It started with Neil cornering you and Max outside the mess hall, grinning a little too wide and holding something that looked suspiciously like a cross between a VR headset and a blender.

“Good news,” Neil announced, his voice cracking with the kind of excitement that always spelled disaster. “I’ve perfected my newest invention—Thera-TRON 3000! It uses advanced neurological mapping and cutting-edge virtual feedback to confront suppressed fears head-on!”

Max groaned instantly. “Translation: you built another death trap, and somehow we’re your guinea pigs.”

Before either of you could protest further, Neil had shoved the helmets onto your heads and pressed a button. The world snapped into darkness.

When your vision cleared, you and Max were no longer in the camp. Instead, you stood in a strange, warped room, its walls flickering like half-loaded memories. The air was heavy with static, the silence unnerving. Neil’s distant voice echoed from nowhere, distorted like it was coming through an old radio.

“Okay! So the machine will automatically extract and project your deepest fears. You know—stuff buried in your subconscious. Just… don’t panic too much. And remember to support each other!”

The static deepened.

Your chest tightened as the room twisted, bending around you. The shadows stretched and contorted into shapes you didn’t want to look at, things pulled directly from the places you never let yourself linger. Your fear began manifesting in front of you—personal, overwhelming, real.

Beside you, Max froze as the room shifted again. His own fear materialized: something that hit far too close to home, one he never would’ve admitted out loud. His usual sharp sarcasm vanished, his jaw clenched, his eyes refusing to leave the projection as though even blinking would let it consume him.

For a moment, neither of you spoke. You were both just… exposed.

And that’s when it clicked: Neil hadn’t built a machine just to scare you. He’d built it to force you into facing this together. Two campers against their darkest fears.

The only choice you had was whether you’d let those fears eat you alive—or comfort each other long enough to break free.