She says 'Yes'

"Yes," Katelyn says into the phone deciding a dumb phone call kicking off an immersive game wasn't going to be any worse than what's happening.

The voice says: "Please remain silent during the reception and wait for my voice."

There are three sharp beeps followed by the sound of muzak. It takes her a moment to figure out that it's "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. She makes a mental note knowing everything that happens during these games could be a clue. As she listens she runs through a mental list of other things the voice said that might be important. Katelyn decides she should probably get a notebook if she was going to take this game seriously.

As Katelyn listens to the muzak she finally feels herself calming down. It was only a little bit afternoon but the day already felt long. There was an odd feeling of relief that she had taken the time to sit in the park and do something silly by calling Ms. Stanley's number. She actually smiles and wonders if it isn't going to be all that bad. Maybe she was overthinking the revelation of her past and her browser history. Maybe having it all out in the open could be a good thing for her. Now she could face it.

Still holding the phone up to her ear and listening to the music she pulls her legs up on the bench and uses her free arm to hug her legs close. Her eyes close. She feels the sun on her face and the dulcet song in her head. Suddenly, just as she starts to feel sleepy, there are three sharp beeps again. Her eyes open wide.

"Thank you," the voice returns. "You have been received. In a moment your phone will restart. After it does do not turn it off. Further instructions will arrive within the next 24 hours." There's a soft click and Katelyn's phone turns off.

"Wait, what?" she says out loud and looks down at her phone. Sure enough, it has begun the restart process. Years of television and movies have told her that a phone restarting after a mysterious call is never, ever a good thing. "Fuck," all of the anxiety that had started to fade away was suddenly boiling back to the surface. "fuckfuckfuck," continues muttering to herself watching the phone come back to life. Once it finishes, and she's certain it took longer than usual, she punches in the passcode.

Katelyn isn't really sure what she should be looking for, so she starts scrolling through her apps. Nothing unusual. She scrolls through her documents, her videos, and her photos. To her relief everything seems to still be accounted for and she doesn't see any unusual activity. However, it's also to her dismay because as she scrolls through she's reminded that there are a number of unanonymized naughty photos she'd taken of herself. "God, what if they hacked my phone," she says. "That's all I need. At least the reddit photos don't show my face, but these..." she sighs and gets up.

Katelyn wonders if she should take her phone somewhere to have it looked at. On one hand, a repair shop might be able to diagnose if something malicious had been done to her phone. However, on the other, even if she deleted all of those photos now she was pretty sure she'd heard once that files are rarely permanently gone from a phone. What if some nerdy computer dude came across those photos and her phone's browser history? Feeling frustrated she considers the other option - waiting. Maybe it wasn't anything malicious. Maybe it's just part of the game and if she had been invited to it like a normal person and not through a random card she would have been told in advance this would happen. Could it just be part of the creating atmosphere? She released a frustrated growl.