Location: Annex Terminal → Observation Alcove

Time: 11:43 AM (System Time) – [Unstable]

Personnel Present: C. Myre

Trigger Classification: Level 1 Custodial Isolation

Supplemental Notation: Ghost Protocol Activation. Unauthorized Record Update. Observation Mark Logged.

Scene 1: Ghost in the Timestamp

The Annex was quiet.

Not the absence-of-sound kind of quiet. The held-breath kind. The kind Caldra had learned to identify as a system waiting to react.

She was mid-task—cross-referencing standard intake logs for anomalies in routing layers—when the file landed.

No sound. No ping. Just... presence.

Document: F. Addendum – Cold Room Review

Sender: Cassel Thorn

Timestamp: 12:17 PM

Her eyes narrowed.

It hadn’t happened yet.

The system time still read 11:43 AM. But the document was dated thirty-four minutes into the future.

She opened it.

[F. ADDENDUM – Cold Room Review]

Filed by: Cassel Thorn, Support Clerk

Summary:

Follow-up notes from today’s session. Caldra flagged signature deviation manually. Recommending temporary freeze of Routing Path 7A until timestamp repair is complete.

Custodial Review Pending – Myre, C. (verbal authorization confirmed)

There had been no session.

She had flagged nothing.

And she had confirmed nothing verbally.

Her hand hovered.

She clicked into the routing history.

Two files down, she meant to select Path 7A – Clearance Chain, but misclicked—or was guided—to a link just below it.

Document: Incident Statement – Departmental Proxy Authorization

Header: [Custodial Deviation Confirmed]

Timestamp: 04:00 PM

She opened it.

And the world thinned.

[Incident Statement – Proxy Authorization – File XX7-Ω]

Custodian Present: Myre, C.

Support Clerk Status: Absence Confirmed

Witness Entry Filed: 04:00 PM

Description:

Custodial witness present during containment breach involving Routing Tier 7 cross-layer file loop. Incident logged. Seal authority matched obsolete format.

Status: Pending System Realignment

Caldra stared at her own name, listed as if the event had passed.

Cassel’s name was absent—replaced by a note: “Status Flagged – Not Found in Profile Index.”

She ran a live index check on Cassel’s ID.

It came back blank.

Then loaded.

Then reverted to Standard Support Staff.

A breath caught. Not in her throat. In the system.

The screen flickered.

SYSTEM ALERT

GHOST PROTOCOL ACTIVATED

Level 1 Custodial Isolation in Progress

Archival Overlay Engaged

Access Restricted to Verified Custodians

Do you acknowledge the deviation?

[YES] [NO]

Her cursor hovered.

She didn’t click.

Instead, she looked at the files now open on her screen.

Each one showed the same exact timestamp:

00:00:00

Her clock still read 11:43 AM.

A status bar appeared across the bottom of the terminal:

[TEMPORAL VERIFICATION: FAILED]

[IDENTITY MATCH: INCONCLUSIVE]

[ROUTING INTEGRITY: COMPROMISED]

The phrasing was wrong—too imprecise. Too… human.

No audio alert. Just a soft, arrhythmic clicking—like chalk tapping on glass.

She maintained stillness.

Movement during a system anomaly could trigger tracking protocols. That’s how they caught the last Routing Clerk who tried to override a refile.

His cursor had drifted.

The status bar changed:

[ARCHIVE MEMORY ACTIVATED]

[CUSTODIAL INTERVENTION REQUIRED]

[ELAPSED TIME: –00:34:21]

Negative time.

She closed the alert window.

The files did not close with her.

One of them began retyping itself.

Scene 2: Echo Layer

The document stopped mid-word.

Not with a period. Not with a command. Just—absence.

Caldra stood.

She didn’t trust movement in the Annex when the system changed its tone.

It wasn’t fear. It was calibration.

She moved to the rear alcove—the Chalk Wall.

Once used for live routing maps and deviation diagrams, the surface now lay under faded grid marks, barely legible mathematical sprawl, and phantom chalk residue from long-forgotten projects.

Today, someone had added to it.

Fresh.

In chalk.

She hadn’t drawn it.

It was a spiral, encircled by three stamped words—written in her own handwriting:

"Trigger logged."

"Layer observed."

"Delay acceptable."

She didn’t move.

The spiral pulsed faintly—an optical trick, or maybe an echo.

She did not touch it.

Behind her, the terminal blinked once.

Her name flashed across the screen:

C. MYRE – CUSTODIAN RECORD UPDATED

Deviation Acknowledgment: IMPLIED

Emotional Stabilization: PASSIVE

Clearance Level: SILENT TYPE IV

She had never seen that classification before.

She had not acknowledged anything.

And she had never signed anything.

She turned back to the Chalk Wall.

The spiral was gone.

Only the words remained.

And beneath them, newly written in faint chalk—two letters:

E. M.

Scene 3: Paper Trail

The archive was still humming.

Not from the ventilation. Not from the backup generators.

From something deeper.

Caldra returned to her secondary terminal—the one not connected to the central registry network. The one she had modified herself.

She input a query:

[SEARCH: Personnel Archive – E.M. / Elric Moorwen]

It wasn’t protocol.

But protocol hadn’t accounted for spirals that appeared and disappeared.

Or for chalk that rewrote itself.

The screen flickered—blue, then green. Not a system response.

Something else.

[E.M. – 7 entries found]

[Access Restricted – Layer 4 Authorization Required]

She didn’t have Layer 4 clearance.

No one in her department did.

She tried again:

[SEARCH: Departmental History – Moorwen]

Longer processing time.

Deeper archive access.

Then:

[Elric Moorwen – Department 7A (Historical)]

[Status: Discontinued]

[Last Known Position: Junior Archivist]

[Termination Date: Blank]

Not retired. Not deceased.

Discontinued.

She clicked the file.

The system requested a password.

She hadn’t entered one.

The screen flickered.

A message appeared in the command line:

"Not now. Wait for the second spiral."

It wasn’t a system font.

It looked handwritten. On the screen.

She backed away.

The terminal shut itself down.

In her pocket, the chalk had grown warm.

When she pulled it out, the broken edge had been smoothed away.

Resealed.

Etched along the side, barely visible:

"Layer 2 of 5."

Final Notation:

Ghost Protocol: Active

Acknowledgment: Not Confirmed

Timestamp Drift: Universal

Observed Alias Signature: Elric Moorwen

Custodian State: Withheld