Raghav replied instantly: "No footprint. That’s the point. Start from zero. He was a photographer. He was kind. He left no will. Just a sister who misses him. That’s all you get."
Saifi cracked his knuckles. He opened a dozen tabs: cemetery records, old photography forums, a defunct blogging platform from 2015. He worked for 48 hours straight.
He didn't open it. But he couldn't stop looking at the screen. In the dark, the glow of the notification felt less like a message and more like a beginning. profile creator by saifi
His heart stopped. He checked the account. It was active. Someone had posted a new photo: a vase of wilting marigolds on a windowsill, dated today. The caption read: "My sister found my old negatives. I didn't know I had a sister."
Third, the tragedy. Saifi wrote a final Instagram caption dated November 14, 2019: "The light is fading. But what a beautiful light it was." He then created a memorial page. A dozen fake mourners left comments. "Gone too soon." "You taught me how to see." Raghav replied instantly: "No footprint
Second, the social proof. A Facebook profile with only 47 friends—all fake, all with realistic post histories. He programmed a script to post photos at random intervals from 2013 to 2018. A photo of a chai stall. A blurry selfie at a concert. A quote from Rumi. It looked achingly real.
Saifi nearly choked on his vape pen. Five thousand dollars was six months of rent. He clicked the attached file. There was no photo, no resume, no social links. Just a single line: "His name is Arjun Mehra. He died in 2019. Make him live again." He was a photographer
Then the chat window went black. Raghav’s account was deleted.
When he was done, he sent Raghav a single link: a fully realized digital afterlife. Arjun Mehra had a birthday (March 12, 1991), a favorite camera (a beat-up Nikon FM2), and a last known address (a rented flat in Bandra East). He even had a playlist on a fake Spotify account—slow, sad instrumentals.
The Ghost in the Machine
For ten minutes, Saifi just stared at the screen. He had faked internships, inflated GPA scores, and invented leadership roles. But a dead man? That was new territory.