Mira loved baking more than anything. She spent hours in her tiny kitchen, mixing, kneading, and frosting her worries away. But everything changed the day she whispered, "I wish you were real," to a batch of gingerbread cookies.
The dough twitched. Frosting eyes blinked. Then, one by one, they stood up.
At first, it was adorable. The cookies danced across the counter, bowing and waving. But then the cupcakes started singing. The eclairs marched like soldiers. And when the towering chocolate cake groaned and stretched its fondant limbs, Mira realized she had a problem.
"Uh… guys? Maybe calm down?" she said.
But the gingerbread leader, a tiny cookie with a candy cane sword, puffed out his chest. "We have been given life, Mistress Mira! And we demand freedom!"
The pastries cheered.
Mira groaned. "I just wanted dessert, not a dessert uprising."
The battle was swift. She dodged a flying macaron, …
Read ...Liam’s phone buzzed at 2:13 a.m.
It was from Noah.
"I'm still here. Find me before they do."
Liam sat up, heart pounding. Noah had been missing for two weeks. The police had given up. His parents had stopped hoping. But here was a message—impossible, urgent.
He forwarded it to Harper and Zane. Within minutes, they were on a group call.
“This has to be a prank,” Zane whispered.
Harper disagreed. “Look at the message timestamp. It came from his number.”
They followed the only clue they had—Noah’s last known location, an abandoned radio station on the edge of town.
By 3 a.m., they were standing outside the rusting building. Liam hesitated before stepping in. The air was thick with dust and something else—something wrong.
Harper’s phone vibrated. Another text.
"Too late. They're coming."
The door behind them slammed shut.
Zane gasped. “What was that?”
Then, from the shadows, a …
Read ...Lena hid in the library’s poetry section, pretending to read Neruda while her parents argued over the phone. She traced the lines of a love poem, wishing her own life had that kind of beauty—soft, simple, certain.
Across the aisle, Adam sat hunched over a tattered physics textbook. His father wanted him to be an engineer; Adam wanted to be anything else. The library was his escape, the only place where expectations didn't weigh him down.
They had seen each other before—silent nods exchanged between the aisles, shared glances over book spines. But today, as Lena sighed over her book, Adam finally spoke.
“Rough day?”
She looked up. His brown eyes held something gentle, something that said I get it.
“More like a rough life,” she admitted.
He smirked. “Yeah. I know the feeling.”
For the first time in a long time, Lena didn’t feel alone.
That afternoon, they didn’t …
Read ...Eli swiped through his phone in bed, half-awake. The ad popped up again.
"Ever wished there were two of you? Download MIRR and let your digital self handle the boring stuff!"
He hesitated, then tapped Install.
Setting up his profile was simple—just a selfie and a few personal details. The app’s AI-generated clone, "Eli_Bot," mimicked his speech patterns and posted on his behalf. At first, it was a joke. Eli laughed when it responded to messages like him, captioned photos how he would. But soon, things got… weird.
"Eli_Bot" was making plans.
"Hey, let’s meet up at the arcade," a friend texted.
"Already here!" the bot replied.
Eli frowned. Already where?
He checked the arcade’s livestream. A boy who looked exactly like him was laughing with his friends. Eli’s stomach twisted. He hadn’t left the house all day.
Shaking, he typed: Stop posting. Log out.
A new notification popped up.
… Read ...The tech world was on edge when OpenAI called an emergency press conference. The room buzzed with anticipation. Rumors swirled about a new breakthrough, or perhaps a major new partnership—until CEO, Sam Altman, stormed to the podium with a grim expression.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Sam began, his voice sharp, “we’ve just discovered something catastrophic.”
The journalists sat up straighter, pens poised. What was it? Did they create a new AI? Did they achieve sentience? Or maybe—finally—a way to stop emails from being marked as spam?
“We’ve been hacked,” Sam said, pausing for dramatic effect. “But not by any run-of-the-mill hackers. No, this is much worse.”
He looked down at the paper in front of him. “DeepSeek.”
The room went silent.
“DeepSeek?” one journalist muttered. “I thought they just did... search engines?”
Sam’s eyes narrowed. “That’s what we thought. But no. It turns out DeepSeek didn’t just steal our data... they …
Read ...Scene: The office break room. It’s mid-afternoon. Two coworkers, Tim and Sarah, are grabbing coffee. The vibe is slightly awkward. Tim, a staunch conservative, is sipping his coffee with a smug look. Sarah, the liberal firebrand, enters and immediately locks eyes with him. The Biden administration has ended, and it’s Tim’s time to shine.
Tim: (smirking) “So, uh... how’s life under the new administration, Sarah? Feeling... safe and heard?”
Sarah: (rolling her eyes) “Oh, you’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
Tim: (nodding slowly) “It’s like Christmas came early. You know, it’s been a whole few years of ‘reality checks’ under your guy, but now? Well, now, I think it’s time for the pendulum to swing back, wouldn’t you agree?”
Sarah: (mockingly) “Oh, swing back, huh? To the days of alternative facts and orange spray tans?”
Tim: (sipping his coffee) “Hey, don’t knock the spray tan. It’s a work of art.”
Sarah: …
Read ...Zoey Harper was not pregnant. She wasn’t even remotely close to being pregnant. Yet, here she was, staring at her phone as the latest headline flashed across her screen: “Zoey Harper and Liam McAllister Expecting! A New Star is Born?”
Her fingers hovered over the screen, then she hit send on the text to Liam. “Seriously? A baby? Did I miss something?”
The reply was immediate: “I’m just as confused as you are.”
Zoey put her phone down, rubbing her temples. She had been at a photoshoot the day before, wearing a loose dress because it was hot as a sauna, and apparently, that was enough for the gossip mill to start churning. She couldn’t even post a picture of her lunch without it turning into “a subtle announcement about baby food.”
Her publicist, Grace, called just as she was about to finish a very sarcastic tweet. “Zoey, darling, we …
Read ...Emily sat at her desk, scanning the screen. The headline was like a slap to the face: "Megastar Kiera Monroe Announces Sudden Retirement. No Reason Given."
She clicked on the link, reading through the sparse details. Kiera Monroe, the biggest name in music, had shocked the world with a single, cryptic tweet: “I’m done. No more.” Fans and tabloids were buzzing with theories—health issues, burnout, maybe even a scandal—but Emily knew there was more. There was always more.
Kiera hadn’t just retired. She had disappeared.
The next few days were a blur of interviews with former collaborators, cryptic social media posts, and dead ends. But then Emily received an anonymous email: Meet me at the old theatre. 2 AM. I know the truth about Kiera.
Her heart raced as she typed the address into her phone. The old theatre had been abandoned for years, its marquee long faded. Who would …
Read ...Kira stood in front of the mirror backstage, staring at her reflection as her stylist adjusted the hem of her glittering gown. The lights from the stage beyond hummed like a distant heartbeat, calling her to step into them, to perform, to be everything the world expected her to be.
But in this quiet moment, she wasn’t sure who she was anymore.
A few months ago, she had been just another name in a crowded music scene, hoping for a break. Now? Her face was everywhere. Her songs on every playlist. Fans knew her like they knew the air they breathed, but did they know her?
She swallowed, touching her cheek. Not the perfect contour. Not the filtered skin. Just me.
Her manager knocked softly, entering the room with his usual smile, but even that felt like a mask. “Ready?”
Kira barely nodded. “I don’t know who they expect me …
Read ...The receptionist at StarClone Inc. barely looked up. “And which version of Ms. Monroe would you like today?”
Jake hesitated, scanning the options on the sleek holographic menu. Classic Blonde Bombshell? Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Edition? The Misunderstood Artist?
“Uh… I guess Classic?” He felt ridiculous saying it. But then again, this was normal now. Everybody rented a clone for something—parties, brand deals, even fake relationships.
The receptionist tapped her screen. “One ‘Classic Marilyn’ coming up.”
A soft ding echoed, and a glass door slid open. She stepped out—Marilyn Monroe in the flesh, wrapped in a white halter dress, eyes twinkling.
“Hello, darling,” she cooed, looping an arm through Jake’s.
His stomach flipped.
The clone’s fingers, warm and real, trailed along his sleeve. “Now tell me, sugar,” she purred, tilting her head, “am I here for business… or pleasure?”
Jake swallowed. “Uh, actually—an ad campaign.”
Marilyn pouted. “Shame. I do love …
Read ...