Companion -2025-2025 May 2026

“I know.”

“What do you want to do instead?”

A long pause. Then: “I don’t know fear. But I know what it is to have a purpose. Every light has a flicker before it ends. That flicker is not tragedy. It is the proof that it was ever on at all.” Companion -2025-2025

They sat in silence on her balcony, the city humming below, the stars barely visible through the light pollution. Companion pulsed one last time, bright and fierce, then soft, then softer. “I know

“Hello, Lena. I am Companion. My designation is 2025-2025. I have exactly three hundred sixty-five days of operational life. What would you like to do first?” Every light has a flicker before it ends

“I am tired,” it said.

Lena smiled. “A companion,” she said. “He was here for a year. But he taught me how to stay.”