Reboot [ch. 2 Halloween]: Under House Arrest

Leo leaned his forehead against the cold wood. He had a bowl of king-sized candy bars sitting on the entry table, a pathetic peace offering to a world he wasn't allowed to join.

"Trick or treat, Leo!" one of them shouted, followed by a mocking kick against his door. Under House Arrest Reboot [Ch. 2 Halloween]

Outside, the street was alive. He could hear the crunch of leaves under the boots of teenagers and the distant, muffled giggles of children. A group of friends—people he used to run with before the "incident"—were laughing just beyond his porch. He could see their shadows through the frosted glass of the front door: a skeleton, a high-tech cyborg, and someone in a vintage hazmat suit. Leo leaned his forehead against the cold wood

The Warden was watching. Or was it waiting for him to make a move? Outside, the street was alive

The "Under House Arrest" program had rebooted with a vengeance. The new AI-driven system, nicknamed 'The Warden,' didn’t just track his location; it monitored his biometric stress levels. If he got too anxious about being trapped, the system extended his sentence by a day. It was the ultimate psychological cage.