The screen didn't show his desktop. It showed a grainy, teal-and-orange tinted image. It looked like a living room. His living room. But older. The couch was a garish floral pattern his family had thrown away in 2012.
Arjun stared at the spinning wheel of death on his laptop screen. The Wi-Fi bar had vanished again. Outside his window in Mumbai, the monsoon rain wasn’t just falling; it was attacking. The world was a gray, watery blur.
On the TV, a pixelated Jim Carrey was pulling a face. 10starhd lol
It wasn't wheezing. It wasn't desperate.
Arjun leaned closer. The boy on the couch looked... familiar. The same cowlick in the hair. The same way of chewing his lower lip when concentrating. The screen didn't show his desktop
Suddenly, the grainy image shuddered. A pop-up materialized on top of the memory. It wasn't a normal pop-up. It was a dialog box made of static and rain:
Then the laptop crashed. Blue screen. Error code: KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR. His living room
He clicked the third “Play” button (the first two were lies). The screen flickered.
It was him. Arjun, fifteen years ago.
Current Arjun, age 27, stared. He couldn’t remember the last time he had laughed like that.
Stream quality: 240p. Audio: Mono. Risk: High (Emotional Malware detected). Would you like to continue? [YES] [CANCEL]