And somewhere, in the fourth layer, Arthur smiled.
Her new client was an anomaly. File: Arthur Vandermeer. Deceased 14 months. Cause: quantum decoherence of the self—a rare event where a person's consciousness simply unravelled, leaving the body a hollow vessel. No last words. No final image. Just an absence shaped like a man. reflect4 proxies
Mara shook her head. "He's in the mirrors. All of them. Every Proxy session from now on will carry a piece of him." She touched her temple. The shunt was gone. Melted. "He tried to escape death by becoming the reflection. But reflections don't live. They just wait for someone to look." And somewhere, in the fourth layer, Arthur smiled
"Your husband. He didn't decohere. He volitionally collapsed his own quantum signature to hide. He's inside the lattice. Inside every Proxy." Deceased 14 months
When Mara opened her eyes, she was alone again. Arthur's ghost—his volition—had been shattered across the four layers like a dropped glass. He was everywhere now. And nowhere.