LXY.

1

Kiera sat on her bed, scrolling through her phone, the screen lit up with familiar, monotonous notifications. Another day. Another boring routine.

She glanced over at her messy desk: unopened textbooks, a half-drunk coffee cup, and a pile of crumpled papers. Her room was a reflection of her life-stuck in the same loop. The same repetitive days. The same dull routine.

Her phone buzzed.

"Hey, you there?"

It was Mia, one of her long-distance friends. Kiera smiled, grateful for the distraction. A quick conversation was all she needed to pull herself away from her monotonous thoughts, even if just for a minute.

"Yeah, just bored out of my mind. Same old, same old. You?"

The reply came quickly. "Same. I miss you. How's school? Still having online lessons with Mr Jones?"

Kiera sighed. She'd been meaning to talk to Mia about it. "Yeah, pretty much. Mom seems to like him so. Sometimes it feels like I'm stuck in the same day over and over again. Wish something exciting would just... happen."

Mia's response was immediate. "You should do something crazy. Like... get a pet or go on a spontaneous trip or something."

Kiera chuckled to herself. If only it were that easy. Her life was a loop. Same classes, same people, same everything.

."Mom would lose her shit if I brought a pet home." She replied and scrolled through social media absently, her finger tapping over the endless feed of posts. Nothing new. Everything felt...flat.

Mia sent a string of laughing emojis. "True...but dude, you need an adventure. Even if it's just online. Try something random, you never know! Ok I gotta go ttyl."

Kiera replied to Mia with a smile. Mia always had that optimistic tone, like anything could be an adventure if you just tried hard enough. But Kiera had long given up on that idea. What's the point? It's all the same.

Kiera sat in her dimly lit room, aimlessly scrolling through her phone after another dull day. The walls felt like they were closing in as she looked at her messages, her mind still swirling from the conversation she'd had with Mia earlier.

Kiera sighed and dropped her phone onto the bed, the weight of her life's predictability heavy on her chest. She was trapped in a cycle of routine and boredom, and nothing seemed to break it.

Her phone buzzed, pulling her attention back. She picked it up and unlocked the screen, absentmindedly scrolling through social media. Then, something caught her eye-an advertisement that popped up suddenly, flashing for a split second before disappearing.

She frowned, scrolling back up, but the ad was gone. She shrugged it off, continuing to scroll. But then, moments later, it reappeared, flashing briefly once again. The same logo, the same tagline: Escape Yourself. Escape Reality, before switching to a link.

Kiera's finger hovered over the screen. The ad had been so fleeting, so random. But there was something about it, something that pulled at her curiosity. LXY. A virtual escape, it promised. A chance to break free from the dull, predictable life she was living.

Without thinking too much, she tapped the link. The screen flickered for a moment, and then, a sleek logo appeared: LXY.

The app's tagline flashed beneath it: Escape Yourself. Escape Reality. One App. Endless Possibilities.

Kiera's pulse quickened, a rush of excitement and curiosity flooding her. Was this it? The escape she'd been craving? The break from everything she was growing so tired of?

Without another thought, she pressed Download.

♤.♤.♤

It started with a single tap. A flash on the screen and an advertisement that appeared out of nowhere, so fleeting it might have been a glitch. But for Kiera, sitting alone in her dimly lit room, it was too tempting to ignore. Her life had become a routine of boredom and missed opportunities, and this app, LXY, promised an escape. No questions asked.

She hesitated only for a moment before her thumb swiped, tapping the app icon for LXY. The screen flickered. A jolt of electricity passed through her fingers. It wasn't like any other app she'd ever seen before. No flashy icons, no polished interface. Just a black screen and a single sentence:

"Escape Yourself. Escape Reality. One App. Endless Possibilities"

Her heart pounded as the app began to load, the text lingering ominously before her. It seemed almost too perfect. Her finger hovered over the screen, ready to dive into something unknown and spontaneous for once.

But before she could, the room grew cold. The light above her flickered once, twice, then went out entirely. Panic surged through her as her phone buzzed violently in her hand, the screen flashing in rhythm with her pulse. The walls closed in, the app pulling at her, deeper, faster. Before she could react, the phone slipped from her grip, crashing to the floor with a final, deafening thud.