Page 43 of Kill Feed

Ryan snorts like that’s the funniest lie he’s ever heard. “You shut down an entire server for three days.”

“It was for scientific purposes.”

“Yeah, right. You just wanted unlimited loot drops,” Leo adds.

“Details,” Lucas huffs. “Anyway, ancient history. I’m reformed.”

I tilt my head, surprisingly surprised at this new information, as if the man wasn’t chaos incarnate enough. “So, you don’t do that kind of thing anymore?”

There’s a beat, a flicker of something in his eyes. Then, “Not officially.”

Ryan rolls his eyes. “He still snoops. Don’t let him play the saint.”

Lucas takes another long drink before claiming, “Curiosity isn’t a crime. You’d be surprised what people hide in forgotten directories… old projects, encrypted debris, little whispers from the dark web.”

Jesus, of course he’s into that shit too. He probably believes Bigfoot is real. Hell, he probably thinks Bigfoot’s running the whole underground network.

Leo groans dramatically. “And… we’ve lost him.” Their laughter spills on without me. Lucas plays it off like a joke, but I know better. He never tells stories without leaving out the real parts with the sharp, jagged edges.

“Dark web?” I ask, trying to sound casual.

Ryan waves a hand. “He’s obsessed. Thinks the internet’s full of ghost towns and secret societies.”

Lucas grins. “You’re just mad because I know how to find it.”

Leo scoffs at that, taking a sip from his beer.

“Okay, what about that thing you mentioned last week… what was it? Death Stream? Kill something?” Ryan chimes in, furrowing his brows.

“Kill Feed,” Lucas whispers.

The words hit with a strange weight. He doesn’t say it like it’s a joke. He’s got to be kidding, right?

“Kill Feed?” I repeat.

Ryan rolls his eyes. “It’s an urban legend, bro. Supposedly this online game where people pay to watch real murders. It’s fucking fake, obviously.”

Lucas drums his fingers on the table, almost offended. “Is it, though?”

“Dude, no one’s seen it. It’s just one of those myths. A boogeyman of the dark web. People say you need crypto invites and layers of VPN access, but there’s never any proof.”

“That’s the point,” Lucas chimes dramatically, almost spilling his beer onto me. I scoot over to the edge, out of range.

“You don’t build a place like that to be found just by anybody,” he continues.

“Oh, but you have?” Ryan laughs. “You talk like you’ve been there.”

My gaze drifts over to Leo, who has gone awfully quiet this whole conversation. Shit, never mind quiet, detached. He’s staring at the wall as if it's his only companion in the room. I narrow my eyes, noticing the slight twitch in his hands and the nervous way his lips quiver as they collide unevenly with the rim of the beer bottle. Does…he know something?

Lucas leans forward, voice loud enough to pull my attention back to their conversation. “Maybe I’ve seen traces of it. Like metadata in old forums and encrypted keys that lead nowhere. Stuff that shouldn’t exist if it’s fake.”

“So, it’s a game?” I add, keeping my eyes fixed on Leo, who’s tapping slightly with his index finger on the beer bottle before swallowing hard.

“Yeah, man, they have like masked killers and everything!” Lucas states, and now he has my full fucking attention.

I absorb his words. This isn’t the first time masked men have come up lately. It’s sounding less like fiction and more like fact now. I mean shit, Xavier died to a masked killer, and I would’ve too if I didn’t launch that knife in his leg.

Leo shakes his head. “Come on, that’s straight-up bullshit territory.”