The protagonist, a boy whose face remained perpetually out of focus, checked a watch that had no hands. "The gate was closed," he replied.
Elias froze. His name wasn't in the metadata. His webcam shutter was closed.
The hum in his speakers grew into a roar. The girl on the platform reached out, her hand pressing against the internal glass of the monitor. The pixels under her fingertips began to bleed, dripping down the bottom of his screen like actual ink.