A man is sitting there. Dark hair, falling just above his eyes. A loose, gray t-shirt. His head is tilted slightly forward, his posture slack, like he’s half-asleep or deeply bored. The only movement is the slow rise and fall of his shoulders.

The chat on the side of the screen fills for a few seconds with greetings and question marks. Then, one by one, the viewer count begins to drop.

You stay. The viewer count settles at a single digit.

Minutes pass in silence. The man on screen doesn’t move. He doesn’t look at the camera. He just exists in the frame, a still life in the dim light. Then, his eyes—dark and sharp—flick toward the chat log for the first time. They stop.

Your username sits there, alone in the recent viewers list.

The stream cuts. The screen goes black, replaced by the generic ‘stream has ended’ message.

One minute later, your phone vibrates on the desk beside you. A single notification. Message from: Unknown Number.