Elias felt the temperature in the room drop. He watched his digital self slowly reach for the mouse to close the window. On his real desk, his hand trembled, mimicking the movement. But the "X" in the corner of the player was gone. A progress bar appeared at the bottom of the screen.

Suddenly, a notification sound chimed from inside the video. In the recording, the Elias on screen froze. A small text box appeared in the center of the player:

He didn’t remember downloading it. He hadn’t clicked any links. But there it was, timestamped 3:33 AM—a time when he was fast asleep.

The "video" was a live feed of his life, but from a camera angle that shouldn't exist—inside his closed closet.