Things never used to be like this. I never used to be like this. I was exciting, spontaneous, I tried new things, went to new places. I had a good job that let me support myself, plus a little more to be able to live a life of experience. But ever since the accident that forced me into retirement 4 years ago, I'm none of those things anymore. I'm boring, I'm predictable, I sit at home all day, and the only money I have is the little I had in savings in addition to what the government gives me for disability. I had become what I'd never wanted to be. A creature of habit.

I was never one to be tied down. I didn't get married, didn't have kids. Hell, I made damn sure that there was no way I'd have a kid until I was settled down and knew I was ready. But I never was. Now I wish I'd done those things so that I wasn't so damn lonely in my empty house every day. The only person I have left is my father who lives on the same street as I do. Sure I love him, and I try to spend some time with him, I even used to take him on a couple trips with me before the accident. But now, nothing hurts more than when he insists on bringing up my situation every chance he gets.

He always wants to tell me what I should have done. That he knew something bad was going to happen because I had things too good for too long. That I should have readied myself for the slim chance of being left with nothing, and turning into some kind of ugly troll. That I should have settled down like my friends. That I need to take care of myself like I used to, and leave my house to find someone, anyone, that'll have me. He always has to be right.

So, yeah, excuse me if its a little wrong that I try to spend as little time with my father as possible. At least I try to give him a little bit of my time so he's not too lonely either. I know how terrible it is, and I hate the thought that he's probably been like that ever since Mom died. He became a creature of habit himself when that happened. He took great care of me until I moved out, but he wasn't the same. I guess I followed in his footsteps in a way. You never want to be like your parents, and I tried my best not to. But despite desperate attempts, I was no match for a freak accident and a mind numbing, boring existence. I guess its the same reason my father nags me, he definitely doesn't want me to be like him either.

My friends being busy with their own lives and the families they made doesn't help my situation. We try to hang out every few months, but trying to choose a day while navigating everyone's schedules means that sometimes someone ends up being left out. It's been a long time since the five of us have all been under the same roof together.

A big side effect of being a shut in, as I know many people know, is it is very easy to lose track of what day it is exactly. When you follow the same loose, yet monotonous schedule, every day blends into the next.

Said schedule proceeded as followed: Wake up around noon, use the bathroom, make my tea, give my cat fresh food and water, then eat breakfast (most likely cereal) while watching internet videos. The rest of the day consists of intermittently checking social media, news articles, more internet videos, and whatever videogame I'm currently hooked on. Around eight o'clock I'll eat dinner (usually either delivery or frozen meals) while watching anime for about an hour. I'll then continue with the previous activities until around four in the morning when I go to bed.

The only times that schedule is broken is if I have an appointment with my therapist or doctor. I'll take the same route on public transportation, me not being able to drive properly anymore. The other occasion, and the one I dread most, is when I realize my freezer is empty. Luckily the grocery store I shop at is within walking distance. I'll walk the same route to the store, buy the same food, and return the same route I traveled before. I also had recently become paranoid of someone trying to break into either my house or Dad's, so I installed a security camera at my front door, making sure it was in good position to see Dad's house as well as my front lawn and walkway. I had the feed of the camera up on a dedicated monitor at my computer desk where I spent most, if not all, of my day.

So, yeah, I'm definitely not the interesting person I was before. The only thing that keeps me going is probably anticipation for the new videogame releases, shows, and movies.

There was one day that stood out from the rest, however. I had decided to splurge a bit on myself, and had some Italian food delivered from a local restaurant. I even bought some expensive beer for myself from the store the day before while I was out grocery shopping. All in celebration for the series finale of my favorite sci-fi show that had been airing since the 1960s. There had always been times where people thought it was finally going to end, just for a new season to be announced. This time, however, it was for real. I was heartbroken, but excited. I even threw on my "Bigger on the inside" shirt for the occasion.

It was a little over halfway through the two hour stream. Just as it was to hit its climax, my power went out. I sat there a moment, staring at my blank screen in horror. Of all the times for this to happen! Our city had always boasted at its advancements in infrastructure management and development. A power outage anywhere within city limits was absolutely unheard of for over five years! I'd have to avoid most of my usual websites until I could find a download for the episode whenever my power came back on.

I peered out my front window from my second floor room and searched through the darkness. There were some flashlights through the windows of a few houses. Households trying to find their way around. Dad was outside talking to his elderly neighbor, Dave. Both holding flashlights of their own. Dad's of course had more lumens than was necessary, and shined like a spotlight into the night sky.

Our whole neighborhood must have lost power. That was my initial thought, until I looked up, my eyes following Dad's beam of light into the sky. The skyscrapers of center city, which were usually visible from my house, weren't there. Nothing was, only pitch black darkness and the moon above.

I slipped on my slippers and went out to see Dad. There was an eerie feeling in the air. I'd never seen the city so dark before. Just as I approached Dad, everyone's electricity started to come back, and the street once again filled with light.

We spoke for a few minutes, Dave talked about how weak he'd felt the past couple days, and Dad concocted wild theories about the outage. At least it stopped him from theorizing as to why the Armstrong family down the street suddenly packed into their car and left a week ago. There always has to be some kind of crazy reason things happen according to him, it seems. It can never be something as simple as an accident as a result of the city working on infrastructure so obsessively, or a family going on vacation. Besides, I needed to get back inside and finish my show.

My house was still dark, so I went down to my basement to check the circuit breaker. It was tripped, so I turned everything back on. My house filled with light again, and I headed back to my computer. I turned everything back on and checked to see if the stream for my show was still up. It wasn't. I checked my usual websites to see if there were any downloads. Most of the sites were down, and the one that wasn't didn't have a download of my show. I didn't dare check social media and be spoiled, so I decided to catch up on some anime I had previously downloaded.

Suddenly I awoke the next day sitting in my chair. Definitely not the first time it has happened. I couldn't even remember what I was doing when I fell asleep. I wouldn't mind sleeping in my chair so much if it weren't for the fact my neck was in excruciating pain when I woke. Groggy and still half asleep, I used the bathroom, then headed down to the kitchen.

I thew some water in the boiler for my tea, and felt my cat brush up against my leg. She mewed up at me, crying for food. As I looked down at her, I noticed the shirt I was wearing. The previous night's events came back to me. I sprinted back up the stairs to my computer. Again, I checked the same websites I had the night before. Most were online, but for some odd reason there were no downloads for the show's final episode.

Feeling defeated, I went back to the kitchen to continue my morning ritual. Tea. Cat. Cereal. I was halfway through breakfast when I gave into my curiosity. Spoilers be damned, I had to get to the bottom of why I couldn't finish the episode. I opened my social media and news sites to discover it wasn't just my city that was effected by a power outage. There had been an outage on the whole damn planet. The reports weren't entirely sure as to what exactly happened, but the blame was placed on "A magnetic and gravitational anomaly."

The hive mind that is the internet wasn't buying it. Conspiracy theories were plastered over every corner of the web. The thing most theories had in common was that things are not as "OK" as the media seems to be reporting. News media loves some good fearmongering and clickbait articles, so why did it seem every major news outlet, regardless of where it sat on the political spectrum, only put out stories saying things were fine? They claimed that Earth wasn't effected, aside from the power outage. Most theories also agreed that this wasn't the result of a solar flare, which had been forewarned long before.

Some things were even being suppressed. I found reports that many satellites either had been permanently knocked out of orbit and away, or hurdling into Earth. We had even lost communication with the International Space Station, International Lunar Station, and the mars colony. Who knew what else was being suppressed?

I stopped wanting to think of that. All I wanted was to finish my show. I couldn't help it, though, I kept digging deeper and deeper into it all the main conspiracy theories and arguments over who's made more sense. When I finally got around to checking on why my show was nowhere to be found, I discovered that the company that owned the show was one of the few hit particularly bad by the "anomaly" and their servers weren't coming back online. I guess they should have invested more in solar-flare-proofing their facilities like many large companies had by now. Corporations just love cutting corners for their bottom line, huh?

So there it was. Us angry fans could do nothing but sit and wait for them to get everything figured out, and every citizen on Earth could do nothing but hope things would be fine. This was the perfect time for a good distraction, and my show's finale would have been the perfect one. All this doomsday talk online was giving me anxiety. Will it happen again? Will it spark a war? Will we hurdle into the sun? Will the moon hurdle into us?

People in public tried putting on a good face. Most just tried ignoring what had happened and act as if the anomaly had never occurred in the first place. Life continued on and everyone's daily schedules stayed in place. The few that refused to move on, however, continued their online rants and even put on daily protests demanding answers over the following week. I was of the former crowd. I continued my boring life and tried distracting myself as much as possible. Nothing had changed for me.

One Monday night while playing videogames, My mind constantly drifted towards paranoia and concern. The outage, the crazy stories, Dave's failing health, It all bothered the hell out of me. Dave concerned me the most. Dad told me earlier he seemed to be getting worse ever since the anomaly. He was always a great neighbor, always trying to help everyone out. I thought I should definitely give him a call and check in on him tomorrow. A few minutes later, my eyes darted toward movement on my security monitor. Usually a normal reaction for my paranoid mind

For a moment I stared at the screen. An ambulance flashing, parked, in front of Dad's house. My heart skipped a beat. I was so engrossed in my game and thoughts, I hadn't even heard the siren as it pulled up. Some relief came when I saw paramedics coming out from Dave's house. I of course wasn't glad to see Dave was in trouble, but at least the paramedics didn't leave with him on the stretcher. Dad, of course, was watching out through his front window. He backed away and a couple seconds later his door opened.

I put my shoes on and walked down the steps. As I passed my window I saw no ambulance. False alarm, I assumed, so the ambulance must have driven off. I opened my door to check where Dad was. He wasn't out either. He must have gone back in seeing that things were fine. Dave's lights were out too. Must have gone to bed. I locked up my door and headed back up to my computer.

The next night I was watching anime when I couldn't get the previous night's events out of my head. I wanted to call Dave, but he and his wife were out all day, I didn't want to interrupt their time out together. I decided to pause the show and call Dad to ask if he knew whether Dave was doing okay. As much as I wanted to leave it be, it just kept bothering me for some reason. After yet another argument, this time as to whether an ambulance really did show up or not, I hung up with Dad and went back to my show.

A half hour later I saw Dave come home on my camera. I finished the match on my game and gave him a call. It kept ringing and went to voicemail. Soon after, I started hearing an ambulance siren in the distance. Gradually the siren came closer, eventually causing red and blue lights to begin flashing through my window. I watched my security monitor as an ambulance pulled up in front of Dad's house like the night before. Paramedics then hopped out, grabbed the stretcher, then rushed into Dave's house. Sue, his wife held the door open for them, panic on her face. Two nights in a row, there's no way its a false alarm this time.

I went to my window and looked down on the scene. There wasn't any movement from the house. Again Dad watched from his own window. A few minutes later the paramedics emerged from the house, again with an empty stretcher. Dad backed away from his window, and came out. I turned, grabbed my slippers, headed down, and out the front door. Dad was speaking with one of the paramedics. Dave's door was closed, his wife must have locked back up for the night. Fine again, I guess. As I approached the ambulance Dad was thanking the paramedics. Their lights turned off, and they drove away.

I asked Dad what happened this time. He said that Dave was finishing up in the bathroom when his phone began to ring. He had forgotten it in the living room so he called for his wife to answer it. She was in the basement doing their laundry and couldn't hear him. He rushed down the stairs, tripped, and tumbled down. Sue heard the noise, ran to investigate, and found Dave lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs, prompting her to call for paramedics.

The Paramedics arrived and checked him. He seemed to be uninjured, luckily his home was full of thick cushioned carpet, softening the fall. Nevertheless, they suggested he go with them anyway for a more thorough check at the hospital. Any fall is never good for someone his age. Being the stubborn old coot he was, he refused saying he was fine and didn't want yet another large hospital bill.

I replied to Dad that Dave should have gone with the ambulance if he's going to end up needing an emergency call two nights in a row. That restarted our previous argument leading to accusations from us both about how the other was losing their mind.

We realized that we were arguing on the street, in front of any possible onlookers. Dad made a joke to lighten the mood. We both cooled off, said goodnight, hugged, and returned to our homes. We may constantly argue, but at the end of the day we still love each other. Its just our relationship between two crazies.

Our love for one another, though, didn't mean I wouldn't ready myself for the next time this subject was brought up again. When I returned to my computer I immediately opened up my camera's recordings. The camera only recorded when it detected movement, so finding the recording was as easy as opening the file labeled with the time of last night's events. I figured it must be sometime after nine at night since it was shortly after my hour of nightly anime.

The first file after nine was labeled "25-06-22_21-02-38" for the date and time. It was nothing but a car driving by. No ambulance the next few recordings either, but there was a car that seemed to be driving suspiciously slow down the street. The next recording there was a man that looked sort of like one of the Armstrong family's cousins that would visit every summer. It wasn't until the file '25-06-22_21-14-02' that I saw the ambulance. I pondered for a moment as to why it hadn't recorded the ambulance pulling up to the house, but I brushed it off as a glitch in my cheap camera.

I plugged in my phone, and copied the video over. It may not win me the argument, Dad had always been stubborn, but it would give me some satisfaction knowing he'll second guess himself. I then went to find tonight's recording. It was half-past nine and happened not too long ago, so I started moving backwards. The video labeled "26-06-22_21-15-06" started with Dad coming out of his house and over to the ambulance, and ended with me coming back inside the house.

There was a file for "26-06-22_21-14-02" but it was corrupt and couldn't be opened. Next up was "26-06-22_21-08-07" showing the lights of the ambulance flashing from down the street. In continued on showing the ambulance pulling up, and the paramedics rushing into Dave's house. The recording continued because of the flashing lights. They were in there for a while, probably when they were trying to convince him to go with them. I could see Dad in his window watching. Then suddenly the video ended. Something must have happened with the camera making it rerecord and corrupt the next file. Well they'd help me win an argument anyway, so I copied them over to my phone as well.

The day after was grocery day. Dad needed to get some shopping done too, so he gave me a ride over. I mentioned looking at my recordings, but not wanting the argument to start in the store, I only told him of the suspicious car and person on our street. Dad was still afraid that something may have happened to the Armstrongs. I thought more that maybe a cousin had come for a surprise visit, not realizing they were on vacation. I decided I should try calling Mr. Armstrong's phone and let him know a cousin had come by, after I had finished putting my groceries away.

On our way out, Dad insisted on grabbing some lottery tickets from the lottery machine. The Mega Billions lottery was all over the news lately. It had hit a record high nine billion dollars. It seemed every new lottery was a new high with the current inflation. Hell, ten years ago the lottery wasn't billions, but millions. Dad had always been one of the "You can't win if you don't play" types. I on the other hand would rather waste my money on videogames over lottery tickets I've had enough disappointment in my life, no need to start paying for it.

We went to our homes and put groceries away. I pulled out my phone and searched the contacts list for one of the Armstrong's phone numbers. I couldn't get through to Mrs. Armstrong's number so I dialed her husband's. No answer, so I left a message wishing them well and explaining that I believed a cousin of theirs tried stopping by on a surprise visit, but they weren't home. I again expressed my hope that things with them are well, and ended the call.

I played games until I microwaved a frozen meal and ate dinner at eight o'clock. I finished a couple episodes of a classic anime I was re-watching for the eighth time, I just can't get enough of Spike and his crew. Later while back at my gaming, I sensed movement in my peripherals. I struggled to not break my concentration on my game. I eventually gave in and looked, getting my character killed in the process.

It wasn't much, only slight movement. I looked closely. Five figures moved against the front wall of the Armstrong's home. Maybe that wasn't a cousin the other night after all, but a robber casing out their house. They must have caught on that nobody was home. I ran to my window and looked out toward the house, but I couldn't see anything there. I ran back and looked at the screen again. Just as I picked up my phone to call police, one of the figures swung something at a window, followed by another throwing something through, then a flash.

By then, two figures were by the door. They knocked in the door immediately following the flash. I couldn't for a moment imagine as to why what seems to be some kind of SWAT team would be breaking into the Armstrong's house. Maybe Dad was right, maybe they were into much more than they let on and it wasn't a family vacation that had them leave. I didn't know what to do. Do I call the police? Was that the police? Shouldn't there be more of them?

What I saw next I couldn't explain. Somebody came out through my front door. All I saw was their back. I felt the blood leave my face and I went cold. The camera Then flashed white and everyone was gone. The street was peaceful. The person wasn't standing there anymore, and the SWAT team was gone. I sat dumbstruck as I tried to process what had just happened. I simply stared at the screen.

I thought I heard a noise downstairs, it wasn't much, just a low thump. My neck snapped around and I looked out through the doorway. Was the person in my house? Slowly I looked around my room for something that could be used to defend myself. My eyes stopped on my old hockey stick. Slowly I moved toward it, trying my best to not make my old home's floors creak. I grabbed the stick and headed for the stairs, still moving as slowly as I could.

There were no noises coming from below. I crouched low as I descended the stairs, trying to see into the living room as best I could without revealing myself too much to a possible intruder. In the middle of the floor was my cat. She calmly watched me with an inquisitive look as I continued down. When I reached the bottom she mewed at me and rolled onto her back. She was calm, so there mustn't have been anything.

Just to be certain, I checked every room of my home for any signs of an intruder. All doors and windows were closed and locked. There wasn't anything. Another win for my paranoia it seems. It still wasn't a cause to be calm, however. There still was the question of what I had just seen on my security monitor. On my way back up, I stopped at the living room window and peered out. There was nothing, so I continued upstairs. When I arrived at the computer I checked for the recording.

It was the only file in the past twenty minutes, labeled "27-06-22_21-14-02". I noticed, the exact time of day, down to the millisecond, as the ambulance and the corrupt file. It was only doing this at that exact time of day. I went back to check every day before the ambulance. Every single day, since the night of the outage, there was a file who's label ended with "21-14-02". Most were corrupt, but the ones that weren't all had me doing something in them. Going over Dad's house to watch our show together, taking out trash, or really anything I had planned ahead.

That night I lay awake in bed trying to think of some reason as to why this was happening, and what it was. Constantly in the back of my mind, I kept screaming at myself that it was some kind of time travel thing, but I refused to accept that. It seemed like it was predicting things having to do with me. Things I did, things I caused. My call caused Dave to fall when the ambulance came the second night, but it wouldn't explain the first night, or the SWAT team at the Armstrong's house.

I grabbed my phone off the end table and checked the recordings I had copied over. That was when I realized all three recordings fit perfectly together if you put the first recording where the corrupt file would be. Was my camera predicting things to happen 24 hours into the future? If so, then a SWAT team would be there 24 hours after tonight's recording.

Waves of anxiety washed over me. Was this really happening? Was I going crazy? Had four years of monotony finally taken its toll upon my mind? There was no way something like this could be real. Tears began welling up in my eyes. I turned over and shoved my face into my pillow as a panic attack hit me. My life had fallen apart, and now my mind is following suit.

When I finally was able to calm myself, I grabbed my phone once again, and deleted the videos. I didn't want to think about it anymore. I didn't want to deal with it anymore. I just wanted to go back to being ignorant and live out my life with as little worry as possible. It felt like the only option I had to save my sanity. Thinking about it would only destroy my view on reality and cause existential crises.

I couldn't remember what time I'd finally fallen asleep, but I still woke up at noon. It mustn't have been too long ago. I was extremely tired, but didn't want to stay in bed. I could feel last night's anxiety creeping up on me. I had to force myself up and distract myself as to not repeat last night's panic attack.

My morning routine was followed by a call from Dad asking for some help with his air conditioner. He had one in his room for when it was too hot to fall asleep, but he hadn't put in the unit he had to cool his living room, dining room, and kitchen. He had tried to hold out for as long as possible to save money, but a heatwave had been gradually getting worse over the past week or so. The heat was finally becoming such a problem that Dad's frugality was no match.

When I went over, Dad was watching a stream for the baseball game. With the heat wave, the league had to implement some precautions such as longer breaks to help player from succumbing from the heat. I sat and watched with Dad until the inning ended. I made a joke that he should just leave his air conditioner out, it made it feel as if we were at the game. He chuckled and said that immersion wasn't worth a heat stroke.

The inning ended, so Dad hopped out of his chair, eager to get the air conditioner in his window before the next inning started. He already had the unit stored in the corner of his dining room, which was attached to the living room and kitchen, so we simply had to slide it into the window. From the other room, the commentators could be heard doing an ad read for the local lotteries. They mentioned how the drawing for Pick 6 was today, and Match 7 and The Mega Billions was tomorrow. There was plenty of hype for the last one, and Dad was definitely caught up in it.

He had always joked that our family was psychic, that things always seemed to work in weird ways for us. Thing is, I could never tell if he were joking or not. I will admit, it was weird when Granny would insist that she'd seen the episodes of game shows who's episode hadn't even aired until that night. She always seemed to know what was going to happen, who would win, and how much they'd win. I usually just wrote it off as extreme luck, or maybe she had an inside man. Granny would insist it was a rerun, and Dad would yell about how it was a new episode and she was psychic. She would laugh at him every time.

Granny always told me I was her favorite of her three grandchildren, despite not fully understanding my "life choices", but I never believed her. My cousins were good people off doing great things in the world, and I couldn't imagine her having a favorite with how loving she was. She sure showed me when the house I now live in was left to me in her will.

After the air conditioner was set in place and turned on, we went back to the living room and sat to watch the rest of the game. Dad talked about how he wished Granny was still around to give us the winning lottery numbers, or at least leave some for us in her will. Years ago, he used to talk about wanting to move to Florida. Now with global warming, that changed to wishing for a nice house in Canada.

He asked what I'd do if I won the lottery, so I joked I'd move him to Canada so I didn't have to deal with him anymore. He laughed and said he'd take it. He then talked about how he wished he could give his past self winning numbers. That of course brought some anxiety boiling up as I started thinking about last night. What if it was real though? What if I could use it somehow? Could I show myself the numbers with the camera? I could pay Dad back for all he'd done for me, give him whatever he wanted. Break the monotony of our lives and travel again, this time bringing him with me more.

I snapped back to reality when Dad started yelling at the screen about a bad call from the umpire. I empathized once again with the loneliness he must feel, so I decided to stay and watch the rest of the game. We talked of old times, of Granny, I even stayed a little longer to watch old game shows with him. He joked how he'd seen these episodes before, and knew what was going to happen. Of course he did, they were from the '70s.

Before I knew it, it was almost eight. My body knew, and reminded me with hunger pangs to get home. I said bye to Dad, and went to microwave my dinner. When I sat at my desk, food in hand, I made sure to turn off my security monitor. I didn't want to deal with anything of the sort tonight. That didn't stop me from glancing at the screen every once in a while. I couldn't help myself and it was killing me. The blackness of the monitor was so out of place in my usual environment, and my subconscious didn't like it. My paranoia told me I would miss something of importance, that something bad might happen. Still, I refused to turn it back on.

When I was finished with my anime, I briefly considered watching more, but it wasn't enough of a distraction. If I hadn't already seen the show before, I would have had to re watch the two I just saw. I struggled the whole time to hold back the thoughts and anxiety. I tried playing games, and still it wasn't helping. My eyes kept glancing at the clock, counting down the moment until the recordings happened. For the last minute I stared at my clock, my game on pause. I kept staring as the fear of losing my mind welled up inside. The clock ticked over to 21:14.

I held my breath. Time seemed to slow as I continued to stare, willing the clock to finally click over to the next minute. I wasn't even sure what I wanted. Do I want what I saw to happen? Or do I want the night to go on as uneventful as it started? I closed my eyes, hoping that when they opened the time on the clock would change. I was startled and fell from my chair as I heard a crash in the distance, I was on the floor by the time a bang and an alarm followed.

It was happening, and I couldn't believe it. Or am I hearing things? My mind was swimming in confusion and I couldn't tell if it was real. I jumped to my feet and bolted to the front door, almost falling down the stairs in the process. I flung the door open and looked out the screen door's window. I stared into the darkness, The Armstrong's door was wide open. I slowly opened my door and took a step out. I watched what was happening, then, turned to look at my camera. There was nothing odd about it, it only stared back blankly.

I kept watching what unfolded in front of me. A hand touched my shoulder making me jump. It was Dad. I was so engrossed in what was happening, I hadn't even seen or heard him as he approached. I looked at him and he gave me a look of smugness. He was right, he always had to be right. The Armstrongs were up to something, and authorities were after them.

As the SWAT team came out of the house, others that were hidden in other parts of the street came out to meet them. Other neighbors were outside or watching from their windows. Nothing like this had ever happened around here. Other police came, some cordoned off the area, while others asked neighbors about the Armstrongs. What we knew of them, and if they were ever suspicious. Two officers came to question me and Dad. Dad knew one of them. She was an old friend of Dad's daughter. They asked me if I knew anything suspicious about the Armstrong family. I explained how they always seemed like a normal family. I mentioned I saw people looking at their house a couple days ago on my security camera, and how I tried calling them thinking it was a cousin that usually visited.

The officers looked at each other when I told them that, then asked me for the recordings. I agreed, and they handed me a USB drive. When I came back out, Dad was asking the female officer how her dad was doing. I handed her the USB drive and they thanked me. She then glanced at her partner, he nodded. She told me how the Armstrong family was part of a terrorist organization, The FBI was notified of them and started monitoring their phones around the time they disappeared. Their cousins may have actually been part of their organization, so when I called them, the FBI picked up on it and organized the raid. What organization the Armstrongs were a part of, and who tipped off the feds, she couldn't say. All she said was they were dangerous.

When Dad was back home, and I was in my computer chair, I stared at the black of my security monitor. My head was spinning. I actually caused the SWAT team to show up. Everything that the recordings showed were things I planned for or caused. This was real! I could use this! I wasn't anxious anymore, for the first time in ages I felt excitement for the future.

I tried coming up with a plan. I was afraid that showing myself the numbers would cause some kind of paradox. I thought over it and arrived at the conclusion that it wouldn't, though, because I wasn't causing anything to happen. I was simply planning to do something at that exact time. I thought the camera might be predicting a possible future, but I still couldn't figure out the corrupt files. Were things too uncertain those days?

Both the Match 7 and the Mega Billions had drawings for tomorrow. The Match 7 was at 7pm, and the Mega Billions was at 11pm. The recording happened right in the middle of the two. I'd have enough time to get a ticket after watching the recording with the winning numbers. I didn't think I'd be able to test the Match 7 drawing, I'd only just thought of the plan. I figured it'd be best to just do it anyway, the worst that could happen would be a corrupt file.

Despite not thinking there would be anything, I decided it'd be safest to check tonight's recording anyway. It wasn't corrupt. My heart started pounding. As soon as the video opened, I was greeted with my face beaming back at me with with a smile bigger than I'd ever seen on my own face before. I looked as if I was struggling to hold in excitement. In my hands was a paper that read "Match 7 30-68-44-47-31-20-27". I stood there until the video ended, and by then a smile almost as big as the one in the recording grew on my face. I started laughing. It started as a chuckle, and gradually grew to something that almost sounded maniacal. I had become such a creature of habit, so boring, so predictable, that I didn't even have to plan to do it before the recording. I checked what the jackpot was. My eyes lit up when I saw it was twenty million dollars.

I hopped out of my chair and started dancing around the room as I continued laughing. In celebration, I plopped into my chair, opened up my music player and started playing music as loud as my speakers could handle. I couldn't care less about what my neighbors thought, I was going to be a millionaire! No, even better, with this camera I'll be a billionaire!

I opened the recording again, and put the numbers down as a note in my phone. I kissed the picture of myself and continued my celebratory dance. When I finally tired myself out, which honestly didn't take very long at all, I turned down my music, leaned back in my chair and stared at the wall. I started daydreaming of all the thing's I'll do, the places I'll go, the things I'll buy.

I snapped myself out of it and tried to be as boring as possible, I didn't want to mess anything up after all. So I did what I'd normally do.

The next day, lottery day, I woke up at noon as I always did. I used the bathroom, made tea, fed the cat, poured a bowl of cereal, just as I always did. After I was done with breakfast, I got dressed and walked out my door to head to the grocery store. Dad was out watering his lawn and flowers, and saw me. He asked where I was going, so when I told him he insisted on going with me so he could get some snacks.

While leaving the store I stopped at the lottery machine. Dad gave me a weird look, I never usually buy a Match 7 lottery ticket with the numbers I had shown myself. I just told him I felt good about it this time, so he made another joke about our family being psychic. He asked why I was getting Match 7 and not Mega Billions, so I said I'd be back later for one. Another weird look from him.

The rest of the day felt like it dragged on. I tried keeping myself as occupied as possible, but the anticipation was killing me. A few minuted before seven o'clock, I opened a news stream for the drawing. I groaned as the news casters spouted the same garbage that was said ever since the outage, that things were fine, nothing to worry about despite increasingly growing concerns. Finally the lottery drawing came. Drawings were kept as analog as possible as they had for years, just balls being blown around and bouncing in a machine.

I held my lottery ticket up. The first ball came down, 30. I smiled. Next, 68. The smile grew bigger. 44, 47, 31. I stared shaking with excitement. 20, and finally, 27. I screamed while flying out of my chair and launching myself onto my bed. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I started jumping on my bed, almost hitting my head on the ceiling in the process. I tried calming myself down, I didn't want to freak out the neighbors.

I plopped into my chair, and went online to order some food. I decided on the restaurant I had ordered from before for my show's finale two weeks ago. It would arrive by my normal dinner time. I played some games until I heard the knock on the door. I thanked the delivery driver, and he thanked me for the large tip I added to the bill. I told him it was my pleasure, I was celebrating. Before I headed back up, I grabbed the same beer I had with dinner before.

The anticipation was even worse than it had been before. I grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote down "Match 7 30-68-44-47-31-20-27" to show to the camera later. I got through the next hour, drinking a couple beers and eating the entire dinner while watching the final two episodes of the anime I was re watching.

A minute before the time of the recordings, I went downstairs and checked to see if my dad was watching out the window as he usually did from time to time. I didn't want him thinking I was doing something weird, just standing there with a paper in my hand. I set an alarm on my phone for a few seconds after the recording would end, and slipped it into my pocket. I went outside, turned toward the camera, held the paper up, and smiled the biggest smile I'd ever felt on my face. I was going to be a billionaire tonight, after all. I felt myself shaking with excitement. When the alarm went off, I bolted into my house, almost forgetting to lock the door. I jumped into my chair, opened the note app on my phone, found tonight's recording, and played it.

I felt the blood leave my face, I couldn't breathe, my heart sank, all while waves of anxiety washed over me. Every feeling of fear I had ever felt covered my body all at once. I felt as if I'd pass out. There was no triumphant smile, no paper with numbers. There wasn't even a me. I could see everything unusually well, the sky brighter than it should be this time of day, but nothing like I'd seen before. The street was empty save for one car. Dave's car.

Finally air came to my lungs as I began breathing. Hyperventilating. Panic set in as I watched what seemed like a massive hole opening in the sky. Everything started to shake. Reality seemed to bend and stretch. The recording ended.