NOVA
I had been struggling with that damn computer for what felt like an eternity. No matter what I did, the screen remained frozen—mocking me in complete silence. It wasn't turning off, nor was it responding. The cursor had stopped moving hours ago, and yet, it wasn't exactly dead either. It just... hung there. Lifeless. Stuck. Like a glitch in my own reality.
"What the hell am I supposed to do now?" I muttered, the exhaustion settling deep in my bones. My back ached, my neck was stiff, and my brain felt like mush. Ughhh, I groaned, letting my head fall back in frustration.
In a fit of pure rage, I slammed my fingers across the keyboard, pounding every single key without even thinking. I wasn't hacking anymore—I was just aggressively hitting buttons like a kid throwing a tantrum. I had hit my limit. Every inch of patience I had carefully built over the years cracked all at once. I was done—with this computer, with this file, with everything.
I kicked Jerry—the poor dog—out of the room without a second thought, slamming the door shut behind him. The clicking of his claws on the floor faded, and finally, there was silence.
I collapsed into my chair, my fingers trembling as I pressed them against my temple, trying to soothe the growing headache. My thoughts were tangled like a mess of wires. I didn't know what I was doing anymore. The lines between work, life, and insanity were starting to blur.
Then, just like that—ding.
Something popped up on the screen.
I blinked in disbelief.
"Wait… what?"
The frozen screen flickered once… then again. The system roared back to life like it had never been frozen in the first place.
And there it was. A file.
A single file sitting right in the center of my desktop—highlighted like it wanted to be noticed.
My heart skipped. My eyes widened.
Did I just…?
No way.
Was this the file my client had given me? Did I just decode it without realizing it?
"Yes!" I gasped, my hand shooting up in the air in triumph. "That's why people trust me. Because I am the best at what I do." A cocky smirk slipped across my lips, and I couldn't help but strike a little victory pose with my fingers snapping in the air. "💅🏻"
I leaned forward, a sudden jolt of energy replacing my earlier breakdown. "Okay Nova… let's see what all the fuss is about."
Click.
The file opened—but something felt… off.
It wasn't what I expected.
My brow furrowed as I stared at the screen. It wasn't encrypted data or coding gibberish. It looked like a basic folder… like something you'd find in a regular office computer.
Inside, there was a text file.
And then another.
And another.
I opened the first one.
And I froze.
It wasn't a regular document. It was a letter.
A conversation, more like.
One party was requesting something. The tone was casual, almost rehearsed.
But the contents?
Drugs.
They were asking for drugs.
From someone called Mr. Ruvanov.
My heart dropped. That name… why did it sound so familiar?
Ruvanov… Ruvanov…
I knew I'd heard that somewhere recently.
Who was this guy? And why the hell was he being asked for narcotics like he was a regular street dealer? Wasn't that illegal?
I opened the next file, confusion brewing into panic.
This one was a video.
Curiosity overpowered hesitation. I clicked on it.
And I immediately wished I hadn't.
The video played on full screen.
It took me two seconds to realize what I was watching—
Two seconds too long.
Blood.
Screams.
Gagged mouths.
Inhuman acts.
A person being tortured in a way I didn't think was physically possible.
I shot back from my chair, bile rising to my throat. My hand flew to my mouth as the nausea overtook me. I ran—barefoot and dizzy—toward the bathroom and barely made it in time.
I collapsed to my knees, throwing up everything I had eaten yesterday.
My body was shaking. Cold sweat drenched my back.
"What the hell was that?" I gasped between heaves. "What the hell is going on?"
After a few minutes, I washed my face, trembling, and forced myself back into the room. My stomach churned just being near the computer again. But I had to see more. I had to understand what I had just stumbled upon.
There were more videos. More folders.
All of them filled with the same thing—violence. Gore. Executions.
The faces changed. The locations changed. But one thing remained consistent: a man in the background. Not always visible. Sometimes just a silhouette. Sometimes just a voice.
But in one video—he stepped into full view.
I paused the video. Rewound. Played again.
I leaned in closer to the screen.
My blood went ice cold.
It was him.
"Julius Ruvanov," I whispered.
The name hit me like a slap across the face.
He was on the news just a few days ago—praised for his philanthropic work. The poster boy of progress. CEO of Velarion Technologies, the largest tech conglomerate in Russia.
He looked so clean. So composed. The kind of guy who'd be the face of a charity campaign. But here he was—standing over a body like a goddamn devil in designer shoes.
I blinked hard, rubbing my eyes. No… this couldn't be real. It had to be AI. Deepfake. Edited. Something.
But no.
It was him.
The more I watched, the more the reality began to sink in—and it terrified me.
I sat frozen. Thoughts racing. Panic clawing at my chest.
"I have to go to the police," I whispered, almost as if saying it out loud would make it more real.
But then another voice in my head: What if they don't believe you? What if he finds out? What if they're already watching you?
I looked around the room, suddenly paranoid.
He was too powerful. Too rich. Too clean on paper. What if I report him and disappear the next day? What if this was a trap all along?
Was I being watched right now?
Was this a warning?
I couldn't think straight. My mind shut down completely—like someone flipped a switch and unplugged my brain from logic.
I paced back and forth, tugging at my hair, whispering a thousand questions with no answers. The walls felt like they were closing in.
"Okay… okay. Calm down," I whispered. "Don't spiral. Not now."
I took a deep breath—deep enough to sting my lungs.
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. For now... close everything. Save it. Back it up. Then freshen up. You haven't even brushed your teeth since yesterday."
With shaking fingers, I closed the folder, powered down the computer, and locked the hard drive behind a steel case.
I walked to the bathroom, my steps heavy, and stared at my reflection.
My face looked pale. My eyes were bloodshot.
I looked like someone who had just seen a ghost.
Except the ghost was real.
And he wore a suit.