Part Twenty-Eight

After a few hours of drowning in each other's presence, the phone Clayton drew earlier peeled from the paper and grew solid. The phone was a large touchscreen and it looked as if the whole thing was from another reality. The case was thin and covered in minty leaves and when Oren turned it on with the round button at the back, the device greeted him with a box that said, 'Hello new user. What is your preferred name?'

Oren typed in his name with a bubbly keyboard, the speakers making a popping sound every time his fingers came in contact with one of the keys. The elf pressed enter and another box appeared. 'Hello, Oren. Thank you for using the iElf Max. I am Euthenia, your personal A.I. assistant. To deactivate me, please go to your Settings and disable Guide.'

The elf paused. "How does it know I'm an--"

Another box appeared. 'Your future choices determine your fate, Oren.'

Then, the box disappeared to show a home screen filled with the necessary apps, one for text messaging and even a search engine. Oren suddenly felt threatened and his ears folded back against his head in alert. Seeming to notice the boy's rigidity, Clayton leaned over to look at the phone's screen. It looked normal to him, but the coloring seemed off, as if it had a magenta filter over every app.

"What's wrong?" Clayton asked. Oren turned to the human and his eyebrows only crease further.

"This thing knows I'm an elf. It-- It said it was an iElf. How does it know just by being held? I could be a cyclops for all it knows... or a human." Oren explained in a wary tone. "It also said something really cryptic. Something about about my future I guess." His shoulders locked and his eyes flicked around the screen, searching for anything out of the ordinary.

"I don't know. Maybe facial recognition? Phones these days have that." the human suggested. Oren looked back down to the device and flipped through different pages on the home screen. Although he felt extremely aware of every swipe, tap and hold, he felt like it was a decent phone to work with. He went to the Settings and disabled Guide, and a box popped up stating, 'Eûthenïa ̢will be d҉i̕s̡abled̴. Would you like to co̴nti͘nue?'

The text was jumbled and broken and it sent shivers up the boy's spine. He was growing suspicious and he would willingly admit that he was getting scared. Clayton even noticed the building terror in the other's eyes. "Um, something's terribly wrong with this thing." Oren uttered, his thumb pressing over the 'Yes' button as the screen went black before returning to normal.

"The fuck kinda font is that?" Clayton noted, to which the shaken boy shrugged and tried his best to simply brush it off as an error in the system. It did come from paper after all, so it might be a little glitchy. At Clayton's futile profanity, Oren shot him a glance before returning to the home screen.

There was a new app in the middle of the screen. The icon was a round, yellow sun and the app name was simply called, 'Enable me.' Oren recoiled from the phone and gently placed it on the floor as he scooted farther away from it. His eyes were outrageously wide. Clayton decided to take the phone. He tapped the application and a note zoomed in on the screen.

It was a pink, digitized page that had lines like notebook paper. There was a black text following the lines reading out, 'User Oren has disabled me. This causes a minor malfunction in the system with the ̨f̢ont̵. I҉ suggest re-enabling the Guide to preve͟nt̕ ̀worse.'

Clayton made a face of incertitude and pressed the back button. "Hey, Oren? You won't mind a little bit of funky text, do you? Cause here it says to get rid of the weird stuff you have to enable the guide."

Oren bit his lip quietly. He thought this would be a good idea; to fit in with the others. But it seems that there's something wrong with that. Maybe it's in the sand, but if that's the case, there must be something wrong with him too. There's something corrupted in that sand. Realizing the hostility and viciousness masked by cute animals, and the oddly placed gems to fill large gaps in the ground, Oren found that there was always something off in the dimensions they visited.

"Clayton. Have you noticed weird things happening in the dimensions we go to?" Oren blurted through the silence. "The bunny trying to kill me, the gems-" He pointed to the phone that sat in Clayton's hands, "-that too."

The blond shook his head and turned to the elf, placing the phone on the ground as he watched. Oren sighed. "It might be the sand you use to make things alive." Then, he paused. His expression turned insecure and frightened. "If that's the problem, then there's something wrong with me too." His shoulders slackened sadly and he averted his eyes to the ground.

"There's nothing wrong with you." Clayton said assertively. The elf's ears twitched at the statement but he didn't look up. "Oren, look at me." Almost feeling like he's assigned to, Oren glanced up and before he knew it, a hand was cupping his chin and warm lips were pressed against his. He gradually melted into it and all of the worries floated away like heat off of pavement.

When the blond retracted, he pressed his forehead against the elf's. He repeated, "There is absolutely nothing wrong with you."

»»————————««

Oren wasn't so confident the rest of the day, having been paranoid from the phone incident earlier. Sure, seeing his long lost older brother for the first time in years made him happy, but the whole thing with the phone creeped him out. It was late in the night now and he wasn't sure what to do.

Trusting that deadly device was his choice.. He decided there was indeed something off in the sand that Clayton found. He was exceedingly doubtful that something was messed up within him, but those worries were washed away quickly. The thought of Clayton reassuring him calmed his nerves instantly.

He silently laid against the wall, back pressed to the cool surface as he tried to fall asleep. His mind was running wild and his brain was wired on an energy he was unaccustomed to. There was something there, just buzzing below the surface.

There was something watching them, and he was sure of it. He felt the eyes burning into him.

_____

Thanks for reading Part Twenty-Eight!