Collection Introduction
Everything you hear is real.
Some sounds are not meant for you to hear.
At three in the morning, an audio editor finds a voice on the master recording saying, “No, that’s wrong. Do it again.” It’s his own voice, but he’s never been in a recording studio.
Footsteps pass your apartment door at the same time every day, though you live on the top floor and there’s no one above you.
Your phone automatically backs up a photo taken the year you were born. In it, someone stands with their back to the camera, wearing the very coat you bought yesterday.
You think it’s your imagination, that you’re overworked, that you’ve been under too much stress lately.
But tonight, when you wake from a dream once again and see the glass on your bedside table, the one you don’t remember putting there
the water is still gently rippling.
This is One Second Later.
They hide in the folds of everyday life, in the gaps of a single second you never noticed. These are not traditional ghosts and monsters, and there are no sudden shocks. There’s only a chill slowly creeping up your spine, and that breathless moment when you realize the truth.
The faint of heart should stay away.
Because when you finish reading, you’ll discover
Some things aren’t what you finally figured out.
They’re what you can no longer escape.
