The cursor blinked rhythmically against the dull glow of the terminal. On the desktop, a single icon sat in the center: "File: Jackerman_Lab_Experiments_1080p_30fps.mp4."
Elias tried to push back his chair, but his legs felt heavy, like lead. He looked down and saw his shins were pixelating, turning into jagged blocks of green and black code. File: Jackerman_Lab_Experiments_1080p_30fps.mp4...
The video reached its final second. The screen went black, leaving only a line of white text in the center: Upload Complete. The cursor blinked rhythmically against the dull glow
The video timestamp suddenly accelerated. The 30fps slowed down to a crawl, frame by frame, until the image of Jackerman began to smear. The bioluminescent sludge in the jars started to leak out of the glass, but not on the screen—a dark, glowing liquid began to seep from the bottom of Elias's monitor, dripping onto his keyboard. The video reached its final second
On the screen, the empty chair in the corner was no longer empty. A figure was sitting there, wearing Elias’s favorite grey hoodie, staring at the back of Jackerman’s head.
Elias reached out to touch the monitor, but his hand didn't meet glass. It slid right through the surface, plunging into a cold, digital void. The last thing he heard before the room went silent was the sound of a mouse clicking, somewhere far away, as a new file appeared on a different desktop across the city. If you’d like to continue the story, tell me: Should we follow the who finds the file? Do we go inside the digital void with Elias?