Zeke adjusted the AR goggles on his face, his fingers flying over the holographic interface as he programmed the final touches. The alley buzzed with activity, but no one noticed him standing there, seemingly tinkering with thin air. That was the beauty of his work—it only appeared to those he chose to see it.

Tonight’s piece was called Broken Chains, an enormous sculpture of glowing digital links shattering into fragments. It would hover at the city’s busiest intersection, visible only to immigrants and refugees who had registered their augmented reality IDs.

Zeke had become a legend in underground circles, known as the "Ghost Painter." His art wasn’t about gallery shows or corporate commissions. It was rebellion. His pieces were bold messages tailored to the overlooked: a blazing phoenix for underpaid teachers, a field of flowers that only children in foster care could see, and a black hole swallowing coins that appeared above luxury banks.

But as his installations grew more popular, so did the risks.

The next morning, Broken Chains went live, shimmering above the intersection in perfect defiance. Pedestrians stopped in their tracks, staring up in awe or confusion. For some, it was invisible, just another patch of sky. For others, it was a beacon—a reminder of resilience, of shared struggle.

Zeke watched from a café across the street, his own goggles on standby. A man in a security uniform stood nearby, his expression confused as he watched a group of people stare and take photos of something he couldn’t see.

And then it happened.

A young woman, her AR goggles reflecting the chains, held up her phone and started streaming. “This is what they don’t want us to see,” she said, her voice cracking. The stream went viral before Zeke could stop it.

By sunset, the city’s AR surveillance drones had flagged the installation. Zeke’s anonymous account received a takedown notice, along with a thinly veiled threat: Cease all activity immediately. Consequences will follow.

But something else had happened, too. People started talking. Even those who hadn’t seen the piece were curious. What was so powerful that it needed to be erased?

Zeke packed his gear and slipped into the night, already sketching his next idea.

This time, he thought, it would be something everyone could see. Something they couldn’t ignore.

It wasn’t about being invisible anymore. It was about being undeniable.