Chapter 1The Mind Hacker

I have been feeling like there is a pair of eyes rummaging through my brain lately. It feels exactly like someone flipping through my private diary in the dead of night.

Memories that should be carved into my bones are slipping away. My apartment passcode, my parents' phone numbers, even my own name feels blurry sometimes.

It all started when our new coworker, Erik, showed up. He wears crisp, tailored suits and a textbook perfect smile that makes my stomach turn.

The most terrifying part happened during our project pitch. I suddenly blanked on the core algorithm steps, and he recited them word for word, exactly as I had conceptualized them in my head.

"You have been a bit forgetful lately, Rainey," he said with fake concern.

"Am I?" I stared dead into his eyes. "Then how do you know the exact ideas I have never told a single soul about?"

He panicked, averted his gaze, and practically ran out of the conference room.

I finally understood. He was using some kind of neural interface to hack my mind. My three years of blood, sweat, and tears were being siphoned away drop by drop.

This monster in a tailored suit was using my intellect as a stepping stone to climb the corporate ladder.

But he didn't know one crucial detail. Memory transfer is a two-way street. While he was digging through my head for secrets, I caught a glimpse of his own filthy skeletons.

* * *

Erik parachuted into the company three months ago.

He is tall, maybe six foot two, always rocking a perfectly pressed suit and flashing that blinding, rehearsed smile. The girls in the office swooned over him, gossiping about his relationship status by the water cooler.

But he rubbed me the wrong way from day one.

It was a subtle feeling. The way he looked at me wasn't friendly. He looked at me like I was a commodity on a shelf, calculating my exact market value.

I never thought it would get this bad.

I got booted from the core engineering team and tossed onto a dead-end project. Meanwhile, Erik, a guy who hadn't even been here a hundred days, took over the exact project I had poured three years of my life into.

I dragged my heavy feet home tonight, only to realize I couldn't even remember my own front door code. I had to pull up my phone notes just to get inside.

The second the door clicked shut, I collapsed onto my bed, tears spilling out uncontrollably.

I unlocked my phone to call my parents and vent, but my mind drew a complete blank on their numbers.

I scrolled through my contacts, realizing with absolute horror that I couldn't even tell which number belonged to my dad and which to my mom.

It was terrifying.

I grabbed a notebook and frantically started scribbling down the day's events.

"April 12. Project pitch failed. Severe memory glitches."

"Erik knew things only I could possibly know. I suspect he has something to do with my missing memories."

I ripped the page out and taped it right above my pillow. Starting tomorrow, I was going to document every single anomaly.

My phone buzzed. It was Maggie from HR.

"Rainey, are you okay? That meeting today was rough."

"Maggie, I think I am losing my mind." I spilled everything about my memory gaps.

The line went dead quiet for a few seconds. "You need to see a neurologist. I will go with you."

"It is not a medical issue." I pulled at my hair in frustration. "I swear it is Erik. He knows what is inside my head."

"Are you saying he snooped through your files?"

"No. He knows ideas I haven't written down anywhere. It is like he literally stole my memories."

Maggie stayed silent for a much longer time. "Rainey, listen to yourself. That is completely impossible."

"I know it sounds insane, but I need you to trust me. Just do a deep background check on Erik, please?"

"I will see what I can do. But you seriously need to see a doctor."

I hung up and started tearing my apartment apart.

I dug up every single old work journal and reviewed every project detail, absolutely terrified I would wake up tomorrow and forget something crucial again.

That night, I had a bizarre dream.

I was standing in a strange, high-end apartment, staring at a monitor filled with code.

My fingers were flying across the keyboard, tweaking a predictive algorithm.

But it didn't feel like my hands. They were the hands of a man.

Then I walked into the bathroom. The face staring back at me in the mirror was Erik.