The hum of the cooling fans was the only sound in Elias’s room as he stared at the flickering cursor on a shady forum thread titled:
Panic surged through him. He tried to move the mouse, but the cursor was dancing on its own, opening his browser and navigating to his saved passwords. He watched, paralyzed, as his email, social media, and even his school portal were accessed one by one. The hum of the cooling fans was the
Suddenly, his webcam light flickered on—a tiny, menacing green eye. Suddenly, his webcam light flickered on—a tiny, menacing
He ignored the warning from his antivirus software, which screamed in a bright red pop-up as soon as the file finished. He followed the instructions in the "README.txt" file—which oddly asked him to disable his firewall and "run as administrator." The installation bar crept forward. 98%... 99%... 100%. 98%... 99%... 100%.