Chapter 4: Time.

Ren woke up more energetic than usual. He even beat the alarm clock.

His face showed a slight trace of happiness, as if all the problems from the day before had been left behind, turned into a bad dream.

He looked out the window and the snow was still falling endlessly.

He hadn’t noticed before, but it had never snowed this many days in a row. Or at least, he didn’t remember it. Even though it was the middle of December, he had never stopped to think about it.

This time, without rushing so much, he happily changed in front of the mirror while getting ready for another day at the office.

Today he wouldn’t let anything or anyone ruin his day.

He would make sure everything stayed under control, the way it should be.

When he arrived at the office, he stopped for a moment in front of the vending machine. He couldn’t start the morning without his usual energy drink.

He placed the can on his desk while stretching back in his chair. The warm office air wrapped around him like never before.

He stretched his fingers, like a pianist, ready to play a melody with his mechanical keyboard.

"Good morning, Takahashi. You’re early. I see you’re in a good mood today."

Mr. Nomura walked in with his coat in hand, like usual.

"Good morning, boss. Let’s just say I have a feeling today will be a good day."

His boss looked out the window in disbelief, as the snow fell even harder.

"I wish the weather showed the same optimism you have…"

Before heading to his office, Nomura turned around.

"Oh, and don’t forget that at 12 we have a team meeting to review the final code."

Ren’s face turned confused.

"Another meeting?" he asked, in disbelief.

Nomura turned back to him, puzzled.

"What do you mean?"

"It’s just that yesterday we had a meeting in your office and reviewed everyone’s progress…"

"That must be your imagination. There wasn’t any meeting yesterday," his boss replied. "I told you not to stay up late programming."

"Don’t forget to email me your part of the code," he added before leaving.

"Y… yes… I’ll send it in a moment."

Ren began to feel pressure in his chest. Breathing became heavier and heavier. Even the office seemed to shrink around him.

As he turned on his computer, his coworkers started arriving one after another.

"This can’t be… I clearly remember someone deleting my code."

"I couldn’t fix it yesterday."

His worst nightmare was beginning to take shape.

His face, usually calm, now showed a disturbing and growing fear.

"Morning, buddy."

A pat on the back from Fujimoto pulled him out of the shock he was in, almost making him jump from the contact.

"Are you okay? Nervous about the meeting?" the tester continued.

"No… I…" he tried not to look weak under the curious gazes of the others. "I think I didn’t sleep enough…"

He looked back at the line of code, everything was there nothing was missing, nothing had been deleted.

But how was that possible? Had he imagined everything?

It couldn’t be. He didn’t believe someone like Nomura would be an accomplice to his coworkers, he didn’t seem like that kind of man.

Then his eyes landed on the cut on his finger. The gauze he had put on was still there.

He slowly removed it and, underneath, the cut he had made the day before was still there.

"Are you okay?"

Fujimoto’s words brought him back to reality.

He quickly stood up from his seat and, with a forced smile, looked at him.

"Yes, yes. Meeting at 12. I’ve got it," he replied, standing up in a hurry as he headed to the restroom.

His coworker only watched him walk away, like a scared prey.

The meeting happened just as he remembered it, only this time there were no quiet laughs. His code was perfect. But even so, he still had that déjà vu feeling.

Maybe the extra work was eating him alive, or maybe it was the holidays getting close.

There was only one easy and quick way to check if all of that had been real.

His laptop was the key.

He slowly opened his briefcase, hoping everything had just been a trick of his mind.

With every second, his heart beat harder.

His pulse sped up even more when he saw that envelope. He couldn’t stop thinking it was the culprit. A bad omen wrapped in brown paper and that red seal… he knew he had seen it somewhere before.

He pushed those thoughts aside and, carefully, opened the laptop lid.

His skin crawled.

The screen was still broken.

He looked up at his coworkers. None of them took their eyes off their monitors. To him, they were all mediocre workers who only did the bare minimum.

Determined to see what was inside the envelope, he took it in his hands and slowly stood up from his seat.

"I’m stepping out for a moment," he said out loud.

As expected, he got no response.

He simply headed to the elevator and then to the fifth floor. To no one’s surprise, the recreational area was empty.

Many times he wondered if anyone else even worked in that building. Twenty floors, and he almost never ran into employees from other levels. Even the cafeteria closed after 6:00 PM.

Of course, he knew no one stayed until three in the morning like he did, but… what about the rest of the day?

"Does no one get stressed in this place? Is everyone glued to their monitors? Does anyone actually work in this building?"

Just thinking that there were no other workers disturbed him. But that couldn’t be true.

Most likely, he just overlooked them, ignored them when he saw them.

That was more believable than never running into anyone in the elevators, or a company that big running with only a handful of employees.

None of that mattered right now.

He sat in the farthest corner of the cafeteria.

His mind was full of doubts. He didn’t even care anymore about the thought of being fired.

He carefully removed the seal.

When he finally saw the inside of that mysterious envelope, his face filled with even more doubts than before.

He slowly took out its contents.

A long folder, what seemed to be leather, with several burned edges. His hand ran over it carefully, but nothing came to his mind.

He opened it gently, since the inside seemed stuck together, as if it had stayed closed for years.

Could it contain some important document?

To his surprise, it was empty.

Then, golden embroidery inside caught his attention. He ran his fingers over it, trying to clean the dark stain covering it.

With every movement, a faint smell of ash came off, and his fingers turned black.

Finally, he could read it.

Ren Takahashi, written in golden letters.

His face showed slight discomfort… but soon, the fear faded.

Someone had been digging through his trash. Because that was what it was: an old, forgotten folder, something he had probably thrown away a long time ago.

"Those bastards… I knew they were playing a prank on me," he muttered.

He stood up, outraged. He didn’t think someone would go that far just for a joke, digging through his trash.

As he passed by a bin, he threw the envelope with the folder inside. After all, it was nothing more than trash.

"I worried for nothing…"

"I’d better stop wasting time and get back to my desk."

Without looking back, he grabbed an energy drink from the machine and returned to his office, leaving that bitter moment behind.