At first, there was nothing. Silence. Elias turned his headphones up, checking his cables. Then, a sound began to bleed in. It wasn't music. It was the rhythmic, wet sound of someone dragging a heavy sponge across a tiled floor. Schlick. Pause. Schlick.

The headphones snapped off his head as he lunged back, his chair clattering against the desk. The room was silent, save for the hum of his PC. He stared at the screen. The playhead on the software was still moving, but the waveform had changed.

Beneath it, a counter began to tick: Total Downloads of "horror_movie_cue_55952.mp3": 1. Then the number flipped. 2.