As Jeff hit the final "Save" button, a sudden flicker in the lights caught his attention. The screen flashed erratically before going completely black. A low hum filled the room, and he could feel a strange tension in the air. He waited a moment, thinking it was just a glitch from the machine, but nothing happened.
Then, the lights went out entirely, and the house fell into complete darkness. A loud buzz from the device echoed in the room, followed by an unsettling silence.
"What the...?" Jeff muttered, his heart racing. He fumbled around in the dark, looking for his phone to use as a flashlight. He heard the sound of his mother’s voice, distant and faint.
"Jeff, what's going on? The power just went out!"
Jeff froze. His stomach sank as he realized he hadn't checked the settings properly. He hadn't selected himself for the changes. His mother was the one who had been affected.
Panic surged through him as he grabbed the device, hoping to fix it before anything worse happened. He tried to power it back on, but the screen remained blank. The buttons, once glowing with bright LEDs, were now dim, and the device refused to respond to any of his input.
"Mom?" he called out, his voice wavering. He could hear footsteps approaching, but they didn’t sound like his mother’s usual stride. This was different, lighter, softer.
As the room slowly filled with light from the streetlamp outside, Jeff turned toward the doorway, his mouth going dry. There, standing in the hallway, was his mother—but she looked... different.
Her features were more youthful, her hair shorter and more vibrant, and her body had noticeably shrunk in size. She stood there, blinking in confusion, her hands gripping the doorframe for support. Her voice was softer and higher-pitched.
"Jeff?" she asked, her eyes wide with alarm. "What happened? I feel... strange."
Jeff's heart pounded in his chest. He couldn’t believe it. His mother now looked like a small child. She looked around, her face twisted in a mixture of bewilderment and concern, as if trying to grasp what had just happened to her.
His mother’s voice, now even softer and more childlike, echoed through the room. "Why do I feel like this? What happened to me?"
Before Jeff could respond, the device flickered back to life for a moment, only to glitch again. The once-glowing LEDs now blinked erratically. He tried to reach for the undo button, but it did nothing. The words "Error" flashed briefly on the screen.
Jeff’s mom began to panic as she looked at herself in a nearby mirror, her hands trembling. "I look... I look like I’m 5 again! Why am I so... young?"
At that moment, Jeff realized there was no way to reverse it. The blackout and the glitch had locked the program in a state where it couldn't make any more changes—not even undo the transformation.