The file appeared on an abandoned forum at 3:03 AM, posted by a user with no name and a glitching avatar. Within an hour, it had been downloaded once.

The game was a first-person exploration of a digital replica of Elias's living room. Every detail was perfect: the stack of unwashed mugs, the frayed corner of the rug, and the flickering monitor he was currently staring at. In the game, the digital Elias was sitting at a digital desk, looking at a digital screen.

When he launched the game, there was no menu—only a low-resolution rendering of his own apartment. The Mirror Room