TW: Mentions of prejudice, violence, trauma, and parental neglect.

Brad Walter was brought into this world in 1987, on a rainy evening.

The first and only child of the influential Walter couple, born with big enough stature to make any father’s eyes water with pride.

The delivery was particularly rough on his mother, who almost lost her life in the process, but Mr. Walter could finally sigh in relief when it was over:

“Only one of us is weak”, said his mind; 

“You’re so brave, darling”, said his mouth.

Provided with only the best cooks and personal trainers, Brad grew up being generally the tallest, strongest and most handsome kid in any room. He made sure of that.

Provided with only the wisest advice of his father, he learned to “pretend very well that aberrations of any kind are also human beings”, acting against them only in small, trusted circles.

And finally, from the scarce words of his mother, who held a resentment against him he couldn’t place, he learned nothing; But inferred he should talk smoothly and pretend to love the girls he fucked in the parking lots, sometimes a little too harshly.

“Sorry, love. Didn’t mean to bruise you. You’re so brave”.

Brad was never the brightest but at the age of 23, as if it had always belonged to him, was given a position in one of his father’s technology companies, in customer service.

Make no mistake, he hardly ever showed up.

The fake job title was planned to change every year to a higher position, in order to justify the fact that he’d be made CEO by the age of 30.

On some of the rare occasions he was in the office, however, he met Kyle.

Kyle, “Kay” for the exactly one friend he had in the office, was born in 1990, on a pleasant dawn.

A small child raised by his grandparents, since his parents “still had a lot to see of this world to be stuck here”.

His grandmother taught him how to take care of himself, play the piano, curse and smoke.

His grandfather taught him how to draw, both a picture and a knife.

Kyle never cared much about how he looked in comparison to other kids. A self-customized wardrobe and personal sketchbook was how he felt comfortable in both his own and the outside world.

That’s why he often struggled to make friends; And also why Brad hated him from the very moment they met.

Kyle was a loser, one of the many “aberrations” Brad had a hard time pretending to like.

Brad thought he hated Kyle because he was weak, or weird, but the truth was:  Kyle transpired a kind of freedom and power he knew he'd never have, and it made him viciously jealous .

On the night of April 14th, 2010, Brad happened to wander by when only Kyle was in the office, preparing to close.

His eyes glinted with this heaven-sent opportunity: he grabbed one of the hammers from the reforming area in the back and started pretending to chase Kyle, making loud noises and laughing.

Kyle laughed at first but, as the play-chase stretched for longer and longer, began to worry. Quickly passing by his own table, Kay was able to grab his company phone, beginning to dial 911.

Realizing what was happening, Brad started meaning his threats, easily catching his colleague.

Every facade Brad has ever put on was down, and he was loving the sensation. Seeing his prey cornered and afraid was now the ultimate definition of pleasure for him.

The world was almost his again, almost rid of some of its filth.

And every bit of hate Brad has ever pushed down his own throat traveled to his hand, which clenched around the hammer.

And he ended Kyle’s life in one swing.

- Possible conclusions -

Version one - Kyle as a conscious spirit - Endings five, six and seven

Doing justice to not being very smart, Brad decides to bury Kyle’s body in the office’s backyard and get rid of any evidence that’d link his colleague’s disappearance to him. He uses neither his father’s connections nor his lack of morals to get assistance in order to make the situation go away.

For a few weeks, enraged by the sheer cruelty of his murderer, Kyle’s spirit begins haunting Brad and his teammates, both in and outside of the systems of EXSP-tech, challenging their sanity and Brad’s impeccable image towards others (Ending five: Who are you hiding from, Brad? and Ending six: Did you miss him?).

This goes on until his body is inevitably found (as seen in Ending seven: How not to get away with murder).

Version two - Kyle as an oblivious spirit - Endings one and two

The conditions of his death are so traumatic that, similarly to what can happen to a trauma victim in life, Kyle unwillingly suppresses several memories linked to this episode and to himself, proceeding to exist in a looped fantasy in which he’s still alive, for the several years that follow.

This loop can be broken by a hired medium (or exorcist, if you will) who uses his abilities to understand Kyle’s self-made reality and employs an actual device to interact with the spirit’s imaginary one, with the help of his assistant, Christine (Ending one: The medium). 

The duo was hired by Exsp-tech itself, since Kyle's imaginary working shifts would interfere with the physical plane, causing several features to malfunction.

Another available way to see this loop end is through Kyle slowly remembering his death and using part of his conscience to talk to himself, in a process similar to dissociation. He uses the memory of his grandmother to finally break the loop by forcing himself to visit the house she left behind, with furniture and all, after he was killed (Ending two: It is I who is dead).

Both scenarios take several tries prior to succeeding, causing kyle to refer to them as “One of those weird dreams again, great”

Extra - Endings three and four

• You experience one of Kyle’s failed attempts to recover awareness of the situation in Ending three: Well, that was odd
• Ending four: Every tech's favorite feature is a mock ending in which restarting the device solves every above-mentioned problem and makes the world a beautiful place.