In the reflection of a cracked third-story window, there wasn't a photographer or a tripod. There was a silhouette of a man standing in the surf, holding a lantern that glowed with a light far too bright for a daytime exposure. Elias checked the metadata; the "Date Taken" field simply read: Tomorrow.

The sterile hum of the server room was the only soundtrack to Elias’s midnight shift when the notification pinged: File 1197902709-170667a.jpg downloaded successfully.

He clicked it open, expecting another generic architectural render for the firm’s upcoming pitch. Instead, the screen filled with a high-resolution, sun-drenched capture of an abandoned lighthouse on a jagged, unnamed coast. It was hauntingly beautiful, but something felt off. Elias zoomed in, his mouse skittering over the pixels of the weathered stone.