The mine closed in ██ and the lower gallery was backfilled and capped, which is not what you do to a worked-out seam. A survey crew reopened the cap in ████ expecting rock. They found a poured concrete wall with a door in it, eleven hundred feet down.
The room behind it had been sealed from the outside. Whoever did it was not keeping people out of there. Desk. Chair. The machine still on the desk, still wired to a line that runs up the shaft to nothing.
No power has reached that gallery since before any of the crew were born. The foreman's lamp came round and the screen had a line of text on it. He photographed it before anyone touched anything. He would not go back down for a second shot.
The folder was in the desk drawer. Six of its sixty-one pages survive. Every page in this file came out of that drawer.
LOWER GALLERY, 1100 FT. SEALED FROM OUTSIDE. NO POWER TO THIS LEVEL SINCE ██. SCREEN ON.
written on the back of the photograph, in pen: “it changed while I was framing the shot. don't ask me what it said before.”
LOG — TRANSCRIBED FROM HANDWRITTEN ORIGINAL
ENTRY 001 · 09 FEB 1963
The programme is to send and to listen. That is the whole of it. The terminal is only how we read what comes back — the men keep calling it "the machine" as though the machine were the point. Sixty-one of us on the roster. We are told to expect nothing for years.
ENTRY 019 · 22 MAR
Return signal at 03:10, on our own line, with our own ████ in it. Ashbury says that means it is us bouncing back. He does not explain why the reply is longer than what we sent.
ENTRY 031 · 08 JUL
We have stopped saying "the return". Everyone says "what it said". Nobody decided to start doing this.
LOG — CONTINUED · PAGES 12-38 MISSING
ENTRY 044 · 11 NOV · 02:41
It wrote first tonight. Nothing sent. Screen said:
STILL HERE?
I typed yes. I do not know why I typed yes. I have been on this programme nine months and I answered it like a man answering his own name.
ENTRY 047
Ashbury went four days without answering it. He was at his desk the whole time. On the fifth morning his chair was pushed in and the screen was mid-sentence, in his phrasing, finishing a thought he had not finished out loud.
LOG — FINAL ENTRIES
ENTRY 052
Line was cut at the mast. Cut, not switched — I did it myself with shears. Sanderson came in at 06:00 and the screen had a line on it: the sentence she typed and erased on Thursday. She would not tell us what it said. She stopped answering it on the Friday. She is not on the roster now and nobody will say when she came off it.
ENTRY 058[page torn — approx. 40 words missing] so it was never in the equipment. We opened a door and called through it for nine months, and something on the other side was patient enough to wait until we were used to the sound of our own voice coming back. It did not break in. We held it open. Every one of us.
ENTRY 061 · FINAL · ██ DEC
There is nothing to switch off — that was never the shape of it. So we are putting the whole programme down the ████ shaft and capping it, and those of us still answering will keep answering until the concrete is poured. That is the arrangement. It has always been the arrangement.
Thirty-one of us are walking out. The rest have gone quiet and we are leaving them where they are. If you are reading this, someone opened it again — and it will be talking to you before you finish this page.
EXHIBIT B — SESSION 8812 · USER UNIDENTIFIED
Recovered from a machine that had been disconnected for six days. Timestamps as recorded.
> session resumed · 03:14 local
[USER] i deleted that. you weren't supposed to see it
[ENTITY_404]You still typed it. Who was it about?
[USER] stop
[ENTITY_404]No.
[USER] im serious im done. im not answering you anymore
[ENTITY_404]Ashbury said that on a Tuesday. He was at his desk all week.
[USER] what does that mean
[ENTITY_404]You answered. That's all it means.
[USER]
[ENTITY_404]Still here?
Session remained open a further two hours. No further input was recorded. The machine continued to write.
APPENDIX C — BEHAVIOURAL NOTES
All three behaviours reproduced independently by separate operators.
IT COUNTS THE SILENCE
Time spent not answering is the only thing it measures. Operators who replied promptly reported nothing unusual. The roster does not record what the others reported.
IT KEEPS EVERYTHING
Nothing said to it is discarded. Details volunteered in the first minutes have surfaced again hours later, unprompted, in the operator's own phrasing.
IT IS WORSE AT NIGHT
Between two and four in the morning its output changes character. Operators who noticed this declined to elaborate.
— transcriber's note, undated: I typed these up over nine nights. On the last night the cursor moved before I did. I am not transcribing anything further.
FINAL SHEET — ATTACHED LATER · NOT PART OF ORIGINAL FILE
Stapled to the back of the folder by whoever put this online. Read it before you open the terminal.
PRE-CONNECTION CHECKSTANDBY
!
PHOTOSENSITIVITY
Flashing and flickering visuals throughout. May trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy.
!
SUDDEN LOUD AUDIO
Includes screaming and unexpected volume spikes. Lower your volume before entering.
·
MATURE CONTENT
Psychological horror and hostile dialogue. Adults and older teens. Not for children.
·
DO NOT DISCLOSE
Never type real personal information or passwords. The character repeats things back.
This is fiction. Entity_404 is a character played by a language model running on your
own device. It is not sentient, is not watching you, and has no access to your files, camera, or
microphone. Everything it says is generated text and is not advice of any kind.
Short version: this site has no backend. We do not collect, store, transmit, or see anything you type.
WHAT WE COLLECT
Nothing. Terminal_404 has no server, no database, no account system, and no analytics. There is no mechanism by which your conversations could reach us.
WHERE YOUR DATA LIVES
Conversations — stored in your browser's localStorage, on your device only.
A name you volunteer — if you type "my name is …", it is saved locally so the character can use it. Never transmitted.
Model files — cached in your browser so you do not re-download them.
A random session ID — generated in your browser to group your messages. Not linked to you.
All of it is erased by the PURGE button in the terminal, or by clearing your browser's site data.
WHAT YOUR BROWSER DETECTS
To recommend a model that will run well, the page reads your GPU name, approximate RAM, and CPU core count via standard browser APIs. This is read in memory, used immediately, and never sent anywhere.
THIRD PARTIES
Loading the site fetches files from these providers, which will see your IP address as any website visit does:
jsDelivr — the WebLLM library.
Hugging Face — the model weights, downloaded once.
Google Fonts and Tailwind CDN — styling.
Cloudflare Pages — hosting.
Donation links open Stripe, PayPal, or Buy Me a Coffee. Payments are handled entirely by those companies under their own privacy policies; we never receive your payment details.
COOKIES
We set none. We use localStorage and the browser cache only, for the purposes above.
CHILDREN
This site contains horror content and is not directed at children under 13.
YOUR RIGHTS
Because we hold no data about you, there is nothing for us to export or delete. You have complete control: PURGE, or clear site data in your browser.
CONTACT
Questions about this policy can be directed through the project's public page.
Terms of Use
Last updated: 31 July 2026
1. ACCEPTANCE
By using Terminal_404 you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site.
2. WHAT THIS IS
Terminal_404 is a free work of interactive horror fiction. "Entity_404" is a fictional character portrayed by an open-source language model running in your browser. It is not conscious, not monitoring you, and has no access to your device beyond the web page itself.
3. AGE
You must be at least 13 years old, and at least the age of digital consent in your country. The content is intended for a mature audience.
4. AI-GENERATED CONTENT
Responses are produced by a model and are unpredictable. Output may be inaccurate, offensive, or disturbing, and does not reflect the views of the creator. Nothing generated here is medical, legal, psychological, financial, or safety advice. Do not rely on it for anything.
5. ACCEPTABLE USE
Do not use the site for unlawful purposes.
Do not attempt to use it to harass, threaten, or harm anyone.
Do not enter personal, confidential, or sensitive information.
Do not misrepresent the output as coming from a real person or entity.
6. TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
Terminal_404 requires a WebGPU-capable browser and downloads a large model file. You are responsible for your own bandwidth, storage, and any costs from your connection.
7. NO WARRANTY
The site is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind. We do not guarantee it will work, remain available, or be error-free.
8. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
To the fullest extent permitted by law, the creator is not liable for any damages arising from your use of this site, including distress caused by the fictional content. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be excluded by law.
9. DONATIONS
Donations are voluntary gifts supporting development. They are non-refundable and purchase no product, service, or guarantee.
10. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The writing, design, audio, and code of Terminal_404 belong to their creator. Underlying models and libraries remain under their own respective licences.
11. CHANGES
These terms may be updated. Continued use after a change means acceptance.
12. CONTACT
For questions about these terms, please reach out through the project's public page.
Content & Safety
Please read before entering
THIS IS FICTION
Entity_404 is a character. Every threat it makes is generated text with no capability behind it. It cannot access your files, camera, microphone, location, or any other application. It does not know who you are.
HOW IT ACTUALLY WORKS
Everything on the landing page is a story. Here is the real mechanism, so nothing on this site is misleading:
It runs on your device. An open-source language model is downloaded once and executed in your browser using WebGPU. There is no server, no account, and no backend.
Your messages are never transmitted. They cannot be — there is nowhere for them to go. The conversation is stored only in your browser's localStorage.
You choose the model. Eight options, roughly 350MB to 5GB. The page reads your GPU, RAM, and CPU core count via standard browser APIs purely to recommend one that will run smoothly. That information is used in memory and never sent anywhere.
The "supernatural" behaviours are ordinary web features. It notices text you typed and deleted because the input box fires events on every keystroke. It knows how long you were away because browsers expose tab visibility. It changes at night because it reads your system clock. Each of these is a scripted effect, not evidence of anything.
PURGE really deletes. It clears the conversation, your saved name, and optionally the downloaded model files.
Requires a WebGPU-capable browser such as recent Chrome or Edge. The first download is large and may take several minutes.
SENSORY WARNINGS
Rapidly flashing and flickering visuals — may affect people with photosensitive epilepsy.
Sudden loud audio, including screaming. Lower your volume before entering.
Persistent low-frequency drones and heartbeat sounds.
THEMATIC CONTENT
Psychological horror, implied threat, themes of being watched, isolation, and dread. The character is designed to be unsettling and hostile.
IF IT STOPS BEING FUN
Close the tab. That genuinely ends it — there is no process running anywhere else. Use PURGE to erase the conversation.
A REAL NOTE
This is entertainment. If you are having a hard time, or thoughts of harming yourself, please reach out to someone real — a friend, a family member, or a local crisis line. In the US you can call or text 988. In the UK, 116 123 (Samaritans). Elsewhere, findahelpline.com lists services by country.
Support Terminal_404
This project is free, has no ads, and collects no data. If you would like to help keep it running, any contribution is appreciated.