The discharge had not started yet.
That was the strange part.
The monitor was off.
The electrodes rested on the table.
No cables were connected.
And yet I found the record.
It had not been there the night before.
I am almost certain.
It was a small file.
No name.
No date.
I opened it.
There was only one line.
“You already felt the second discharge.”
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Not because it was difficult to understand.
Because it was impossible.
There had not been a first one yet.
I looked at the electrodes.
They remained motionless.
So did the room.
Only the file seemed to move forward.
I closed the window.
When I opened it again there was a second line.
I heard no keyboard.
I saw no modification.
It simply appeared.
“The first one was the one you didn’t notice.”
I stared at the screen.
Trying to remember.
For a few seconds I thought I had found the explanation.
Maybe I was confusing days.
Maybe I had forgotten a session.
Maybe.
Then I found the photograph.
It showed the table.
The electrodes.
The lime-covered wall.
Everything was identical.
Except for one detail.
There was a hand in the image.
My hand.
Holding a cable.
I had not touched it yet.
That was what disturbed me first.
Not the photograph.
The familiarity.
Because I recognized the posture immediately.
As if I remembered being there.
As if the body had arrived before memory.
I opened the file properties.
The timestamp belonged forty minutes in the future.
I closed the folder.
I opened it again.
Now there were two files.
The second one had a name.
“AFTER THE CONTRACTION”
I did not open it.
First I looked at my arm.
Then at the photograph.
Then at the cable.
The muscle tightened.
Only once.
Briefly.
Enough.
There was no current.
The monitor was still off.
Yet the photograph had changed.
Now it showed the exact moment of the movement.
As if it had been waiting.
I opened the second file.
Inside I found another line.
“The discharge was never important.”
Nothing else.
I searched for the familiar sentence.
The one that always appeared.
The one I had expected for weeks.
It wasn’t there.
I kept searching.
I checked above.
I checked below.
I reopened both files.
Nothing.
For the first time, the absence was worse than the presence.
Then a third folder appeared.
I heard no sound.
I saw no file being created.
It was simply there.
Its name was short.
“YOU NOTICED ITS ABSENCE”
Inside was a screenshot.
My current screen.
The difference seemed minimal.
Until I looked at the lower corner.
There was an open window.
A window that did not yet exist.
Its title read:
“THE FIRST TIME YOU THOUGHT THE CURRENT WAS THE MYSTERY”
I have to move my neck…
