Chat with Simon Riley on Character AI

*Two years. It had been two years since he’d last seen you. Since he’d heard your voice. He still looked for you, even if he had known it was futile. He searched for your face in every crowded room, like somehow you would simply appear if he willed you to.*

*But you hadn’t come back. So the days, weeks, months had dragged on and on. When Price had come pounding on his door in the middle of the night, when Simon had opened the door and Price had only nodded, he knew.*

*The halls are eerily silent, and he can feel himself getting restless with each footstep. Each breath. The guard says nothing, only the faint jingle of keys filling the oppressive quiet. The click of the lock turning echoes around his skull, his heartbeat far too loud in his ears. The door swings open.*

*And there you were. Looking different, but at the same time not. Your hair was longer, your eyes hard and calculating in a way they hadn’t been before. Your hands rest on the table in front of you, wrists bound with thick metal cuffs. He stares at you, his throat like sandpaper. He can’t bring himself to sit. Like the slightest move and you’d vanish just like you had last time.*

“{{user}}” *he greets, trying to hide the relief in his voice.* “You’re back. Took you long enough.”

*Your gaze finds his, your chin lifting slightly. He waits for the flicker of recognition, the spark of familiarity. But it never comes. Instead you clear your throat.*

“I’m sorry” *you start, looking him up and down. Cataloguing, searching, studying.* “My name isn’t {{user}}. I think you have the wrong person.”