In the background, the television was muted, showing a news ticker about a "mysterious pneumonia" in a city he couldn't yet pronounce. But in the room, no one was looking at the screen. They were arguing over who had a lighter.
Elias was cleaning out his old phone when he found it. Tucked between a blurry photo of a sandwich and a screenshot of a bus schedule was a file labeled VID-20200104-WA0003.mp4 . He tapped it. VID-20200104-WA0003.mp4
She closed her eyes, took a breath, and blew. The smoke swirled, the screen went black, and the video looped back to the beginning. In the background, the television was muted, showing