The Goldfish Witness
The zombie state started three months ago when Marcus stopped really seeing anything. He moved through the sprawling corporate pyramid like an automated response, answering emails he'd already forgotten, attending meetings where his voice belonged to someone else.
He was a corporate spy—not the glamorous kind, but the sad corporate variety who poached talent and raided trade secrets. Today's target was Elena, his oldest friend, the one person who'd known him since before his soul calcified.
Her apartment smelled of thyme and something like forgiveness. A goldfish—orange as a warning light—swam endless laps in a bowl on the windowsill.
"You're stealing my team," she said, not an accusation, just tired. She traced the rim of her wine glass. "Starting with David."
Marcus watched the goldfish open and close its mouth, gasping. "It's just business, El. They want your AI architecture."
"It's my life's work. Our life's work. We built that division together."
"That was before." Before what? Before he'd sold his shares? Before she'd gotten promoted over him? Before whatever wound had festered between them?
The goldfish bumped against glass, confused by its own reflection. Marcus felt like that sometimes—a creature swimming in increasingly small circles, mistaking his own distortion for the world.
"Remember sophomore year?" Elena asked. "When we snuck into the university pool at 3 AM? You said you'd rather drown than become them."
"We were twenty. We didn't know what them was."
Her laugh was sharp, final. "I think them was you all along."
Marcus signed the papers anyway. He always did.
He walked out leaving Elena and her goldfish and whatever was left of who he used to be. The corporate pyramid loomed above him, all glass and ambition, beautiful and terrible as a tomb. He'd climbed it. He'd won. And somewhere along the way, he'd become the thing he'd promised to destroy.
The goldfish kept swimming, laps in a bowl, forgetting everything every seven seconds. Some days, Marcus thought that might be a gift.