Hell's Glitch (initial draft)

2:14 Ronove

"Did it really just disconnect us?" Alex asked.

Thomas stared at the code intently, his fingers and his thoughts working at a pace he never knew either could reach. These glitch fiends forced him to multitask on steroids.

"Yeah and I'm afraid that's probably the least that it's capable of. It's using voice tools that aren't even in the game to create new dialogue."

"It's creating its own programs?" Alex asked. "So it's an A.I.?"

"It's using resources it lifted from the local network. I would be impressed if I wasn't so creeped out. But something tells me that this goes far beyond A.I."

"Shhh. Do you hear what its saying?"

Thomas strained his ears trying to hear the conversation. The creature had somehow nearly muted itself and Sam. Fixing each of the in-game mics was not a big deal to someone with Thomas' talents.

"He's trying to get Sam to turn Sam against us," Alex said.

Thomas snorted and replied with, "won't take much effort to do that."

"This is insane, he's talking to him like he really knows him...like outside the game."

They listened on quietly until Ronny mentioned how souls, data, and quintessence were all connected. Thomas' heart skipped a beat and he could hardly breathe. There was no way he was seeing and hearing this conversation right now. He had to be dreaming. Alex noticed his shortness of breath and grabbed his shoulder.

"What's wrong with you? What's going on?"

"This...isn't right."

"No, it's not, but you were fine with everything before this. Why is this the first thing that freaks you out so much?"

"'Cause it's real, it's really real!"

"What is?"

"Demons."

This time Alex's breath was caught in her throat for a second, but she allowed rationality to take over instead of fear. They needed to make sense of this.

"Are you serious? Is that what they call advanced A.I.s nowadays or something?"

"No, I'm talking about real demons here. Demonology."

"I thought you were many things, Thomas, but supernatural nut wasn't one of them. You always struck me as a basement dwelling atheist more than anything."

"And you're Hispanic. Hasn't your catholic beliefs led you to believe that any of this could be real?"

"Wow, racist much? I prefer logic over blind beliefs thank you very much."

"Well, maybe you should start believing. Ronny there revealed himself to us and now I know who it is."

"And who would that be?"

"Just look at him. He looks just like how Crowley described him."

"You read Crowley? Now I know you're a nut."

"But I'm right. You're looking at a real demon, that's somehow trapped in the game. Just listen to what he's offering Sam. He's tempting him."

"It's not a real demon then. It's just something Milner's sick mind came up with to mess with the testers."

"I hope so. For your little boyfriends' sake at least."

"He's not my—"

"Wait a minute! Milner just sent me a text!"