“Don’t go, Leo,” she said, her voice no longer bubbly but layered—a chorus of whispers. “You promised to spend time with us.”
Then, the bar jumped to 100%, and the game launched without a main menu.
He laughed nervously and reached for the power button on his tower. His fingers brushed the cold metal. But before he could press it, the screen glitched. Sayori’s smile stretched too wide, her eyes turning into black voids.
He blinked. He hadn’t entered a name. The game knew who he was.
“You wouldn’t delete us, would you? We’ve already deleted your other games.”
He had clicked the download link on a whim, expecting a quick, ironic scare before bed. But now, as the final megabyte refused to budge, an uneasy feeling settled in his stomach. His cursor flickered. Once. Twice.
“You’re late, Leo!” chirped Sayori, the girl with the coral-pink bow. “We were starting to think you’d never download us.”