There, taped to the plastic casing, was a second smartphone. Its camera lens was pointed directly at the back of his head. It was still recording.
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. AndroVid_6316mp4
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. There, taped to the plastic casing, was a second smartphone
A notification chirped on his desktop. A new file had just appeared in the folder: AndroVid_6317.mp4. In the grainy, low-light footage, a figure emerged
Then, his sleep-self leaned in and whispered something. The audio was a distorted hiss, but Elias turned his speakers to the maximum. "Don't look behind the monitor," the recording rasped.
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.