The black pixel expanded, swallowing his wallpaper, his taskbar, and finally the light in the room. In the darkness of the monitor, the "Spectrum" finally appeared. It wasn’t a forest. It was a bird's-eye view of a bedroom. His bedroom.

The processor groaned. Fans whirred into a high-pitched scream as the data unfurled. As the "part08" file merged with its siblings, the screen didn’t show a video player. Instead, the desktop icons began to drift. They moved like leaves on a pond, swirling toward the center of the screen where a single, pitch-black pixel began to grow. He tried to kill the power, but the button was cold—dead.

On the screen, a digital version of Elias sat at a desk, staring at a monitor. In the video, the digital Elias turned around to look at the door behind him. In the real room, Elias heard the floorboard creak.