The phone on her bedside table lit up as it received another message, illuminating the dark bedroom as the device drifting across the wooden surface as it vibrated. Lazily lifting a hand up and stretching her arm over to it she dragged the mobile towards her and tilted to screen so she could see what it said; one of her ‘friends’ wanted help studying for an upcoming math test and of course they it was her they came to first. With a sigh she quickly tapped out a response to the request before throwing the device back down on the mattress and burying her face back into her pillow.

It was less than a minute later before the phone began vibrating again, no harsh light filling the room this time with the mobile screen down on the bed but she could feel the vibrations through the mattress. Lifting herself off of the bed Erika turned over so that she was lying on her back, giving up on the idea of having a moment’s peace and quiet. It was a different person this time, another ‘friend’ inviting her to a sleep over next week.

Erika frowned at the screen, staring at the message with the obnoxious number of emojis before tapping out another response and dropping the phone onto her stomach. She’d have to attend the sleepover, there was no way around it; parties she could ignore with excuses about other engagements or wanting to get an early night, double dates she avoided with her usual excuse of wanting to stay single till college, but for things like this she needed to put in some effort if she didn’t want people to start asking questions. One whole night where she’d have to keep up the façade the entire time; at least it was on a school night, so she could make an excuse to retire early if she was getting frustrated.

Her head dropped onto the pillow and she stared at the ceiling, eyes glazing over as she tried to let her mind just drift away. The spell broke when she felt her phone vibrate again, this time directly on her stomach. The screen illuminated her room with its searing blue light, revealing a room filled with typical teenage girl paraphernalia; the walls were adorned with posters for bands she’d never listened to, but whose albums she could all name from memory, and pictures of male models she despised but whose entire history she could recite if needed. Her vanity was covered with make-up kits and fashion magazines and the floor was home to a number of stuffed animals that had been thrown from her bed so she could slump down in their place.

Reaching behind her head Erika lifted the pillow she was lying on out from under her and raised it above her face. She lowered it down till it covered her head, drowning out the sounds of the phone to an extent while also making it difficult to breathe, and held it there for a few seconds before letting it go. Throwing the pillow to the side she reached down and recovered her phone, holding it over her face to see the screen, expecting to see another message with a request for help she would need to deal with or sending an invitation to something she would have to find a way out of.

It was neither of those. Instead it was a message from a number she didn’t recognise containing nothing but junk text, just a mass of random characters that filled the screen. Was this some kind of prank? Was it someone from school playing a trick on her or maybe some new chain letter that she was supposed to forward on?

Staring at the screen in confusion Erika felt a headache coming on the longer she looked at it; it was even starting to look like the characters were changing and dancing around the screen. Sitting up on her bed Erika tried to back out of the message, only to find that she couldn’t. No matter what button she pressed her phone wasn’t responding; had she been sent a virus? Was her phone being hacked? The more she looked at the randomly shifting characters the more it seemed like there were actual words or phrases mixed in with the noise. Eventually, one by one, some of the characters in the middle of the jumble began to lock into place, slowly beginning to form a message.

[i]Bearer located[/i]

A circle a light suddenly erupted around her, bright shining white replacing the blue that lit her room as Erika dropped her phone in shock. Before she could even think of trying to run, the centre of the circle opened up into nothingness and Erika was swallowed up.

****

[i]...Transfer successful[/i]

[i]Bearer:Sincerity=acquired[/i]

[i]Begin transfer of remaining Bearers...[/i]