Don't Blink!

Live Feed

"Henry, look!" Ellie showed him something on her phone. On the screen was a live feed of themselves on a newly installed surveillance camera. "It's us! Look!"

"Cool!" Henry replied exuberantly.

"Say hi!"

Henry waved his hands above his head while checking if the Henry on the screen would do the same. He did. He did the exact same thing. But there was a little bit of delay. A strike of lag.

"Is it already broken?" Ellie said impatiently.

Henry had his hands in his pockets now, dumbfounded, as his hands on the screen kept on waving.

A static sound shrieked and the feed went back to normal. Henry had his hands in his pockets and Ellie was sitting on the couch.

"Oh, there you go," Ellie said, holding her phone and proceeding to explore more options. Likewise, Henry wanted to try some more experiments. He looked up to the surveillance camera on the corner of the ceiling and immediately looked back to the screen — checking if he would catch himself looking at the camera. He did it a few times, facing the camera and looking at the screen. But the Henry on the live feed did nothing.

"What are you doing?" Ellie chuckled.

"It doesn't do what I do, why is that?

"Uh, yeah." It's Ellie's turn to raise her hand and Ellie on the screen also raised her hand. "Seems fine to me, maybe it's just lag."

"Where did you buy this thing anyway?"

"Nowhere, I got it from a store but I didn't buy it, the seller gave it to me."

"Ah, that's why it's bonkers."

Henry continued testing the live coverage of him and his sister until it lagged again. Now it stopped on the frame where Henry was looking directly at the camera.

"The seller said whoever owns this will be given a good favor or a bad favor," Ellie explained. "But I think bad favor is a contradiction. So I didn't mind."

"Yeah, yeah, favor, whatever." Henry only had his attention on the feed and was getting irritated by the minute. Another static screeched and the feed changed back to normal.

Soon, the initial interest of both of them diminished. Henry decided to go to his room leaving Ellie still on the watch. But suddenly, she said, "Henry, wait!"

Henry stopped and turned around, curiously waiting for what Ellie had to say.

"Why is it that you're going the wrong way here at the feed? Come here."

"I don't know, that's your thing," he complained, walking towards her.

"You should be going that way to your room but here you went to the kitchen. See."

"I told you it's bonkers."

Again, the static sound and the feed reversed back to when Henry walked away from Ellie several times, over and over.

"Maybe it's mirrored," Henry said, "Give it to me." Ellie didn't. She was sweating now.

"Then I should be facing that way," she said, "But no, you're the only one who went the wrong way."

Another static and the feed was back to normal. "Try going that way," Ellie commanded. Henry scratched his head following her sister's order.

"Try that way."

"You're a pain in the ass."

"He went the other way," Ellie mumbled to herself. "Go to your room," and Henry grudgingly do so.

"You went to the kitchen again!" Ellie yelled. "Now come back!"

Henry groaned as he returned, "What's up with that thing?"

"Henry," Ellie looked at him, "Why are you holding a knife?"

"I'm not holding anything."

"No, here you're holding a knife — here on the feed."

"What? Are you crazy!" Henry squinted his eyes and looked closely at the screen. Aside from him not looking at the screen, as he should be doing, he was indeed holding a knife.

"What's happening Ellie?" Henry asked sardonically. "Is this a joke?"

"No, it's creeping me out, man. Should we turn it off?"

"No, leave it on, I want to see what happens."

"I think we should."

"No, you always do these kind of pranks even if it's not funny." Henry snatched away Ellie's phone from her and watched the live feed. Then he saw himself raising the knife above his head and stabbing it to Ellie's neck in the feed. "How did you edit this?"

Over the frame of the phone, no answer came back to him. Only his sister lying lifeless on the couch, eyes with shock and spilling blood. In complete terror, Henry looked back to the screen but the Henry inside it grimly smiled at him as if he had just given him a favor.