He opened it. It contained only one line: "Thanks for the view, Leo."

Suddenly, his screen flickered. A command prompt window opened and closed in a blink. Then, his webcam’s indicator light turned a steady, eerie green.

Leo froze. He hadn't opened the camera app. He tried to move the mouse, but the cursor stayed glued to the center of the screen. A text file popped up on his desktop, titled READ_ME_NOW.txt .

The neon light of Leo’s monitor was the only thing cutting through the darkness of his room. It was 2:00 AM, and he was determined to find a "free" version of the latest webcam software. He’d spent an hour scouring forums until he found it: a site promising .