He clicked.

He checked his friend list. Online count: 0. Status: "Kael is in a place you cannot reach."

"Welcome to the Emporium's collection," she wrote. "You wanted to see what others couldn't. Now no one sees you. Don't worry—you'll still feel everything. Every ignored message. Every passed-through hug. Every party you stand in the middle of, screaming."

His avatar shimmered. The cloak wrapped around him, but the effect wasn't visual—it was behavioral . The moment he returned to a busy public room, he noticed something wrong. People's avatars walked through him. No collision. No "Excuse me." Their chat logs scrolled by, but when he typed "Hello?" the text appeared only to him. No one replied.

Kael tried to create a new account. The site returned an error: "Email already associated with an active spectral identity. Please contact support."

Panic set in. He tried to teleport to a friend's apartment. Denied. Tried to remove the outfit. The inventory screen glitched, showing the cloak's name over and over, scrolling faster until it crashed the client.

A new IM popped up. From Lilith_Veil. Last login: Now.

The room loaded in total darkness, which was impossible. IMVU rooms always had a default skybox. Then, one by one, candelabras flickered to life, illuminating velvet mannequins with no faces. There were no chat bubbles, no gestures, no "Top Products" banner. Just a single pedestal in the center, holding a floating outfit tag.