@highasakyle:does anyone know who @moonovermatter is?
@badprincess:isn’t @ktcakes888 an admin??
@ktcakes888:yeah but I don’t have an updated list. Akash does
@badprincess:this is so fucking creepy
@skyediva:Where’sAkash when you need him
@moonovermatter:That was Akash on my phone. We’re at work
@moonovermatter:he forgot his cell
@highasakyle:my brain is melting
@badprincess:doublefuckingcreepy
@nononycky:who the fuck areYou
@moonovermatter:oh sorry
@moonovermatter:This is Scarlett!
@moonovermatter:I changed my username
@moonovermatter:Do you like it?
Scarlett was, presumably, Scarlett Hughes, who did in fact work with Akash. But we were in no mood to give her feedback on her hippie-ass username, and still suspicious that we were being trolled for reasons unknown.
Meeks suggested that we go to Blue Hills Mall, where Scarlett and Akash worked, which was a great idea except we (a) had no cars and (b) had no licenses, permits, or ability to drive. We texted Akash to confirm and heard nothing. We DMed him on social media with no luck. We lost our minds trying to find someone who knew Scarlett Hughes’s cell phone number. Nick Topornycky texted Sahara Richards, which did nothing but confirm that Nick and Sahara were hooking up. Sahara redirected us to Hope Gonzales, who was visiting her grandparents in Mexico and had turned off her phone.
We had a stormy few minutes before @lululemonaide thought of simply calling the mall, but that was a dead end too. We couldn’t just ring up the food court, and the number listed for mall security was out of service.
We started poring over the messages again, parsing every letter for legitimacy. We couldn’t see why anyone would go out of their way to impersonate ScarlettorAkash, let alone both of them at the same time.
But the claim about meeting Lucy Vale made no sense. The geography of the story, the blocking of it, fell apart under scrutiny. Akash’s house was at the very end of a cul-de-sac, first of all; hehadno neighbors across the street. Plus, @brentmann pointed out that Akash’s bedroom was at the back of the house, overlooking the deck. He couldn’t evenseethe street from his bedroom window. All he could see was his backyard.
@meeksmaster:and the Faraday House lol
@brentmann:true and FH
@lululemonaide:Akash lives next to the Faraday House??
@spinn_doctor:yeah. Their backyards are almost touching
@badprincess:wait—Akash mentioned FH in his messages????
No. No way.
We scrolled up to double-check. But for a minute, we couldn’t believe it. Even as the messages splintered into proof—FH, across the road, behind the house—we couldn’t believe it. It was impossible.
One of the server bots kicked back a welcome to @gustagusta, who’d just logged on.
@gustagusta:The New Girl is Living in Faraday House!!!!!!!!!!!!
For more than a minute, the words just hung there, floating in black space, waiting for a response. But none came.
@gustagusta:??
