File: Guntastic.zip ... Here

No smoke. No casing. Just the smell of ozone and the weight of a weapon he couldn't see.

He jumped, nearly falling out of his chair. He wasn’t holding anything, yet his hand was heavy. His fingers were curled around an invisible shape. When he pulled the trigger in the game, a deafening crack echoed through his physical room, and a very real hole appeared in his bedroom wall. File: Guntastic.zip ...

Elias looked away from the screen toward his real kitchen island. It was empty, save for a bowl of half-eaten cereal. No smoke

From the floor above him, Elias heard the heavy, rhythmic thud of footsteps. They sounded exactly like the footsteps of the man in 4B—the one who played loud music until dawn. But these footsteps were different. They were slow, deliberate, and heading toward the stairs. He jumped, nearly falling out of his chair

On the screen, a message finally appeared in a jagged, red font:

He looked back at the screen. He made his character pick up the gun. The moment the digital hand closed around the grip, Elias felt a cold, metallic weight settle into his own right palm.