It wasn't a black square anymore. It was a 512x512 pixel rendering of Elias’s bedroom, seen from the corner of the ceiling. In the center of the icon, a tiny, pixelated Elias was asleep in his bed.

Elias tried to drag it to the Trash. The system made the "thwack" sound of paper being crunched, but the black square remained on the desktop. He tried a Force Delete via Terminal. The screen flickered, the fan hit maximum RPMs for three seconds, and then… nothing. The file stayed. That night, the icon changed.

He didn't try to pull the plug again. He couldn't. He just sat back down, and the webcam light turned a steady, unblinking green.