The Eight

Chapter One: The Chat

The door shook slightly as Blake rushed into his room, flipping up his computer and sliding onto his chair.

"Blake?" his mom called from the other room, nearly finished making potato soup for dinner.

"Be there in a second!" he called back, situating himself more comfortably at his desk.

Tossing his backpack filled with a few action figures from his two hours of babysitting onto his dresser and shoving aside a few colored pencils on his desk Blake clicked 'New Tab' on his computer, opening his email account and deleting some junk mail from a few websites.

Opening the text feature at the bottom half of the screen, he found the one with his best friend M Maykull's name on it.

Hey Mel. Blake typed into the small section at the bottom of the chat.

Yosh. Mel replied, using one of her trademark greetings.

Blake teetered his chair onto the back two legs, exercising his balance as he typed again.

I'm kinda bored rn, d'you think maybe I should make a group chat or something? He asked.

I don't see why not, so long as you remember to add me. She replied, adding a smiley face emoji at the end of the sentence.

Blake tapped the 'x' button at the top of the chat, moving his mouse to the 'new chat' button on the other side of the screen.

"Let's see.. Who should I add.." Blake asked himself after he clicked Mel's profile picture, adding her to the new chat.

"Hmm.. Lora I guess, maybe Lliam and Olivia too, that'd be cool.. I wonder if Toni's on right now, and Amystery too maybe.. Malachi too, I wonder if he's met everyone else.." He said to himself.

Blake typed in the names of his friends, adding them to the new chat. His chair dropped back onto all four feet as he relaxed and tapped the 'done' button above the names of everyone.

"Dinner is almost done." Blake's mom called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a bit!" he told her, eyes fixed on the screen of his computer.

The profile pictures, of Mel, Amystery and Lora showed up at the bottom of the chat, quickly accompanied by the rest. Somehow, everyone had found their way online at the same time, despite the time differences and everything.

Hey. Blake typed into the chat.

The speech bubbles showed up next to Melodie's picture as she wrote her reply.

Hello. Her text read.

What's up? Amystery asked.

Hey everyone. Lora said.

Blake grinned to himself. He remembered making another group chat like this in the past, but he'd added everyone he knew online and in real life that time and that had been disastrous. Only having eight people seemed like a better choice.

Hi. Toni greeted.

Blake pulled out his phone while Olivia typed, going quickly through his social media and checking his notifications speedily.

Hey guys. Olivia said, quickly followed by Malachi's Hi as Blake shoved his phone back into his left pocket.

Blake scooted slightly as his cat jumped up onto his desk, and shoved his hand over the keyboard as his paw threatened to land on it.

"Sky, seriously?" Blake asked his cat as Sky meowed at Blake's outstretched hand.

Brb, guys, my cat's trying to step on my keyboard, I'm gonna get him out of the room. Blake jutted into the keyboard irritably.

Alright see you in a sec then. Lliam responded.

Blake got up, carrying his grey and white siamese out of the bedroom. To his turned back, the computer screen began to flicker slightly, the screen flashing a deep purple for a fraction of a second.

Hey, my computer's kinda acting up, I might have to get off soon.. Amystery wrote as Blake closed the door and returned to his computer.

Blake's computer flickered again.

Yeah, me too, I wonder what is wrong with it. Blake replied.

The screen flashed a dark purple again, to Blake's utter surprise.

"What the heck.." he muttered to himself.

One by one, the profile pics vanished, until the screen went dark one final time, sucking Blake directly off of his chair into it.