Campus Library – Sublevel 2
Kai had been to every floor of the library—except this one.
Sublevel 2 wasn't on any public blueprints. The elevator only responded to staff keycards and a biometric scan. But thanks to Jun's forged credentials and a stolen fingerprint lifted off a used coffee mug, they'd gotten in.
The door groaned as it opened, revealing cold white lights, humming servers, and rows of outdated monitors.
"This is where it started," Jun whispered.
Kai walked slowly, eyes scanning the scattered documentation and old terminals. Most were dusty and disused—but one screen was blinking, as if it had been waiting.
LOGIN: Seer
PASSCODE: ********
Jun sat down, fingers flying across the keyboard. "I've seen code like this before," he muttered. "But it wasn't this… organic."
Kai leaned in. "What do you mean?"
"It learns. It watches the users' emotional input and evolves the dares accordingly. It's not random — it's curated trauma."
Kai felt his chest tighten. "Can you trace who's feeding it now?"
Jun shook his head. "No. But I can tell you where it last synced its host device." He hit enter. The screen flickered.
LOCATION: RAVENHURST ACADEMY – PSYCHOLOGY ARCHIVES
Kai's jaw clenched. "That's Hargrove's territory."
Jun hesitated. "We'll need to be careful. We're playing on his board now."
Ezra – The Mask Slips
Ezra tried to focus on class, but the dream kept replaying in the back of his mind.
The stitched Theo. The hallway of dares. The voice.
"You're already in the next round."
He looked around the lecture hall, half-expecting to see a red envelope on his desk.
Instead, he saw Mina. Sitting two rows ahead. She turned briefly — their eyes met.
She mouthed something.
"It's starting again."
Ezra swallowed.
Then, his phone buzzed.
Dare: "Take something that can't be returned."
Timer: 15:00
Forfeit: Exposure of past dare log to public feed
Ezra stared at the screen.
Then at the professor's desk — a worn leather-bound book, clearly old and personal.
A family heirloom maybe?
He glanced around.
Everyone was watching the board.
He moved quickly, silently, pocketing the book.
The timer on his phone disappeared.
In its place:
Accepted. Round 2 initiated.
His hands were shaking.
They were already in it.
Ravenhurst Academy – Psychology Archives
The old building creaked under its own weight.
Kai and Jun wore student press badges and carried recording equipment to pass as researchers. The archivist barely looked at them.
They made their way to the restricted section, where patient evaluations from the last thirty years were stored. Kai ran a finger across the labeled drawers until he stopped at one marked:
T.W.
Access restricted
He didn't hesitate.
Inside was a file stamped confidential. On the first page:
THEODORE WHITMORE – PATIENT ZERO
Jun's brow furrowed. "Wait… patient zero?"
Kai pulled the papers closer.
The evaluations were handwritten — dense with jargon. But the keywords jumped out like knives:
"Subject exhibits high empathy, dissociative tendency under stress…"
"Responds to complex emotional triggers…"
"Proposed use: calibration of SEER algorithms…"
Jun whispered, "They didn't just study him. They used him."
Kai's fingers clenched.
"He wasn't just a participant in the dare system," Kai said. "He was the baseline."
Suddenly, the lights flickered.
The emergency alarm buzzed.
"Unauthorized access detected – please evacuate."
Jun grabbed the files. "They triggered a trace."
Kai looked up at the security cameras now blinking red. "We need to move—now."
Mina – Confession
Mina had never told anyone what she saw the night Theo died.
Not all of it.
But now, as Ezra walked into the café and sat down across from her, pale and stiff, she knew the time had come.
"They want us to play again," she said.
Ezra nodded. "I got a dare today."
Mina took a breath.
"I was outside the admin hall that night. I saw Theo—after the final dare."
Ezra tensed. "What did he do?"
Mina didn't blink. "He called someone. Said 'It's done. I'm free now.' Then he laughed. And jumped."
Ezra looked like he'd been slapped.
"But here's the thing," Mina continued. "I recorded it. Just the audio."
She took out a flash drive and slid it across the table.
"He wasn't broken. He was angry. Someone pushed him into it. And he thought it would end things."
Ezra clutched the flash drive.
"And now," Mina said, "they want you to be next."
Hargrove – Watching
Back in the library basement, once Kai and Jun had fled, the blinking monitor resumed activity.
A new message appeared on the screen.
"Curiosity is a door. Obsession is a cage."
– H
Then the screen began downloading a file labeled:
BLACK DARE v2.0
Kai and Jun – Escape and Revelation
They ducked into the woods behind the archives, breathing heavily, the stolen files pressed to Kai's chest.
Jun dropped to his knees. "We're in something deeper than we thought."
Kai nodded, wiping sweat from his brow. "Theo wasn't the game's victim."
Jun looked up. "He was the beginning."
They sat in silence for a moment.
Then Kai spoke. "We expose this. No matter what."
Jun met his eyes. "Then we need to go further. We need to enter the core. The original interface."
Kai nodded slowly. "Hydra's brain."
Jun swallowed. "That'll mean facing its ghosts."
Dare Board – Anonymous Feed
Somewhere in the void of cyberspace, an old feed flickered to life.
Not public. Not visible.
Just waiting.
ROUND TWO – INITIATED
Participants: KAI, EZRA, MINA, JUN
Next Dare drop: 03:00 AM
A line of red pixels scrolled across the screen:
"Play to win. Or play to die.