The message stayed on Ethan's screen long after the vibration stopped.
Future Ethan:"He finds us."
Ethan didn't move.
The words felt heavier than anything the phone had sent before.
Up until now, the future messages had been warnings, hints, predictions. But this one felt different.
Personal.
Dangerous.
He slowly locked the screen and placed the phone face down on the desk.
For a moment he just stared at the Helios chart glowing on his laptop.
The numbers were still climbing.
HEL +19.6%
The market frenzy had begun exactly as the future predicted.
But now there was a new variable.
Alexander Vale.
Ethan leaned forward and reopened the search results.
The more he read, the stranger the story became.
Vale had appeared in the financial world almost a decade ago. No background. No clear source of wealth. Yet within a few years he had quietly built massive positions in several companies that later became industry giants.
Artificial intelligence startups.
Energy storage breakthroughs.
Quantum computing firms.
Every time, Vale invested months before the world realized what those companies would become.
Some analysts called it luck.
Others called it strategy.
But the forums told a different story.
One anonymous post caught Ethan's eye.
"Vale doesn't predict the market. He moves before the market exists."
Ethan felt a chill run down his spine.
It sounded far too familiar.
He closed the browser and rubbed his temples.
No.
That was impossible.
There couldn't be another person with access to the future.
The phone was unique.
It had to be.
His eyes drifted toward the device again.
Still dark.
Still silent.
Which made everything worse.
For the past three weeks the messages had arrived like clockwork whenever something critical was about to happen.
Now…
Nothing.
The silence stretched for hours.
Night slowly deepened outside Ethan's apartment window. City lights flickered in the distance while his screen continued reflecting the Helios chart.
Midnight passed.
Then one in the morning.
Ethan refreshed the trading forums again.
Helios was trending everywhere now.
Threads with thousands of comments.
People shouting about the sudden surge.
Speculating about hidden contracts.
New technology leaks.
Government partnerships.
Most of them had no idea what they were talking about.
But the attention meant something important.
Helios was no longer invisible.
And once the entire market noticed…
The real explosion would begin.
Ethan checked his portfolio again.
His investment had climbed past $24,000.
Two hundred dollars had become a fortune in just weeks.
Yet the number barely registered in his mind anymore.
Because something felt wrong.
The future messages were becoming unstable.
First the warnings about the timeline changing.
Then the silence.
Then the chilling line about Alexander Vale.
And now nothing.
The quiet pressed against the room.
Ethan stood up and walked toward the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water. His mind replayed everything that had happened since the night he found the phone.
The impossible prediction.
The crypto surge.
The Helios discovery.
Every step had led here.
To this moment where the future itself seemed uncertain.
He took a long drink of water.
Then his phone vibrated.
Ethan froze.
The sound echoed through the apartment like a gunshot.
He rushed back to the desk and grabbed the device.
The screen lit up.
A new message was appearing.
But something was different.
The text appeared slowly… one word at a time.
Like the signal was struggling to push through time.
Future Ethan:
"The next prediction..."
The sentence paused.
Seconds passed.
Then more text appeared.
"This one changes everything."
Ethan's heart started pounding.
Another line appeared.
"You must move before the market opens."
The message stopped again.
Ethan waited.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
Then the final line arrived.
"Tomorrow Helios will announce the partnership."
Ethan blinked.
Partnership?
His mind raced instantly.
If Helios announced a major partnership, the stock wouldn't just rise.
It would explode.
Institutional investors would flood in.
Media coverage would ignite.
The price could triple overnight.
His eyes dropped to his portfolio.
He already owned thousands of dollars worth of shares.
But if the prediction was correct…
This was the moment to go all in.
Yet something about the message bothered him.
He read it again.
"You must move before the market opens."
That meant pre-market trading.
Which meant fewer buyers.
Lower liquidity.
Higher risk.
Ethan leaned back slowly.
The last message from the future had warned about the timeline changing.
And Alexander Vale was already accumulating massive amounts of Helios stock.
What if Vale already knew about the partnership?
What if this prediction wasn't an advantage…
But a trap?
His phone vibrated again.
Another message arrived.
Short.
Urgent.
Future Ethan:
"Buy everything you can."
Ethan's throat went dry.
Another message followed instantly.
"Before Vale does."
Ethan looked back at the Helios chart.
The price had already started creeping upward in after-hours trading.
Someone was moving.
Someone big.
His heart pounded louder.
If he waited until morning…
It would be too late.
Ethan opened the trading platform.
His fingers hovered over the keyboard.
Every dollar he had.
Every profit he'd made.
One single trade could multiply everything again.
Or destroy it.
He took a slow breath.
Then he started typing.
But just before he hit the Buy button—
The phone vibrated again.
A final message appeared.
This one was different.
The text looked distorted.
Like the signal had almost failed.
Future Ethan:
"Wait."
Ethan's hand froze above the keyboard.
A second line appeared.
"Something is wrong."
Then the screen went completely black.
No more messages.
No explanation.
Just silence.
Outside the window the city slept peacefully.
Inside the apartment Ethan stared at the dark phone… and the blinking BUY button on his screen.
If the prediction was right, this trade could make him a fortune overnight.
But if the future itself was starting to break…
This might be the moment everything went wrong.