The video was a perfect mirror of his reality, but with a five-second delay. He watched himself on screen leaning forward to touch the monitor. On the screen, "Video Leo" was still sitting back. He waved; five seconds later, the figure on the screen waved back.
Leo tried to alt-tab, to pull the plug, to smash the screen. But the "0-byte" file had expanded, gorging itself on his system's memory. As the digital twin pressed his hand against the monitor from the inside, Leo felt a cold, glass-like pressure against his own palm.
Leo watched, paralyzed, as his digital twin walked back toward the camera—toward the "frame" of the monitor—and looked directly out of the screen. The digital twin leaned in close, his breath fogging the inside of the glass.