He froze. His heart hammered against his ribs. He looked at the screen again. In the digital version of his hallway, something else was moving. A cluster of gray pixels, jagged and shifting, was crawling from the front door toward the bedroom.
On the screen, a low-resolution image rendered slowly. It was a top-down view of a room. It took Elias three seconds to realize he was looking at a pixelated recreation of his own apartment. A small, white sprite stood in the center of the bedroom—exactly where he was sitting. CULTIC.v101c.rar
In the sudden silence, he waited. He listened for a breath, a footstep, or the rustle of fabric. There was nothing but the ringing in his ears. He reached for his phone to use the flashlight, but his hand brushed against something cold, dry, and textured like old paper. He froze
He turned toward his real hallway. It was empty, bathed in the dim light of a streetlamp outside. In the digital version of his hallway, something