Downpour

It's raining. It's pouring. And the system would really appreciate it if you got some rest. June Halloran hasn't slept in eleven days. Not properly. As a cybersecurity analyst, she gets paid to stay alert while everything tries to get past her — which makes it a special kind of joke that the one system she can't beat is her own. So when Paratext Innovations offers absurd money for a "restorative immersion study," she signs. The water in the tank is warm. That's her last thought going under. She wakes in a house inside a storm that never ends. There is no outside — every window shows rain, every exit opens onto more house. Somewhere above her, an old man is snoring. The sound is contagious. Her objective posts in clean, helpful text: GET UP IN THE MORNING. Easy. She's been doing the opposite for a decade. Except the hearths are lit. The beds are made. The floods keep herding her upward, toward the bedroom. Her Lucidity burns down like a candle — and nothing in this house burns it back up. Every comfort is a trap she can see coming and still want. And the interface that started out helpful is beginning to sound gentle. Warm. Almost parental. [LUCIDITY: 38%][OBJECTIVE UPDATED: SLEEP UNTIL MORNING] That's not what it said before. Downpour is a standalone system-horror novella set in the world of Miss Muffet and the Hollow Silk. Cozy horror meets LitRPG: a hostile UI, improvised wakefulness crafting, and a house that learns your tricks. Complete at 12,667 words. Updates: New Chapters twice a week.