Three Minutes to Midnight

Ellie sat at her desk, staring out into the darkened city skyline from her little apartment. The clock on the wall ticked away the seconds, the noise growing louder in the room's silence. It was nearly three minutes to midnight. Her heart felt heavy with a bittersweet kind of anticipation.

Tonight, she was supposed to meet her best friend, Leo, under the old oak tree in the park, a ritual they had maintained since high school. But something felt off. As she typed a message to him, her fingers hesitated. The events of the day replayed in her mind, particularly an exchange from that afternoon.

Leo had asked, almost casually, if she had remembered to send in the final project on behalf of…