In a world where every click, word, and heartbeat is monitored, privacy is no longer a right—it’s a memory people are slowly forgetting.

The camera looks at her and starts scanning her face. Up and down. Side to side.

“Am I going crazy or is that camera staring directly at me?” She says, with a confused look on her face.

“What?” Stevie says, analyzing her confusion.

“Did I just say that out loud?” she responds back to Stevie. 

“You definitely did,” Steve laughs. “It’s nothing new, that camera has always been there.”

It’s the year 2036, and cameras have been placed everywhere. The government called it Safety Network. Everything was connected to it. And everyone believed it was a safety thing. Her name is Kai and she is just like any other ordinary teenager. Or as she thought. 

Eventually, Kai brings it up.

“Don’t you think all of these cameras are pretty suspicious?” Kai asks. 

Her dad looks up. “No, they’re just to keep everyone safe.”

Her mom then adds, “Everything is always being tracked. It’s how things work.”

Kai looks back down. Her overthinking floods her brain and at this point she doesn’t know what to do.    

 Kai begins testing the system.

She decides to leave her phone at home to see what would happen next. She searched for information about government surveillance. 

Soon, more warnings began to appear. 

Location error.

Account under review. 

Everyday, it just seemed like someone was watching her every move. 

“They’re definitely watching me, I’m not crazy,” Kai says.

“No they’re not Kai,” Stevie replies.

But even Stevie started to sound a little skeptical, as if she almost believed her for a second. 

Not even a week later, Kai noticed she started to lose access to her own school account and transportation services. The more questions she asked, the more were ignored. 

Looking out of her bedroom window, she suddenly hears a noise.

People say the system was meant to protect us. That’s what they were taught in school, what played on every screen, what echoed through the streets, people always said “Safety requires awareness.” Cameras lined every street, every corner, every hallway, and every classroom ceiling. Phones didn’t just connect people, they record, they learn, and they track. Every movement turned into data. At first it feels normal, but lately it’s been feeling closer. 

Kai calls Stevie.

“Did you see a drone hovering over your street?” Kai asks.

“I think I heard something, but I didn’t think anything of it,” Stevie replies.

Kai realizes she had a choice. Whether to do this alone and find answers or to just stay quiet. She wasn’t sure which could be more dangerous.

WARNING: IRREGULAR BEHAVIOR DETECTED

“You got one too?” Kai asks, finally looking up.

Stevie shakes her head. “No, but even if I did, I wouldn’t freak out about it too much.”

“I’m not?” Kai responds.

“You kind of are,” Stevie says with a weird look on her face.

Kai presses her lips together, looking back at the screen, the warning still hasn’t gone away.

“Then why isn’t it going away?” Kai asks.

Stevie shrugs.

“Give it a second maybe,” Stevie mentions.

But it doesn’t. And that’s when things start to feel more weird.

Not in the world, but inside of her.

Because once she notices it, she can’t un-notice it.

The next day at school everything looks the same. Too clean, too quiet, too perfect. Screens flicker, cameras hum, teachers smile like they trust the system more than they trust us, and maybe they do. Their desks light up as they sit down, automatically logging attendance. Kais’ glitches, but only for a second. A flicker, a pause. Then suddenly, her screen reads: ACCOUNT UNDER REVIEW.

“Did that happen to you too?” Kai whispers to the boy sitting next to her.

“What?” He responds.

“Did you see my screen?” Kai says.

“No, but it’s probably nothing,” he claims.

Nothing.

That’s what everyone keeps saying. That it’s nothing. That nothing could go wrong.

Kai starts paying more attention after that. She’s not just listening closely, now she is watching closely. The cameras don’t just follow after everyone. They follow after who they want. The notifications don’t just appear for everyone, they only appear for some. 

At night, Kai searches through the web. She finds deleted posts. Deleted threads. Deleted messages. And one by one, they disappear as she goes.

“That isn’t safe Kai,” Kai’s mom's voice cuts through the dark.

Kai slams her computer shut and looks straight ahead.

“I was just trying to--”

“No Kai, those websites are not safe,” her mom quickly responds.

Safe.

That word that keeps on being repeated.

It continues to repeat in her mind as she sits at her desk, the glowing of her laptop screen lightens her room. Her parents’ voices echo downstairs faintly, calmly. Kai continues her search. Questions she cannot form, questions she cannot ask. She eventually starts to doubt herself, the results appear, but they don’t stick. Websites load, then disappear. The words she read just vanish. The pages refresh by itself, replaced with empty articles.

Content is unavailable. 

Refresh.

More searches.

A thread is in Kai’s view, the text is rushed.

They are not just tracking, they’re predict—

“Why?” Kai asks herself.

Her reflection looks back at her in her computer camera. She’s breathing slowly, then little by little her heart rate begins rising. The realization settles.

This is not an accident. It’s intentional. People are removing it. Watching as we watch. 

Something is wrong.

Kai’s stomach drops.

The next day feels different. The wind is the same, the streets are the same, but Kai is observing more. Cameras moving quicker, people moving weirdly, even conversations are starting to feel shorter. 

That afternoon after school, she decides to make a decision. She can’t just watch and sit back. She finds Stevie behind the school, near the fence surrounding the garden where the cameras are placed a little farther away. 

“We have to do something about this, Stevie,” Kai says.

Stevie gives it a moment before responding. 

“What do you want to do,” Stevie responds.

“There has to be a way around it, maybe we have to start telling people,” Kai’s voice lowers.

Now it’s feeling real.

As the days pass by, Kai and Stevie take different paths to school. Different ways of searching, anything that might reveal itself.

She goes home and begins searching for answers.

For a second, it works. Real information pops up. Nothing vanishes out of the blue. She’s not just observing anymore, she’s anticipating. She’s expecting the next move. 

This is it. 

Outside, the camera remains looking at the street. Watching. Everything continues as normal. People walk from A to B, cars move, neighbors walk their dogs, systems continue operating as always.

Nothing changes. But Kai does.

She continues her routines, but now there is no hiding, because she knows.

Stevie is not as loud about it, she sticks by Kai’s side. They don’t talk about it. At least not anymore.

Kai and Stevie pass by Mr. and Mrs. Johnson’s house. The camera follows her.

They look at each time, but with the feeling of acceptance.

But this time, Kai doesn’t look up. 

Because she knows that it’s there. Watching.

No matter what she does, and who she does it with, it won’t stop.

And it’s not going anywhere.