- - — - - - - Private Eyes Spd-016 -4-5

Then it spoke. “You’re the one who’s been following the pattern.” His own voice. But hollow. Unpracticed.

Marlow pulled the building’s history. Apartment 4B. On the fifth of April, at 4:05, the previous tenant had reported a “leak in the walls”—not water, but sound . The echo of a conversation happening four minutes in the future. - - - - - - Private Eyes SPD-016 -4-5

The reflection slid a key across the glass—a physical key, impossible, clattering to the floor on Marlow’s side. Etched on it: . Then it spoke

He sat in that same room now, watching his watch. 4:04. The air smelled of burnt coffee and wrongness. His reflection in the dark window didn’t blink when he did. Unpracticed

wasn’t a time. It was a pattern.

He didn’t check his watch. He already knew the time.