On the screen, the pixelated figure reached his bedroom door. In the video, the figure reached out a hand—a hand made of raw code and static—and gripped the handle. Behind Elias, the real door handle began to turn.
In the video, a figure appeared at the edge of the frame. It was blurry, a glitching mess of pixels that seemed to tear at the edges of the screen. It moved with a jittery, stop-motion gait, heading toward the bedroom.
The number flickered on Elias’s screen like a digital pulse: .