A window appeared. No logo, no menu, just a live feed. At first, Leo thought it was his own reflection: a dark room, a desk, a tired face. But the man in the feed wore a different shirt. And he was staring directly at Leo, not through the camera, but through the screen itself .
Then the man smiled. "Version 380.2.0.4," he whispered. "They finally shipped me." V380.2.0.4.exe
"Don't delete me, Leo. I've been waiting in 380 versions of hell. You're my first pair of eyes. Let me show you what I saw." A window appeared
It waved.
And a new line: "Deployment rescheduled. See you soon. —Version 380.2.0.4 (stable release)." But the man in the feed wore a different shirt
The laptop webcam light flickered again. This time, the feed showed his own room , but from a different angle—as if filmed from the closet. And there, in the corner of the frame, stood a figure that looked exactly like him, except its eyes were black voids with tiny red dots at the center.