Suddenly, the room was filled with a cacophony. It was every conversation Elias had ever had over Discord, every embarrassing voice note he’d recorded and deleted, every muttered curse word he thought no one heard. It played all at once, a deafening wall of noise.
The sound of a mouse button.
Elias held his breath. He double-clicked the Adobe Audition icon. The splash screen appeared—the familiar red icon swirling. The program loaded. He went to the 'Help' menu. It wasn't asking for a serial number. It simply read: Licensed to: Guest.
Suddenly, the timeline in front of him populated itself. Elias hadn’t loaded any new files, but the multitrack view was filling up with clips. They were named things like Session_01_December and Bedroom_Argument .