The Elias on screen looked up, staring directly into the camera lens with a look of pure, paralyzing terror.
The screen stayed black for exactly eleven seconds. Then, a grainy, high-angle shot flickered into view. It was a small, cluttered apartment—his apartment. He saw himself sitting at the very desk he was at now, bathed in the blue glow of the monitor.
Elias tried to close the window. The "X" vanished. He tried to pull the power cord from the wall, but his hand stopped inches away, locked by a sudden, localized paralysis.
On the screen, the door behind the video-Elias began to creak open. A hand—pale, elongated, and missing the fingernails—gripped the doorframe.