It arrived around noon.
No return address. Just her name, Leah, scrawled in faded ink.
Inside the box was an old black-and-white photo.
In it, a young Leah stood beside a man in a trench coat, one hand on her shoulder.
She couldn’t have been older than five.
But she’d never seen that photo in her life.
And she’d definitely never met that man.
Her parents swore up and down they didn’t know him.
Didn’t recognize the photo. Said it must be a prank.
Leah turned the photo over.
In that same faded handwriting:
“See you tomorrow.”
That night, she barely slept.
By morning, she tried to laugh it off.
But at exactly noon…
a knock.
She opened the door.
It was the man from the photo, older trench coat, same smile.
Not a day older.
He looked her up and down, eyes glinting like glass.
“We finally meet,” he said.
“Took me 14 loops to get this right.”