Poppop- Tophia x Krismaaka

Chapter 1

"Are you alright, Kitten?"

I took a sip out of my Mountain Dew to mask my waiting eyes, but I knew Kris would have felt the weight of my watchful gaze regardless. Even though my video quality was so distorted you could count the pixels, we shared so much history that one glance was enough to form a whole sentence. Secrets became futile as we understood each other more than ourselves.

"It's nothing," she said, her eyes averting the screen. "It's just-"

"Poppop?"

"Yeah," she sighed, chewing on her lip and twiddling her fingers before continuing, almost bracing herself for the reality of her own words. "I never had the chance to say goodbye."

I paused for a moment, my sausage fingers hovering over the mouse I threatened to engulf in my Hulk hands.

Suddenly, it hit me.

I smothered the mouse in my grasp, exiting out of Discord, pushing past the desire to indulge in teen Asian booty fingering, and going straight to my target destination- GoFundMe.

"What are you doing?" I hear on the other side after missing the taskbar a good thirty times. Now wasn't the time for conversation. I had to focus. My breath accelerated. My fingers flew across the keyboard with all the quickness and dexterity I could muster at an astounding 5 words per minute. I stuck my tongue out to maximize the effect until my campaign was finally construed.

NEED MONEY 4 BTS CONCERT PLS

I scooted back in my chair to admire my masterpiece as I felt my ass stick to the seat from all the years of built-up sweat and soda.

"Giving you your chance," I finally said once I found my breath.

A loud silence slithered its way through the cracks of our Discord call, filled with nothing but doubt and hesitance. Fuck. Was this a bad idea? Maybe I should have left it alone. Maybe my campaign wouldn't get the traction it deserved, even if it was disguised as another dire need for a concert ticket.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out." I feigned confidence before ending the call and closing my laptop. As soon as Kris left my screen, my second thoughts came flooding in like it was waiting for me to fuck up, to overthink, to engulf me in an ocean of doubt like a mute siren's song. That song echoed through my mind as I raked through through my unwashed hair, my fingers crushing a few maggots on its way down my scalp. The guilt that was once kept at bay by untamable adrenaline now had its chance to linger. To eat away at me.

Shit. I didn't think this far ahead. It was my first time doing something like this. Hell, I haven't done anything at all besides streaming on TikTok for a month now. What the fuck am I supposed to do? I groaned, tilting my head back in my chair as a fat whiff of stank and soda flooded my nose.

My thoughts only spiraled until I heard a soft vibration coming from my phone, the bright screen blossoming from the dark corner of my desk filling me with hope. Anticipation pooled in my chest as I reached for the device, unknowingly holding my breath.

$20 has been donated to your campaign!

"Oh, thank fuck!" I yelled out before immediately clamping my hand over my mouth. I looked down to double-check the amount I'd earned before shaking my head. Any kind of guilt that brewed in my thoughts were suddenly drowned out by that enticing dollar sign that poised itself at the top of my notification bar as if it knew how I'd react. That was a lot of money considering my only job was going on unintelligible tangents on TikTok 20 hours a day. I stupidly shook off any warning, no matter how loud it screamed at me. I took that donation as a gift from the universe and ran with it. Despite all my overthinking I failed to note that even if we managed to contact a spirit, we would have no idea who it was.

Or what it was capable of.