Matt "watched" with horror that played out in slow motion as the housekeeper's hand tugged at the cord. For a fleeting instant, he felt he might make it as she struggled with pulling the cord from the outlet.
"Just a few more seconds... please..." Matt pleaded.
It wasn't to be. The cord popped from the outlet, and the laptop screen went dark, taking the countdown and the Chronivac's restorating energy with it.
"No!"
The full reality of the change he had desired hit him now. He rested as limp and flimsy as any other rubber condom, indistinguishable, in fact, from the real thing except for the faint impression of his face his friend had noticed earlier. "Why didn't I let Ben know when I had the opportunity?" Matt lamented.
His only hope of getting back to human form was to be restored manually, which looked like quite the slim chance since not a soul knew what he had done.
Then, it got worse.
The housekeeper grimaced and picked up the condom using a tissue she got from a box near Matt's bed. "No!" Matt screamed soundlessly.
In the next moment, she dropped the condom into the trash can next to Matt's desk. The condom landed on other assorted debris that Matt had recently disposed of without so much as a thought.
Matt could have cried, if a condom could shed tears.