Download- Xxxx -18-.mov -1.1 Mb- -

"Now I'm in here with you."

The file name was the problem. The "XXXX" wasn't a placeholder. It was four actual X's, like a censored curse word. The "18" suggested an age, or a number. And ".mov" meant video.

The video was grainy, shot from a high corner of a room he almost recognized—his own living room, but from three apartments ago. The time stamp read 18:00:00 .

For a second, nothing. Then QuickTime player opened, black and hungry. Download- Xxxx -18-.mov -1.1 MB-

Leo stared at the blinking cursor. The download window was frozen at the last byte: "Download - XXXX -18-.mov -1.1 MB - Complete."

The file size on his desktop blinked. It now read: 2.2 MB .

Leo slammed the spacebar. The video paused on a frozen frame of his own younger face, mouth open in a silent scream. "Now I'm in here with you

He double-clicked.

His cursor hovered over the folder. His gut said delete . But the 1.1 MB nagged at him. Too small for a movie. Too large for a text file. It was the size of a single, compressed image… or a ghost.

Then, from his current laptop's speakers—a whisper, not from the video, but from his own microphone: The "18" suggested an age, or a number

He hadn't ordered this download. He hadn't even clicked a link.

A figure sat in the old blue armchair, back to the camera. It was him. Younger. He watched his past self type frantically on a laptop, then stop.

On screen, his past self turned slowly and looked directly into the lens—a lens that shouldn't have existed in that room.

"You opened it," the past Leo said. His voice was hollow, like it traveled through water.