The technician handed Elias his coat. "The exit is to your left. We hope you enjoyed your stay with Infinitelust Studios."
"I can!" he yelled. "I'm letting it go! Look, I saved her!"
"I just want to see her again," Elias said, his hands trembling. "I want to choose her."
He looked at the passenger seat. There she was. Sarah. Her auburn hair was tied back in a messy bun, her nose stuck in a book. She looked up, her green eyes crinkling with a smile.
"Session terminated," the technician said. "User failed to stabilize the narrative. Build v0260 is sensitive to psychological paradoxes."
"Regret is a heavy anchor," the sultry voice of Infinitelust whispered, surrounding him from all sides. "To keep the new life, you must let go of the guilt. But your guilt is what drove you here. You cannot hold both, Elias. You cannot be happy if you define yourself by your sorrow."
It was the phrase he hadn't heard in ten years. The warm weight of her head on his shoulder was everything he had paid for.
Then, the sky turned purple.