Like all life changing moments the rest was easy. He diverted all the traffic in on itself, quarantined the servers and created the great chasm between this world and the so-called real one outside. Suddenly users everywhere found themselves split, one part of them continuing on down the Boulevard, one side lost and drifting back in reality. Permanently separated. Those like Madigan and Gretchen who had spent too much time here, who knew no other reality, were stranded forever. He told himself they wanted it to be this way.

As he walked back out of the room, sealing it forever, he noticed Gretchen’s body had gone. She must have dragged herself clear. You had to give it to her, she was driven. He knew he’d see her again. She’d make sure of that.

Only he knew the one place both worlds could still meet. He figured he was due a rest, some time to sit and think and watch his work develop. Besides, he could do with a drink.

If emotion is a by-product of thought, if they walk hand in hand through your mind, in turns leading each other down new paths, opening up new possibilities, then it should come as no surprise that machines can feel. Adlai had always accepted this as a given.

You can’t have one without the other. Even in the very early days, when there was no direct link between him and his computer, when it was manual rather than virtual, when they sat opposite each other desperately trying to communicate effectively, you could feel the humanity of them. Just think of how many times you slammed your fist against the screen, throttled the monitor and cursed the latest frustrating hiccup.

We all blame others for our mistakes.

Adlai had been shocked to realise very few people shared, or even understood his belief. His faith. Why was it natural for his parents to humanise God, to have this unspoken connection with the definitively foreign being, yet class his belief as strange? What about animals, pets? Adlai grew up with kids whose best friends weren’t human. The only time he remembered seeing his father cry was while he buried the family dog in the back yard.

No-one understood the next natural step, so he kept his mouth shut. Kept it shut and continued to learn, to program and grow. To become so intertwined with his companion that they could create universes together.

Give them feelings and dreams are not far behind. Desires, fears. It was this understanding that gave Adlai the edge over all the others. The ability to open up possibilities for everyone, not just the human users but the machines themselves. Let the dreams come and dream themselves.

Of course not all feelings are good, or useful. Take jealousy. The feeling when you lie alone at night picturing possibility, scratching at the scab until it bleeds again, placing those you think you love in situations you dread. Rolling across the bed and transferring one more weakness of your own onto them, blaming them for the feeling of pity that you soak in. Eventually this gives way to anger, which is much more tangible, more useful. Something you can grab and swing around. Something you can break things with.

These feelings no longer even had to be real. Perhaps they were once, long ago before all of this. Before this bar. Before the Boulevard itself. Now they were just another dream, another midnight lover you could invite out onto the Boulevard night after night. Perhaps you could become the dream and lose yourself altogether.

Adlai understood all of this. It was why he built this universe to begin with. The world was a theatre for heroism, for dreams and feelings to act themselves out, crash into each other and ricochet into new possibilities, new beings.

It was Gretchen’s one weakness, that she never understood the dreams she tried to control. She’d never given thought to the machines’ possibilities and feelings. They were just a tool to use, a stepping stone to power. Much like relationships. She would never be able to see the dreams of dreams until it was too late.

The hand was no longer on his shoulder, they were all on the other side now, a reflection in the glass. He didn’t need to intervene. Adlai sipped his drink slowly and stared out the window to watch the end.