DISCLAIMER: "Imscared - A Pixelated Nightmare" is the property of Ivan Zanotti aka "MyMadness". I own no rights.

A BYTE-SIZED BIRTH

What was I doing? I should have been focusing on my homework, that can be said for sure. My computer science teacher left me with the task of creating an entire functioning program, but that wasn't where my attention was.

I had just bought a new laptop from a garage sale; a fairly old model still running Windows 98, but the seller was giving it away for an incredibly cheap price. The catch? It was 'haunted' by a 'computer virus', as ridiculous as that may sound. But it's one thing to hear rumours among friends; this was coming from an adult, telling it to my face with an intense look the likes of which I had never seen. I simply had to investigate.

Curiosity killed the cat.

I had already transferred my assignment files over to my new laptop, but instead of working on that, I was reading the news in search of content related to my new laptop's phantom virus. I eventually stumbled upon an article:

MAN STRANGLED TO DEATH WITH A COMPUTER CABLE

The body of 48-year-old father Raymond Blackburn was found dead in his home on Standish St, Liverpool. Marks on his neck suggest that he got into a struggle with someone who strangled him to death with a computer cable. 12-year-old daughter Corina has gone missing and authorities think she may have been kidnapped by the intruder after –

"What's this?"

Crap!

In an instant, the laptop's lid had been slammed shut and I was flopped over it with my face buried in my hands. I managed a sideways glance through my fingers to see my friend and assignment partner, Ryan, standing right behind me with an eyebrow raised and his bag half-slid off his shoulder.

"Well, that's awfully suspicious," commented Ryan. "What are you doing?"

I hesitated. "Reading the news."

"You never read the news," said Ryan, "and your webcam was on. What were you really doing?"

I furrowed my brow in confusion. My webcam was on? I wasn't aware of this.

After a moment's pause, Ryan slid his bag fully off and pulled up a chair next to me. "Okay, forget that, let's just do our homework."

I groan, then reopen my laptop, pulling up a window with the source code for our project within. I began keying in some code absent-mindedly before I realised that what I was writing was random ideas floating through my head.

"Ryan," I begin.

"Yes?"

"I've been staring at this shitty screen for fricking hours and I seriously can't be bothered to type another bloody word, so why don't you just take over for me before this project goes to shit?"

Ryan looked taken aback for a moment before responding. "Fine."

Seeing the look on my face, Ryan felt obligated to repeat himself more forcefully, then we switched places. Ryan allowed himself a short, useless look at the code before running the program to check for bugs. As a result, the program crashed and shut down entirely.

"Crap," said Ryan.

I groan. "Tell me you didn't run the bloody program."

"I didn't run the bloody program," quipped Ryan.

I groaned again, then stood up, slamming my hands down on the table. "You know what? You know what? I'm just going to leave."

"Andrew –"

"We'll save it for another day!"

"Andrew!"

But I was already outside, making a beeline straight for my warm, comforting bed.

(A/N: I've decided to rework this story! Don't expect regular updates, but it's no longer abandoned, so there's a start, right? A large chunk of the story – I'm not sure whether it's less or more than half – was made up by my friend, so I don't even own all of that! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this version.)