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.
"You opened it," the past Leo said. His voice was hollow, like it traveled through water. Download- Xxxx -18-.mov -1.1 MB-
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.
Leo stared at the blinking cursor. The download window was frozen at the last byte: "Download - XXXX -18-.mov -1.1 MB - Complete." He hadn't ordered this download
He double-clicked.
"Now I'm in here with you."
On screen, his past self turned slowly and looked directly into the lens—a lens that shouldn't have existed in that room.
Then, from his current laptop's speakers—a whisper, not from the video, but from his own microphone: It was him
Leo slammed the spacebar. The video paused on a frozen frame of his own younger face, mouth open in a silent scream.