The screen went black. That was normal. The little circle of swirling dots appeared, then vanished. Also normal. Then the screen flickered—not the usual crisp reboot, but a sickly, phosphorescent green, like the glow of an old CRT television left on a static channel.
He slammed the laptop shut.
He clicked “Start.” The Start Screen exploded into a mosaic of infinite tiles, each one a different version of his own face at the moment of death. Drowning. Burning. Screaming. Smiling. All labeled with dates—some in the past, some next Tuesday. windows 8 horror edition