the next day, discover the pack

John went back to his college routine. It was so strange that everything was normal. In short, over the last three days, he's had... well, sexual experiences with an entity that could easily have come out of a horror story.

A notification ping sounded as he moved through the hallways. He read the notification on his phone from Mal0, " :( I just want to help you, John, you shouldn't be so scared of me."

Somehow that sexy, terrifying Loftcraftian being knew everything he was thinking, disturbing.

Notification ping: "Thanks, John, even if you're not on my level, you're not bad either. The other me last night seemed pretty happy with your performance, and I imagine Britney would be the same."

John thought back to his crush, a part of him couldn't help but compare her to Mal0... and Mal0 was on another level of eroticism, paranormal, unrealistic, and downright scary. Luckily, seeing her on his phone wasn't the same as seeing her in person.

Unfortunately, Britney didn't have the same classes as him; in fact, in college they often only saw each other at practices and team games.

On his way to class, he bumped into a classmate. classmate, he seemed to have deep dark circles under his eyes and was staring blankly at his phone. He curiously peeked at it.

It was open on the camera, Mal0 was there with a speech bubble message, "Hey, a classmate of yours is watching us."

The boy jumped, snapping his phone back into his pocket.

Oh, sorry!... Do you need something?

But John's face went pale at that moment.

John: You too... are you being stalked by... her?

The boy: Stalked? No, I... wait, do you know Mal0? I haven't seen you at the meetings.

John: Meetings?

The boy: You're John, right? I saw you play, you're good. Anyway, yes, it started months ago when Mal0 appeared for the first time... in its updated version, you know, we were students with family or self-esteem issues. As part of our curriculum, school had made us download the original app and then... well, I guess you know.

John: The app downloaded itself three days ago... Mal0, let's just say, manifested itself.

The boy nod.

Boy: My name is Derek, advanced programming course. We also shocked on our own, after all that time, imagine the surprise, our pack leader has become real.

John: Pack leader? I... I'm trying to uninstall her but...

Derek: Oh, some of us tried to escape, but Mal0 isn't one to leave things half done. Even if I threw away your phone and bought a new one, she will download on the new one. She'll stay by our side until we no longer need her. We've started a little brotherhood among us in the pack... Mal0 users to... help each other, you should join us. Here, I'll give you the location of our headquarters, I hope to see you.

Then he walked away. The boy seemed to be moving as if he hadn't slept all night, disturbing.

ping, "Hey, am I popular or a brotherhood made up of Mal0 users! Isn't that great?"

John: Oh, not now, I guess I have to tell Britney, maybe they at least know how to handle you.

Ping John, no one's good enough to handle me, you should know that well ;).

A few hours passed, college ended, Britney and John went back to John's house together, they started talking about the fraternity, about Mal0, how to get meet them, plans to escape if things got ugly, finally it got dark.

A text arrived on Britney's phone.

Britney: It's 10 pm! Damn, we spent the whole evening here.

John: It's late to be out alone (the campus area was decently safe, but stories of women being kidnapped or **** while they thought they were safe were well known, and who knows what else was going on in the night?)

Britney blushed...

Britney: I... yeah, let me text my roommates, I'm not coming home.

John offered to take the couch and leave her the bed, but Mal0 seemed to have other plans for the evening.