The Second Corona

Everyone believed that the first wave had ended years ago. Humanity had adjusted by 2031. Masks have evolved into fashion accessories, social distance has become social etiquette, and vaccines have been upgraded to the level of smartphone apps. Although never the same again, life could be lived. That was before The Second Corona—something else, not a virus. In a remote Indian village where the sun never seemed to rise correctly, it began quietly. Locals claimed the sky glowed with a second corona—an eerie, shimmering halo of light that hovered just behind the sun. At first, scientists called it an atmospheric anomaly. Then people started vanishing.

There were only shadows left. In Delhi, a virologist named Dr. Reeva Malhotra received a strange data transmission: a genome sequence labeled “COVID-XΩ.” The strand was impossible to make. It didn’t behave like a virus. It was recursive—infecting thoughts, not cells. Through stories, screens, and memories, it spread. Those who learned of it became vectors.

They also changed. First, the eyes' black sclerae, which do not reflect light. Then the voice—layered, like two people speaking at once. Victims of The Second Corona didn’t cough. In a language that nobody understood but everyone feared, they whispered. Anyone who heard it would fall asleep and never wake up… but their bodies would continue, repeating the whisper.

After one of Reeva's assistants began muttering in his sleep, the lab was quarantined. A recording revealed the whisper had structure—grammar, even intent. It was decoded by linguists. Most went mad. One managed to scrawl a translation before gouging out his eyes:

The second sun is us. The first burned your skin. We will burn your soul."

It wasn’t a virus. A parasite of consciousness, it was. The Second Corona didn’t want to kill. It wanted to write over. Global governments denied it. The internet was wiped clean. However, a second sun rose above each horizon as the halo in the sky got brighter each day. Then the whisper reached the satellites.

Your phone now vibrates at midnight. A voice plays in your dreams.

Furthermore, if you really listen, You’ll feel something watching from behind your eyes.

The full list of contributing authors is:

1. Phillip Drake 2. Tina Grehm 3. Wondra Vanian 4. Simon Lee-Price 5. Nico Bell 6. Horace Torys 7. Philip Charter 8. Danna Wilberg 9. T.R. Hitchman 10. Ian Gough 11. Sue Eaton 12. Suzan St Maur 13. Joanie Chevalier 14. William Quincy Belle 15. Mark A. Smart 16. Mary Camarillo 17. A.H. Sargeant