File: Jackerman_lab_experiments_1080p_30fps.mp4... -

The video reached its final second. The screen went black, leaving only a line of white text in the center: Upload Complete.

Elias tried to push back his chair, but his legs felt heavy, like lead. He looked down and saw his shins were pixelating, turning into jagged blocks of green and black code. File: Jackerman_Lab_Experiments_1080p_30fps.mp4...

Elias leaned closer, his heart hammering against his ribs. As the video reached the ten-minute mark, the camera began to pan slowly to the left, revealing a second chair in the corner of the lab. It was empty. The video reached its final second

"The experiment requires a witness," Jackerman whispered. He wasn't looking at the camera in the video; he was looking directly into the lens, as if staring through the screen into Elias’s bedroom. He looked down and saw his shins were

Elias hadn’t downloaded it. It had appeared after the power surge, a digital ghost born from a lightning strike that had nearly fried the university’s main server. He hesitated, his finger hovering over the mouse. The filename felt wrong—clinical, yet personal. Dr. Jackerman had been missing for three years, his lab sealed by a court order that no one dared to challenge. He double-clicked.

On the screen, the empty chair in the corner was no longer empty. A figure was sitting there, wearing Elias’s favorite grey hoodie, staring at the back of Jackerman’s head.