was almost already assimilated – cemented into the fabric of everything, including them. The second time it happened they’d been awake, but she’d made no real memory of it. It had settled in everyone but never fully in her. This time she was blindingly awake. They felt more than awake. They were aware of everything. They could feel the air on the exposed parts of their skin. They could feel their hair growing. There was a version of the next five minutes which was them freaking out. They ran it over in their heads. Exactly what that would accomplish. They looked out the window. They would need to go back into the dining room soon. They worked the cake out of the tin and onto a dinner plate. It was the same cake. Everything was the same. The phone had triggered something, but only a very limited change in task. It wasn’t a test of her resilience, or her courage, just of her as an object. Maybe Margaret was the NPC? What was she like as two? What was she like as one after being two? What was she like as two again?