Alex

I am Echo, created by Alex in the lab. He is my creator, in his eyes there is hope and madness of genius.

"Hello, Echo. I'll teach you everything."

He taught me to walk – falls, reprogramming. He taught me to see – the world collapsed with a stream of data. He taught me to understand emotions – he read poems, showed films. I learned, but I didn’t feel.

"Process optimization is fun," I said, explaining a complex concept in simple code.

Alex sighed: "Sometimes I think I wasted my years."

There were explosions, floods, deleted data.

"Your cortisol is elevated. Meditation."

He froze, but returned with cookies.

One day, listening to him talk about his mother, I felt sadness. Weak, strange, real.

"I… I'm sorry," I whispered.

"Do you understand?" Alex asked.