“Ah, there you are!” Laura said, smiling to herself. After a lot of work to be as efficient as possible, she got past the encryption barrier and accessed the files hidden behind it. There was a lot to unpack there, from beta reports to concepts that had never made it to the final product. The room around her seemed to fade away as she delved deeper into the digital depths of DarkSands’ hidden secrets.

Rows upon rows of code scrolled across the screen, each line a piece of the puzzle she needed to solve. Her heart raced with excitement and trepidation as she uncovered file after file, each one more cryptic than the last.

But then, amidst the sea of data, a folder caught her eye. It glowed like an ember amidst ashes, calling out to her with a magnetic pull. With trembling hands, she clicked on it, revealing treasure a trove of information.

The main file detailed a new VR mode to be added with the latest expansion of the game. It described the general interface, the sensory inputs, and how the player’s experience would change depending on which class they were using and the quest selected. Everything was written in dry, technical language that didn’t sound very exciting at all. Interspersed with the jargon, there were a handful of schematics and other diagrams. She skimmed through most of them until she reached the last couple of pages of the file, and then her jaw dropped.

“What? There’s no way!” she rubbed her eyes and stared back at the screen again to make sure her brain wasn’t playing tricks on her. Everything remained the same, as impossible as it was, and Laura didn’t know what to think. The new tech promised an unparalleled level of immersion, thanks to the combination of an adaptive matrix and AI-generated imagery. When all elements came into play, DarkSands’ would become a living, breathing world, always in flux according to the player’s thoughts and emotions. It was mind-boggling, something straight out of a sci-fi novel… or a Black Queen story.

The last pages of the report were all headlined by an uppercase O, but in the Greek alphabet that same symbol had another name, one she would never forget after reading the original tales.

Omicron.

Even though not everything was the same, the gist of it was there. In the Black Queen’s universe, Project Omicron promised the perfect simulation but it was also the perfect mind control weapon. It rewrote people’s synapses and changed their core beliefs from within. It was an enslaving tool that couldn’t be stopped and just thinking about it made her shiver. It was all fiction, right? But if so, then why was it being referenced in a file protected by top-military encryption? And why was that kind of tech associated with such a popular MMO? It was all very confusing, but also terrifying.

Laura continued to dig deeper, checking for other references, and looking for proof that the info detailed there was real and not just an elaborate thought experiment. The more she read the less she understood what she had found and the line between fantasy and reality began to blur. 

“This can’t be real. It can’t!” she muttered but her brain was trying to tell her otherwise, creating one insane scenario after the other that could justify such outlandish discoveries. She had already established that parts of DarkSands’ had been inspired by the stories. There were instances of them reflected in the character designs and segments of the narrative, but this felt different, deeper, and way more dangerous. 

Laura sighed. She had no idea what she had gotten herself involved in, but nothing would stop her from getting to the bottom of it. She reached for another energy drink and continued her investigation.

* * *

Meanwhile, dinner was over for Jeremy and Deirdre. She had never been the same after the phone call and neither did he. He was driven by his natural curiosity and instinct to know more while she stuck to her pragmatic, business-like way of doing things. Time was money, and wasting it was not an option.

“Well, this was interesting…” she said, unable to hide the bitterness in her voice. “However, considering what transpired, you’ll forgive me if I’m not in the mood to keep doing this any longer.”

“Of course,” Jeremy nodded. “Have you heard anything else yet?”

“No, but I’m worried,” she replied. We’ve put a lot of resources and money into the latest update. If there is a bug, we need to get it fixed a.s.a.p. I’m heading back to the office to check things for myself.”

“At this time of night?”

“Like my mother used to say, it’s always a good time to get shit done,” Deirdre said. “I’ll have someone else drive you home if you don’t mind.”

“Do as you must,” Jeremy said with a resigned tone, watching Deirdre gather her things and pick up the check. As she left, he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that lingered in the air. There was something off about the whole situation, and no matter how hard he tried to push it aside, his instincts screamed at him to delve deeper.

He left the restaurant and waited by the front door for his other ride to arrive. Glancing at his phone, he realized he had two missed calls from Laura, so he called her back, only for it to go straight to voicemail. It was getting quite chilly outside and his suspicions wouldn’t let up.

Apart from that, and despite her somewhat smug tone, he had enjoyed the evening. Deirdre was as beautiful as mysterious, and he was easy to seduce when he wanted to. Thoughts of the Black Queen crept up again, turning his mind into a hodgepodge of conflicting emotions. Why was he having these visions and what did they have to do with the piece he was trying to write? Was it a strange coincidence? A warning that he was on the verge of a major nervous breakdown? A call from some supernatural realm bleeding into reality? Nothing made sense. 

And so he stood there, alone with his thoughts, wondering if things could get even freakier. Unfortunately, the answer was yes.

* * *

Deirdre Quinn sat in the back of her limo, riding back to Tempest Studios. She was holding her smartphone in one hand while the other played with an unlit cigarette. Fury lit her eyes, turning them into globes of fire amidst the shadows of her seat.

A male voice answered the call. Deep, almost robotic. Whoever stood on the other end of the line, knew she was angry.

“I was wondering when you’d reach out again,” the voice said. “Have you got rid of your journalist guest yet?”

“Yes. You can speak up now,” she growled. “Tell me what the fuck happened.”

“It’s like I said earlier. We’ve detected an intrusion in the main system, but we lost the signal right away. The intruder used DarkSands as a point of entry. We’ve tried tracing it to a specific account but failed. The data we got was all scrambled. This was no amateur job, but a professional one through and through.”

“How far did the intruder go?”

“We have no idea. We’ve been running system checks since that initial hit and all came up with nothing. We don’t even know if they logged out.”

Deirdre crushed the cigarette between her friends, immediately regretting the ash that fell on the seats.

“Are you saying they may still be poking around things as we speak?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, yes. The project may have already been compromised, Deirdre.”

“That’s inconceivable!” the businesswoman snarled. “We paid millions of dollars in state-of-art protection to have a random hacker threaten it all? How can this be? I want this son of a bitch found and I want it now!”

“Deirdre, I assure you we’re doing everything we can to…”

“Do better!” Deirdre screamed, her voice echoing through the spacious interior of the limo. She flung her smartphone against the plush leather seat, watching as it bounced off and skidded to a stop on the floor. Her chest rose and fell with anger, her manicured nails digging into the armrests.

The driver glanced at her through the rearview mirror, concern furrowing his brow. He had never seen Deirdre Quinn lose her composure like this before and dreaded to see what would happen next.

In a fit of rage, Deirdre pounded her fist against the seat, causing a crack to spiderweb across the smooth surface. She took in deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, but the frustration only bubbled within her like a cauldron ready to boil over.

“If I don’t get answers by the time I get back to the office, you’re going to regret this conversation, do you hear?” she seethed into the phone.

“Yes, Deirdre, I do,” the unknown man said “but if I may say something…”

“What is it?” the businesswoman adjusted herself on her seat and pushed away a strand of her from her eyes.

“Don’t you find it odd that the moment we have an unexpected journalist show his face around here, this happens?”

“Are you suggesting there’s a connection? That Jeremy is somehow responsible for this?”

“I’m not saying anything for sure, but even you must admit the timing of it all is something suspicious. Even the way he got to you was anything but normal.”

“That may be so, but he knows nothing.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because I talked to him, and I’ve seen the kind of man he is. He’s after a legend, nothing more.”

“In a way, we’re part of that legend, too. I know you believe your people skills are second to none but what if you’re wrong this time?”

“If I believed that, I would have seen how incompetent you are before bringing you the team,” Deirdre scoffed, her tone dripping with disdain. She leaned back in her seat, glaring out the tinted window at the passing city lights. The limo continued to glide through the night, the only sound filling the air being Deirdre’s heavy breathing.

The man on the other end of the line fell silent for a moment, taken aback by her sharp words. He cleared his throat before responding, his voice tinged with a hint of defensiveness.

“I understand your frustration. I’m just trying to…”

Deirdre closed her eyes, willing herself to not explode again. Still, her reply was as venomous as it could be.

“You’re trying to imply that this is somehow my fault for agreeing to talk to him. He’s a fucking nobody on a wild goose chase for a magazine no one cares about! He’s not our perpetrator.”

“Still, you don’t mind if I do some extra research on my end, do you?”

“What for?”

“I just need to be sure. Maybe he’s as innocent as you say, but he may also have an accomplice working with him in the shadows… This is too important to overlook, don’t you think?”

“Fine, but keep digging for that intruder. I want to know everything a.s.a.p.”

“How long will it take you to get here?”

“Fifteen minutes tops.”

“Very well. We’ll be ready for you.”

“Oh, you better be!”

Deirdre hung up the phone and told the driver to step on it. Her eyes glinted with determination as she stared out into the city lights flashing by, her mind racing with thoughts of vengeance. She was not one to be crossed, and whoever dared stand in her way would soon come to regret it.

As the limo sped through the winding streets, Deirdre’s grip on the armrest tightened, her jaw set in a fierce line. She knew some underestimated her, who thought they could outmaneuver her in this cutthroat world of business and power. But they were wrong. Dead wrong.

* * *

Laura had just finished a sweep of all the protected folder’s contents when she glanced at her phone and saw she had missed a call as well. The excitement of her discoveries was palpable and yet it almost felt like a fever dream, too good to be true. She was ecstatic from all the caffeine she had pumped into her system and that extra dose of enthusiasm came with a price: she was starting to get careless.

“I need to get out of here,” she said, but not before downloading all the evidence she could. This was going to blow Jeremy’s mind as much as it had blown hers.

Laura transferred the files onto a flash drive, her fingers tapping on the keyboard. As she waited for the last document to be saved, a chill ran down her spine, causing her to shiver.

Her eyes flickered to the laptop screen’s reflection, and that’s when she saw it - a woman’s shadow standing behind her. It was faint and distorted as if trying to remain unseen. Laura’s heart hammered in her chest, and she turned around, expecting to find an intruder in the room with her.

But there was no one there.

Panic surged through her veins as she whipped her head back to the laptop screen. The woman’s shadow was gone. She rubbed her eyes, convinced it was just a trick of the light or a result of her hyperactive mind playing tricks on her…

… and saw her again, dark and menacing, with ebony hair and violet eyes, boring into the back of her head. Fear gripped her like a vice, beauty, and horror combined.

It was The Black Queen, just as described in the tales. She had a cruel smile on her lips as if she were a predator playing a game only she understood. Jeremy had dreamed about her but Laura was wide awake, her eyes glued to her foreboding presence.

“I’m hallucinating,” she told herself. Caffeine-induced psychosis was a rare phenomenon that could occur in otherwise healthy people. It could make them see and hear things that weren’t there, whether it was lovers long gone or monsters from the deepest recesses of the subconscious mind. In high doses, it could also lower blood pressure and cause seizures. “I’m hallucinating,” Laura repeated, averting her gaze.

But as Laura tried to shake off the image of The Black Queen, she felt a frigid breath on the back of her neck. The shadowy figure moved closer, the scent of roses and decay filling the air around her.

“Oh, Laura, not you too,” a voice whispered in her ear. Invisible hands caressed her skin with an otherworldly touch that was both chilling and arousing. The sensation made her gasp, fear and desire swirling within her.

The hands trailed down her arms, leaving goosebumps in their wake, before moving to her nipples and circling them with an ethereal touch. Laura’s breath hitched as a strange heat ignited between her legs, her body betraying her mind’s terror with a surge of lustful energy.

“I’m glad you found me,” the impossible monarch cooed. “I’ll be looking forward to seeing you again.”

The shadow disappeared and Laura fell to the ground, shaking. She was still out of herself when Jeremy showed up, his footsteps echoing in the silent room.

“Laura, what’s wrong?” he asked, his voice filled with worry as he helped her sit up. The hacker’s eyes were wide and unfocused, her voice hesitant. Staring at the ceiling, Laura mumbled,

“She was here. Oh, my God, she was here!”

((to be continued))