Elias gripped his desk, his eyes darting to the file properties of . The "Date Modified" field was flickering, the numbers counting down like a stopwatch. It reached zero, and the screen went pitch black, leaving Elias in the sudden, suffocating silence of his room—until he heard the wet, rhythmic sound of footsteps climbing the stairs.
A heavy thud echoed from the hallway of Elias's real apartment. It wasn't coming from the speakers. video501.mp4
For the first ten minutes, nothing moved. Then, a hand reached into the frame and placed a single, blue-bound book on a mahogany table. The person’s face remained off-camera, but Elias noticed a distinctive silver ring on their index finger—a ring he realized, with a jolt, was currently sitting in his own jewelry box. Elias gripped his desk, his eyes darting to