Walking Towards Shadows

The Mystery of Creating a Human

273 Words — Written for Contest

Sirens wailed as Mira’s husband hugged the bumper of the police escort racing to the hospital. Mira had passed out nearly a mile back, her head lolling like a beach ball caught in surf—or was it orbit? She was untethered. Adrift.

In a burst of red haze, the codes she’d been entering evaporated. Where had they gone? The boss was waiting on a data breach fix. Sirens. Had she failed? Was she being arrested? What would happen to her baby?

As medics rush her into surgery, Mira drifts—sedated, suspended. In her mind, she walks a corridor of shadows, trailing whispers of code and amniotic memory. Her child is not yet born, but there—flickering in pulses of light—a hybrid of neural lace and biology.

As Mira’s curiosity deepens, a strange, haunting oboe gently trills both versions together.

The void-static grows louder. A ghost signal of mechanical beeps screams panic. Bio-code fever echoes through chrome lungs, spliced to a star-stitched longing.

She is attached to a paradox in bloom. It’s growing restless, pounding against her bones, demanding release. It started as a carbon ache in hollow bone. She dreams of plasma kisses, remembers a mercury touch, data-silk lullabies.

Doctors’ voices bleed through the dream.

Mira reaches out. One more step. One more breath.

Mystery hums in the space—until The Code comes online, crying out in shock at the surge and bite of electricity, the glare of light.

Mira’s husband breaks, sobbing with joy, catching his piece of stardust.

“There she is, Mira,” he says, trembling.
“Your wandering soul. Ready for her mother’s deft hand at coding bio-life.”