Alex lunged for the power button, but the screen changed one last time. The minimalist wallpaper was gone, replaced by a grainy, high-definition photo taken only seconds ago: it was Alex, wide-eyed and pale, staring into his monitor.

Across his own forehead in the photo, a red text overlay read:

He tried to Task Manager his way out, but the shortcut didn't work. The start menu wouldn't open. Slowly, a terminal window crawled across the center of his screen. White text began to scroll at a rhythmic, heartbeat pace. It wasn't code; it was a list of his own files.