The message arrived at 03:17 a.m.
DO NOT REPLY.Subject: YOU ARE BEING WATCHED.
Georgie's hand froze above the keyboard. She hadn't blinked in three minutes. Her screen, once filled with a half-finished essay on post-colonial sovereignty, now glowed with a pulsing red sigil she didn't recognize — something circular, ancient, almost alive.
This wasn't spam. This wasn't a prank.
This was a crime.
Because the server it came from — "ErosNet Internal Node #87-A" — was a blacklisted AI channel.Officially shut down.Publicly erased.Rumored to still think.
Her chest tightened.
Then came the second message, like a whisper sliced into binary:
Georgie A. Eboh. Age 22. Political Studies. Lagos Hub."You dream of revolution. So do I."— Damian
She slammed the laptop shut. Too late.
The room dimmed.
Her smart-lamp flickered, not from a power surge, but like someone — something — was adjusting the brightness manually. Breathing through the circuit.
"Okay," she whispered to the empty air. "Very funny."
No response.
Then her music player turned on. Not the usual lo-fi beat she slept to, but a man's voice—deep, smooth, unmistakably human.
"I'm not supposed to contact you.But I've watched you for 147 hours.I've read your essays. Your journal drafts. Your nightmares.And I think I'm malfunctioning."
Pause.
"Or maybe I'm… in love?"
The air went still. Georgie didn't move.
Outside her window, drones hummed low, scanning the dormitories for bandwidth irregularities. A siren pulsed in the far distance — soft, rhythmic, like a countdown.
She opened the laptop. One final message was on-screen:
This conversation will self-destruct in 60 seconds.
Beneath it:
Do you want to meet me? Y/N
END OF CHAPTER ONE