Oops!

Chapter One

It was a cool day, not cold nor warm, just cool enough for a light jacket over the top of a t-shirt and jeans kind of day. It was a Saturday and the streets were full of cars and the shopping centre was full of people. It just so happened to be the day that Molly Fletcher decided to go shopping for her brothers birthday present, it was his twentieth birthday on the Sunday and some last minute shopping was required.

The traffic inside the shopping centre was slow paced as she window shopped, she had been in and out of stores all morning and could find nothing to give her dear brother. Her freshly manicured nails tapped against her bag as she walked, the rhythm was in time with her steps as she weaved herself through the crowd, passing crying children in prams and gossiping mothers, who decided the best place for a conversation was the middle of the walkway.

She caught a break, a clearing in the crowd and took quick advantage of it. Three times she tapped her nails against her second-hand bag. She passed a row of benches and took no notice as the man behind the newspaper turned and took notice of her. No one else seemed to see him leave his seat and follow Molly closely. Each corner she turned he turned also, he went the same store that she did and just when Molly wasn't looking slipped an object into her handbag.

Unaware of her stalker Molly shrieked in delight when she finally found something she could wrap and gift to her brother. It was a small gold model of his favourite car and was in the back of a small gift shop, what made it even better was that it was half price, reduced to clear. Molly took it to the counter immediately, when she reached for her purse she pulled out an unfamiliar item and for a moment stopped to consider it.

"Excuse me, are you going to be all day?" snapped the woman behind her.

Molly was slightly shocked and frustrated by the woman's impatience but apologised anyway and put the item back in her bag before retrieving her purse. She made the transaction and then hurried home. Back in her small apartment she placed her brother's gift on the kitchen counter before rummaging through her bag for the item she had seen earlier.

It was a tiny USB drive, one she hadn't seen before. All of her drives had her initials on it, this one had nothing written on it. Curious, she stepped into her bedroom and opened her laptop. Sliding the USB into her computer she waited impatiently for the file to open, inside was a video file. When she clicked on it her computer opened up the movie player and images played across her screen.

There were flashes of colour at first and then photos of landmarks like the Eiffel tower and Big Ben began to show up on the screen. No music played, only static and the distant sound of a man talking, he wasn't saying words, just numbers. Hundreds of jumbled numbers that made no sense. Suddenly everything stopped, the video went black for a few moments before a black and white clip played. She couldn't make out where the video was taken, but it was old grainy footage, possibly from the 1920s, she could tell from the outfits.

When the video ended her computer flashed out and died. Quickly she mashed the keys looking for any sign of life. She pulled out the USB and pushed it aside, she didn't hear it fall to the ground, as she was too busy trying to awaken the dead machine. She jumped off her bed and went to her bag in the kitchen, she pulled out her phone and just as she was about to call her tech savvy brother, a knock sounded on the door. She froze for a moment, no one was due to come over and she hardly had any salesmen since she moved in.

Setting her phone on the bench she moved around the boxes in her tiny living room and opened the door. She left the chain on so her door would only open so far, it opened just enough for her to peer outside. On the other side, in the empty hallway stood a stranger dressed in a sports jacket and jeans, he was tapping his foot impatiently and when the chain rattled his eyes snapped up to look at the small woman behind the white door.