The 4th Subject

Chapter 8: More than Just a Feeling

The date was November 13th, 2020. I woke up after a restless night. The past week, I'd been having weird dreams that had slowly been morphing into nightmares. But not normal nightmares, like falling or being attacked.

They were nightmares that felt realistic. I would be walking around Hi5, then suddenly, I'd be facing what looked like a black screen the size of an elephant. There were three words in green text on the screen.

You were Chosen.

Then, I'd wake up out of fear and confusion. It had been driving me crazy and freaking me out. But I'd been pushing it aside for weeks. I couldn't let this affect me. Not now.

I climbed out of bed and got dressed, my mind still screaming from the nightmare. By the time I finished getting ready for the day, I had successfully pushed any thoughts about it to the back of my mind.

Sam and I left the house and headed to the studio. We had already filmed both of our collabs and they had been out for a while. Now, it was just a waiting game trying to get a flight home.

We arrived at the studio and dumped our stuff into Sam's office. I double checked that my phone was in my pocket and walked back downstairs. Matt and Woods were sitting in the common area in the back with CJ on camera.

"Hey Sarah!" Matt greeted cheerfully. I put on a smile and responded with a hello.

"How'd ya sleep?" Woods questioned, looking at me skeptically.

"Fine," I said with as much sass as I could muster. It was my only shield apart from my awful sense of humor. "What are you filming today?"

"Just a fan mail video," Matt replied, making me relax a bit. At least it would be a more chill video.

"Oh, cool," I said, sitting in a nearby chair.

CJ started the cameras and we began by making jokes and goofing off, as we normally did. Matt began to go off about Sam not liking the nickname Sam. We eventually decided to get started.

Matt asked Sam- I mean, Samantha- to get the fan mail. Most of it was letters and there were a few small packages. There was also a large box that sparked a lot of interest within me.

We sat on the couch and began going through the fan mail. It felt a tiny bit weird being a part of this even though I wasn't actually a part of the company, but it was fun to do a fan mail opening.

Lots of people sent drawings and art in their letters. It was really cool seeing people put so much time and effort into these pieces of art. Matt was reading a letter out loud when something in the letter excited me.

""I look over all the other channels and I watch you and..."" He paused, then said, ""Super Carlin.. Brothers." Who are they?"

Before Matt could finish, I bounced in my seat next to him and gasped.

"Super Carlin Brothers! They make videos of theories about all sorts of movies and tv shows. They do a lot of Disney and Harry Potter. Their videos are really good." I turned to the camera and said, "Super Carlin Bros! Go watch them!"

Matt looked at me with a chuckle, then back at the letter and continued reading. This was going to be a great video.

After going through more letters, we got more stuff. Someone sent them 5 dollars, which I thought was really sweet. Someone else sent Woods some cool glasses that looked a lot like Matt's Overkill shades. Another fan sent in some handmade wands.

"Oh no, one of them broke!" Sam exclaimed.

"Oh no!" I added, inspecting the wand piece closely.

"We got wood glue," Woods said. "We could totally fix that."