[For clarity, you may want to have a different person read the Volqert statements, found with Volqert noted in bold.]

The next morning Natalie, Derrick, and Sam were back in the manager’s office at World of Electronics. Sam was troubled by his unhealthy dependency on the Internet. Derrick was full of guilt over what happened to the cyber-bully. And Natalie had not slept a wink as she kept reliving the events of the night before.

The computer on the manager’s desk suddenly came to life. As they looked closer, a montage of visual images began to play across the screen and their facial expressions formed the backdrop for the video. Sam’s image was wide-eyed, harried, and unflattering as only the camera mounted above a computer screen can capture. Across his forehead and cheeks, Zombies were being mowed down by gunfire, and explosions kept reducing the surrounding buildings to rubble around his ears. Sam’s eyes darted back and forth as he chewed his lower lip.

“Wow!” remarked Sam. “Do I really look like that when I play Zombie’s Revenge?”

“You know the old saying,” laughed Derrick. “Whatever we gaze at we eventually become.”

“Yuck!” said Sam, playfully punching Derrick in the arm.

The screen was now filled with Derrick’s likeness. His eyes were half-closed and his mouth set. His chin was pushed forward, and his image grew larger as it pressed into the screen. At first, images of the cyber-bully and his friends began to crawl out of Derrick’s shirt collar and up his neck like some sneak military attack. But as they flowed around his left cheek they seemed to catch on fire and silently scream. The image of Derrick’s face took on a cruel look of glee and then froze. The scene ended with the bully spinning and falling from the top of a building projected on Derrick’s forehead and onto his chin where his body twitched and then lay perfectly still. The silence in the room was deafening.

Natalie and Sam glanced over at their friend as the scene faded, but Derrick would not make eye contact. He just kept looking down at the floor.

[Gasp!] The sound of a quick intake of air drew their attention back to the computer screen. This time the background face belonged to Natalie. She was laughing at something only she could see. She touched her neck with the tips of her fingers and shook her head the way girls do when they want their hair to fall a certain way. The image of a man’s thick fingers typing on a keyboard moved across her image. The index finger, with its short, jagged fingernail, hovered over the keys and struck the enter key making the real Natalie jump.

“What happened to you?” Sam asked.

Before Natalie could respond the screen image dissolved and Volqert’s voice read the
following message as it printed across the screen—

“Thank you for playing Imagine This – Part 2.”

It did not take long for the three friends to realize what had happened. It was Volqert who blocked Sam’s Internet access, even at the Internet cafe. Volqert was behind the cyber-attack on Derrick, and his revenge. The entire episode was make-believe. And it was Volqert who manufactured the online predator stalking Natalie.

It was as if a curtain had been pulled back revealing what was going on behind the scenes. Relief washed over Derrick and Natalie. Nothing had happened. Like a bad dream you finally wake up from—none of it was real!