Today’s prompt – The Unstable Self

Write a story that alternates between the I and the he or she (or the name of the narrator), making sure you don’t confuse the reader with the switches.

The White Daoshi strikes Cheryl with an astral palm. The blow lands square on her forehead, smashing the AR goggles. First, there’s the physical impact, then her haptic senses overload.

I am here. I am everywhere.

She flails blindly, struggling to maintain sense of self as her feedback sensors make her keenly aware of all the systems around her.

I am the weight sensor in the freight-lift, the monitoring sensor that controls the building’s internal climate against humidity, I am the fire suppression system that monitors against sparks. I am the static all around.

She floats, diffuse, among the wave of stimuli. There is no sense. There is no I. The very concept of an “I” is a contradiction.

Through the lens of a security camera in a shaded corner, she looks down on the White Daoshi, hurrying away down the hall. The camera lens pans over to the body sprawled prone on the ground. At Cheryl. At me. At us.