B223.mp4 -

The real Elias looked down at his own hands. They were becoming pale. His fingers felt longer, heavier. He looked up, and his bedroom was gone. He was standing at the end of a long, flickering hallway.

Then, the video didn't end. It looped, but each time it started over, the room Elias was sitting in felt different. The air grew colder. The yellow light from the screen seemed to bleed onto his actual walls. He tried to close the window, but the "X" button vanished under his cursor. He tried to pull the power cord, but the hum was so loud now he couldn't hear the plastic snap as it came free from the wall. The screen stayed on. b223.mp4

The video was a single, static shot of an empty hallway in a hospital. The lighting was that sickly, flickering yellow of fluorescent bulbs on their way to dying. At the three-second mark, a door at the far end of the hall opened an inch. A hand—pale, with fingers that seemed a joint too long—reached out and gripped the frame. The real Elias looked down at his own hands