Emily

Rising on shaky legs, my vision blurs for a second and I pull in deep breaths and exhale through my mouth a couple of times until the spell clears. The sharp sensation in my neck soon dissipates, and the nausea settles before heading on its way out, and I'm left to free stand without the need to hunch over. Searching left and right, there's no sign of anyone, and it's giving me the creeps. It reminds me of a desert, and I'm the one stranded.

Wrapping my arms around my midsection, I trudge on with bare feet and call out, "Hello?"

There's no answer, and it makes my hopes shorter each time I holler. I have a feeling I could keep going and no one will ever get back to me—

"Hey, Blondie!"

Pivoting on the spot, I don't see the owner of the voice at first, but when I do, I really see them. My eyes widen, and I'm praying he honestly means me and no one else—even though I can't see anyone else.

Pointing at myself, the figure comes closer until he's a handful of metres from me. "Me?"

He nods, and his shaggy mop of ash brown swishes with the movement. "You're the only cute blonde around here," he notes, and there's humour lighting up the green of his irises. "You're definitely new, I haven't seen you around before, and I've seen nearly everyone here." Running a hand through his hair, he then scratches at his cleanly shaved jaw. "What's your favourite book? I guess if you're a book worm, I wouldn't have found you in here."

This is different. I've never had a dream like this before.

"You're looking at me kind of strange. . . you don't think this is a dream, do you?"

A nervous laugh comes first, and I find my voice soon after. "What else would this be?"

His eyes flick between both of mine before his brows crease in the middle, and then his eyes widen all together. "No way, you're actually new! I haven't seen a newbie in. . . I try not to remember." He waggles a finger. "Let me guess, fell asleep with your phone? That's a common one."

My mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water as I try to process his words as he rambles on, and I'm starting to wish I never called out. He's a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

Turning on my heels, I'm about to walk away when he appears in front of me with those bright green eyes.

"Hey, maybe this will help." He pinches my arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

His brows dip again. "Isn't that what you normally do when you think you're dreaming?"

He got me there.

"And it hurts?"

"Of course it does, you pinched me!" I exclaim.

A grin tugs at his lips. "That means you're wide awake, Blondie."

"No, it doesn't," I blurt.

A chuckle passes his lips as a challenging expression highlights his features. "Let's do this, Blondie."

He pinched me again, got me to count all my fingers and toes, and the rest I'm sure is a bunch of nonsense. But I'm a sceptic, and I'm scared to even consider this being real.

Maybe if I close my eyes and throw myself backwards, I'll wake up.

Bracing myself, I squeeze my eyes shut as tight as I can and let myself fall backwards. There's the brief fall, and then pain from landing square on my back. Groaning, I sit up and glare at the grinning man towering me.

"You sure are an odd one, I like you," he muses.

Rubbing my back with one hand, I take his extended one to hop up. Scanning the area, panic sets in at the realisation I've ended up in. . . wherever we are.

"Where are we? What happened to me? Did you kidnap me?" I accuse, taking a step away from him with narrowed eyes. "I'll call the Police."

He raises his hands in surrender, but his eyes are never void of that humour. "I swear, I didn't kidnap you. I wish I could tell you how you got here, but no one knows how it works. If I did, I would tell you, but all I can do is show you the way out of here. All we have to do is head to your Settings."

"M-my Settings?" I stammer.

His head bobs enthusiastically. "Yep." He pops the 'p' excitedly whilst swaying from one foot to the other. "There will be a Recovery Button. We click that, and you will be on your merry way. Like I said at the start—at least in my theory—you fell asleep with your phone while it was in use, did you not?"

It's my turn to nod this time.

"There you go! It technically downloaded you, and you have twenty-four hours to get to your Recover Button, or you're going to become a Cursor and remain in here."

My lower lip trembles. "What will happen to me in the real world?"

His shoulders lift casually but his face tells a different story. "Rumour is, you will disappear and be forgotten." He scrunches up his nose. "But I'm not one hundred percent sure because there's never been proof, not that it's something that can be proven. You either leave, or stay, there's no one or the other."

My eyes widen and fresh tears prickle at the corners. Noticing, he takes a cautious step forward, and when I don't shift away from him, he carefully pats my arm. "Hey, Blondie, don't worry, OK? I swear I'll do whatever it takes to get you back home safely. You can trust me."

Gazing up into his eyes, they're gentle and full of promise and determination, and it's comforting. I don't want to believe I'm stuck inside my phone, but at the same time, if it's real, I've got to do a lot to get to my Settings by the sound of it. Not only that, but he's also the only one here who knows anything about this place.

"I-I don't have a favourite book yet, but I like A-Adventures. . . yourself?" I whisper, deciding I should try to meet him halfway.

A bright smile plays on his lips, and it takes me by surprise. I'm not sure how he can be so calm knowing he's trapped inside a device. I'm a nervous wreck, but the only reasonable explanation is that he must've arrived earlier. And by the sounds of it, he's been here a while. If he knows the basics, that's all I'll need to know to get out of here.

"Adventure huh? No offense, Blondie, but I pegged you for a Mystery or Comedy type of girl." His smile turns cheeky, and then he points to himself. "Myself, I'm more of an Action Adventurer kind of guy, and I've read and seen plenty to be your best tour guide." As if remembering something important, he clicks his fingers and offers a hand. "I'm. . . Pixel."

Taking his hand hesitantly, I'm taken aback by its warmth. In here, it doesn't have any kind of temperature. It's like another void, only I'm freer to do as I please unlike last time.

"I'm—"

"Don't say it." Pixel's expression hardens. "Don't say your name in here. If it gets in the wrong hands. . . it won't end well. I'll call you Blondie; that will be our Code."

"What do you mean by 'it won't end well?'" I remark.

Scratching his jaw again, he says in a lower tone, "I mean, you could vanish and be forgotten from here to. I don't want to scare you, so I would rather keep it as that for now, alright?" When I don't answer, he pats my arm again. "But don't worry, as long as you stick with me, that won't happen. I promise."

Nodding hesitantly, I follow him across the canvas. "Um. . . when I fell asleep, I remember darkness, and then there were blue numbers and letters, then shapes, and then I was pulled into a white light. Do you know what that was?"

Pixel doesn't say anything for a moment, and then he inclines his head. "That's the way in. You saw yourself downloading into the System. And now you're here."

"And where is here?" I fire, trying to catch up to him.

"Wattpad, the last App you had open—speaking of, so you don't have to read like a snail by looking down—"

My eyes snap to the floor after he waves his palm toward it, I stumble back when I notice I'm stood on the word what. After that is: am I going to do?

Holy shit. . .

"Hey, are you OK?"

I shake my head. "Sorry, what did you say?" My eyes can't shift from the words.

I didn't realise my fingers were trembling until he takes one hand in his and slips a watch around my wrist.

"This," Pixel taps my new gadget and then points to his own, "is how you can evaluate where you are. Instead of reading the floor, you can read it through your Reader. It will appear in a small holographic bubble, which you can change the colour of. Give it a try."

Furrowing my brows, my finger taps the squared screen, and a projection sized bubble appears, and its default grey right now. But I can see the text as clear as day.

. . .What am I going to do now? Trevor thinks, hating the weight of the uselessness pressing down on his chest.

He knows Helina is counting on him to get her out of there, and the promise rings loud in his ears. Trevor knows their time isn't over, and he's not going to let today cut their future short.

Pixel holds my wrist still as his other hand fiddles with the side of the 'Reader,' and the background behind the text starts to surf through different neon and pastel shades. My eyes widen and I'm quick to stop him when it reaches a beautiful pastel purple.

"A fan of pastels I see, no argument here. I chose pastel blue," he comments, turning on his Reader to evident his words. Like he said, it's a pale shade of blue.

"Thank you," I reply, making sure to turn off my Reader before eyeing our surroundings again. "Um. . . how do we get out of here?"

Waving his hand for me to follow, he informs me how it's best for us to remain on the side because there are others who scour books and steal the pages for fuel. That's why a chapter appears blank in the real world, and he says it would be wise for the Authors to make backups, so nothing is entirely lost.

"How long have you been in here?" I call, finally catching up and matching his stride.

His shoulders tense for a minute, and then there's a tiresome sigh. "Too long."

I'm not sure how long we walk for, but the edge comes into view, and it stumps me because it doesn't look so far away from the other side of the screen.

"So, where do we go from here?" I ask, changing the subject, knowing he wants to keep that piece of information private.

Pointing toward the far distance ahead of us, he peers over his shoulder at me. "To the end of the chapter, there should be a small glitch in the corner for us to pass through to your next App. Can you remember how many are between Wattpad and your Settings?"

Thinking hard about it, my mind turns blank. "I'm not sure, I reorganised everything. . . not a lot? Six max, four minimum hopefully?"

Pixel grows confounded. "Since you're new, I'm hoping it's the later. It's going to be hard to teach you, but it will have to be done on the way." His soft eyes narrow. "One note, you have three lives. If you lose them all, you will be stuck as a Cursor."

A cold shiver runs down my spine, and this time, there's no way to comfort the tears trickling down my face.

I'll have to watch him closely because I'm not going to be trapped inside my phone to hop from App to App for the rest of my life.

ONC Count: 

Wattpad App: 2,057

Wattpad Site/Desktop: 2,001