Digital Mutation (Book Five)

Chapter 8: Threat

Annalise sits in her grade ten geography class the next day, head propped on her hand. Her binder sits on her lap, hiding her phone from view, and her teacher drones on and on about the Great Lakes on the American-Canadian border.

She can only come up with two explanations for what she saw last night and only one of them is even remotely believable. Either everything was a dream or everything was real, and a part of her hopes that it's the former. None of it makes sense—PizzaNunchucker appearing in her room, those terrifying green eyes, and six strange creatures in Washington Square Park, like something out of science fiction. She must have eaten something bad before bed.

Then again, she thinks as she chews her lip. She doesn't remember walking home from the park yesterday, and the bump on her head is far too prominent to be the product of a dream. Did she hit her head in the park and then, in a dazed state, imagine that the person who brought her home was PizzaNunchucker?

It's all so crazy that she can't wrap her head around it.

She exits YouTube and double taps her home button, revealing all the apps she still has open. It's all the basics, apps she uses all the time, except...

She frowns. Her photos app is open, and she knows that without a doubt that she hasn't used it recently. What's more, there's a new picture, and she feels her body run cold when she clicks on it. It's a screenshot of her lock screen, but there's a transparent, metallic woman blocking out the time and the wallpaper. Her eyes glow red, and the malicious smile on her face makes Annalise's stomach churn.

No, she thinks, screaming internally. It can't be. It can't. That's...

She swallows hard, thinking of when her video uploaded on its own, the glitching screen, the strands of glowing blue and yellow. A wave of terrifying nostalgia crashes over her and she squeezes her eyes shut, hands shaking.

She can't tell anyone. Who would believe her even if she did? What would she say? She plays out the scenario in her mind.

"Excuse me, police? There's this virus on my computer and my phone, but it looks like this. Please help."

She holds the phone up to the officers. They stare at it for a second as their eyes go wide.

The scene switches to the teen rolling around in a padded room with a straightjacket on.

Annalise shudders at the idea as she steals another hesitant glance at the woman in the screenshot. It can't really be her, can it?

"Miss Hughes!"

Annalise snaps to attention. Her teacher and several classmates stare at her expectantly, and her throat goes dry when she realizes that her teacher must have asked her a question. She wets her lips.

"Um...Lake Superior?" she guesses.

Her teacher shakes her head. "Close, but no. Lake Erie is the warmest, due to its shallow depth. Superior stays the coldest because of its size, but that was a good guess."

A few classmates grumble in annoyance as Annalise slumps back in her seat, relieved. She grips her phone a little tighter as she swipes out of photos, trying to think of something less worrying. The only thing that comes to mind is her dream about someone cradling her and the boy who called himself PizzaNunchucker.

His voice was almost childlike, happy and uplifting behind the fear in his tone. As Annalise thinks of it, she's heard that voice before, but...where? No matter how hard she tries to pinpoint it, nothing comes.

Even so, the reveal of the woman in her phone, combined with the events of last night, whether real or fake, urges her to do something. She opens her email and creates a new message, typing out the first few letters of the email address that PizzaNunchucker used to sign up for the contest. It autofills the rest of the address and she starts typing.