Page eight loads anyway.
Not a drawing. A photograph. Grainy, low-res, taken from a phone camera. It's your bedroom. This bedroom. The one you're sitting in. The timestamp in the corner reads today's date.
The balloon is full now. Overflowing. Letters spilling down the margin like a scream. Free-Download-Kirtu-Comics-Pdf.pdf
"You left."
The empty balloon this time has a single word, hand-lettered in red: Page eight loads anyway
Kirtu is older now. Older than you. Gray at the temples. Standing in a room full of filing cabinets. Each drawer is labeled with a year. 2012. 2013. 2014. He's pulling out a folder marked "Projected Self."
The download takes thirty seconds. Long enough to feel stupid. Long enough to think about malware, about identity theft, about the weird shame of being twenty-six and still hunting for the comics you loved at fourteen. Grainy, low-res, taken from a phone camera
You scroll faster.