Elias didn't open this one. He didn't have to. He could hear the faint sound of footsteps clicking on the hardwood floor directly behind his chair.
Slowly, his heart hammering against his ribs, Elias gripped the edges of his desk. He began to lean to the side, his eyes locked on the narrow, dusty gap between the back of his monitor and the cold brick wall of his apartment.
He didn’t remember filming it. As a freelance video editor, his hard drive was a graveyard of raw footage, but the naming convention was wrong. "AndroVid" was the default prefix for a mobile editing app he hadn't used in years. Curiosity, fueled by the late-night hum of his office, won out. He double-clicked.
There, taped to the plastic casing, was a second smartphone. Its camera lens was pointed directly at the back of his head. It was still recording.
A notification chirped on his desktop. A new file had just appeared in the folder: AndroVid_6317.mp4.
Elias froze. The video ended, the screen snapping to black. The reflection of his own pale face stared back at him from the glossy finish of his 27-inch display.