The moon hung low over the deserted campus, casting long shadows through the library’s fractured skylight. Bronwin Aurora tightened her grip on the old film script—a prop from a true-crime podcast she was narrating. Tonight’s episode: The Ghostface Variant . But the story had found her first.

And with that, she pulled the mask off…

“Bronwin,” the first voice crackled, a digital warble. “We’ve been dying for you to join us.”