The graphics were startling. Not the blocky polygons of 1998, but something that looked like a filtered photograph. He was standing on a beach of black volcanic sand. In the distance, a lighthouse stood like a jagged tooth against a violet sky.

(You are not a player. You are the guest.)

He reached for the power button on his PC, but his hand stopped. Outside the window of the shack—and, he realized with a jolt of horror, outside his own bedroom window—the sound of the waves was getting louder.