2 A Walk in the Woods

At the end of the school day, Luke tuned in with the main office and retrieved his phone and walked back home. Alone, of course.

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Luke's house was approximately a mile away from Ordinary High School. He preferred to walk than riding the school bus because of his obnoxiously annoying peers.

Since turning in assignments and homework was out of his consideration, Luke often spent his spare time in a quiet spot, somewhere hidden in his neighborhood, refreshing his social media pages for new memes.

Occasionally Luke spent more time exploiting new trails when he ran out of cellular data or phone batteries.

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That day, Luke chose to walk home via the longest hiking trail - a 2.3-mile long trail that cut across a temporal forest, nowhere to be found on Google Maps.

As Luke stepped onto the soft dirt trail, he was liberated from the city's hustle and bustle, embraced by the forest's fresh air.

It was the only place where he felt as if he returned to the warm embrace of his deceased family.

Perhaps if I wanted to die alone somewhere, Luke thought, I'd like to die here. Just me, nobody else. No funeral. Death and peace.

But he dared not to commit suicide.

He clearly remembered his father's last words were, "Luke, no matter how difficult life gets, live for the family. Live for yourself. Have faith, and we'll wait for you in heaven."

As his consciousness drifted away, back into nostalgic memories, Luke began to feel nauseous and shifted back and forth.

He came to a stop and settled by sitting on a flat tree stump. As if that tree stump was purposely placed there for me to sit on, he thought, what an odd thought.

**********

He decided to go on his phone. Autonomously clicking on the TikTok app icon the second after he unlocked the lock screen. One unread direct message. Who could it be from?

Headhunter's Mobile App Developer.

"This is not a prank." It says, "If you want to kill, you're in the right place. Welcome to Head4$ - the one and only mobile platform worldwide that offers a permit for murder. Click the link below to start the downloading process."

What the hell? Luke thought. That's impossible, and why would I want to actually kill anyone?

After a brief moment of astonished hesitation: But maybe I do? Maybe I'm tired of this shitty life. Maybe I just want to do something crazy. Maybe I am crazy.

Without further thoughts, Luke clicked the given link. From this moment, his life was transformed, and there's no turning back.