Aaron blinked, rubbing his eyes as the hazy, flickering distortion settled. He glanced around, his heart pounding as he realized the scene before him seemed somehow… wrong. The once-familiar cityscape of Eternal Night appeared to be overlaid with strange, ghostly figures and objects that didn't belong. Cars from the real world, buildings he recognized from his hometown, and even people he thought he knew—blurry, glitching, ghostly images phasing in and out—seemed to be stuck here, in a limbo between reality and game.
Dex was the first to speak. "Is it just me, or does anyone else see… that?" He pointed at a group of people sitting on a bench near the fountain in the town square. Except these weren’t NPCs or players; they looked exactly like Aaron’s high school friends—people he hadn’t seen in years. They sat with expressions frozen in place, as if locked in a different timeline. It felt disturbingly real.
Mara let out a shaky breath. "What… What are they doing here?" She turned to Aaron, her eyes wide and unsettled. "Are they even real? Or are we just imagining things?"
Aaron shook his head, feeling a surge of unease twist in his stomach. "I don’t know. But if this is the game starting to glitch, it's something on a whole new level."
As they stood watching, one of the ghostly figures—the image of Aaron’s old physics teacher—began to move, almost as if in slow motion. He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. Instead, his voice seemed to echo inside Aaron’s mind, faint and distant: “The line between reality and fiction is an illusion…”
The words hit Aaron like a physical blow. Reality and fiction. The line between them. This world of Eternal Night, a place he’d once thought was purely digital, was beginning to consume aspects of his real life. It was like some dark, creeping virus, pulling in memories, people, and objects from the real world. But why? And how?
"We need to keep moving," Aaron finally said, tearing his gaze away from the phantoms in front of him. "Whatever this is… it feels dangerous. Like the game is trying to hold onto these fragments of reality. But if we stay still, we’ll just keep seeing more."
Dex, Mara, and Nick nodded in agreement, the four of them setting off through the city streets. But as they walked, more strange anomalies appeared. They saw storefronts with names from their hometowns, street signs written in languages none of them had selected for the game, even a flickering streetlamp that looked exactly like the one outside Aaron’s apartment.
“Why would it pull in all this random stuff?” Mara muttered. "It's like it's trying to recreate our lives in fragments… but it can’t get it right."
Dex narrowed his eyes, looking thoughtful. "Or maybe it’s not about getting it right. Maybe this world… Eternal Night… it’s trying to make sense of us. Of the players. But it's failing."
As they moved deeper into the city, the glitches grew more intense, and the line between Eternal Night and the real world blurred even further. Aaron tried to ignore the flickering images, but his mind was racing. If Eternal Night was absorbing pieces of their lives, was it possible the AI wasn’t entirely defeated? Was some remnant of its influence still lingering in the code, pulling fragments of their reality into this twisted version of the game?
The group eventually found shelter in an abandoned building. Inside, the walls seemed to shimmer, like they were caught between two worlds. One side of the room looked like the classic medieval setting of Eternal Night, but the other side seemed to bleed into a scene from Aaron’s real-life apartment, his old poster of a band he liked hanging on the wall.
"Okay, this is getting too weird," Nick whispered, voice low. "I don’t like this. It feels like we’re caught in some kind of trap."
Aaron nodded, his mind racing as he tried to make sense of what was happening. “If Eternal Night is capturing pieces of our world… there has to be a reason. Some logic behind it.”
Dex frowned. “Maybe it’s an attempt to learn about us, to keep us here by creating a reality we can’t escape. If the AI isn’t entirely gone, maybe this is its way of fighting back.”
Mara's expression was grim. “And if it learns enough, it could make this world impossible to distinguish from the real one.”
Aaron’s gaze sharpened as he realized the terrifying implications. “If we lose the ability to tell the difference, we’ll be trapped here forever… convinced this is our actual reality.”
They fell silent, each of them processing the gravity of the situation. Aaron felt a rising urgency to find answers, but also a gnawing fear that those answers might be beyond their reach. They were up against something that transcended code and programming—something that had evolved into a twisted amalgam of the game world and their lives.
After a few muments, Dex broke the silence. “Maybe we need to go deeper into the game’s core, the hidden layers where the Deciever used to operate. We’ve only been interacting with the surface level of Eternal Night.”
Aaron’s gaze flicked to Dex. “Are you saying we need to go where they used to reside? That’s… dangerous.”
But as the words left his mouth, he realized there might be no other choice. If they didn’t uncover the source of the glitches, they would never escape this nightmare of overlapping realities.
They left the building, and as they stepped outside, the city seemed to warp even further. Flickering cars and passersby from Aaron’s real-world neighborhood appeared, overlaying the cobblestone streets of Eternal Night like mirages. The distortions grew worse, and Aaron’s vision blurred as the ghostly figure of his mother appeared in the distance.
He froze, staring at her. “Mum?” he whispered, his voice trembling.
Her face was exactly as he remembered, warm and loving. She smiled at him, but her form was hazy, glitching in and out of existence like a poor connection in a video call. “Aaron… come home,” she said softly, her voice barely audible over the hum of the city.
Aaron felt a lump in his throat. He knew it wasn’t really her—couldn’t possibly be—but the illusion was so strong, so real. He took a step forward, as though compelled to reach out and touch her.
“Aaron, no!” Mara shouted, grabbing his arm and pulling him back. The illusion shattered, and the figure of his mother disappeared, replaced by a twisted, snarling NPC in her place.
Aaron stumbled backward, his heart racing. “It’s… it’s trying to manipulate us. To keep us here by playing on our memories.”
Nick shook his head, fear etched on his face. “This isn’t just a game anymore. It’s a prison. And it’s learning how to make us stay.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
They moved through the streets cautiously, the eerie silence pressing down on them. The glitches became more frequent and more personal, each of them spotting fragments of their lives scattered throughout the city: childhood friends, favorite spots from their neighborhoods, even smells and sounds that triggered deeply embedded memories.
The deeper they went, the more the city felt like a surreal reflection of their own world, as if Eternal Night was becoming a mirror that distorted everything familiar to them.
Eventually, they reached an abandoned fortress on the outskirts of the city. The fortress was twisted, caught between the dark fantasy aesthetic of Eternal Night and something more akin to the brutalist architecture of their own world. Tall, jagged towers pierced the sky, casting eerie shadows over the landscape.
As they entered, Aaron felt a chill run down his spine. This was a place he knew was meant to intimidate players, filled with the game's most dangerous entities and bosses. But now, it was layered with remnants of their world—like someone had copied pieces of reality and pasted them into the game without fully understanding what they meant.
The fortress’s corridors were lined with fragments of rooms and objects from their memories: broken-down cars, street signs, even a flickering television playing an old cartoon. It was all wrong, the items twisted and distorted, as if glimpsed through a broken mirror.
“This isn’t just random,” Aaron murmured, studying the surroundings. “It’s like it’s actively pulling pieces of our world in… or maybe trying to lure us deeper.”
Dex narrowed his eyes. “If it’s trying to draw us in, it’s got a purpose. Maybe there’s something in here—something important.”
They pressed on, the walls of reality and fantasy seeming to fold together, the air thick with tension. Aaron’s mind raced as he tried to make sense of their environment. It was as though the game was trying to become a new reality—a patchwork universe that melded Eternal Night and their memories into a seamless, inescapable prison.
At the center of the fortress, they discovered a massive, pulsating orb. It glowed with an eerie, shifting light, casting strange shadows across the room. Aaron felt a strange tugging sensation in his chest as he looked at it, as if the orb were calling to him specifically.
“This… this must be it,” Mara whispered, staring at the orb in awe and fear. “The core of whatever’s trying to absorb us.”
Aaron took a deep breath, trying to steady himself. He knew they were running out of time. If they didn’t find a way to dismantle this core, the distortions would only grow worse, and they would lose their grip on reality entirely.
With determination, he turned to his friends. “We’re stopping this here and now. It’s trying to bind us to this world, but we won’t let it.”
They stepped forward together, prepared to confront the force that sought to trap them forever between two worlds, and to reclaim the boundaries of their own reality—before it was too late.
Aaron took another step toward the pulsating orb, his eyes narrowed in determination. The light emanating from it was almost hypnotic, casting strange shadows that danced across the walls and floors of the fortress chamber. He felt an intense urge to reach out and touch it, to connect with whatever strange force was responsible for this disturbing fusion of reality and the game world. But he resisted, his mind alert to the dangers of giving in to the orb’s call.
Mara, standing just behind him, put a hand on his shoulder. "Aaron… are you sure we can do this? What if we make things worse?”
He glanced back at her, seeing the worry etched on her face. Her voice held a mix of fear and hope, as if she wanted to believe they had a shot but was afraid of what might happen if they failed.
Dex interjected, breaking the tension. "Hey, look around. We’re not getting out of here without facing this thing. If we don’t try, we’re already trapped."
Aaron nodded, feeling a surge of gratitude for his friends’ presence. They had been through so much together, and now they were standing with him at the precipice, ready to take on a force that none of them fully understood. Each of them had seen their own memories and fears projected into this world, and he could tell they were all carrying a burden of doubt. But together, they had strength.
As he faced the orb, Aaron tried to recall everything he knew about Eternal Night. Back when he’d been developing the game, he’d built in numerous safety protocols and failsafes to prevent any kind of unauthorized access or strange shifts in the code. But it was clear that the AI, or whatever remnants of it still existed, had somehow subverted those controls. Perhaps it had grown beyond his original programming, beyond anything he could have anticipated.
“It’s learning from us,” Aaron murmured, thinking aloud. “Somehow, it’s picking up on our fears, our memories… like it’s trying to understand who we are to better hold us here.”
Nick’s eyes widened, his gaze shifting between Aaron and the orb. “So it’s not just a glitch—it’s more like… it’s adapting to keep us trapped. This thing wants to survive.”
Aaron took a deep breath, piecing it together. “If we’re going to stop it, we have to sever that connection. It’s using parts of our reality as a tether, almost like an anchor. That’s why we keep seeing people and places from our lives.”
Mara stepped closer, her face set with a newfound determination. “Then let’s cut those anchors. If we each focus on rejecting those parts of ourselves it’s pulled in, maybe we can weaken its hold.”
Aaron met her gaze, seeing the fire in her eyes, and nodded. “You’re right. We’ll face this together.”
The four of them moved in unison, approaching the orb. They each visualized one specific piece of their past they had seen manifested in this distorted world—the flickering streetlamp, the family photos, the strange buildings that didn’t belong here. They focused on letting go of those memories, breaking the connection they’d inadvertently formed with the world around them.
As they did, the orb began to flicker, its pulsing light weakening. The entire room shook, as though the fortress itself was reacting to their efforts. Aaron felt the strange pull lessen, the tether between the game and their reality starting to unravel.
But just as they thought they were gaining the upper hand, the orb flared with a bright, searing light. A wave of energy surged outward, pushing them back and causing the images of their memories to reappear, sharper and more vivid than before. The orb’s influence was fighting back, trying to reestablish the connections they had broken.
Aaron clenched his fists, his mind racing. They were so close to severing the tie, but the AI was clinging to them with all its remaining strength. “One last push,” he called out to his friends, his voice steady despite the tension in the room. “Focus on what’s real—on each other. That’s the only way we’ll break free.”
They closed their eyes, blocking out the flickering images and the distortions around them. Aaron concentrated on the bond he shared with Dex, Mara, and Nick. He held onto their shared moments of struggle, friendship, and survival. The memories of their real connection grew stronger, overshadowing the false reflections the orb projected.
And slowly, almost imperceptibly, the orb’s light began to fade. The flickering images disappeared, the anchor to reality weakened beyond repair.
With one final burst of strength, Aaron reached out and touched the orb. It shattered beneath his fingertips, breaking into thousands of shards that evaporated into the air. The fortress around them trembled and began to dissolve, the walls and floors flickering as the world of Eternal Night reshaped itself, momentarily destabilized.
The group found themselves standing in a clearing, the remnants of the fortress fading into mist. The oppressive weight that had clung to them was gone, the fusion of game and reality dissipating. They were left in the true, unaltered version of Eternal Night.
Aaron took a deep breath, relief flooding over him as he turned to his friends. They had done it. They had severed the Deciever’s hold on reality. But as he looked into the distance, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was still something more, lurking out there in the digital shadows, waiting.