Chapter 1: Glitched
There is no truth that does not contain something unseemly. In the pursuit of the truth, one must be willing to accept the darkest parts of human nature.
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Man, I really wish this school day would just end already. I'm going to miss the in-game event at this rate.
As that thought crossed his mind, Magnus absentmindedly ran his hand through his unkept, light blonde hair, wishing to be anywhere other than where he was now. His book bag was filled with both current and overdue homework, which was also a pretty accurate depiction of his academic life since it got heavier by the day.
Honestly, with the number of classes I've skipped already, maybe I should just give up on school altogether. Mom's overseas, and Dad will probably be too exhausted to even notice.
Pondering the thought, Magnus took a shortcut through the school, passing by a narrow alley without a second glance. Suddenly, a shadowy figure lunged out and grabbed him, yanking him off his feet before slamming him onto the cold ground.
"There's our favorite pretty boy. You know, Magnus, with the number of girls gossiping about you, you'd think you would be easier to find. Don't tell me you've been trying to avoid us," a rough voice said with a slight sneer, its words laced with the distinct scent of tobacco. Magnus instantly recognized that voice.
Picking himself up, his amber eyes shot a fiery glare at the boy towering over him. Though they were the same age and height, the bully's bulk made him seem much larger. Scanning the alley, Magnus noted two other boys standing nearby, bringing their group total to three.
With a dismissive smirk, Magnus retorted, "Damn, Ike, I'm starting to think you're obsessed with me. I hate to break it to you, but even though I'm better looking than your girlfriend, I just don't swing that way, no offense."
Ike's initially smug face twisted into a frown at the jab about his girlfriend. Without a hint of warning, he threw a punch straight into Magnus's gut. The force caused Magnus to double over, with sharp pain radiating through him as he struggled to catch his breath. The duo behind Ike chuckled lightly, as if they were watching a funny show.
Unfortunately, it was a scene Magnus had gotten far too used to in the course of his school life. Standing over him, Ike shook his head while clicking his tongue.
"You know, we've done this so many times, but I don't think I'll ever get tired of beating your ass. After all, you never learn when to just shut up!" Ike's tone grew more aggressive as he raised his leg and launched a kick into Magnus's stomach. It was just as Magnus felt like he was about to have a chance to catch his breath when the air was knocked out of him once again.
This time, Magnus's vision blurred, and his ability to focus on sounds faded away. He could hardly hear the words of one of the boys standing behind Ike.
"Hey, Ike, the bell's going to ring soon. You can beat his ass later."
"Huh? Oh yeah, I guess you're right." Letting out a small sigh, he was a bit annoyed since he had just gotten started. Still, that didn't stop him from saying something to Magnus as he bent down and started searching through his pockets.
"Hey, I hope you don't think this is over just because the bell's about to ring. I'll make sure to catch you nice and early tomorrow." As those words entered Magnus's dazed head, Ike found what he was looking for and pulled out a wallet from Magnus's clothes. Rummaging through it, he pulled out a few twenties and waved them at his friends.
One of them immediately reacted, excitedly exclaiming, "Oh damn! That's more than enough for us to go to the cafe; we should pick up some snacks too."
Hearing this, the other friend couldn't help but jab at him.
"Like your fat ass needs any more carbs."
"Oh, screw you, I'm not fat; I'm just a little ch-!" Before they could continue arguing, the school bell rang loudly. Ike quickly pocketed the money and cursed as he rushed out of the alley.
"Shit, we're going to be late! Come on, or else the teacher will be on our ass." His two friends stopped bickering and followed him, leaving the alley empty, with Magnus still lying there. At some point, he had turned onto his back and found himself staring at the sky.
From his hazy view, the sky looked gray and cloudy, almost as if covered in thick ash, as the sounds around him warped. It felt like the world was slowly fading away, with everything becoming distant and out of reach. Even his sense of touch felt numb.
Yet, as this happened, his mind still wandered, seemingly unaffected by the pain wracking through his body.
Damn, he really got me that time…
Lying there for another minute, Magnus suddenly saw a shadow looming over him, accompanied by a voice that pierced through the haze clouding his senses as the world seemed to rebuild itself around him.
"They kicked your shit in, huh? Whatever you said this time must have really pissed Ike off. I swore I heard one of those hits from around the corner."
Still lying there, unreactive to the comments, Magnus took a deep breath and eventually managed to sit up, spotting a dark figure before him. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, especially since their body was blocking the sunlight. Looking at them closer with his eyes adjusted, he finally saw who it was.
"Oh, it's just you, Wendy." When his eyes fully locked on the person standing there, he saw it was someone he recognized.
"What do you mean it's just me? Who else would be bothered to talk to you after an ass-whooping like that?" She stretched out her hand to help him, but he waved it off and got up on his own while responding.
"Yeah, at least it was just a beating and not one of their stupid pranks. There's something about their pranks not being funny that makes them even worse. But if you were around long enough to crack jokes, you could've called a teacher. It would've saved me a lot of pain," he said, wincing slightly.
To that, the girl just shrugged and said, "You know damn well that Ike sends his girlfriend after me whenever I get mixed up in this crap. And today, of all days, I actually bothered to comb my hair. I'm not in the mood to have it yanked out. Speaking of which, it's still so weird. He does this to you, but draws the line at hitting girls? I mean, I'm not complaining, but still…"
"Ah yes, a bully with a twisted sense of morality. Who would've thought?" Magnus replied, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Hey, don't get snippy with me. It's not like the teacher would've made it here in time anyway," Wendy retorted, randomly twirling a strand of her black hair around her finger. Seeing that, Magnus had to admit internally that even if she claimed to have combed it, her hair still looked like a mess to him. Still, he couldn't deny the truth of the other thing she mentioned.
"Anyway, you feel like skipping? The girls in my class decided it would be funny to hide my desk, and I'm not in the mood to play detective," Wendy suggested, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
Magnus paused for a moment, considering it, before nodding.
"Yeah, sure. I'm too exhausted to sit through any more lessons today anyway." Brushing off his clothes, they both headed towards the side gate of the school and slipped out unnoticed after grabbing their things. As they walked, Wendy pulled out an earbud from her pocket, the cord trailing back into the left pocket of her black sweater.
The sweater was definitely too big for her, but she seemed unbothered by both it and the other earbud dangling out of her pocket.
She popped the earbud into her ear and started playing some music. Magnus could faintly hear the tune since he was walking right next to her. After a moment, he recognized the melody and rolled his eyes.
"That song again? You've been obsessed with that show ever since it ended. Who listens to a song on repeat that makes them want to cry every single time? And if I remember correctly, didn't your favorite character get crushed at the very end?" Magnus remarked, Wendy's expression falling the instant he mentioned it.
"Don't remind me! I tried to vent my frustration through the game, but I still feel empty inside. And it's not an obsession just because I bought some merch. Besides, the song is too beautiful to not listen to over and over. It brings back so many good memories."
As Wendy started to reminisce, Magnus just shook his head, their steps slowing as they approached a crosswalk. Pausing, Wendy asked him something casually.
"By the way, are we heading to your place or mine?" Magnus thought for a moment before answering.
"Let's go to mine. I have some stuff I need to finish up, and I just downloaded this new game I want to check out." Hearing about the game, Wendy's curiosity was piqued as she asked about it.
"I haven't heard of any new releases. What kind of game is it?"
"I'm not sure—some kind of fantasy game, I think. I got it because the ads caught my eye; the artwork and trailers looked pretty cool too." Wendy gave him a skeptical look when he mentioned the ads.
"You downloaded a game off of an ad? Are you sure it's not a virus or something?"
"Eh, if it is, I'll just delete it and run a virus scan," Magnus said, not too concerned. His computer didn't have anything important on it anyway, just his game collection and some videos, but it was all backed up on the cloud.
Soon the pair arrived at his house, and he unlocked the door to find it quiet and the shoe rack neatly arranged.
"Are your parents still not home?" Wendy asked.
He nodded, explaining, "Yeah, Mom's abroad, and Dad's buried up to his neck trying to finish some project, so he's probably pulling an all-nighter."
Letting out a sound of acknowledgment, Wendy headed to the kitchen before making her way upstairs with a bunch of snacks in hand, sprawling them out onto Magnus's bed before laying down herself. Seeing that, Magnus couldn't help but comment, "It's honestly still a mystery to me how you haven't put on any weight over the years."
Wendy shot him a glare, realizing he was basically saying that she should have become fat by now.
"Shut it. Today was rough for me," she retorted.
Raising an eyebrow, Magnus tossed his tie and uniform onto the bed and responded, "You mean rough, like getting punched and kicked in the stomach, kind of rough?"
Wendy, having already opened a bag of chips, pulled out her phone while replying.
"Let's not compare the nuisances of physical and mental abuse, okay? We both cope differently. You with your games, shows, and snacks. And me by playing your games, watching your shows, and eating your snacks. I'm sure it's all perfectly psychological." With that, she popped a chip in her mouth, causing Magnus to just groan and roll his eyes.
Moving over to his desk, he powered up his computer and launched a game called Elveline. At the sound of the startup music, Wendy glanced up from her phone.
"You're playing Elveline? I thought you'd be busy with your scripting. Run out of orders or something?" Without taking his eyes off the screen, he responded.
"Nah, you know I only do that freelance stuff so I can afford all my battle passes. Plus, they always ask for boring stuff like movement systems—never anything fun." Wendy shrugged, turning her attention back to her phone to send a message while continuing the conversation.
"I swear, I don't know how you still have customers with your on-and-off work ethic. But whatever. So, what's up with Elveline? Is there some event happening?"
"Yeah, they moved the new limited raid release date up to today instead of next week. They've already added the new Tier-5 Mount to the loot table." Magnus spoke casually, but Wendy nearly choked on her snack, scrambling towards his desk in disbelief.
"What! They moved it up? Why didn't you tell me sooner?" He shrugged, giving her a nonchalant reply.
"I figured you already knew."
"Well, I didn't! Shit! Come on, let me join your raid group! Just hand me your laptop so I can log in." Sighing, Magnus told her that his laptop was charging downstairs near the couch, prompting Wendy to dash out of the room to go grab it.
As he heard her hurried footsteps descending down the stairs, he called out, "Hurry up! The raid group's filling up quick!"
A moment later, Wendy's voice echoed back, laced with frustration as she seemed to be fumbling with something.
"Wait! Just hold on a fucking second and wait for me! I need the Helm of Lost Souls to complete my transmog!" Rushing back up, Wendy burst into Magnus's room and quickly set up the laptop on his bed.
"Eh, I'm not sure... Asqeflame said he wanted it, and he did carry us in the last raid," Magnus said, causing Wendy's expression to grow sour at the mention of the name.
"Asqe? Screw him! He's always stealing my kills in the plains. Come on, you've got to give it to me; we're best friends!" Magnus almost winced at her last remark, quickly shooting her down.
"Yeah, no. You're both DPS, so earn it." Seeing that she couldn't leverage their friendship, Wendy clicked her tongue and logged into the game under her account.
"Fine, whatever, I'm better than him anyway! Just send me an invite!"
From the moment they left school until well past midnight, Magnus and Wendy didn't leave the room. This was their usual routine, whether it was the weekend or not. They had been this way for years, and neither had ever made any effort to change that. They were both seen as poor students, and they were generally avoided by their peers.
Wendy's messy appearance and her general lack of effort in pretty much all the important aspects of her life kept her from having any close friends, beyond the ones behind a screen. She was an outcast, and of course, that made her the perfect target for the other girls.
Magnus faced a similar issue; his problems also mostly stemmed from his appearance. But unlike Wendy, who simply refused to put in the effort to even try and fit in, there wasn't much Magnus could do about his issue. His skin was naturally soft and smooth, softer than even a lot of the girls at his school, despite the products they used. On top of that, his facial features were way more feminine than any of the boys in his class, or in his school, for that matter.
While some girls in the school found this attractive, such superficial appeal was quickly overshadowed by how easy of a target he was. Combine that with the distorted envy some people had towards him because of the attention he received, and it wasn't hard to understand why incidents like the one with Ike occurred so frequently.
To make matters worse, he was weaker than most other boys his age, making it pretty easy for the larger students to take advantage of him.
Overall, their situation wasn't ideal, but it could have been worse. Wendy's mom, a single parent, worked hard to ensure they were well-off. Similarly, Magnus's parents did their best to advance their respective careers, which meant they could easily provide for him, but at the cost of them barely spending any time together.
Their lives were simple, unchanging, constant, and, beyond their rooms, dull.
As night fell and the moon rose in the sky, Wendy was sprawled on Magnus's bed, engrossed in a novel on her phone. Her legs dangled over his lap as he scrutinized the lines of code on his tablet, mentally simulating each line to check for errors.
Why isn't the jump function working like it's supposed to? I swear this was working literally yesterday; how did it break?
"Hey, didn't you mention you downloaded a game you wanted to try out?" Wendy's voice broke his concentration.
"Oh, right. I almost forgot." Putting his current project on hold, he tossed the tablet onto a pillow and turned back to his computer to find the game icon.
No wonder I couldn't remember the name; this font is unreadable.
Even squinting, he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out what the title of the game was.
"I'm going to the bathroom. Don't touch my chips," Wendy declared as she left the room.
"They were my chips, to begin with," he replied before double-clicking the game's icon to open it, but nothing happened for a minute or two.
Huh, it doesn't look like it's starting. Maybe it is a virus after all. That's weird; the site looked legit, and there were even some good reviews on Steam.
Feeling puzzled, he clicked the icon once more, only to witness his screen suddenly flicker, displaying black-and-white static before returning to normal. But before he could even process the oddity he had just witnessed, something even more bizarre began to unfold. The colors on his screen started to bleed like wet paint on a canvas.
"What the hell?" His confusion quickly turned to horror as he saw the colors seeping beyond the monitor's frame, and as it made contact with his desk, it began to distort in the same manner as the monitor. However, instead of the strange dripping colors touching the desk, they instead seemed to pass through it, or perhaps flow over it.
It resembled what happened when you layered an image over a background in Photoshop.
Seeing this, he jolted up from his chair, causing it to fall backward, while noticing his walls were starting to become pixelated and transparent.
Yet, despite their transparency, he couldn't see the other rooms in the house, despite the fact that his parent's bedroom should be right next to his.
His eyes and head darted around, trying to make sense of reality as it started to shift. All the colors and objects in his room began to blur and warp, vibrating and shaking violently while also overlapping in strange ways.
"What the hell is going on!?" He yelled as he quickly ran to the door. But like a bug, or perhaps a glitch, the door phased violently and disappeared the moment he touched it, as if it had never existed. The world around him grew increasingly chaotic as he fearfully moved to the center of his room.
Looking down, he could hardly discern what the floor was anymore, and the void beneath it looked terrifying, as if he would fall into it and never return.
"Shit, shit! I- Dammit! Help!" The only words he could muster were curses as he banged on the walls of his room before, finally, silence took him completely.
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After washing her hands, Wendy left the bathroom and began skipping down the hall, calling out to Magnus as she neared his door.
"Hey, I kind of feel bad about what I did to Asqeflame during the raid. Do you think I should trade him one of my-" Her words were abruptly cut off as a ripple suddenly erupted from the room's doorframe. It was as if the material of the house had suddenly become liquid, but the ripple itself was anything but ordinary.
A chaotic mix of colors, some recognizable and others completely beyond her perception, churned among each other, tearing apart the world as they went. It all happened so fast that she had no time to react as the ripple reached her, beginning to infect her very own body.
Wendy let out a blood-curdling scream that echoed through the walls of the house as she immediately lost her footing, as if her feet had suddenly vanished. As her body hit the wood floor, she let out another scream.
It wasn't just the pain of falling that made her scream, but also the sensation of the ripple traveling up her body. It felt as if her very existence was being torn apart and then stitched back together as it moved. There were no words to describe this kind of torment, and after only a few seconds of screaming, she fell unconscious.
Her body lay there for nearly an hour before she started to come to, her eyes slowly opening as the image of the hallway cleared up in her mind. The glitch-like ripples had long since disappeared. Slowly getting up off the floor, she looked around absentmindedly.
Did I pass out when I left the bathroom? Was all that some weird dream?
No, she was positive; that was real. The numb pain pulsating through her body solidified that fact, as did the soreness of her throat that came from screaming. All of this definitely didn't happen just because she fell over.
"Ugh…"
Struggling to her feet, she called out, "Ma- Magnus? Magnus! I think something is happening to me…" As she made her way to the bedroom, she turned the corner only to find the room empty. Both the computer and monitor were turned off, and the chair next to the desk had been knocked over.
"What the hell…" Utterly confused, she took a step into the room only to suddenly feel a sharp pain shoot through her body. All of her muscles tensed as she saw her own hands flicker, stretching and pixelating as if they were images on a screen. The effect quickly spread to her whole body as she once again collapsed to the ground.
The echoes of her pain bounced through the house, reverberating in her own mind as she could focus on nothing but the violent tearing. This time, however, the agony only lasted a few brief moments before her body returned to normal.
Panting while looking down at her own body in horror, Wendy yelled, "Wh- What the fuck is going on!?"
She didn't stay on the ground for long; pushing past the pain that was wreaking havoc on her nervous system, she rushed to grab her phone from the bed and started looking for Magnus, this time much more frantically. All the while, she was questioning who the hell she should call.
The police, the ambulance? What would she even say to them?
"Magnus! Hey, are you downstairs!?" But she got no response. Feeling a sense of panic welling up in her chest, she forcefully shook off all sorts of thoughts flashing through her mind. One by one, she started checking the various rooms upstairs and downstairs, the attic, the backyard, and the places he would typically hide when they were goofing off.
However, after all her searching, she found nothing, absolutely nothing, and that scared her. As she searched the house, she experienced another one of those strange glitches that caused her very being to spasm. Again, it wasn't as bad as the first one, but it still felt as if some part of her was being maimed.
She saw that Magnus's shoes and clothes were still where they always were, and all the keys were still hanging near the door. Not a single window was open or showed signs of forced entry. The house was practically untouched.
Noticing all this, Wendy's voice couldn't help but get a little jittery as she spoke again, her words sounding almost delusional.
"Magnus… thi- this isn't funny… seriously."
She was talking to no one, standing in the empty house alone. A shiver went up her spine as her eyes darted around. She began to feel dizzy and disoriented, and her body trembled ever so slightly. She could feel her breathing speed begin to spike as she held her own arms.
A feeling of fear and loss began to envelop her, invading every corner of her mind. She felt herself losing her grip more and more.
Fuck… no, no, not now... why now of all times! I- I can't breathe…. where is he? Where did he go?
She felt claustrophobic as she quickly ran to the front door and slammed it open. While running outside the house, she didn't bother to put on her shoes. It was as if only outside, with the cold night air, could she finally breathe again.
Yet her anxiety remained as she hurriedly looked up and down the street. Once again, she called out, the frantic sound of her voice as clear as day.
"Magnus! Magnus, where are you!"
On October 7th, 2022, Magnus Wright went missing.