An explosion.

James woke up in a cold sweat, his heart pounding and his throat tight. Behind him, he heard the trickle of rain falling through the gutters outside and the distant rumble of echoing thunder.

There was something unnerving about being woken by thunder. It was like being hit unexpectedly with a defibrillator, accompanied with the self-conscious awkwardness of dropping a drink while alone at home. James felt human, and he didn’t like it.

He sat up and looked at the screen. It had been flashing blue a lot lately, but he wasn’t sure why. Was it some sort of warning? Every time lightning flashed, the scan lines jiggled a little, like they were disrupted by the force of the light. Sometimes they were horizontal like a prisoner’s uniform, sometimes diagonal like a barber’s pole. But they were never vertical, and he briefly wondered why.

Another explosion of light. He flinched, and cursed to himself. The screen flickered at him, laughing.