Duskwood: Love's Beginning

3 - Jayna

I don't know what got into me. Loneliness, boredom, insanity. Who knew? But these people, who could still be total scammers, had my sympathy. Tentatively.

I was still trying to process everything when I got another text. But, it wasn't a text for me. How was I seeing this?

Somehow, I had access to a text thread between Jessy and Dan. I remembered their names from the group chat; both of them had seemed less than thrilled that I had been contacted. The screen was all grayed out with no way for me to participate in the conversation. At the bottom, it said the text was encrypted and "Identity: Hidden" which seemed to mean that my identity was hidden.

I glanced at their private conversation while trying to figure out what to do. I felt slimy and like some kind of criminal. Even if they were sort of talking about me, it was none of my business. I was about to jump back into the group messages and ask them about it when yet another person texted me. This one, however, had no name attached, just a bunch of question marks. That was weird. What's worse, their profile pic was of one of those Guy Fawkes masks.

This stranger was seriously boasting that they'd broken into other people's phones to share their secrets with me? The bile rose in my throat. If they were looking for thanks, they came to the wrong person. I asked them, straight up, if they were a hacker. They seemed...surprised by this question. Dude, how could anyone not think you're a hacker?

How did my nice, boring day turn into this nightmare? I asked more questions, totally weirded out by what was going on. This seemed to make them impatient, and orders started getting thrown around by the hacker. And then to make sure I understood, the creeper called me. There was just a black hole under the hood of the sweatshirt where a face should be, and the voice modulator they were using was very startling with their deep voice. Seriously, I almost peed my pants. This was making me very uncomfortable and was reminiscent of what my ex was doing to me.

All the computers in the background seemed to confirm my suspicions that this guy–because I got the vibe that he was male or masculine-leaning–was a hacker. I worried, what would he do to me if I didn't cooperate? I really didn't want to be his pawn, but maybe I could play along and use him for information to help Thomas and the others find Hannah. I couldn't tell them, though, because I knew he would be watching. For now, I would have to appear to be on his side.