It began like any other harmless Thursday in Cross Lanes — the kind of afternoon where nothing bad should happen.
Fifteen-year-old Bryce Tate, a kid with a crooked grin and a future wide open in front of him, burst through the back door after the gym, inhaled a mountain of tacos his mom had waiting, and bolted outside to dominate the driveway basketball court like he always did.
The sky was gold, the leaves were quiet, the world felt safe.
But at 4:37 p.m., that illusion shattered.
A message arrived from an unknown number — a digital whisper from the shadows.
No one heard the first notification ping.
No one saw Bryce pause mid-dribble.
No one noticed the way his shoulders stiffened as he read the words glowing on his screen.
It was the kind of message that doesn’t just invade your phone — it invades your mind.
And it came from people who didn’t feel human at all.
Over the next few hours, Bryce fought a battle no teenager should ever face. A war waged through cold, calculated texts — faceless predators tightening a trap they’d set for countless other kids, leaving no fingerprints, no mercy, no escape hatch.
By the time evening fell, Bryce wasn’t the same kid who’d eaten tacos and laughed with his mom.
He moved through the house like someone carrying a weight far too heavy for him.
And then — silence.
When his father, Adam Tate, found him later in the man cave, the world seemed to tilt off its axis.
Not just grief — rage.
“They say it’s suicide,” Adam said, his voice shaking with a fury that felt almost electric.
“But in my book? It’s 100% murder.
They’re godless demons… cowards… worse than criminals.”
Outside, the wind rattled the windows as if the night itself was confirming his words.
Somewhere out there, the people who had hunted Bryce were still hiding behind screens, waiting for their next victim — shadows with WiFi, ghosts with phone numbers, predators wearing the face of anonymity.
And the Tate family was left to confront a nightmare that didn’t come from monsters under the bed —
but monsters online, more real and more ruthless than anything imagined in a horror movie.
