No Service

Chapter 3

Today started out pretty weird.

When Meg woke up she reached for her pocket to make sure her phone was there.

It wasn't.

She had jumped to her feet so fast that she almost woke the other survivors up. Dwight stirred next to her, drool dripping out of his mouth as he curled up into himself and smiled in his sleep. She glanced at him to make sure he was asleep and got to her feet, looking all around for her phone. Meg couldn't find it anywhere. She was trying her best to have an internal panic attack so the others wouldn't get suspicious. Her hysteria left her in an extremely satisfying wave as she noticed it was just caught under her spare jacket.

God. That could have been bad.

Even weirder, after the trials for the day had finished, Meg had walked back to the tree as she had done for the past few weeks. She turned on her phone, and for the first time ever, her cell reception was now four bars instead of five. Strange. She wondered what could be causing this? She doubted there was cell service in the Entity's realm, so this had to mean something, didn't it?

Other than that, Meg had one last strange piece of things going for her today.

NightDream hadn't messaged her yet. They always messaged Meg first. For weeks without fail every single time when she sat down a new message came through and they had their normal conversations. She was so used to it. This was so WEIRD for her. She didn't really know how to react. Should she message them first?

Ding!

Finally, they decided to message her. She was starting to get worried.

"One new message from CrystalFeather!"

I'm sorry, who?

There were other people who had her contact? Who could this be?

She quickly tapped on their contact and opened their chat logs.

CF: Hey there! NightDream gave me your contact!"

NightDream was behind this? That explains the lack of a message.

NW: Hey there, CrystalFeather. Why are you messaging me? What happened to NightDream?

CF: Oh, nothing is wrong with NightDream! They've just been talking my ear off with nothing but talking about you, and I was just curious what all the fuss is about! They're busy at the moment. They'll be on tomorrow though!

NightDream had been talking about her? That was... interesting. An Interesting thought. Huh.

HW: All good things I hope?

CF: GOOD THINGS YOU SAY! God, it's like you two are newly weds or something. They adore you.

...adore...?

Meg couldn't hide her blush. Not that anyone was around to hide it for anyway. It was easy to forget she was talking to people not even in the same dimension. She exhaled deeply. Play it cool.

HW: I'm not surprised. I'm pretty irresistible. Talk to me for an hour or two and I bet you'd be begging for my hand in marriage too.

CF: God, I hope. By the way, whats your gender? NightDream thinks you might be a girl but they're not sure.

Should she tell CrystalFeather her gender? She felt like she didn't mind telling NightDream her gender, because after all they'd spend probably a total of thirty hours just talking to each other about pretty much anything. Meg knew a lot about the mystery person. Their fears, what makes them happy, what makes them laugh, but she didn't know the basics that you should know first when befriending a person. She didn't know their gender, or their name, or where they lived, or really anything about them besides anything that was personality based.

Meg always pictured them in her head as a guy, but she couldn't be sure. It seems NightDream pictured her as a girl, which she wasn't very surprised about. Meg wasn't extremely feminine, but she still had a few feminine traits to her personality. She supposed ranting to NightDream about how stupid wired bras are really didn't help hide her gender much, did it?

CF: Hello?

Oops, she got caught up in her own thoughts again.

HW: Tell NightDream the next time you see them that if they want to know my gender they have to ask me themselves.

CF: Oh yeah, you're definitely a woman. I'll let them know as soon as they come online :)

HW: What is that supposed to mean!

CF: You're so bossy. Women are bossy.

HW: That's so sexist. You're sexist.

CF: I didn't say I didn't like it! Boss me around all day, mommy ;)

HW: You're so fucking weird.

CF: The best kind of person if you ask me.
CF: So
CF: Tell me a little about yourself! I wanna know who NightDream is crushin' on so I can annoy them about it :3

HW: They do not say they have a crush on me!

CF: They didn't have to! I could see it in the way they typed.

HW: The way they typed? You know words don't express emotions, right? You're staring at a screen.

CF: Oh trust me, words SCREAM emotions. You just have to be familiar enough with how a person types. I don't know you well enough yet, but give me some time and I'll be able to read your simple little "alright" like a paragraph of deep hearted confessions!

HW: You sure do come on strong.

CF: Oh, yeah? Does NightDream have some competition?~

HW: You wish.

CF: Oh... so no competition then? So you're sayingggg?

HW: I'm saying nothing! is this an interrogation or something? How do I know you're not NightDream on another account?

CF: This app only lets use have one account. You can't make another one. I never even downloaded this app or anything, it was just kind of here.

HW: What do you mean?

CF: I just found this phone lying around in the dirt. I have no idea how it's working right now.

....what? Could that mean...

HW: Where are you right now?

CF: There's no way I could explain it in a way you'd understand.

HW: Try me.

CF: Really, I don't even know how to begin. Spider gods. People trying to kill me all the time. Crazy world I live in.

Oh my god.

CrystalFeather lives in the Entity's realm.

They're a survivor.

Holy shit!

HOLY SHIT!

Meg needed to process this. She didn't even know how to react.

HW: I have to go.

CF: So soon? I didn't scare you off did I? Would it help if I said I was joking?

HW: Goodbye.

Meg turned the phone off and shoved it into her pocket, leaning back against the tree and staring at the sky. Someone else in the Nightmare had a phone. A survivor. Did all the survivors have phones? Was NightDream a survivor too? Who could they both be?

Who was Meg slowly developing feelings for?

God, what a weird day.