Chapter 1 of my personal passion project, a full-length paranormal romance novel. The story follows Violetta Stelle, a normal woman with a typical office job in a publishing office, who meets Cosmo, the glitchy game entity Via saw in a scary gameplay video, and he’s somehow hopped through realities and now is trying his best to woo her…in his own weird and unhinged ways. Over time and through a few hijinks, the pair do grow a lot closer and Violetta does end up falling for Cosmo despite her better judgement. Now they must navigate being such an odd couple in this mundane yet chaotic world. This is a personal project and thus has not been published anywhere yet but began work on February 2025 and is currently still in production now.

Life is a slow thing. At least, to the average person like me and I’m assuming you. I wake up tired as I always am from the day before, yawning and rubbing my eyes as I reach my glasses. The black pair of follicles now resting on my nose bridge, I drag myself out of my bed and head straight to the bathroom to freshen up. Spending a moment there always helps me feel a bit more aware so now it’s time to get dressed for work. Looking blankly through my closet, I pull out a solid colored long sleeved purple blouse and a pair of black of dress pants. Typical color combo of mine, something comfortable and safe to me. I throw the outfit on along with a cozy beige cardigan. I tie my hair into a low ponytail like I do most days unless I get lazy and leave it out. Sigh….time to eat some breakfast (which most of the time is cereal), and head out to my office job as a publishing editor. 

How mundane, some would think. But, honestly, I don’t mind the work itself so much as the people I have to share an office space with. Some people are clearly better than others but…

It’s another day in this publishing office where it seems like everyone wanted to leave, which I can’t say I don’t understand. Sighing, the never ending clack of my keyboard is all I hear guided by the drowsy background chatter of my co-workers around me. My brain begins to doze off until I hear a palm hit my wooden desk accompanied by the harsh voice of my boss, Zane Whittaker, a man with what seems like a permanent unreadable expression on his face. “Stelle,” he states strictly, “You’re dozing off again. This is the 4th time I’ve caught you this week. Is this job a joke to you?” Instinctively straightening up in my chair, I shake my head and apologize to him for what seems like the hundredth time. “O-of course not, sir! Sorry, won’t happen again.” Zane’s sharp blue eyes narrow in an unnerving manner which gives me a chill down my spine. “It better not. Would be a shame to have such a…shapely woman like you have to be removed from this department.” I wanna vomit when he refers to me like that. It’s just demeaning as all hell. 

Watching as his lips contort into a sickening smirk, my organs feel like failing as I see him walk away from my area to go viciously pester some other poor cohort of mine. How I would love to see someone put his pasty ass in his place. Untensing my shoulders, my fingers tirelessly type for the next few hours until my lunch break.

At around 12:30 pm, I finally allow myself to get up from my work chair and turn to leave my desk before getting stopped by one of the only other co-workers around my age: Carissa Lovett. “Oh my gosh, Via! I saw Mr. Whittaker at your desk earlier. He looked like he was totally checking you out.” I witnessed her emerald green eyes sparkle waiting for some type of answer from me. 20, college intern, of course she’d think like that. Not that I feel any less repulsed at her statement. As subtly as possible, I roll my eyes and retort flatly with hands on my hips, “No, he is not checking me out. And even if he was, I would rather die than go on a date with him. Plus, the guy is married. HR will be called.”  

“I know. It’s like, forbidden romance, you know? Just like my novels!” …Right. I shrug passively and manage to squeeze past Carissa in order to make a swift entrance to the breakroom, not wanting to make any more awkward conversation with these people. 

Taking my floral patterned lunchbag out of the communal fridge and securing an empty plastic seat, I whip out my headphones and phone to set up a good video to watch as I munch on my spicy noodles. “UNLEASHING A VIDEO GAME ENTITY?! (Glitchy Mod) (Real!)”. I laugh at the outrageous title, sounds spooky. It’ll do. I click on the video’s thumbnail and let it play, slurping down my noodles as I watch with an expectant look. 

The guy in the video explains the game like it’s real, clearly part of some illusion to trick some gullible 8 year olds on their crusty tablets into believing in its existence. Giggling at the utter ridiculousness on my screen, I suddenly feel a firm hand on my shoulder and that familiar stern voice I’ve come to hate. “Ms. Stelle, is that a video game?” Zane sneered as he looked down on me, that idiotic look of superiority plastered on his face as he continued to pick at me. “Surely a woman such as yourself would engage in more meaningful activities than that. It’s quite childish.” Of course this guy has to ruin the only good part of my work day. “It’s not childish”, I protest with a sigh, “Besides, everyone likes what they like.” He scoffs and lets his hand fall behind his back and shakes his head like some disappointed dad who caught his kid smoking. “Oh Ms. Stelle, you truly are such a young soul. One day you’ll grow up. Maybe your mind will finally mature as much as your body.” 

I wanna puke my noodles on him so hard. This fucking creep is 46 years old and still going after a 28 year old woman like he’s still some young stud and not MARRIED already with a kid. As soon as he leaves, I turn back to my video and continue watching to try to flood out his disgusting attempt at flirting with me from my ears. The video plays on and then a jumpscare pops out of nowhere, a lanky humanoid thing with a large unnerving smile and huge eyes that seem like they’re staring into my soul. …Like seriously, deep into my eyes. W-wait, is the video frozen or am I crazy? It’s staring…I…can’t…

“Violetta dear!” Oh great, another grating voice. I turn my head to the sound to see who it is this time. It’s Evelyn Schaeffer, deemed the “office mom” by all the other people in the building. Round glasses shining and a sweet smile that I swear could give me cavities if she really tried, she walked right up to me and tilted her head before speaking again in her almost nauseatingly friendly voice. “Your break ended almost 10 minutes ago. Are you ok? You were staring out at nothing. Pretty freaky.” Laughing sheepishly, I nod and get up from the chair, tossing out my noodle cup and putting my phone back in my pocket. “Sorry. Lost track of time, I guess.” Waving her hand dismissively, she huffs with a motherly tone and puts her other hand on her hip, “Oh, forget it all now. No point in dwelling on it now. Let’s just get back to work.” Nodding once more, I follow Evelyn out of the breakroom and we split off back to our respective desk areas, allowing me to wallow in my new feeling of subtle unnerve. Jesus, what was that thing? I mean. It was just a weird fake video game thing…wasn’t it?

The last few hours drag on until it’s finally 5pm, time to get home. Packing my belongings and heading into the elevator, I can’t seem to get the picture of that…thing from the video out of my head. It’s like it’s haunting my mind. No, no, that’s ridiculous. I’m just overthinking like I always do. I push the button to head to the parking lot and quietly stand as the lift moves down as slow as possible. 

During this agonizingly long ride, just out of my earshot, I swear I can hear a…faint singing voice?? Weird, I don’t think anyone in the building sings, or least not publicly. I decide to ignore the singing and step out of the elevator’s now open door as it settles onto the floor of the parking lot. I locate my car, a sizable black Audi, and climb into it to start my silent drive back to my apartment. Or at least, what would have been quiet if it wasn’t for that faint singing voice again.

Am I just hallucinating or something? What is going on? 

I try to drain out the sound of it by connecting my Spotify to my car’s Bluetooth and playing my own music, starting with “Telephone” by Lady Gaga and Beyonce. At the very least, I can focus on that and not whatever other creepy singing I’m hearing. Arriving at the apartment complex, I kill my car’s engine and hop out of it, walking up the stairs to my place on the third floor (elevator broke down and needs to be fixed), dragging my feet from the exhaustion of doing such an activity. Reaching my destination with a heaving chest, I hear a playful laugh in front of me.

“Still can’t get up the flights without almost dying, can you?” Looking up from the gray carpeted floor, it confirms what I thought: my neighbor, Marsha Hiramitsu. She’s pretty much the opposite of me: tall, skinny, works freely as a tattoo artist. Somehow, despite all that, we ended up not only neighbors but also pretty good friends.  

“Nope, never can.” I huff out as I straighten out my back, hearing it crackle as a consequence of me sitting at a desk for 8 hours. 

“Damn, girl, at this point, you need someone to carry you up the stairs.” 

I scoff, “I highly doubt anyone is gonna want to carry my fat ass up the stairs everyday.” 

“You don’t know that. I’m sure there’s someone out there absolutely praying to get with someone like you, V. More people like big girls than you think.” 

“Maybe that’s true, but I’m probably just unlucky.” 

“Oh, whatever”, Marsha replies with a smirking grin that displays her braces. “You’re too hard on yourself sometimes.” 

“I know, I know. I’ll see you tomorrow, Marsh. I’m tired as hell and I need to flop onto my couch.” 

“Got it. See you later, Stelle.” The split-dye haired woman and I go our separate ways down the hallway, finally letting me be totally alone. As soon as I step inside my apartment, I toss my purse on the couch and plop down next to it, exhaling a long sigh of exhaustion. “Oh my God, finally. …I need a shower.” 

Reluctantly, I drag myself into my bedroom to grab two towels, the large for my body and the smaller one for the hair, before crossing the hall into my bathroom. Dropping my towels on the corner of my porcelain sink, I turn the knobs just below the shower head and let the warm water run on my hand for a moment. I take my hand out of the waterfall and begin to strip down, my clothes tossed onto the closed toilet seat before I climb into the shower and let the stream spray on my bare skin. Humming as I lather my body with a soapy washcloth, that stinking voice creeps its way into my earshot again. “Pretty woman…” My eyes widen to the size of saucers. 

THE HELL WAS THAT?! 

Nearly jumping out of my skin, I turn my shower off and throw my towels on to investigate and maybe get to finally catch that voice. Armed with nothing but my own fists, I step out of the shower and cautiously walk out my bathroom with my head on a swivel so I can locate this weirdo.  

“Hello…? Is someone there?” I asked hesitantly as I tiptoed around my apartment, wondering if it’s too late to make a run for it or not. “I swear to God, if this is some sick joke it’s not funny!” After carefully inspecting every square inch of my apartment, I reluctantly conclude it really must’ve been my imagination and step into my bedroom to find my pajamas. Dropping my towels and hanging them up on a rack on the back of the door, I head over to my tan wooden drawer and pull out a new pair of underwear, pulling it up my thighs before I throw on a huge oversized shirt to wear for the night. Not bothering to dry my hair, I let the black wavy mop air dry as I head to my kitchen to get some food. I sigh as I look in my fridge only being full of ingredients and not a meal, “Damn, I forgot to cook the night before. And I don’t feel like having cereal for dinner. Guess I’ll just order some pizza tonight.” 

Pulling out my phone, I catch something in the blank screen’s reflection: a smile. A very inhuman and unhinged smile… I almost break my neck looking back to try to get a glimpse of whatever it is before I give up and just order my damn pizza. “Yeah, I’ll take a veggie and a supreme please. Oh! And throw in some bread sticks too please. Thanks.” The pizzeria’s caller said 30 minutes. Great. Falling back on my living room couch, I reach for the TV remote and flip between channels before settling on some cooking competition show. “This’ll do.” As my mind numbs itself to the words and clamoring of cooking equipment on my TV screen, soon my pizza arrives as well with a ring to my doorbell. I groan as I had just gotten comfortable but then begrudgingly slide off my couch and go to open my door and tip the person at the door. 

Whipping the door open, I see 2 pizza boxes down with a little bag of bread sticks on them in front of me but… no pizza delivery person? “H-huh?” Where did they go? Did they not want a tip? Odd. Leaning over to pick up the boxes, I hear a shaky breathing in my left ear, “美しい (Utsukushī)~”  

Cue the car screech sound. WHAT?! Straightening right back up, I don’t even look at my surroundings before slamming the door and stiffly scrambling into my kitchen and taking a deep breath. “Ok, this is too weird. What is happening to me? I think I’m going crazy.” As my chest huffed in and out, that goddamn voice revealed itself to me, its sound similar to that of a boy in an echoing room. “Crazy…? Crazy in love maybe.”  

Shaking in my pjs, I grab the nearest knife in my kitchen (a butter knife unfortunately) and wave it around like a madman with paranoia. “Who are you?! How did you get into my house?!” The voice giggles with a child-like innocence in its tone though it doesn’t help the spook factor and the fact I feel like fainting right now.  “Fear not, かわいい女の子 (Kawaī on’nanoko). I’m not gonna hurt you,” the voice giggles once again as I feel it swirling around the room. “Show yourself! I need to know I’m not just hallucinating this.”

“ …Of course.” The sounds stop. For a moment or two, the apartment is eerily silent, apart from my TV still on the baking show. I breathe a sigh of relief, my shoulders relaxing as I slump down onto the floor. “Whew.” All was fine. 

…And then, a big, almost spindly hand places itself on my shoulder, eliciting a sharp gasp as I slowly turn my head and look up. There it was: a tall, lanky humanoid figure with slit cat-like eyes. My eyes widen as it lowers its noodle-like body down to me. “AAAAHH!!” Its hand immediately covers my hand to silence me while I hyperventilate against his huge gloved palm.  “Shhhh…”  Oh, because that helps me feel so much better.

Knocking can instantly be heard from outside my door. “Via, are you ok? I heard you yelling.” God damn it. I smack the inflated hand away and rush to my door, creaking it open and poking my head out sheepishly. She really did rush over here because she’s dressed clad in only a pair of gray booty shorts and a sports bra, really showing off her tattoos on her arms. “Marsha, sorry. Hehe… Y-yeah, no, I’m fine. I just thought I saw a…a mouse in my place. You know how much I hate those things, right?” Commence the awkward stare at her. 

My bracefaced bestie let out a huge sigh of relief and laughed, “Girl, you had me scared for you. I thought there was, like, some crazy psycho.” I shake my head with an exaggerated eye roll and chuckle, “I’m so sorry again. You have a good night now, Marsh.” We both wave to each other as she walks back down the hallway to her apartment before I calmly close the door and take the deepest breath I’ve ever taken.

Upon exhaling, I turn my head and this cartoonish thing is still looking down at me. “Oh ho! That was a close call there. Better be more careful next time. No one likes a Peeping Tom after all!” Clasping my palms together in front of my face, I close my eyes and try to calm myself before I ask, “Who are you? What are you? And how did you get here?” 

“Those are easy questions,” it jeered, “I’m Cosmo, the lovable video game cartoon! I came out of my game to find you! Oh, we’re meant for each other. You’re so beautiful and I know that you’ll love it back in my game! It’ll be the perfect cou–” 

“WOAH! Slow the hell down. This is way too much information at one time. My brain feels fried from it all.” Weary, I soon feel my body being lifted up off the ground and carried like an infant in the arms of their mother, being rocked into a slumber. “ごめん (Gomen), Eva, my dearest. I often forget how fragile humans are.” Cosmo strokes my hair like a child petting a kitten as he continues to rock me slowly in his spaghetti string arms, a strangely comforting feeling. …What am I thinking? This is bonkers! How did this guy get in my place and why does he know my name?

“Ok. Let me get this straight. You are a video game character that somehow escaped your game to try and find me?” He nodded his bulbous head ecstatically, his slit eyes dilating to the size of a tea plate as he looked at me, similar to a cat when you get it high off catnip to make it calm. “Yes, I’ve seen you through your devices time after time. You always looked so pretty~ Hah~”, the lanky creature sighs with hearts in his eyes (literally), nuzzling his surprisingly soft skin on my cheek before he sets me back down on the floor. “I finally found a way to get to you. Granted, I had to ‘dispose’ of some dead weight before I could find a gap in the code to cross the threshold but it was all worth it.” 

“That’s…ominous.” Something about this feels off. This random video game character decided I was good enough to break the laws of reality for? This can’t be real. “L-look, I need time to really let this sink in. Just…let me sleep, ok?” Walking past him towards my bedroom, his height stretched by at least 5 feet and his arms wrap around me like a rubber hose, lifting me in the air once more as he attempts  to soothe me in a soft, melodic voice. 

“どうか、あなたを運んであげてください、愛する人よ。(Dō ka, anata o hakonde agete kudasai, aisuruhito yo). Your short human legs must be so weak.” Bewildered but too stunned to do much else, I huff out a tired sigh and just let him do what he wants. Maybe if I do go to sleep, it’ll all be a weird dream. I mean, why else would there be a video game character that partially speaks Japanese in my house if it wasn’t a dream? Cosmo hauls me over to my bed, unwrapping his arms around me and lays me down on the plush sheets of my bed, tucking me in my large weighted blanket. “おやすみ、愛しい人. (Oyasumi, itoshī hito),” he cooed before flicking off my light and closing my door but…he didn’t leave my room. 

Instead, Cosmo decided that the best thing to do is to STAND AT THE FOOT OF MY BED AND STARE AT ME! Those slit cat eyes do not help my nerves as they slowly sweep the perimeter of my room like the swaying of a grandfather clock, going back and forth on a seemingly endless swivel. “Ummm… Are you gonna be like this all night?” I ask with an uneasy tension in my throat. The eldritch-like cartoon freak doesn’t answer me and simply continues his creepy motions. Guess that answers my question. No choice but to force myself to sleep then. Maybe it really will turn out to be a dream when I wake up for work tomorrow. Reluctantly, I close my eyes and turn over in my bed before succumbing to the exhaustion I completely forgot I had from work. Hopefully I don’t die before the sun breaks through my window again.