Elias froze. The video ended, the screen snapping to black. The reflection of his own pale face stared back at him from the glossy finish of his 27-inch display.
A notification chirped on his desktop. A new file had just appeared in the folder: AndroVid_6317.mp4. AndroVid_6316mp4
Slowly, his heart hammering against his ribs, Elias gripped the edges of his desk. He began to lean to the side, his eyes locked on the narrow, dusty gap between the back of his monitor and the cold brick wall of his apartment. Elias froze
He didn’t remember filming it. As a freelance video editor, his hard drive was a graveyard of raw footage, but the naming convention was wrong. "AndroVid" was the default prefix for a mobile editing app he hadn't used in years. Curiosity, fueled by the late-night hum of his office, won out. He double-clicked. A notification chirped on his desktop
In the grainy, low-light footage, a figure emerged from the bedroom. It was Elias. He was sleepwalking, his eyes open but vacant, reflecting the infrared light of whatever device was recording. He walked toward the camera, stopping just inches from the lens. For three minutes, he simply stood there, breathing rhythmically.