The next morning, his laptop’s webcam light turned on at exactly 3:00 AM. He saw it through the crack in the door. A single email arrived in his inbox. No sender. No subject. Just a link. He clicked it (he shouldn’t have). It was a live feed. His bathroom. From the perspective of his dead phone, which was still underwater.

S-O-S.

He threw the phone onto the bed. It landed screen-up. The camera followed him. He stepped left. The reticle slid left. He stepped right. It followed. The sensitivity slider maxed out at 100, then the number vanished and was replaced by a single word: .