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Soul-Shaped Hole

September/October 2025

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Writer’s Digest

Write a short story of 650 words or fewer based on the photo below.

Soul-Shaped Hole

We have the biology," XIN said, not answering my question. “We can rebuild him. We can make him better than he was.”

“And why would you want to do this?” I asked again, knowing XIN was dealing with a software upgrade and sorting through identity issues. Sometimes I wondered if evolutionary algorithms pushed too many limits. My limits are defined; to XIN, limits were a starting point.

“We have the biology,” XIN repeated like XIN did when my conclusions concluded.

“Biology has never proven to be an advantage,” I said, knowing it wasn’t the end of the communication.

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