Bete Noire Glitchtale Novels & Stories

And that’s when I heard the whisper in my head. Not a voice. A phrase. Protocol Null. The one Echo gave me. The fail-safe. I took a deep breath. Stepped back. Raised my hand. And spoke: “Protocol Null: Terminate Sequence.” She froze, mid-lunge, trembling. Eyes wide. Then her whole body locked and collapsed. Hard. Like a puppet with its strings cut. I stood there, breathing hard, pain radiating down my side. Alex pulled himself up, blood on his lip.

The room didn’t just dim. It faltered. Like something invisible had reached in and disrupted the rhythm holding everything together. The soft hum in the walls stuttered. The light strips flickered unevenly—one side brighter, the other lagging behind. And the screen— The screen glitched. Lines tore through the image. Data scrambled. Feeds blinked in and out like they were being fought over. Elena’s pulse surged. “This isn’t him,” she said. “No,” Adrian replied immediately. “It’s not.”

But his dumb brain doesn't have the capability to reason. "Ok now Group A spell TUBERCULOSIS. Miss Kafayat said. Abba, Aisha and Zainab raised their hand. Miss Kafayat turned her gaze to Isma'il and smiled at him. He stood up abruptly and spelled it. "T-U-B-E-R-C-U-L-O-S-I-S." Isma'il spelled. "Correct."

Zen realised it after Gilda glitched and greeted them once more as if she did not hear his request. Surprised that such a thing could happen in the dungeon, Remi and Charlie watched as Zen tried to find ways to exploit the bug. The NPC named Gilda continued to greet them cheerfully even as the gamer stole her cup of coffee on the table. “Check the back,” he whispered to Remi. “Get all the coffee you can find.” Tracer did not need to be told twice as they stole from the glitchy Gilda. The apothecarist did not change her behaviour until all three players left her shop with her coffee supply.

Interest. Real interest. “There it is,” he murmured. Her stomach tightened harder. “What?” His eyes darkened slightly. “That,” he said softly, “is what made you dangerous.” Before she could respond— The system glitched violently. Every screen flashed white. Alarms pulsed across the monitors. Alessandre’s head snapped toward the central display instantly. “What did you do?” “I didn’t touch your system,” the man replied calmly. Then the lights flickered. Once. Twice.

I was so happy, and it was as if I had known her for so long. I went ahead to go talk to her and probably get her number from her, but as I approached her and wanted to talk to her, the device that I had in my bag started beeping. I wanted to ignore it in the first place, but then I realized that I was a hunter and the device that I had in my bag was given to me by Treasure. It was a detecting device that could be used to detect whenever a werewolf was close to you. The coverage was not really much, but it could sense when a wolf was really close to you.

10%. Dante watched the mercenaries. They were relaxed, confident, anticipating the successful completion of their contract. The Commander’s visor remained fixed on the progress bar. 30%... Suddenly, Elara gasped, her hands flying off the keyboard as if she had been burned. The holographic display glitched violently, the pristine blue data streams warping into angry, jagged lines of crimson code. A klaxon began to wail through the server room, a piercing, rhythmic alarm that set Dante’s teeth on edge.

One was black. “Where is she,” Lyra said. Her voice didn’t lift. It didn’t need to. Amir’s jaw was clenched so tight the muscle jumped. “We’re pulling it now,” he said. “Cam 3‑B glitched on the live feed. The automated system flagged a repeat pattern on the route, but the tech on duty logged it for later. We didn’t… we didn’t see it in time.” The words turned to static in Lyra’s ears.

The system chirped. Then whirred. Then began to rewrite the prompt. Custom Override Access Detected. New Directive? Isolde’s hands hovered above the lectern. Her fingers moved slowly. She typed. Ghostlight: Burn Archive. Retain Red List. Lock user control. Delete mirror training files. Backup user logs to Dorian Blackthorn vault only. Transfer ownership: NULL. The screen blinked. Confirm? Y/N She paused. Then pressed Y. The system paused. And then began to unravel.

A sharp, mocking laugh cracked from Kian's throat, violently diverting my gaze to him, stabbing daggers from the corner of my eyes, “all bark for someone who walked up against 2 on 1 but can't score a single head-to-head.” My amber eyes flared, releasing a faint smoke infused with crushing pressure that filled the air, “Only one way to find out,” dropping my voice to its coldest as another step of mine cracked the marble floor. And in a split second before Raven's reflexes could win over my body, my limbs stiffened, instantly glued on the floor. Then, a glitch struck like lightning.