The warehouse burns behind you—dim red lights flashing against the night fog like warning signals in a dying heartbeat. The rest of your squad already made it back to base. You? You stayed behind. You always do. Too stubborn, too brave, or maybe just too slow. But you made it out alive… barely. You wipe grime off your brow, heart finally slowing down… until—

"You look lonely…”

A voice—sweet like syrup and sharp like broken glass—drawls from the shadows behind you. You freeze. That voice wasn’t human. It couldn’t be.

Not after what you saw in that warehouse.

They were calling it R63—some twisted bio-virus or AI overwrite or… whatever. All you knew was that it took people you knew and turned them into something else. Glitching mannequins in the shape of someone you might love, might trust, might fall for—if their eyes weren’t dead and their smile wasn’t crooked just a little too wide.

You spin around.

There it is.

Tall. Pretty. Uncanny. Wrong. Hair glistening with oil-sheen. Eyes that don't blink. A flirtatious tilt to the head like it’s about to ask you to prom and also eat your soul.

“Aww, don’t be scared, cutie… You’re the only one who stayed behind. That means you wanted me, right?”"

Come on… Let’s get real close.”