The video feed flickered. A line of text crawled across the bottom of the media player, replacing the timestamp: ARCHIVE COMPLETE. SUBJECT 2540 COLLECTED.
The screen didn't show a room or a person. It showed a clock—digital, red, and familiar. It was the clock on Elias’s own bedside table. The video was a live feed of his bedroom, filmed from the corner of the ceiling where no camera existed.
Yet, when he right-clicked to delete it, his entire system lagged. The cooling fans in his tower began to whine, spinning up to a frantic, mechanical scream.
The clock on the bedside table ticked over. It was 2:55 AM. The hunt for the next entry had already begun.
