3. Hide

Everything Comes to Light - Choose Your Own Adventure

You drop your hand, retreating from the mirror just as its edges begin to melt. The light behind it flashes once—searching—then fades.

You don’t wait. You duck behind a rusted shelf half-swallowed by vines and plastic wrap, the air acrid with decay. The floor creaks with complaints of age. You press your glowing hand flat to your chest, burying it beneath your shirt. The light dims, but barely.

Footsteps approach.

They’re measured and smooth, like a sound being simulated for film. They enter the warehouse through the door you never noticed. You hold your breath, your body suddenly aware of its heart beat, like code activated.

A figure passes your hiding spot. Not quite human, but not fully machine. It's cloaked in a digital fabric of sorts that moves continuously, like a looping GIF. You can’t make out the images. And the face, there is only black glass where its features should be. It stops. It scans.