NOVEL NEXT 284: Meltdown
"Unggghhh." My eyes opened to the light of a fading afternoon, and I made my way to the kitchen. Napping in the middle of the day. All time low.
Popping a bagel in the toaster, I sipped a glass of water and scrolled through the restaurant options on my pad. What looked good?
Not much, really. Green Thai curry with extra rice. I put the order in then took my bagel and pad back to bed with me, curling under the duvet and wondering how to forget about life a little longer.
No, I wasn't gonna think about Nanna's suggestion to get a job at the Methodist church preschool. Bleechhhh. I opened my book Moons Dancing to see that my stats were growing steadily.
Yeah, a little smile quirked at my 97 Followers. Then I noticed something I'd never really paid attention to before.
The box on the screen that said "Others Have Also Liked" had a book cover with a dark-haired woman holding an orange streak of flame. Monsters and Madness. Perfect. The real kind of escape.
Not a book that I had to read to comment on or find issues with. Just a story to dissolve into. Chapter one pulled me straight into the story, but by the second page, I was already seeing that the monsters were the metaphorical kind rather than the literal. Not an easy read, but one I couldn't put down.
The curry was delivered and devoured, and still I was entranced by the terrible darkness of Bindy's life that was offset by glimmers of light in the book Monsters and Madness. Largely, that light was the woman on the cover with fire at her fingertips.
Bit of a mess, really, was Lizzy, but she was kind to Bindy when she didn't have to be, and the pair of them were irresistible. At the bottom of chapter five was something I wasn't surprised to see: a Discord invite.
I clicked it, but the usual mayhem didn't greet me. It was a quiet server, and no one seemed to be around. The screen asked me to wave, so I did, then hopped over to the #spoilers thread. Since I'd just enjoyed the magic of chapter 5, I left a note for its author, GrimWail.
Ayela: Lizzy's magic in chapter 5 is 🔥. Thx for the awesome escape!
No reply. Okay, maybe everyone was gaming. Suddenly, I remembered I needed to post a poem for the Purple Road Contest, so I threw some words down, not really caring what happened.
"Disarray"
A rush
thought propelled.
Defiance
a fury.
Soul seized
Sanity suctioned.
Until
it
explodes.
Fine, whatever. I posted it to my contest entries and decided to plow ahead and do another poem for the last day so I could be done with poetry and the stupid contest.
"Mistake In A Bottle"
That's what I call you for short.
I laughed to myself. I almost wanted to title it, "Jolene, I puked on you in the bathroom, you giant toilet of a woman," but I just giggled as I uploaded the poem, knowing Nanna was probably the only person who'd get it, and loving that all the more!
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I took my dishes to the kitchen noticing that the sun was going down outside. Once everything was washed up and tidy, I lingered at the window watching colors paint the sky.
Pink and orange and something deeper that was almost purple. It was an array we saw sometimes on nights when the clouds reflected the sun to the world below.
"Rainbow skies," some people called it. Rainbows. I remembered the lyric of the song I'd played with Pastor Dan that morning. "Birds fly over the rainbow, why oh why can't I?"
I picked up my pad, and it was almost a wish as I flicked open CoralineAsIs' stream site. I'd promised her a video of me playing, hadn't I? Looking at her picture, fingers pausing over her face, I made my decision.
Okay, Cora, get ready for the full Sam.
I didn't even watch the video. I didn't want to see it. Didn't wanna know what that me at the piano had looked like. It was raw footage of something I didn't want to remember, and if there was anything that could tank a relationship before it ever began, it would be those minutes.
CoralineAsIs: I never closed this. Remember your promise
Ayela: you asked for it, you got it. Link to video.
I tapped Discord closed so I wouldn't have to see any more and went back to Monsters and Madness. Chapter six was tremendous fun. Action-packed shenanigans ensued, and I was so thrilled I had to go back to GrimWail's Discord.
#spoilers
Ayela: OMG, that spark in chapter 6! Loving how the magic grows from inside the heart out the fingertips! Poetic!
GrimWail: so glad you like it, Ayela, join us in #MonstersGeneral.
Ayela: 👍
#MonstersGeneral
Yorka: anyone else ravaging the fields of Nixon 7's new "bait switch of nowhere?"
PurposedLiars: only every other night.
MixedTapas: which level you at?
Yorka: 19
MixedTapas: made it to 17 yesterday, but the froxons catch me every damn time!
Yorka: try a dash to the left first screen
PurposedLiars: someone's singing in voice chat. LOL!
The gaming talk was nothing new, of course, but I had nothing to offer, so I clicked on the voice chat.
Chills ran down my spine. It was like something I'd already seen, already heard, all over again. A man was singing. Badly.
#voicechat
PapaRick: I feel good. A special kind of horny.
Then digital clapping sounds. And silence. I tapped back on the chat. Oh! They'd been busy in those few seconds I'd been in voice chat. Waaaaaiiiiittttt a minute.
Ice went down the back of my neck and kept going straight through my soul. I scrolled down the page. The page that should. Not. Have. Been. There.
#MonstersGeneral
StolenLick: my kids set the house on fire
WalnutsMaybe: @Arnica thanks for the comment!
Arnica: you're welcome. chapter 2 here I come! boy love stories rock!
AdamKing: yes they do!
Goodbye: the best
PapaRick: is there any other kind of love story?
BrassBallz: straight people don't exist
CrissyDee: there are loads of crooked people
LadyRulz: all I do is outline
Brett: you wrote a 10,000 word synopsis
Lyra: pants every now and then
ClassyKnife: pants all day
LP: pants all night
Scorcher: pantsing is the only way
MoonLuv: outline then pants
LadyRulz: what is this nonsense?
Lyra: get your panties out of your ass and pants it, Rulz
LadyRulz: 🤣. Then how could I plot my world takeover?
SkirmishSquirrel: with my fist up your ass instead
LadyRulz: fists over panties? who can turn that down?
StolenLick: I called the fire department
AdamKing: is your house actually on fire?
MoBSBS: never can be too sure
PapaRick: my sheets are on fire
AnimaTED: my wrists feel like they're on fire
StolenLick: wet furniture sucks
Z: did the fire department soak everything?
DieLychee: wait, was someone's house ACTUALLY on fire?
HairyGobs: the soccer tourney's over
MoBSBS: fire + water = problem solved
It was words on a screen, but it was so much more. The words at the top were too familiar. Too much MINE.
Arnica: you're welcome. chapter 2 here I come! boy love stories rock!
I'd written those words not long ago in the #SpecialStreakGeneral. Something was wrong. My breath came to fast as my heart pumped blood I didn't need into every corner of my brain. Wait, what was that song?
It'd been DickDaddy the first time I heard it. "I feel good. A special kind of horny."
The exact. Same. Song. Everything about it was the same. Drunken slur. Ridiculous nonsense. Digital clapping then silence. I flicked over to a search screen.
Search: song lyrics I feel good a special kind of horny
Results: "I feel good. A special kind of horny" is from the song "Toxic Love" first published in 1992 for the Motion Picture "Fern Gully."
1992? Eight-hundred years ago? So, why was some drunk guy singing it in chats all over Discord in 2859?
Search: Toxic love drunk guy singing
Results: Video Toxic Love by Tim Curry
Video Toxic Love by Nuella Borgen
Video Toxic Love by Lennart Royden
I clicked the last one to see a drunk guy in fly make up and wearing a red skirt with the slit up the leg singing on a karaoke stage. 27 million views. Everything about me trembled. The date on the video was 2025, Chicago, IL.
Okay. What was going on? Someone just randomly pops into Discord and tells people to go to voice chat then plays this old recording of Lennart Royden singing "Toxic Love?" Yeah, it was kind of funny, and he was hot as hell in that skirt. I might've laughed but couldn't because of the chat I'd seen after.
#MonstersGeneral
StolenLick: my kids set the house on fire
WalnutsMaybe: @Arnica thanks for the comment!
Arnica: you're welcome. chapter 2 here I come! boy love stories rock!
What was happening? A server meltdown? Something spitting out repeat conversations? Why were my words in a server that I knew nothing about with someone else's name next to them?