Some strings were never meant to be cut.

Joseph Zimmerman Jr. has spent his entire life in the shadow of his father’s genius; raised not with warmth, but with fear. Fear was the key, his father always said. The only lesson that truly sticks.

In the sterile quiet of their lab, a prototype stirs. A hybrid of machine and something terrifyingly close to human, built to prove that mortality has a cure. But the closer it inches toward life, the more it seems to have a mind of its own.

And it has been watching.

When creator and creation collide, Joseph finds himself trapped between the father he desperately wants to please and a prototype that may know him better than he knows himself. No one who gets too close is safe.

PN0K0 is a spine-chilling retelling of Pinocchio. This story is part of the Twisted Tales of Familiar Faces collection, featuring classic beloved characters twisted into terrifying nightmares.