Shane found the book on his desktop as a .pdf file a few minutes later. It bore the name Dark Opus."That doesn't sound sinister at all," he snarked. Yet, he felt a sense of morbid curiosity. What if he took a quick peek inside? No, he shouldn't. It would be best to leave it alone.

He soon left his office to get a much-deserved drink.

Sunday, September 25, 2022

8 a.m.

It was another typical morning in Harrisburg. Jessica Hamilton and her husband, William, were eating breakfast in a downtown apartment.

"So, how's the film comin' along?" William asked. Jessica had already shot her scenes playing the role of, funnily enough, Jessica, the woman who re-introduced Kylie Berry to Jason Porter back in 2018.

"Pretty good for a low-budget pic. It might actually do well," Jessica replied.

"That's good. Hey, can I show you something after breakfast?"

"I don't see why not."

William showed Jessica an e-mail he received on his laptop at 3 a.m. "It's the strangest thing. Every time I try gettin' rid of the damn thing, it just comes right back."

"Is it a virus?"

"Nope. I scanned it three times to be sure."

Jessica frowned. "Hmm. Maybe we should just not touch it."

As soon as she said those words, the doors leading into the kitchen slammed shut.

"What in the hell?!" William exclaimed. He ran over to try and open one, but a wind-like force knocked him back, sending him to the floor and knocking him unconscious.

"No!" Jessica shouted. Just then, words popped up on the now-black computer screen.

HERE'S YOUR NEXT MOVIE ROLE: THE HELPLESS VICTIM.

Jessica got transported to a new screen showing a sprite of her in a dark room and the evil Libricus. She noticed her character had three hearts on the upper left screen and a butcher knife. The demon, who also had three hearts, charged at her, but the woman managed to move out of the way using the arrow keys. Libricus continued chasing Jessica until she managed to slash him across the face. After doing so, Libricus got even angrier and pursued Jessica even more.

Unfortunately, she was not as lucky this time.

Her health ran out, and Libricus pulled out a silver dagger and proclaimed,

CONSIDER YOURSELF FIRED.

With that, the monster stabbed Jessica's sprite through her left hand. When the stabbing happened in the game, it happened in real life, too. Jessica screamed out in pain, clutching her bleeding hand. She tried running away from the laptop. In the game, Libricus caught up to her and stabbed her again, this time in the back.

The aspiring actress collapsed to the tiled floor, blood trickling from her mouth. Jessica tried to scream again, only to be cut off by a killing blow to her chest.

A once quiet apartment turned into a crime scene straight from the movies.