His hands trembling, he plugged in his guitar. He tapped the top of the AudioBox. The green “Signal” LED flickered. He strummed a G chord.

Leo didn't breathe. He opened his DAW. He clicked “Audio Device Setup.”

Desperate, he followed the ritual. He opened Device Manager, right-clicked the yellow-triangled corpse of the AudioBox, and clicked Uninstall. He pulled the USB cord. He counted. One Mississippi, two Mississippi… all the way to forty-seven.

Tonight, however, was different. He had found a forum post from 2014. A ghost in the machine named “xX_StudioRat_Xx” had written: “Uninstall the device. Unplug it. Count to 47. Plug it into the LEFT port, not the right.”