Instead of the usual progress bar, a terminal window popped open. Lines of crimson text scrolled past at light speed. Elias reached for his mouse to cancel, but the cursor moved on its own, dragging his editing software into the center of the screen.

The download was unnervingly fast. Usually, a 2GB pack would take minutes, but this finished in seconds. He right-clicked the .rar file and selected Extract Here . His screen flickered.

He looked back at the screen. The figure in the video was now leaning over his digital shoulder, its long, skeletal fingers reaching toward the "Export" button.

Suddenly, his speakers emitted a low, wet tearing sound. A transition previewed on his monitor: a digital "glitch" effect that looked less like pixels and more like peeling skin. In the reflection of his monitor, Elias noticed something that made his breath hitch. The webcam light was on.