'I don't get this trend.'
A teenager thought, scrolling through the countless reels on his phone with a single downward stroke of his thumb.
His right side had already gone numb from the cold wind rushing through the window, biting into his flesh as if millions of tiny needles.
Mentally uninterested and physically devoid of sensations, he kept scrolling mindless on his device.
Among these reels, half of them include reports of spawns of evil erupting out of the earth to attack vehicles and invade buildings. The other half included reports of magical cards that supposedly granted superpowers. Bored, he randomly clicked on one of them, this one broadcast as "Live," but the boy was pretty sure it was pre-recorded.
"You- you have got believe us! These- these monsters, man! They are- they are- oh god, oh no, NOOOOOO-" zzttt§§§§|
The boy flinched, watching the man gets brutally mauled by the grey-skinned mammoth of a beast. Even though it was somewhat censored, the blood spewing out being black and the flesh spattering turning into dust seconds after before the stream ended with the destruction of the device, it was still full of gore.
A bit disgusted, he scrolled down to another reel, this one about a man holding his palms apart as a stream of water danced between them. Another reel about magical superpowers, the boy complained, although in hindsight, it was his own fault. The algorithm clogged his page with what he spent the most time watching, after all.
'I have to admit though, the CGI on this is amazing. Like, Zach King level of amazing.'
"What are you watching?" A curious, almost melodious voice broke him out of his reverie, even through the sound of wind and the barrier of his wired headphones. Perhaps this was the most lively thing he had heard in a good while.
"Hm? Oh, just some social media. There's a strange influx of magical cards reels all of a sudden." The boy replied, taking off his wired headphones.
He turned his face to the right, facing out of the window of the bus. The sky was blanketed in thickets of storm clouds, and the world was painted a shade of grey. Although it wasn't raining yet, it was evident that a downpour was impending.
In the sky, crows were cawing ominously, a bad omen perhaps, but he wasn't particularly superstitious, so he didn't care much. On the ground, however, he witnessed quite the diverse urban fauna.
Cats were elegantly running over cars and buildings, while dogs were unitedly standing on guard in a pack, barking away at an invisible foe. Meanwhile, rats peeked out from all sorts of corners, and they too ran in the direction of the cats.
'Hm... I guess someone is chasing them out? That would make sense why the cats and mice are running. Dogs are territorial, so they chose to stand their ground... Still, I wonder what chased away the animals on such a massive scale.'
As the bus picked up speed, a familiar pizzeria briefly whooshed by.
It was almost his stop.
"I did read about that this morning. It started from... Ireland, I think?" The girl's voice intercepted his attention once more, his ears twitching slightly in response.
"Yep. I am going to look more into this once I get back." The boy commented, patting his pockets.
Hand sanitizer? Check.
Mosquito repellent roll-on? Check.
Moisturizing cream? Check.
Handkerchief for food and ink stains? Check.
