Another ordinary Tuesday morning. You stretch lazily in bed, reaching for the remote to catch the usual morning news while you wake up. But something feels different—where's Sarah Martinez, the anchor who's been delivering the 7 AM broadcast for the past three years?

Instead, a visibly shaken male reporter stares directly into the camera, his usually perfect hair disheveled.

"This is... this is Jim Patterson with breaking news. I'm getting reports from every major city across the globe—women have simply... vanished. We're talking about massive disappearances happening simultaneously worldwide. Emergency services are overwhelmed with missing person reports, and—"

The remote slips from your trembling fingers as the impossible words sink in.