The progress bar didn’t move from left to right. Instead, it turned black, swallowing the window. His monitor’s backlight died, but the screen stayed active, glowing with a dull, bruised purple.

He opened the most recent one. Inside was a single video file. He clicked it, expecting a virus or a prank. Instead, he saw a high-definition feed of his own living room. In the video, he was sitting at his desk, staring at the screen. He watched his digital self reach for the mouse.

"Don't look at the next folder," the digital Elias whispered.

The file appeared on Elias’s desktop at 3:14 AM. It had no source, no sender, and no download history. It was simply there: Mackzjones.rar .

When the sun rose, the apartment was empty. The computer was off. On the desk sat a single, physical USB drive, labeled in neat, handwritten ink: Mackzjones .