The photo was a close-up. It wasn't of the room. It was a shot of his own computer screen, reflecting the image he was looking at right now. In the reflection of the monitor, he could see himself, eyes wide with terror. And directly behind his left ear, a pair of wide, unblinking eyes stared back. Elias felt a cold breath on his neck.

The email was plain, sent from an address that was just a string of random hexadecimals. The subject line read: Attached was a single folder: Download File 48 PICS.zip .

He looked at the bottom of his screen. The "New Mail" notification popped up again. Trembling, he hit the right arrow key.

Elias gripped the mouse, his knuckles white. He skipped ahead to 24.jpg .

His heart gave a cold, sharp thump. He checked the timestamp in the metadata: Two minutes ago. He clicked 02.jpg .

It was a photo of Elias. He was sitting at his desk, wearing the same gray hoodie he had on right now. The angle was from the corner of the ceiling, looking down. He looked bored, bathed in the blue light of his monitor.