His phone vibrated. A notification from the app: "Camera C-11 is now online. Night mode engaged." He didn't remember installing a camera in C-11. No one did. He looked at the main monitor—the grainy, official one. It showed only a dark, empty hallway.

It was a view of his own security office. From a camera he did not own.

The DVR viewer on his phone—a cheap app from the unit’s manual—had been glitching for weeks. The timestamp lagged. The night-vision had a greenish crawl. Tonight, it simply crashed.

The feed cut to static.

On his left, he saw himself. The real Leo, slouched in the swivel chair, phone glowing in his hand. But on the new feed, the angle was high, looking down. The timestamp read 2026-04-18 – 03:17:44 – two minutes ahead of his actual clock.

The Third Lens

Note: This is a work of fiction. The URL is real, but the story is purely imaginative.