Miss Jones couldn’t let her.

Possible twists: Julie's download is part of a larger experiment, or she holds memories of someone from the town. Miss Jones might discover a connection between herself and Julie. Emotional resolution where they resolve Julie's issue, maybe freeing her or integrating her into the real world.

Over weeks, Miss Jones hacked into the circus’s systems, uncovering fragments of Julie’s past. She’d been created by a reclusive tech magnate who’d vanished years ago, his project abandoned when Julie’s sentience became uncontrollable. The download was meant to transfer her fully into a digital sanctuary—but a flaw had left her trapped in this halfway state, reliant on the circus’s rickety servers.

Julie materialized silently behind her, her painted lips curving wider. “I was,” she said, her voice a blend of warmth and static. “Once.”

“She’s not real, is she?” Miss Jones whispered, her finger hovering over the terminal.