“What… was I dreaming?”
She breathed heavily and swiped the sweat on her forehead after abruptly rising up from her bed. Facing the window containing the dark starry sky, she wondered if it was early morning. It was only 3am according to her phone.
The imagery was still vivid in her mind.
The dark void was surrounded in a gray mist. Vast. Boundless. Every step taken, the scenery remained the same. No matter where she walked, she became more lost than before. It’s like a road with no destination.
Her body was covered with a violet blanket. It was cold. Her breath could easily be seen even with a weak huff. The wind consistently punched her body. She had no way to fight back due to the freezing mist. It was getting worse as she was struggling to move forward. Not a single step could be done.
Soon the mist became denser. It rose from the ground like smoke at a fireplace.
But the mist was approaching her. It was following her.
She decided to run for it while clutching the blanket. Panting heavily, sprinting with all of her strength, she still went nowhere. The fog easily caught up and swirled around her. Perception became nonexistent. Her right arm covered her eyes while her left arm acted as a shield. It was not enough to protect herself. Soon she fell to her knees.
A familiar eerily voice soon echoed from the mist. She immediately covered her ears, closed her eyes, and shouted “No! I don’t want to hear it! Don’t say it! Please!”
“Every…gone…all…me…My…alone…”
That was the last thing she remembered from that dream.
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Later that morning.
She tried her hardest to purge that disturbing dream from her mind while going through this new campus tour. Today was a new student orientation for incoming freshman and transfer students. She was the latter.
At her orientation, she listened through what pretty much felt like a lecture on what the campus is about and what to expect. Nothing really interested her and was beginning to think about something else.
“Our campus is wonderfully supported by the Herman, Hurwitz, and Cuffey family,” her interest quickly piqued as her focus shifted toward the speaker. “They generously have been funding our programs since the 1940s which is why we are ranked one of the best colleges in this country. This college will not be what it is today without them. Being accepted into this prestigious college along with the families’ children currently attending makes your college experience one to remember. They have promised to fund and prosper everyone regardless of who you are and what you study.”
“If I could get their connections, then my career will take off much better than expected.”
The crowd began to cheer and clap. While her eyes do love to look around the arena while others are distracted, she noticed a man standing to the far left of the podium.
“Something about him feels weird,” she thought while covering her mouth with her right hand. “He doesn’t seem like a weird guy, but whatever the speaker said, his vibes changed. Really damn weird…”
By the time the early afternoon came around, she finally was able to register for her classes and get her student ID card, the most important part of her day. Of course, she had to wait since a good amount of people were there. After passing time nodding subtly about what to eat for lunch, she was ready to take a picture with a red background and received her campus card. Her face gleefully beamed after stepping out of the small administrative building and gazing at her student card.
Name: Allyson Kim
Undergraduate student
UID: 175626783
“I’m now a student at this fucking campus. Let’s gooooooo!” She quietly cheered while pumping her right arm.
The celebration did not last long before a loud rumble roared from her stomach.
“Damn, I need some food,” Allyson hurriedly placed her student card in her wallet. She pulled out her touchscreen phone and searched for food spots around the campus. “Oh hold on, there’s that Stamp building that has a food court. Fuck it, I’m going there.”
A well-deserved plate of noodles, sweet chicken, and spicy fried beef was enough to satiate her hunger. Now that there was nothing else scheduled for the rest of her day, she decided to head home for the day.
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Right outside of the building where the bus stops were, Allyson was really enjoying the gray clouds swarming in to cover the blue sky. While she was occupied, a young man waved goodbyes to his colleagues. His back faced towards Allyson before…
THUMP!!
Both stumbled back a few steps before regaining their composure. Allyson’s eyes widened and frantically looked around her surroundings while the man tidied his red and white campus shirt.
“Oh hey, sorry that I ran into you,” he raised his hand slowly, slightly lowering his head while still focusing on her. “I didn’t see you there.”
“No, no, it’s ok,” Allyson reassured quickly, waving her hands and barely shaking her head while making a little embarrassed chuckle. “I didn’t see you either. Guess I got so focused elsewhere in my mind.”
“It’s all good. I’m glad you’re ok.”
“Hey,” she took a long glance at the confused man before tilting her head. “Weren’t you at the new student orientation? I could have sworn I saw you there.”
“Well, yes I am,” his face smirked a bit and slightly tucked his shirt. “I guess I’m pretty famous around here.”
Allyson chuckled at his response before reaching her hand out to him.
“You know, I sorta met the orientation team there but I don’t think I ever met you. The name’s Allyson.”
He reciprocated and shook her hand. “Jansen. I’m Jansen. So what’d you think of the new orientation by the way?”
“It was good,” she half-admittedly revealed. “I sorta knew this campus a bit when my older sister went here. Although I almost fell asleep a few times.”
“Good thing you didn’t otherwise we would’ve left you there.”
She giggled and was slowly relaxing by the second. Her arms went from being stiff to calm in a split second.
“I think I’m going to like it here. Lots of people to meet here and I could really make some friends here.”
“You know,” Jansen pulled up his phone and showed her a turtle shell containing the letter ‘M’ on it. “There is this app where not only does it show the campus map, your classes, and all that good stuff, there is a chat feature that you can connect with any faculty or student, as long as you both are connected.”
“Oh yeah,” she recalled during her orientation that she was instructed to download the app and pulled out her phone. “Why don’t we connect? You can show me some nice food areas here if there are any.”
“Well, that is the most important thing to know around here and I’ll show you around soon, but first let’s connect together.”
In the orientation, the speaker mentioned that you:
“First, search the person’s name here on this app. Next, you will request to TerpConnect which will give the option of finding the person you want to connect with. Once the other person clicks and accepts, you both have to be in the same proximity meaning you both have to be next to each other to connect as friends. Afterward, you will get a notification that says ‘Congratulations! You are TerpConnected to this person!’ It’s a fun and great way to chat and connect within this campus community. Try it out!”
Allyson typed ‘Jansen’, and the search returned a few people with that name, but she couldn’t tell which was the right one.
“So uh… what’s your last name? Jansen seems like a popular name around here.”
“Last name is Erikson.”
“Ah, there you are. Annnnnd made my first connection.”
“Alright,” Jansen pushed a few times on his phone. “And we should be connected now.”
After waiting about 15 seconds, there was an error on Allyson’s phone that said “There was something wrong with the requested connection. Please try again!”
“It looks like it didn’t work the first time.”
“Hang on, the app’s acting up on my phone. Let me try that again.”
They repeated the process one more time and the connection was successful.
“Cool! Welp, I’m glad to have you as my first TerpConnect Jansen!” Allyson exuberantly said with a bright smile on her face.
“It’s great to meet you, Allyson, and let’s meet up soon once the semester starts.”
“Will look forward to it! See ya!”
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Things were possibly looking up for Allyson. She got her classes signed up, obtained her student card, and most importantly was able to get her first connection with Jansen. The transfer student was feeling great about this upcoming semester.
Allyson had some time to prepare before moving to an apartment near the campus. Although she understood about living on her own, Allyson was not really feeling the weight of this change. She did her best to not think about it until the time came. Distractions such as watching her favorite shows, listening to her comfortable songs, and playing games were all she was doing for the remainder of that week.
On the night before her official move-in, Allyson lay down on her bed scrolling through social media but nothing enthusiastic popped up. It nearly caused her eyes to become heavy. She randomly decided to search through her apps to keep herself awake.
But something caught her eye.
A strange application of an ember icon surrounded by a black void. The symbol in particular was unique because different colors randomly fluctuate in a blink of an eye. She never saw this application before nor recalled downloading this before.
“What the hell is this?” Allyson calmly said with a confused expression before trying to delete the app.
However, she noticed a notification that said “This application cannot be deleted.”
She attempted to launch the app but got another message displaying: “This application cannot be used here. Please use this application at the appropriate location.”
On one hand, she was curious, however, Allyson was concerned about a potential virus infecting her phone. At the moment, there was not much she could do but sleep it off until returning to campus. Besides, at a glance, it did not seem to appear malicious if she was receiving notifications like that.
“I wonder what that app is about…”