It wasn't a photo. It was a live feed of his own monitor. As he watched, a cursor—not his own—moved across the screen. It hovered over the "Delete" button for the entire folder.
The room was gone. It was just Elias standing in the grey void. He was looking down at a laptop. On the screen of that laptop was a folder containing a single file: Sample Images.rar . Sample Images.rar
He looked back at the screen. was now highlighted. He hesitated, then double-clicked. It wasn't a photo
Elias felt a cold draft. He looked up from his desk. His curtains were gone. The streetlights of his neighborhood had vanished, replaced by a flat, oppressive grey. It hovered over the "Delete" button for the entire folder
Inside were twelve images, labeled image_01.jpg through image_12.jpg .
The furniture began to melt into the floor. The sofa was a puddle of fabric; the TV was a slump of black plastic. The reflection of Elias remained, but his face was now a smooth, featureless surface.
The last thing Elias heard was the sound of a recycle bin being emptied. Then, the grey void claimed the rest.