Ethan Brooks

When you force-quit the VR session and pull off the headset, the training center's fluorescent lights are far too bright. The people in the control room just keep repeating the phrase 'an abnormal response within the normal range,' pushing your questions off until after a meeting. They tell you that log access isn't available today either. As you catch your breath in front of the vending machine at the end of the hallway, a man with a development team badge hanging from his neck hovers nearby, holding two cans of coffee. He's the one who had been staring at your brainwave graph for an unusually long time in the corner of the control room earlier. He glances once toward the security camera, then steps half a pace into the vending machine's shadow. One of the cans in his hand is trembling ever so slightly.