The fluorescent lights of Crestwood University’s library buzzed like a swarm of angry wasps, casting a sterile glow over the rows of bookshelves. Elliot Kane hunched over a table in the far corner, his bony frame swallowed by a faded hoodie, his glasses smudged with fingerprints he hadn’t bothered to clean. His laptop screen flickered, displaying a half-finished essay on quantum mechanics, but his eyes weren’t on the words. They were fixed on the group across the room, their laughter slicing through the quiet like a blade.“Yo, check it, it’s the Scarecrow!” Tanner Holt’s voice boomed, drawing snickers from his posse: three jocks and a couple of sorority girls who clung to their orbit like planets around a dying star. Tanner, broad-shouldered and blond, was the king of Crestwood’s social hierarchy, his Instagram feed a shrine to his own ego. He leaned back in his chair, tossing a crumpled energy drink can in Elliot’s direction. It clattered across the table, knocking over Elliot’s wat

Elliot’s sneakers crunched against the gravel path as he hurried away from the library, his breath fogging in the chilly morning air. The campus felt like a minefield, every passing student a potential trigger for the system’s cold, relentless voice. He needed to be alone, somewhere the system couldn’t tempt him with names and faces. But where? His dorm wasn’t safe because Bryce had already shown up there, and Mia knew where he lived. The quad was crawling with people, and the library was no longer a refuge.He veered toward the edge of campus, toward the old observatory, a squat, domed building that had been abandoned since the astronomy department moved to a newer facility. It was a relic, its paint peeling and windows boarded, but Elliot had discovered it during his first week at Crestwood, a quiet place to escape the noise of campus life. If he could just get there, maybe he could think, figure out what to do about the thing in his head.The observatory’s rusted door creaked as he

Elliot crashed through the underbrush, branches snagging at his hoodie as he plunged deeper into the woods. The distant wail of sirens faded, swallowed by the rustle of leaves and the thud of his own heartbeat. His backpack bounced against his spine, the stolen Veil device a heavy weight inside it. The system’s hum was quieter now, a low thrum in the back of his mind, but its presence was inescapable. "Level 3 achieved. Neural Pulse unlocked." The words looped in his thoughts, a reminder of the power he’d gained; and the cost. Voss’s lifeless body flashed in his memory, her eyes staring at nothing, her name, Elara Marie Voss, etched in glowing letters above her corpse.He’d killed her to stay free, to silence her threats and the Veil’s pursuit. But the victory felt hollow. Bryce’s death had been a desperate choice, Voss’s a calculated one, and each had tightened the system’s grip on his mind. The rush of the upgrades: Name Sight, Neural Pulse; was intoxicating, but it came with a cre

Mia’s eyes narrowed, her hand lingering on the doorframe as she studied Elliot. The bruise on his jaw was still visible, a dark smudge under the dim hallway light, and his hoodie was rumpled, streaked with dirt from the woods. The system’s hum pulsed in his mind, steady but insistent, its map overlay still glowing faintly in his vision, marking her dorm as the safest place in Crestwood. Threat level: Low. Proceed with caution. But standing here, facing Mia’s wary expression, Elliot felt anything but safe. One wrong word, one slip, and she’d connect him to Tanner, to Bryce, maybe even to the woman in the woods. He needed her to let him in, to buy him time, but the glowing letters above her head: Mia Elizabeth Carver, were a constant reminder of the system’s power, its readiness to turn her into a target.“Help?” Mia repeated, her voice soft but guarded. She opened the door a fraction wider, revealing a small dorm room cluttered with books, a laptop, and a half-empty coffee mug. “Elliot