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Elias zoomed in further, his heart hammering against his ribs. The photo on the table was a shot of a messy apartment. His apartment. And there, sitting at a desk with his back to the camera, was Elias himself, staring at a screen that displayed a dense, nocturnal forest.

When he finally opened it, the image didn't show a room or a person. It was a bird’s-eye view of a dense, nocturnal forest. The resolution was so impossibly high that as Elias zoomed in, he didn't see pixels; he saw individual pine needles, then the microscopic ridges on those needles, and then—chillingly—the reflection of a camera lens in a single drop of dew. image_large_88.jpg

He didn't hear the floorboard creak behind him. He only watched on his screen as, in the reflection of the dewdrop, a shadow in the forest clearing began to move. Elias zoomed in further, his heart hammering against