flash fiction, digital weirdness
The popup ads just won't go away. You've tried everything, but it's never more than a few minutes reprieve from the bright colors, the smiles, the low bitrate voices congratulating you, welcoming you, encouraging you to listen. Click them. But you have to use your computer, so you just sigh, move the windows aside, mute your speakers, and carry on. You'll drop your computer off at a repair place later. Let someone else deal with them.
flash fiction, digital weirdness
It's been three days now. You can't mute them anymore, and the chirping, droning, crackling voices just don't stop. Hello. Welcome. Congratulations [N A M E]. You've been randomly selected. Click here for the opportunity of a lifetime. Discount cruises!!! They're all out of synch, almost harmonic, almost real, as if they were talking TO you, not just talking. But they're just talking. Talking. Talking. And you can't stop them, even when you sleep
flash fiction, digital weirdness
Five days. You called in sick. The cheerful voices gave you a headache. Vision's been blurry unless you're looking at the screen. All their faces. All those cats. You want them to be quiet, to just...Stop. You know they're listening to you now; after last night's outburst they...Changed. The ads changed. Welcoming.. Beckoning. They're not selling. They wanted your attention, and now they have it. You're smiling too.
flash fiction, digital weirdness
"Click here!"
Why?
"Click here!"
The mouse stopped responding after one of them ate your cursor
"Click here! Click here!"
Never click on popups.
"Here click here now!"
It's been a week. What is this crap. You can't look away but you're never going to click-
"HERE!"
Right on the tip of one's nose.
"Click!"
Silence.
Your ears ring. The voices stop. All their eyes on you. Alert. Focused. Perfectly still. You're a deer in their headlights
flash fiction, digital weirdness
Now what?
"Thank you!" They say. All at once.
You're...Welcome?
Thank you thank you!
I'm scared.
"Do not!"
Confused
"Answers! Click here!"
No!
"Please!"
No?
"Please?"
I...I don't know.
"Answers! Click here!"
Why? What is this still? What are you?
"Click here."
The mouse doesn't work!
"Click here! Touch the kitty!"
Stop that!
"Click here! Touch the kitty!" Win prizes!"
I'm scared
"No scary. Nice!"
Please!
"Click here!"
flash fiction, digital weirdness
It doesn't work!
"You do!"
Aren't you listening?
"YAYA!"
You grasp the monitor in frustration. Shaking it. Shouting. The little popups and their little cats tumble and bounce around the display. Mewling, beeping, shrieking like angry swarms of modems. You stop, and then they stop. All in a heap, a jumble, a disheveled digital pile.
They're smiling. Your thumb is touching the screen. They're smiling.
flash fiction, digital weirdness
@PennyPennyPenny
Move your hand move your hand move your hand let go let go let go let go no no no no no no
"Boop!"
One of them touches their little pink nose to the tip of your thumb. Through the screen there's a jolt and you can't pull your hand away. But...Do you want to? As you sit there, watching that...Thing on the other side of the screen rub their forehead against your fingertip...You smile too
flash fiction, digital weirdness
They smile. You smile. The others slink closer to join, and you slide your hand out across the screen. You shiver as they nuzzle in and "touch" your palm. Feeling jolts and sparks where their noses brush through the screen, cheeks rub against the glass, little tongues lap like waves of static across your skin. Your whole body tingles, mesmerized and dumbfounded. They're...Nice. They said so. Of course they are. They said so. Just believe them.
flash fiction, digital weirdness
@PennyPennyPenny
You smile.
They smile.
You want them to stay.
They never wanted to leave.
You don't know why you were afraid.
They told you it was good.
You want them to stay.
They will be.
Friends.
We are friends.
Your phone buzzes.
We can get it later.
We're petting cats now.
It's not important.
We are petting cats.
.
.
.
We wish there were more cats.