Chapter Text
A dull green glow reflects off a spinning coin. Its metallic buzz cuts through the room’s layered hum: the whoosh of a fan, the soft whir of computers, the creak of a leather chair.
Flick. Swish.
Flick. Swish.
The man’s fingers keep the coin alive, spinning on the tabletop.
His eyes don’t look at the coin, but toward multiple screens casting a sickly green light. Each one flashes a different scene (a hallway, a street, a roller rink, a dining room) changing too fast to focus. A soft beeping draws his attention to one of the lower screens.
He spots them.
On the screen, a girl walks down a sidewalk, head lowered. A coin clenched in her hand, identical to the one spinning beneath the man’s fingers. She looks up, somehow finding the hidden camera mounted to the side of the house.
The man smirks.
He pushes back his chair, stands, and slips through the single door, leaving behind the girl staring at the unseen camera.
The coin continues to spin.
Its metal hums against the tabletop, wobbling as it slows. It tilts, spirals once, and clatters to a stop, face up.
For a moment, the stamped year catches the light in a strange green shimmer: 0240
The glow fades. The room falls quiet.
Somewhere beyond the walls, a different humming begins.