7a15qqf65236.avi Page

“Stop looking at the past and start hiding; I’m almost home.”

The person holding the camera was wearing the exact same sweater Elias was wearing right now—a rare, thrifted wool knit with a snag on the left cuff. Behind the photographer, in the reflection, was the very room Elias was sitting in. But the room in the video was empty of furniture, stripped to the floorboards. 7a15qqf65236.avi

He looked at the corner of his laptop screen. It was today’s date. The time was 1:23 PM. “Stop looking at the past and start hiding;

It wasn't a movie. It was a fixed-angle shot of a windowless room filled with old-fashioned clocks. Hundreds of them. Grandfather clocks, tiny cuckoos, and digital alarms. They weren’t synced; the room was a chaotic battlefield of ticking. He looked at the corner of his laptop screen