At first glance, it looked like a mistake. The lighting was overexposed, washed out by a harsh, unnatural flash. The foreground was dominated by the gnarled roots of a hemlock tree. But as Elias leaned in, his breath hitched.
The file was labeled , a clinical, alphanumeric string that gave no hint of the nightmare contained within its pixels. 00024.jpg
In the center of the frame stood a man. He was dressed in hiking gear—a bright orange windbreaker that should have looked cheerful but instead looked like a scream against the gray woods. He wasn't looking at the camera. He was looking at his own hands. Or rather, what was happening to them. At first glance, it looked like a mistake