His heart hammered against his ribs. He didn't remember anyone being in the room. He didn't remember the air turning this cold.

Elias froze. In the video, he could see himself sitting at his desk, staring at his screen, just as he was doing now. But there was a three-second delay. He watched his past self reach for a glass of water.

He didn't turn around. He couldn't. He just watched the video as the shadow reached out a hand—long, grey, and translucent—and clicked "Record" on the video call interface. The video ended.

The screen stayed black for ten seconds. Then, the low-light camera grain flickered to life. It wasn't Leo’s face. It was his desk, cluttered with coffee mugs and half-finished circuit boards. In the background, the video call window on Leo’s laptop was visible.

On the video, the shadow leaned down, whispering into the ear of the Elias on camera. In the present, Elias felt a cold puff of air hit his neck.

The file sat on Elias’s desktop, a stark white icon labeled .