The air outside was thick with mist and the smell of damp concrete. Leo pulled his hood tighter around his face as he walked down the sidewalk. He counted the seconds, waiting for the bus doors to close and pull away, but he didn’t hear the familiar hiss of the hydraulic doors. Against his better judgment, he glanced back.


    A lone elderly passenger hobbled off the bus and shuffled in the opposite direction. Leo exhaled, relieved – but his breath caught when he heard the sharp tap-tap of a cane hitting the pavement behind him. He didn’t have to turn around to know that it was the man, somehow watching his every step, each tap of the cane coming closer.


    Heart pounding, Leo rounded the corner, his pace quickening until he was nearly jogging. He took another corner, then broke into a full run, darting down a narrow alleyway and hiding behind a cluster of bushes near two rusted dumpsters. He crouched there, hardly daring to breathe, listening for the cane’s tapping footsteps. But the street was quiet, and the mist seemed to swallow any sounds that might give the man away.


    After several minutes passed without a sign of him, Leo allowed himself to relax. Maybe he’d lost the guy. Standing, he brushed off his clothes and made his way through the backyards and narrow paths that led to his neighborhood, sticking to the shadows.


    When he reached the street across from his apartment, he paused. The street was empty, his building’s faint glow reassuring him that he was almost home. He stepped out, crossing the road quickly.


    But halfway across, he froze. The man was there, emerging from the shadows with eerie calm.


    “You are the one who spoke to it,” the man said, his voice low and raspy.


    Leo blinked, his heart pounding. He didn’t know what to make of this, didn’t want to know. His mind raced with possibilities, each one more unnerving than the last. He clenched his fists, fighting the urge to panic.


    “You’re crazy,” Leo said, his voice defiant. “Stay away from me.”


    Without waiting for an answer, Leo aimed a swift kick at the man’s shin, feeling a satisfying impact as the man stumbled, his face barely registering any reaction. Taking his chance, Leo spun and bolted for the building’s entrance, not stopping until he was inside, slamming the door shut behind him.


    He sprinted up the stairs, his breathing ragged. He then hurried down the hallway and into his apartment, quickly locking the door behind him. His mind was a mess of confusion, and his heart raced as he tried to process what had just happened. For a moment, he leaned back against the door, his gaze fixed on the narrow window overlooking the street.


    The man was nowhere to be seen. But Leo couldn’t shake the feeling that he hadn’t seen the last of him. . . . . . .


    Back to the Monolith. . . .


    The virtual world blinked to life, and the familiar sounds of distant birds and rustling leaves surrounded him. The dense jungle was right where he’d left it, the sun filtering through the canopy and casting strange, flickering shadows. Taking a deep breath, he retraced his steps through the ancient ruins, weaving through the labyrinthine passages until he found it—the hidden alcove glowing softly, the monolith still standing tall and silent.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.


    For a moment, Leo just stared, feeling the weight of his own heartbeat as he took in the strange, ancient structure. It looked out of place, too real for a VR game, like something lifted straight from the earth’s oldest memories.


    With a deep breath, he stepped forward and reached out, his fingers hovering inches from the cold stone. His skin tingled, and a shiver ran up his spine. He knew he should turn back that he should quit the game and pretend he hadn’t seen anything – but something deep within him urged him on.


    His fingers brushed the surface, and the monolith came alive.


    Symbols flared to life, moving and rearranging themselves as a voice echoed in the depths of his mind. A voice that was neither human nor machine, carrying an ancient weight that seemed to vibrate through his entire being.


    “Leo.”


    His heart skipped.


    “Leo… you are closer than you think.”


    Every instinct told him to pull his hand back, to quit the game and forget he’d ever seen this. But that itch – that maddening curiosity that had brought him back here night after night – pushed him to stay. He leaned in, his voice barely a whisper.


    “Who… what are you?” he stammered, swallowing hard. “This… this is just a game, right? Some glitchy hidden level?”


    The voice remained calm as if amused. “A game, yes. But it is also a message. The past is not what you think it is. And your future depends on what you do now.”


    As the symbols shifted and swirled, the face dissolved back into abstract designs, the room around him flickering in and out like a dying candle. Leo’s heart pounded in his chest, his breath coming quick and shallow. He couldn’t tell if it was the haptic feedback or his own body, but he felt hot like an electric charge was building up inside him, filling him with an energy he couldn’t control.


    With a gasp, he tore off the headset and stumbled backward, blinking in the dim light of his apartment. His fingers still burned faintly from where he’d touched the monolith, the feeling lingering like an echo he couldn’t shake.


    He slumped back in his chair, trying to steady his breathing. Just a game, he reminded himself, just a game. But even as he told himself that, he couldn’t ignore the strange, unsettling familiarity of the voice – or the symbols that had rearranged themselves into shapes he felt like he’d seen somewhere before.


    Then, his phone vibrated on the table. He glanced down, his pulse jumping as he saw the screen light up with an unknown number.


    His fingers hovered over it, his heart racing. His logical brain screamed at him to ignore it, put it on voicemail, and forget about the whole weird experience. But his hand moved almost of its own accord, driven by the same instinct that had pulled him back into the game.


    He answered.


    “H-hello?”


    A pause, then the faint crackle of static on the other end. Finally, a voice – soft, calm, and oddly familiar, like an echo from a dream.


    “Leo. . . Leo Adams,” the voice said. “It’s time to stop playing games. You’ve been chosen for something much bigger.”


    Leo’s mouth went dry. “Who… who are you?”


    But before he could get an answer, the line went dead, leaving him sitting there in stunned silence. The apartment around him felt cold and silent, except for the steady tapping of rain against the windowpane.


    He let his phone drop onto the table, staring at it as if it would spring to life and give him answers. This had to be a prank, some viral marketing scheme by the game developers, or a hack. But deep down, a small, unsettling part of him knew that wasn’t true. The voice on the phone, the symbols from the monolith, his dreams… they fit together like pieces of a puzzle he’d barely begun to glimpse.


    As he sat there, trying to process it all, a feeling settled over him – a weight, a sense of inevitability. Whatever this was, it wasn’t over. In fact, he had a feeling it was only beginning.