“You still wearing that ancient mascara?” Detective Chen’s augmented eyes zoomed in on Sarah’s face as she sat across his desk in the dimly lit precinct office. Neon advertisements from outside cast shifting shadows through the venetian blinds.

“It’s not ancient, it’s vintage,” Sarah replied, carefully applying another coat of the thick black substance. “Besides, you know how hard it is to find real cosmetics these days.”

Chen sighed. In 2157, most people opted for permanent nano-pigmentation or downloadable makeup overlays. Sarah’s insistence on using actual physical mascara was both charming and suspect.

“Tell me again about last night at the Lotus Club,” he said, initiating his neural recording system.

Sarah’s hand trembled slightly as she recapped the mascara tube. “I was meeting Marcus there, like always. But when I arrived, he was already dead in the bathroom. Someone had…extracted his consciousness. Left his body empty.”

“And you were the last person to see him alive?” Chen leaned forward, his cyber-enhanced vision detecting micro-expressions that would be invisible to natural eyes.

“That’s what everyone keeps saying,” Sarah whispered. Her perfectly mascaraed lashes fluttered. “But I loved Marcus. We were going to leave the city together, escape to the off-grid colonies.”

Chen’s internal systems flagged the slight elevation in her voice patterns. “Interesting. Because according to Marcus’s neural backup from yesterday, he was planning to turn state’s evidence. About a certain black market cosmetics operation.”

Sarah went very still. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“We analyzed your mascara, Sarah. It’s not just vintage - it’s coded with consciousness-capturing nanobots. Every time you blink, they collect neural data from anyone looking at your eyes.”

A tear rolled down Sarah’s cheek, leaving a black streak. “He was going to ruin everything. Do you know how many women would kill for real mascara? The synthetic stuff just isn’t the same.”

“So you killed him. Extracted his consciousness using the mascara as a carrier.”

“I had to protect the business.” Sarah’s perfect makeup began to run. “But I kept him with me. He’s still here.” She touched her temple gently. “Every time I apply my mascara, I get to see him again, reflected in the mirror.”

Chen shook his head sadly as he initiated the arrest sequence. Sarah didn’t resist as the cuffs clicked around her wrists. Her eyes, still beautifully framed in illicit mascara, met his in the mirror-polished surface of his desk.

For just a moment, he thought he saw Marcus’s face reflected there too, trapped forever in the dark swirls of her last perfect coat of mascara.

“Beauty is fleeting,” Chen said softly as he led her away. “But death is permanent.”

Sarah smiled mysteriously. “Nothing is permanent anymore, Detective. Not even death. Not as long as we have our little luxuries to remember them by.”

Behind them, the mascara tube rolled off the desk and shattered on the floor, releasing its secrets into the neon-tinged shadows.