The camera-operator walked closer. The dummy's head turned. Not with a servo's whir, but with a slow, deliberate squeak, like a rusty faucet.

> CONTINUE? (Y/N)

Leo, a digital archivist with a compulsion for order, hated loose ends. He clicked it.

It whispered, no longer a child's voice, but the operator's own distorted growl:

Curiosity was a bad habit. He typed Y .

Leo sat in his silent office. He looked down at his own left thumb. A thin red line had appeared around the joint, like a crack forming in porcelain.