The file sat on Elias’s desktop like a digital stowaway: .

Driven by a mix of skepticism and a need for an adventure, Elias drove to the coordinates the next afternoon. As he rounded a bend in the trail, there it was: the exact tree from the photo. Under its heavy branches sat an elderly woman with a sketchpad, looking exactly like she was waiting for someone to finish the frame.

He had no memory of downloading it. It wasn’t a work project or a photo backup. It was just there—the eighth iteration of a file that apparently kept finding its way onto his hard drive.