#1 The Nightmare Projector

As the world teeters on the brink of a technological utopia, billionaire visionary Vincent Drax vanishes without a trace.

Pure silence.

His empire crumbles overnight, leaving behind only cryptic warnings - glitched broadcasts, corrupted files, whispers from those who once worked beside him.

But Drax hasn’t gone. He is waiting.

Beneath a remote island, hidden within a labyrinth of steel and shadow, he has built his final, most terrifying invention:

The Nightmare Projector.

A weapon that does not destroy cities or topple governments.

It does something far worse.

It enters the human mind.

The first test begins in secret—one nightmare, replicated across billions of dreamers.

A moonlit forest. A shadow in the trees. Footsteps behind them, steady, deliberate.

Never running. Never speaking.

Just close enough to feel its breath.

When the dreamer turns, they see their own face - blank, lifeless, staring.

A mask appears in their trembling hands, its surface shifting with an impossible QR code.

There is no choice. The mask is put on.

Worn. By compulsion.

And then—oblivion.

A fifth of the world wakes up screaming, the ultimate night terror.

Governments scramble, scientists falter, churches overflow with the desperate and the devout.

The nightmare spreads in sync with the Earth’s rotation.

Night after night, more succumb.

The unlucky few who resist—refuse to sleep, to acknowledge the dream—find themselves trapped, reliving it endlessly.

Each iteration more suffocating, more real. Until they break.

Society fractures. Cults rise, worshipping the shadow figure as a harbinger of transformation.

Others embrace chaos, driven by urges they once buried.

Sleep becomes a terror no one can escape - not even those who force themselves to stay awake, their minds unraveling under the weight of mental and emotional exhaustion.

But then, as suddenly as it began, it stops.

Days pass. No nightmares. No dreams at all. For anybody.

Silent but broken sleep stretches into weeks. Fear gives way to something worse - anticipation.

Then, a broadcast. Every screen, every device. Every billboard. Not through a dream, but reality itself.

Vincent Drax appears. His voice is calm. Measured.

“The first phase is complete.”

“Most have seen their own shadow.”

“Now, I will show them mine…”