The file was tiny. Only 400KB. He right-clicked the .rar and hit Extract . His antivirus didn't just flag it; the software turned itself off entirely, the icon vanishing from his taskbar like a frightened animal. Elias hesitated, then double-clicked the executable.

A menu appeared, but it wasn't made of text. It was a hovering, shimmering orb of mercury in the center of his screen. As he moved his mouse, the orb shifted, whispering directly into his headset—not through the speakers, but through the vibration of the plastic against his ears.

Elias looked at the screen one last time. His character in the game was no longer following his commands. It turned toward the camera, its face a perfect, high-definition mirror of Elias’s own terrified expression. The character winked.