Digital Mutation (Book Five)

Chapter 5: Troubleshooting

Annalise shoves open her door and enters the apartment, eyes drooped and shoulders aching with the weight of the homework in her backpack. Pepper comes barrelling towards her, leaping up at her legs in a wiggling mess of doggy happiness, and Annalise kneels down to pet her.

"Hewwo Peppy Pep. Who's a good pupper? You are," she coos, scratching at Pepper's ears while the dog furiously licks at her face.

"Annalise?"

"Yeah, mom, I'm home," she calls.

She hurries to the kitchen, where her mother is drying dishes. The blonde woman smiles at the sight of her daughter, offering a small wave around the plastic container in her hand. She finishes drying and stoops to put it away.

"There's cookies on the table," she says. She frowns as she straightens up, eyes widening. "Oh, I forgot to get milk."

"I've got it," Annalise says, dumping her backpack on one of the dining room chairs. "Mind if I make a mocha?"

"Just made coffee. Go ahead."

She takes the time needed to get both her mixture of hot chocolate and coffee ready while also making her mom a fresh cup. As she puts in her preferred two sugars, she catches her mother's tired but grateful smile. The table is strewn with papers and her mom's laptop is open, all pointing to the fact that Mrs. Hughes has some extra accounting work to get done.

Leanne thanks Annalise as she takes a sip of the coffee and settles back at the table, eyes on her laptop again as she gets to work. Annalise sips at her drink and nibbles on the cookies, chatting aimlessly about her day at school while her mom listens.

Annalise can't help but notice the wrinkles around her mom's eyes, so close in colour to Annalise's and yet so much older, so much wiser. For the longest time, Annalise assumed that she looked like her mom—the blonde hair and the grey-blue eyes were telltale to their relatedness—but as time went on, Annalise heard more and more about little things that she got from her dad; his smile, the way his eyes crease, his laugh, little things in her personality that her mom knows aren't from her.

It's weird, Annalise thinks, to have so many traits from a man that she remembers so little about. Still, she feels a sense of pride whenever she passes his picture in the hallway, looking proud and handsome and young in his U.S Army uniform. He's only a Private in the portrait. He died a Sergeant.

Annalise finishes her snack and reaches for her backpack. "I'm gonna go upstairs," she says.

"Alright. I'll call you down for supper," comes the easy response. Her mother's eyes don't leave the spreadsheet.

Annalise hurries upstairs, Pepper at her heels. The second she gets into her room, all she wants to do is collapse onto her bed and have a long nap. She resists the allure of her cozy IKEA bedsheets and instead slides into her desk chair and opens her laptop.

She scrolls through comments on her announcement video, glad to see that most of them are positive and excited. She checks her entry website and finds that there are already plenty of eager subscribers already entered. She peruses the entries, reading over the questions with mild curiosity, and stops when she finds the one that she's looking for.

Question 1: Start off slow, how long have you been watching my videos?

Around a year or two maybe? I kind of found your channel by accident looking for videos about making pizza when I found your 'Dessert Pizza Disaster' video and...here I am! I've loved every second!

Question 2: What's your favourite video topic on my channel?

I literally love anything that you post. Even if I have no idea what the topic is, you make everything so interesting and adorable that I can't help but love it. If I had to choose though...I like your gaming videos, both playing and designing. They're so cool!

Question 3: Last one, this one's hardest...PICK A DONUT!

Oh no! This one's too hard! I...I...I can't choose! AHHHH! SPRINKLES! Phew...that was close.

"How can someone be this cute with just words?" she mumbles to herself, fidgeting with her fringe as she chews on her bottom lip.

She clicks away and gets to work, cheeks far too warm for her liking.

She thanks her lucky stars that the website automatically compiles every entry into a digital "win bin", as Annalise has nicknamed it. She starts getting names, marking them down on a separate piece of paper. She still has to record the video and edit it, which won't be too easy with the time limit she's set. At least she made a point of saying that it's a flash contest and goes by fast.

She records what she can with a few names before her mom calls her for supper. She wolfs down the meatloaf and mashed potatoes before racing back upstairs and selecting more winners. She keeps her headphones on while she edits the clips, bobbing her head to AJR, mouthing the words to herself.

She completes the video with some time to spare before she said she'd post it. While she waits for it to export, she looks through her saved videos that she can upload in a pinch. One of them she eyes with slight embarrassment, cursor hovering over it as she eyes the trashcan icon.

It's titled "I'm Fine". She originally planned to play it off as a joke about how being fine never means being fine, but it turned into an explanation of how tired and sad she feels and how the pressure of YouTube feels like too much to handle. She could never post it.

She drags it to the trash and releases, listening to the satisfying sound of crumpling paper. With that over and done, she goes back to YouTube and prepares to upload her winner announcements. With that done, she stretches her arms high above her head and slumps back, a long, droning moan leaving her as she feels her muscles extend.

She stands, pulls off her headphones, pauses her music, and finally collapses onto her bed. As she buries her face in her pillow, she listens to the softened ding of notifications off her laptop, Pepper gnawing on a squeaky toy somewhere on the floor...

"Your video has been uploaded!" declares an accented, feminine voice.

Annalise's eyes snap open and she lurches upwards. She stares at her laptop screen, where sure enough, another video sits next to the previous. The title gives it all away and Annalise lets out a small scream as she races for the laptop, hurriedly moving to delete the upload.

She gets rid of it before a single view appears, heart pounding. "I'm Fine" was put in the trash; there's no way that it could have been uploaded like that. She furrows her brow and starts an anti-virus wipe, annoyed. She's done it before. No big deal.

She stops mid-type as something clicks in her mind. YouTube doesn't announce when a video has been uploaded, especially not in an audible way, and what's more, Annalise can't shake the feeling that she knows the voice that spoke.

She searches her channel, scrolling through playlists and likes, and she catches something. The screen seems to glitch and she sees a flash of blue and yellow light in strands, like hair. She shakes her head and rubs her eyes, stomach clenching with the awful feeling of déjà vu.

Pepper makes a little noise as she paws Annalise's leg. Annalise stands up from her desk, heart pounding, and Pepper scampers around her feet, tail wagging. The blonde kneels to scratch her ears, smiling weakly.

"Come on, let's go for a walk," she says. The Jack Russell perks up at the word.

She ushers the dog out of her bedroom, glancing back at her computer as she starts to close the door. She can't shake the feeling that there's something watching her. She exhales, shakes her head as hard as she can, and shuts her bedroom door.

A night walk will clear her head.