He looked at his reflection in the dark laptop screen. He was a philosophy major paying a ghost to argue for the value of the human soul. The irony was a physical weight in his chest. He didn't upload it.

Leo stared at the cursor. It pulsed like a failing heart. The prompt was "The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence," and it was due in six hours. His scholarship required a 3.8 GPA. His brain, fried from three straight all-nighters and a double shift at the campus diner, felt like wet cardboard.

He turned it in at 11:59 PM. It was messy, and he knew he’d probably get a C. But as he closed his laptop, he realized it was the first time in weeks he didn’t feel like a machine himself.