Leo ripped the power cord from the wall. The screen went black. He sat in silence, heart thudding, listening to the rain outside. After ten minutes, he laughed. Just a weird mod. Someone packed a griefing script into the cracked launcher.

He plugged the computer back in. Booted up. Didn’t open Minecraft. Deleted the cracked launcher. Emptied the recycle bin.

But that night, he woke up at 4:02 AM. His bedroom light was on. His computer was running. On the screen, the Minecraft 1.4.2 title screen was frozen. And in the single-player world list, there was a new save file named with his full name: Leo_M._Holloway.

Thank you for the host.

Leo’s hand froze over the mouse. He tried to throw it out of the inventory. It wouldn’t move. He tried to craft a crafting table. The recipe ignored the planks and instead crafted the head into a helmet. Before he could cancel, his character was wearing it.