A flicker. A shape in the corridor ahead. It wasn't a Ganado. It was tall, emaciated, its face a smooth, texture-less mannequin. Where its mouth should be, a mass of wriggling, black wire-frames writhed. It held a rusty hook in a hand that had too many joints.
“Virus,” Leo muttered. But curiosity was his addiction. He scanned it, found nothing, and loaded it into his modded console. RESIDENT EVIL 4 ROM
It spoke, not in voice, but in a string of code that burned itself directly into Leo's retinas: A flicker
The lights came back on. The TV was dead. The air smelled of burnt plastic. Leo's forearm was clean. The debug overlay was gone. its face a smooth