confusion

Episode 2:The Missing Ten Minutes

PRIDE POV

The woman on the security footage raised her blood-covered finger to her lips.

Shhh.

Then the screen went black.

For a moment, no one in the office moved. The entire floor remained silent until the computers suddenly restarted at the same time.

The agents around us continued taking calls as if nothing had happened.

Did they not see it?

I turned toward Anna. She was still staring at me, her face pale.

“You saw that too, right?” I asked.

Instead of answering, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the operations floor.

“Anna, where are we going?”

“Somewhere without cameras.”

Her grip tightened as she led me into the emergency stairwell. The heavy door slammed shut behind us, silencing the noise from the office.

Anna immediately stepped away from me.

“What happened last night?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Stop saying that.”

“I’m telling the truth!”

“Then explain how you knew about my necklace.”

I opened my belt bag and pulled it out.

Anna’s eyes widened.

“Where did you get that?”

“It was in my apartment when I woke up.”

“That’s impossible.” Her voice began to shake. “I was wearing it when you asked me to meet you here last night.”

My chest tightened.

“I asked you to come here?”

“You said someone had been following you. You sounded terrified.”

A sharp pain pulsed behind my eyes.

The stairwell disappeared.

For a moment, I was somewhere else.

Anna stood in a dark office, holding the silver necklace around her neck.

“Pride, put the knife down.”

I looked at my hand.

A blade glimmered between my fingers.

Then the memory vanished.

I found myself on the stairwell floor, gasping for air.

Anna was crouched several feet away from me.

“What did you remember?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

“You’re lying.”

Before I could respond, my phone vibrated.

A new video had been sent from my own number.

The timestamp read 3:07 a.m.

I pressed play.

The video showed me sitting alone at my desk the previous night. My clothes were clean, and there was no blood anywhere.

I looked directly into the camera.

“If I forget again, Anna knows where I hid the body.”

Anna backed toward the stairwell door.

I slowly looked up at her.

“What body?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

My phone vibrated again.

Another video appeared.

This one had been recorded ten minutes later.

3:17 a.m.

I pressed play.

Anna was lying motionless on the office floor.

But Anna was standing right in front of me.

I looked from the screen to her face.

“If that’s you…” I whispered, “then who are you?”

The lights in the stairwell went out.

In the darkness, Anna began to laugh.

It was the same laugh I had heard on the phone.