Bete Noire Glitchtale Novels & Stories

At one table, Alice sat beside another hunter, eyes fixed on a laptop screen as she typed and spoke in low tones. She turned when she saw her father enter. “Dad, come see this.” Calvin approached, leaning over her shoulder. On the screen was a black-and-white surveillance video. A shadowy figure moved swiftly into the forest. “Zoom in and slow it down,” Calvin instructed. The hunter at the keyboard complied, enlarging the image and reducing the playback speed. Even then, the shape was blurred something on all fours, running with unnerving speed. “It’s the extremely fast beta,” the hunter murmured.

My head tilted to look at it, and I saw Maddox’s Beta approaching Beta Arlo. “Have you seen Nadine?” He asked in a low voice, but enough for me to hear. “Nadine?” Arlo asked, his forehead creasing as he looked around, probably looking for Nadine. “Yes, Nadine Benjamin.” Arlo’s mouth opened before he chuckled. “Oh, I think we had a miscommunication. I don’t know a Nadine Benjamin.” The Beta’s shoulders slumped as he tried to explain something, but Arlo was already shaking his head, so he just went away and followed his Alpha without looking at any of us.

An old, ornate mirror was displaying names in glowing red script: 【DEATH COUNTDOWN】 Each player's name had a 72-hour timer next to it—except mine. My name was a blurry mess, completely illegible. 【What's wrong with Harper's name?】 【A system bug?】 【Or did her little stunt change something?】 "That's not fair!" Linda’s sharp voice cut through the silence. She glared at me, her eyes full of venom. "Why is her information hidden? She must be cheating!" Kevin pushed up his glasses. "From a probabilistic standpoint, Harper's anomalous behavior may have triggered a hidden mechanic. I suggest we maintain our distance."

Zooming in on the file titled AVL, he exhaled slowly before clicking. The loading wheel spun in a circular motion… once, twice, repeatedly— Then suddenly, the screen glitched and went completely black. A bold, blood-red message flashed across the screen: “Some things are meant to remain hidden.” Ayden’s brows furrowed as he stared at the laptop, then at Gareth, whose face was a mix of confusion and simmering anger. “Seems like this AVL person is harder to reach than we thought,” Ayden muttered. Gareth drew in a heavy breath and shut the laptop. His tired gaze drifted to his phone, where a picture of Isla and Damien remained on the screen. His stare zeroed in on Damien.

‘You will be exposed very soon, son of a bitch! “No matter who wins your stupid bet, there are no losers.” Natalie commented honestly and her lips stretched into a subtle smile. “The only loser there is your brother, my little cousin!” Julian humbled full of sarcasm and an inexplicable gleam flickered across his eyes. Everybody was staring at Mike in anticipation.

"No fragmentation. No rogue nodes. The ethics engine is holding." "We did it," Lena breathes, her hand on her growing belly. Then, a light blinks on the map. ANOMALY DETECTED. "What is it?" Harlan asks, his hand going to his sidearm out of habit. "Tokyo," Echo says. His avatar frowns. "User 4920. Reporting a... sensory glitch." "What kind of glitch?" I ask. "He says he feels... cold," Echo says. "But his environment is 25 degrees Celsius."

"About four hundred feet deeper." "Jack." Katherine's voice crackled through the comms from the surface. "We have a problem up here. Ben is reporting anomalies in the Ledger. The decrypting file just jumped from thirty-six to thirty-seven percent in a single spike. And Aaliyah is detecting reality glitches across midtown." "What kind of glitches?"

She realized that the White Wolf was right about one thing: the connection was still there. "You think you're the Game-Master," Elara said, her voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly calm growl. Her golden eyes began to bleed into a molten, iridescent white—the color of Sentience-Zero. "But you forgot the first rule of the 'Glitch,' Coach." The White Wolf stopped pacing. "And what is that?" "A Glitch doesn't follow the optimization," Elara hissed. "It Breaks it." The Resonance of the Broken

Marco commented but Albert had nothing to say. The room finally felt like it had a source of lightning and Isabella could finally see that Albert was not completely unharmed there was a patch of Red that she hadn't noticed until now on his forehead which was probably due to how Marco had banged him on the table when he found him trying to violate her.

Her vision glitches violently. 𝗜𝗡𝗜𝗧𝗜𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗭𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡: 𝟮𝟱%. A new file downloads into her brain; a memory of her and Lucian on their wedding day. But in the memory, Lucian has a serial number tattooed behind his ear: 𝗕𝗛-𝟬𝟵. She checks the man she is holding. Behind his ear, hidden by his hair, is the mark: 𝗕𝗛-𝟭𝟮.