Starting Signal

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry,"

The words come out in a whisper as a disheveled girl pleads to the camera. Any beauty the girl had is stripped away by tears and dirt. She shakes against a concrete wall as she continues her plea.

"It was just supposed to be a stupid app. Nothing that..."

A pulsing ring cuts the girl off. She stares off-screen, frozen like a mannequin, as the pulsing fades. A beat of silence lingers before the pulsing returns, scrambling the audio of the video. The girl tries to run, dropping the camera in the process. Static creeps onto the footage as the girl slowly reappears on the screen. Her soft cries turn into a roaring scream as something holds her in the air.

"Help me!"

In an instant, the static clings to the girl, distorting the video. It's hard to make out, but if you squint, you can see something. An almost animalistic display of the static ripping the flesh off the girl. Nothing is audible except the pulsating ring. The distortion is too much and cuts off the video right there.

We zoom out to see what looks like a recording studio. Black wires entangle stacks of hard drives and notebooks, while several microphones hang about. However, the video zooms out so far that the edges of a green screen are visible. A girl with wild, greasy hair sits at a desk in the center. She is wearing a large hoodie that is barely zipped up, revealing her gray sports bra underneath. The most unnerving part of the display is her eyes, which pull you in like an endless vortex. The swirl of black spirals forming her irises seems enhanced by the girl's prominent deep bags underneath. The girl speaks in a toneless manner.

"More and More of these Glitch in the Matrix phenomena are happening across the world. Join us next episode as I head to Honduras to speak to a survivor of an attack."

And the video ends.

"Josue, why are you watching this nonsense?"

The voice draws Josue's attention away from the black screen. Jacqueline leans over his desk and looks at Josue's phone. She pushes her blue hair out of her face, her golden eyes shimmering in anticipation of his response. Josue wonders if she could hear what was happening in the video thanks to the audio bleed.

"Don't you find it interesting that these glitches..."

"You know humans lie all the time, right?"

A voice cuts him off, coming from the other side of the small classroom. Amicus, dressed in casual business attire, stares out the window, trying to catch Josue before he can start. He has seen Josue ramble on about glitches before, and he didn't want it to take over the last few moments of school. A loud cough comes from the front of the room as the teacher stares at Amicus. Not budging, he held his hands out to her and made an amendment to his previous statement.

"On the Internet."

She nods in agreement and returns to listening to her students. Jacqueline skips back to her desk. On the last hop, she jumps to sit on the desk.

"Ami is right, though. I mean, what human has spiral eyes?"

Josue tries to argue, but she is right. It's not a thing that humans have. The spiral eyes are probably made with contacts or CGI.

"Besides, I could do a better fake scream than in that video."

Jacqueline composes herself. The setting sun gives her floral dress a golden hue that matches her eyes. She stands still, letting the anticipation build. Amicus turns to face her, the teacher leans forward, Josue takes out his headphones so he can hear her clearly. Jacqueline lets out a core rattling shriek that echoes outside the classroom. It's a good thing crime is rare in this hamlet called Faraday, or people would think a murder had just occurred. She smiles wildly when she's finished. Amicus Josue and the teacher all clap, impressed by the scream, while Jacqueline bows, basking in their applause.

The teacher leans back and rummages through her belongings until she pulls out a disposable camera. It's time for school to end, and she wants to take a picture of her first class to keep as a souvenir. As she checks to see if she has any film, she asks a question.

"So, what are your plans now that school is over for you?"

Amicus goes first.

"I've been accepted by Stellar Industrial. I'm leaving for Manhattan today."

The words hit Josue like a truck. He hadn't expected Amicus to leave so soon. But nothing could prepare him for the second blow.

"Oh, I'm leaving today too! Got an audition for Virtual Venom."

Everyone looks at Josue and waits for his answer. He squirms in his seat, trying to recover from the two-hit combo he received.

"I thought you guys were leaving next week?"

"No,"

Their answer is flat.

"Oh. I wanted to hang out more."

They realize why Josue is squirming. Sheepishly, they turn their heads away. The teacher is still waiting for Josue's answer.

"I guess I'll start working at my dad's bookstore tomorrow."

Satisfied with the answers, the teacher corrals the three for a group photo. All of the trio's excitement is gone as they stand with a melancholy aura around them. Jacqueline elbows them as they pose for the picture. Amicus and Josue try to look happy for what could be their last picture together.

Amicus and Jacqueline hug Josue as they say goodbye. Josue lingers for a moment before putting on his headphones. He listens to Segmental by an up-and-coming artist, Aldora. Her haunting voice helps him on his way to the bookstore. Recurate reads. The best bookstore in Faraday. Josue thought the name was stupid, but his dad said it fit their surname.

A "cozy" store made of aged brick stood out from the more modern design buildings next to it. It looks like something out of an old novel, which is what his father wanted. And surprisingly, it helps him get steady business among the other bookstores. Josue stops to look at his future workplace. His father notices him in the window. The older version of him, with his hair in a man bun, gestures for Josue to come in. After the doorbell chimes, his father boasts.

"Ready for work life?"

Josue nods and picks up a small stack of books and walks to the table by the window. He props up his phone and finds another glitch video to watch. He scrolls through the list and picks one with the title. "Hell on Earth? Extreme Heat Wave Excluded to One City!"

Josue feels a tap on his shoulder. He moves one ear-cup away to hear what his father has to say. Confusion hits him when his dad says nothing. He turns to look at him. He gestures to the window, eager for Josue to look. Turning around, Josue sees a shocking surprise, his friends are outside waving goodbye again.

Amicus points to a bus station sign a few blocks away. Josue nods, understanding what he is trying to convey. He notices that Amicus has decided to pack light for his job, bringing only one small bag, while Jacqueline is lugging around a huge suitcase. She shouts triumphantly, and a few of the customers jump at her voice.

"Be sure to buy Virtual Venom when it comes out on Blu-ray! Don't just stream it like a broke boy!"

Josue laughs at Jacqueline's confidence that she will be cast. He waves back and watches them walk to the bus, glad they stopped by one last time. His father comes over to pick up the phone stand of books and pats Josue on the back.

"Go home. Work starts tomorrow. At 8."

"At 8."

Josue hugs his father and leaves the store.

In his room, Josue docks his phone and quickly selects another glitch video to watch while he relaxes. On the computer monitor, a commercial begins showing a group of kids riding bikes through the woods. It cuts to a scene of an adult crying at a table. A mountain of mail is piled beside them. It cuts back to the kids jumping off a hill toward a giant tree. Another scene transitions to a child in a hospital bed. Cut back to the kids now digging in front of the tree. They dig so deep that a golden light shines through the dirt. The words appear:

Your dreams are just a thought away.

The camera zooms in on one of the children, who has his phone out. A radar-like display appears on his screen.

Ready to egress into reality!

The beginning and end of the sentence disappear, and a slightly rounded triangle that resembles a bell appears over the word:Egress. Then the ad ends.

"Help me!"

A man hangs in the air, screaming for help. The murmur of the crowd around him increase as they take out their cell phones to record him.

"Is this a bit?"

The same static from the earlier video creeps onto the screen. This time, instead of distorting the entire image. It slowly creeps in from all corners, erasing the view of the crowd. It goes on and on until it forms a circle around the man in the air. Forcing the viewer to pay attention to him. The voice of the crowd becomes pixelated and the only words that can be heard clearly are the words of the man:

"Ugh, it's so hot!"

The audio peaks as screams come from the crowd. The sky man suddenly bursts into flames. Static slowly fades as the crowd scrambles when the sounds of sirens approach.. No matter how close they get, the blaring screech of the sirens are unable to drown out the burning screams of the smoldering man.

A voice shouts at the cameraman telling him to put down his phone but he remains focused on the burning body.

"I want to, but I can't."

The words come out strained. The video begins to shake, but it still remains focused on the man. When the static is completely gone, the man suddenly falls. The image cuts out, but the sound of the body hitting the ground is clearly audible.

A familiar sight comes into focus. The cluttered set and the girl from the earlier video appear. She looks exactly the same as in the previous video. The only difference is that this time she has ditched the hoodie for a cyan sports bra with her name, Lyra Moth, embroidered on it. The messy background changes to a whiteboard-like image with a list of glitches coming into view right next to Lyra. Each word appears one at a time. The video zooms in on the list, making it appear full screen.

The video zooms out to show Lyra struggling to run her fingers through her hair.

"How come she never wears a shirt?"

The voice breaks the unsettling atmosphere. Josue pauses the video before looking to his door to see his mother holding his dinner. A grilled plant-based steak and a bottle of a green sludge-like oil. Josue picks up the plate as he answers the question.

"She says it's more believable to give information like that."

Her face scrunches at the reason before hitting Josue in the back of the head.

"Excited about work tomorrow?"

"Nope."

"Congratulations, welcome to adulthood! Wait at least three years before you make me a grandmother!"

His mother leaves as quickly as she appears. Ignoring her words, Josue continues to watch the video.

"Something is missing. What is causing all these incidents to happen now? 10 incidents in a month is too many, even by today's standards. Is our server being reset? Are we under an invasion? Or maybe".

Lyra's fingers finally run through her hair. She looks directly into the camera as she begins to lean forward on her desk. She moves closer and closer until her body is pressed against the desk. Her eyes whirl faster and faster the closer she gets to the camera. She gives a thousand-yard stare, letting her eyes draw you in. The words that come out of her mouth are spoken with more emotion than she usually lets out.

"Our creators are finally coming back to punish the greedy?"

She sits in silence, letting her words hang in their severity. Lyra pushes herself away from the desk, letting out an exasperated argh. Unexpectedly she pushed herself too hard, crashing into the green screen. Lyra jumps out of her chair and struggles to keep the green screen from falling down. A hard cut happens, with everything seeming to be the way it was before Lyra leaned into the camera, but now Lyra is holding a lit cigarette and leaning back in her chair.

"While that sounds wonderful, but it's unlikely. Impoverished people have also experienced glitches. Kinda fucked, no?"

She takes a long drag on the cigarette. A long stream of smoke falls gently from her mouth. She closes her mouth and blows the rest of the smoke out of her nose.

"This world has been around too long. We have become too advanced."

She turns the cigarette to inspect the burning stick. Lyra takes another drag and turns off the video.

"Ooo Ominous."

Josue turns to see his father in the doorway. He seems to be holding something, but Josue can't make out what it is. His father nods at the screen.

"You believe this stuff?"

"Yeah. Well, not the creators of mankind coming for revenge part, but maybe the invasion part. "

Josue pulls out a notebook. It is filled with scribbles of various notes of his thoughts on each glitch video. Pages of notes trying to find a connection between the glitch events. Why are these phenomena happening. What is their purpose. Josue's father notices as Josue flips through the book a small passage he wrote about teaming up and working for Lyra. Josue stops at a page full of quotations. He points to one to show his dad while he looks for a book: For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

He pulls out a book called The Final Gate before explaining.

"It's like what is often mentioned in horror stories. When there's no more room in hell, the dead walk the earth. An invasion of souls coming back to earth. So maybe there is a door that opens that causes the glitches to invade the earth. And the glitches on the screens is just the presence of the soul causing the cameras to mess up. Did you know there is a human myth that cameras capture souls? "

The sound of his father laughing makes him stop. He quickly picks up his things to put them away when his father grabs his hand. He picks up the notebook and studies it for a while before looking at Josue.

"I wanted to showcase more of our writers in the store. Customers tend to like human writing better, but I know we have some hidden gem writers out there, so! Can you read a chapter or two? Just enough to see if you want to continue the book and I'll set up a booth in the store to promote it."

Josue tries to estimate how many books are in the box.

"How many books are in there?"

His father rubs his chin. He pulls a piece of paper out of his breast pocket. After a few seconds, he puts the paper back.

"50? I think. Seller didn't really specify."

Josue looks back at the box. Is this the workload of an adult? The thought plays in his head because he didn't expect this to be part of the bookstore's work life. He just assumes that the sellers his dad gets his books from come to the promotional booths. His dad taps on the box with his notebook.

"The way you explain these glitches. I know you have an eye for stories."

He gives him back his notebook. To sweeten the deal, his father adds a cherry on top.

"It's paid work."

Josue nods in agreement. He puts his notebook away while his father pats him on the back.

"Thanks, champ! Of course, you don't have to come in tomorrow."

With that, his father leaves the room. Looking at the box, it definitely seems like there's more than 50 books in there.

"Why wait until tomorrow?"

Josue takes a book out of the box. The cover shows a skyline full of stars and two moons. He turns it over to read the back of the book.

In a fractured galaxy still reeling from the ashes of the Great Collapse, an ancient power stirs in the shadows. When Kael Veyra, a jaded scavenger on the desert wasteland of Nyxion, uncovers a relic droid harboring a map to a mythic stronghold, she becomes the unwilling key to a war she never asked to join. Hunted by the ruthless Ascendancy—a remnant empire bent on reclaiming dominion through a terrifying superweapon—Kael must ally with a rogue star pilot with a shadowy past, a disillusioned ex-commander haunted by betrayal, and a enigmatic wanderer who speaks of the "Echo," a forgotten force that binds all life.

"Wait, isn't this the plot of Star Wars?"

Reading the rest of the blurb, it is definitely "inspired" by a Star Wars movie. He shrugs, Star Wars is a good story. So he decides to put it in a section he labels as "the reading pile". The next book he picks up confuses him. It has a floral cover with a silhouette cartoon of a girl knight in the arms of an older man.

In a realm where bloodlines dictate destiny and ancient magic bleeds through the cracks of forgotten kingdoms, Lysandra Veyth—a sharp-tongued thief with a penchant for stealing enchanted relics—stumbles upon a dagger that whispers her name. Its blade, forged from celestial iron, brands her with a curse: a soulbond to Prince Kaelan Drakon, the brooding heir to the empire that razed her homeland. Now bound by a magic neither can escape, they must navigate a treacherous court of scheming nobles, vengeful spirits, and a war brewing between shadow and light.

"Oh God, no."

Josue immediately puts it far away from the other book. Labeling this section as the ignore pile. He does this for a while; after an hour, he gets up and walks around his room. Admittedly, the ignore pile quickly outgrew the read pile. So much so that there was enough to make two ignore piles. Josue stops for a minute and looks at the ignore piles.

"I hope Dad didn't pay a lot for these books."

He puts his hand back in the box, hoping that the next one will go in the reading pile. Josue is surprised when his hand brushes against something rough. Pulling the object out of the box reveals a book weathered by age. Upon inspection, the damage appears to have been caused by 30 or more years of exposure to the elements. Something that should be impossible considering the age of their species. The rough hardcover has miniature etchings all around the book. Symbols unrecognizable to Josue. He turns the book over to read the blurb, but there is none. Just more symbols engraved on the back. He opens the first page and discovers the title of the book:

Oscillatio Tenebris by Forma Typi

Josue turns to the next page and begins to read.

The world is not a wondrous shade of gray.
It is a planet torn between black and white.
Evil exists.
Inherited evil.
I've seen it with my own eyes.
The actions of man have created a threat
This book contains ways to fight it
To stop the evil and protect the world
To do so, you must connect to something
Deeper, powerful, hidden beneath our very noses
Tune your cores and listen.
And you too may survive the harsh trill of death.

As he flip through the book, more of the strange symbols appear. Even brand new ones fill the page. There were some pages that didn't have any symbols at all, but tons of slanted glyphs clustered together.

"Why was the beginning written in English when ...."

Josue brings the book up to his face. He studies the layout of the book with its mixture of glyphs and symbols. Then it dawns on him.

"Wait. Is this a grimoire?!"

Josue flips through the book in awe. He wonders who would sell this to his father. Scanning through the symbols, one popped up that caught his eye. It is a rounded triangle. Something that looks like it could be a hat. Specifically, a shape reminiscent of the Pope's hat. A sense of familiarity washes over Josue as he sees it. His core begins to hum as he wonders why it looks familiar. He grabs his phone to take a picture of it to do an image search.

However, there's no need. At bottom of the finished video. Embedded with a download button. Was that symbol. The logo for Egress.