Page 12 of White Noise

VOIDKING88 tipped 200 credits.

VOIDKING88: Log off. Seriously.

I roll my eyes. “You’re getting bossy, Void.”

I move the cursor toward END STREAM.

One last message appears.

silas: End the stream, little echo. Get comfortable. I want you to feel safe when I prove how fucking useless that is.

My hand pauses.

That one gets under my skin more than I want it to.

VioletHex is deliberate. The lights, the angles, the attitude, the parts of me I decide they get. Silas somehow sounds more interested in everything I don’t put on camera.

I force a smile at the lens.

“Goodnight, boys.”

Then I end the stream.

The room goes quiet fast.

I pull up moderation history before I can talk myself out of it.

Silas isn’t there.

Neither are the accounts I banned.

No payment history. No subscriber record. No trace of him in the saved chat.

“What the fuck?”

I search again and get nothing.

Fine.

Hacker.

A very committed, very weird hacker.

Tomorrow I’ll reset passwords, lock down the account, add stricter mod controls, and probably pay somebody who knows more about security than I do because clearly my current setup has holes in it.

Problem solved.

I kill the ring light and grab my vape.

The hair on the back of my neck stands up anyway.

I glance at the speaker, then the webcam, and immediately get annoyed with myself.

“Get a grip.”

I take a drag and head for the bathroom.

He got into my account.