As bizarre as it sounded, I knew her mind was still connected to this world through AIP, and as long as I had the link to the server she dwelled in I would chase her down. Like a madman I sat squatted before my desktop, my fingertips racing over the keyboard, not knowing how much time I had before her mind would be disconnected from the database and I would lose my last chance.

“Welcome to AIP. Please login,” the electronic voice droned from my speakers, and I rose to my feet and stepped into the egg-shaped simulation pod beside the desktop. Sinking into the body-molding cushions inside, the glass lid of the pod slid shut smoothly as I strapped the wired goggles to my eyes.

“Reading password,” the droning voice now said from inside the pod, and the pitch black goggles lit up before my eyes and sent a scan back and forth over my iris.

“Welcome, Synthesis,” the machine said, registering me. “Which server would you like to link with, today?”

“Link connection to Absinthe,” I ordered the computer in my toneless voice, and that was when the cushion surrounding my body slipped away, the grip of my hands on the throttles felt empty and I became weightless.

Even though I had connected with the AIP server hundreds of times, it was something I would never get used to.

My body was flung into a neon lit tubing, racing through the connection wires like a bullet flying out of a gun’s chamber. I knew that this was only part of the AIP’s simulation, and that my body had not moved from the pod. Instead, the AIP simulator shot signals into my brain, disrupting the natural flow and allowing me to enter the alternate dimension. It was only a few more seconds that my body was weightless by being absorbed into the machine, and a bright flash of light blinded me as the connection was made.

I now felt solid ground beneath my feet, and the heaviness of gravity on my shoulders once more. Nausea overwhelmed me and sent my world spinning. I fell forward onto my hands and knees, breathing slowly and blinking my eyes several times to settle my world. After a full minute of treating my nausea, I suddenly felt completely relieved of my sickness.

“You are now connected to the Absinthe server,” the sky droned, and I raised my head to survey my surroundings.

There was a dark, empty street that was only dimly lit by flickering city lights. About halfway down the block a bright red neon sign flashed “Girls, Girls, Girls!” in synch.

I climbed to my feet and brushed off my dirt covered hands on the pant leg of my graying jeans. My eyes remained focused on the double doors of the club, hearing the heavy beat of the music resonating from within.

You must be in there, my inner voice hissed vaguely, before I gasped.

Come and get me, her taunting voice echoed from sky around me, and my jaw tightened.

“Are you so ready to die, bitch?” I screamed down the dark street, unable to control the outburst. After I was able to cool my temper I began to wonder how she was able to respond through the sky of the simulator.

Must be a glitch in the server she uses, I thought as I jogged down the damp cement, making my way down the block and towards the unguarded doors of the club. As soon as I reached the entrance the music had become increasingly louder, and I could hear the faint chatter of the occupants from within. I laid my hand against the door and pushed passed it, letting it swing shut behind me.

Before me was the typical bar scene, with people seated at small tables, enjoying conversation and alcoholic beverages as the bartender took orders and waitresses dressed in skimpy outfits flounced through the tables with ease to deliver drinks. The bar was lit with red bulbs, distorting the colors in the room and making the atmosphere a bit ominous.

My entrance into the bar went unnoticed, but my attention was drawn to a catwalk in front of me, noticing the lengthy metal pole welded into the ceiling and floor.

A strip club, my mind murmured vaguely, and just as it did the music that was playing endlessly changed in tune and I watched as a woman swaggered out from behind the curtains.

Her body was wrapped in a see-through jacket lined with plump, black feathers, revealing only her six inch pumps and legs that never seemed to end. The blonde locks of her hair were curled stylishly as she strutted down the runway towards the metal pole, reaching her lower back and bouncing with each rise and fall of her sexy walk.

As she reached the end of the catwalk she let the covering of her feathered coat slide off her arms and I near bit down on my tongue when her face was finally uncovered by the feathers. It was her.

Standing proudly on the stage in her red lingerie and impossibly high stilettos, she struck a pose to her music, swaying her hips slowly before striking another. The patrons of the bar were staring, now entranced by her strip tease and dance, but I could only glare up at her as the build-up of fury warmed the blood inside of me.

She continued with her dance, kicking one of her lengthy, flexible legs high into the air before wrapping it around the pole and spinning several times, slowly descending to the ground. Her hands clutched the pole as they gradually climbed up the metal and pulled her arched body back to a complete stance. A few men in the bar whistled as she walked sexily to stand before the metal, grasping it in her hands above her head and swaying her hips.

She fluttered her false eyelashes in my direction, eyeing me in a wicked gaze, her blood red lips twisted in a mad, closed-mouth smile.

“You came,” she whispered, but I knew it was directed towards me and unhurriedly slid her back down the pole, using the muscles in her thighs to raise herself in the same pace.

“I came to kill you,” I said, reaching for the automatically equipped Eagle from the holster at my lower back.

A husky laughed escaped her lips as she twirled around the pole, pressing her breasts against it and eyeing me like a little girl from behind it.

“You’re so cute. I can see a little of myself in you,” said the woman on the stage as I eyed the patrons of the bar still transfixed on her.

It was as though our little conversation and my presence didn’t exist, and when I thought about it, she probably altered her server to her will, allowing them to see only what she wanted.

“I’m nothing like you, Absinthe. You’re insane,” I hissed but was only met with another mad giggle.

“What would call this, then? Injecting yourself into my server to kill me… Isn’t that insane?” asked Absinthe, tilting her head at me.

“Are you aware of your state outside of AIP? All that remains is your burned torso, still locked inside of the AIP simulation pod. The brain signals that the AIP pod is sending through your brain is all that keeps your pathetic body awake. If I kill you here, you will die in the real world,” I growled at her, my eyebrows lowering as the hatred swelled inside of my chest.

Absinthe acted as though she hadn’t heard me, posing against the pole again, smiling at me flirtatiously.

“My poor Synth… How will you live without me?” she giggled, turning away from me and sliding her bottom down the metal, her sensual gaze on me from over her shoulder. “The chase to find your family’s murderer and avenge them would be at an end, and you’ll be all alone in both AIP and the real world.”

Her words stung me, leaving the unbearable ache of emptiness throbbing inside of me. She was the cause of my loneliness, the reason my family was dead, and I could only blame her for the pain she had inflicted on me.

“You’re a killer outside of AIP… Your body is only alive because your mind is trapped in this game,” I seethed, glaring at her ferociously as she danced along with her music. “You’re going to die here, Absinthe, and I’m going to be the cause,” I said as my grip tightened on the Eagle, readying my index finger on the trigger.

“If you were to kill me, wouldn’t that make you the same as me? A murderer?” whispered Absinthe, grinning at me with her perfect teeth as she strutted to stand in front of the pole.

The palm of my hand grew moist with sweat as her simple words played games with my conscience, and I could only lower my head as I fought the moral limbo.

“You killed… everyone… I loved…” I barely managed, tears forming at the corners of my eyes.

I knew it was a dangerous thing, to let my guard down at such a critical moment, but it was a weakness that Absinthe had over me. She brought on these emotions that I could never control, and I never understood the power she had over me.

Now, even as I stood before her with a gun in my hand, I couldn’t bring myself to shoot her. Outside of AIP, she was a serial killer that had brutally murdered my parents and little sister, and this was my only chance to gain revenge. Her body had been blown apart in her AIP pod when it self destructed in a freak accident. All that was left was her connection to her server.

“Synthesis…” she whispered to me, and I felt her hand cup my jaw, opening my eyes to realize she now stood directly in front of me. The feeling of the hand repulsed me, knowing that it had been used to slaughter my baby sister.

Absinthe’s height met mine in her stilettos and her eyes met mine in an indescribable way.

“Why… me? Why… my family?” I sobbed like a child to her, still clutching the Eagle in one hand.

“Do you remember… the first time we kissed? Those feelings we felt? The ability to see anything we’ve ever done, to hear anything we’ve ever thought? Let me kiss you, so you will know…”

Before I could answer, her scarlet lips were against mine. Instantly the electrical feeling between us sparked like fireworks, and I felt the Emergence. I became completely engulfed by her senses, and I knew she became engulfed by mine. The AIP world disappeared in a frenzy of broken pieces, leaving us floating in the midst of black nothingness, floating on no ground and clutching onto each other in a desperate embrace.

Synth! I know you! I love you! Can’t you see? Don’t hate me! I love you! Absinthe’s thoughts were screaming violently in desperation, and I knew all too well how my thoughts responded.

I hate you! You murderous bitch! I hate you! I hate your guts! Die! Just die! I could feel Absinthe’s cringed, her emotional recoil at my thoughts as we clung to each other in our dimensional kiss.

Our Emergence is so strong we can even feel it through this game… Does that mean anything to you, Synthesis?

No… No… It did once… But you couldn’t just… Why did you…

You told me once… That if you didn’t have obligations to your family… we could be together outside of AIP… It was all I wanted…

So you killed my family!? You killed my family because I couldn’t leave them!?

Yes… It was slightly selfish, but how could I live without my soulmate? We emerge through this game so strongly… Imagine what it could have been like, outside of AIP… When our lips met…

You’re crazy! You’re insane! I can’t believe you’re my soulmate!

I love you, Synthesis… Whether you hate me or not…

I want you to die…

Then kill me, if you can…

I finally grew the strength in my body to push her body away from mine and sever the Emergence. In the blink of an eye we were back among the bar scene with the oblivious patrons still intermingling without noticing Absinthe or I.

I had shoved her so hard she had fallen to the floor, her back pressed against the stage and for the first time I saw an inexplicable sadness to her painted eyes.

“You hate me… that much?” sobbed Absinthe softly as I raised the Eagle’s muzzle to her forehead. It wasn’t that I had simply told her, she had felt the extremes of my heart and emotions during our Emergence, and it impacted her more than words ever could.

Knowing this, I didn’t have to respond. Absinthe felt no guilt for what she had done. She truly believed that murdering my family was the only way we could have been together, and I had seen her irrational thoughts, her mindless murders and her inhuman willingness to love me, and want for me to love her.

Absinthe began falling apart in front of me, her confidence fading and filled by an overwhelming misery.

“Synthesis… If you hate me that much, I want you to kill me. I can’t live within this world knowing that you hate me that much. I can’t live… knowing my soulmate hates me. So please… pull the trigger… End my life here, so I can finally stop bringing you pain!” cried Absinthe from her broken position on the floor.

I was torn by her plea, wanting to pull the trigger but feeling sorry for the sorry soul in front of me.

“Do it, Synth…” sobbed Absinthe.

My hand shook beneath the gun’s weight and tears came to my eyes. Not only was I torn between the moral decision of murdering another, but I now had to summon the strength to kill my soulmate. The one and only person in the world who I could ever be in love with.

I lost my family, and now I would lose my soulmate.

“Shoot me, Synthesis! Shoot me!” cried Absinthe wildly.

I pulled the trigger.