The Altered.

Chapter VIII.

When Aaron and Miles returned to the primary school ten minutes after the time they'd promised to meet the girls, they found that the girls weren't back yet, either.

Miles checked his phone: no calls. Perhaps - and it was not unlikely - the girls were just having a good conversation and had lost track of time, as Aaron and Miles had.

"Should I call them?" Miles mused aloud, sitting down carefully as opposed to Aaron, who slumped down onto the artificial grass with a groan. Aaron was still wearing his shirt like a bandage, so Miles wasn't surprised when he sat up again and complained that the grass was itching his bare back.

After finishing his complaint, Aaron responded, "Give it a few minutes. They might have found something."

Though he hoped that they were safe, Miles did wish that the girls had encountered something that gave a clue as to what might be happening tonight. Miles and Aaron had been completely unsuccessful; the streets were more uninhabited tonight than the plains of a desert. They'd filled the silence with endless conversation, however, and Miles felt as if he had come out of that experience with a whole encyclopedia of Aaron inside his head. He'd retained a lot of useless information, like if Aaron had any more family (he had two parents and only one sister, Eira) what kind of books he liked to read and shows he liked to watch (he was a hopeless romantic) if he had any pets (four cats named Lucy, Lacey, Luna and Bob; the final having been Eira's name choice) and if he succeeded in school (he had always been a straight-A student, and was rather modest about it.)

Miles didn't doubt that Aaron had gained a lot of knowledge about him, too. The outing had been enjoyable, though the hair-raising atmosphere of the streets hadn't exactly dedicated to that. Regardless, they'd found nothing worthwhile.

Miles seemed indecisive. "Okay, that makes sense," he said slowly. Since Miles had his phone in hand, he didn't bother fighting the urge to unlock it and go scrolling through whatever app it was that he clicked on first. Almost as soon as he opened an app, though, he got a message notifying him that he had no internet connection; which was peculiar, because he knew not only that the primary school had internet, but his phone should also have data that he could use. He returned to his homescreen and then opened the settings app, which also gave him a message saying that the app couldn't be opened.

That was even more peculiar, because settings shouldn't use internet.

Miles frowned and opened another app. Deliberately, he chose the app with the secretive instructions from the earlier-sent notification in it. It opened normally, displaying the ominous instructions that had been sent out.

"Is everything okay?" Aaron asked, noticing Miles' confusion.

Miles opened another app that wasn't the one with the instructions; it didn't work. "Hey, is your phone -" he cut himself off, letting out a disapproving groan. "Nevermind. I forgot you didn't have your phone."

"You don't have to keep reminding me." Aaron crawled a little closer to Miles, peeking over his shoulder at the screen. Miles repeatedly opened apps, watching as some of them provided a message saying things along the lines of Your internet connection is not working. Please restart your connection and try again, and other apps provided messages along the lines of This app cannot be opened right now. Please restart your device and try again.

"This hasn't ever happened before," Miles said. "The internet could maybe make sense... but apps just deciding not to open?" No matter what app he went into, none of them worked. Except for the app with the instructions. "Aaron, this is bad. I can't even ope the app to call the girls."

Aaron evidently tried to keep the alarm from his voice as he replied, "It's asking you to restart. Restart your phone."

Miles did.

When the phone turned back on, the same problem continued recurring. As Miles continued attempting to open apps, he grew more agitated when nothing worked. Furious that it was the only app that would open, Miles tried unsuccessfully to delete the unnamed app with the instructions, but like earlier, that was impossible.

In one vain, desperate attempt to get things working - or maybe it was just because he could hardly contain his rage - Miles hurtled his phone at the nearest wall and watching angrily as it bounced off the wood and collapsed to the cement ground.

Aaron let out a little gasp and stared at Miles like he was a foreign creature.

Miles glanced at Aaron from beneath his eyelashes, expression incredibly unimpressed. "Don't worry about it. It's an unbreakable model."

Aaron nodded quickly with a little, "Ah," and stared at the phone from where he sat.

"Are the girls back yet?"

"No."

With a noise that was something between a groan and a grumble and a whine, Miles grit his teeth and flopped onto his back, lying on the plastic grass so he could stare up at the night sky. He didn't know why he was so annoyed - it was probably because he typically used his phone far too much to accept the fact that it wouldn't work anymore. Also because it had been expensive, and also because now they had no way of contacting Lia and Eira.

Who still weren't, nearly twenty minutes after the time when they said they'd meet, back yet.

"The stars look nice tonight," Aaron said quietly, watching the sky. It was a good way to change the conversation topic.

"The stars always fucking look the same."

Aaron looked at Miles with a surprised, slightly offended blink, but didn't argue. Miles was a little annoyed at himself for flattening the mood. The stars did, in fact, look nice tonight. No clouds were obstructing his vision of them and the waning moon was dull, allowing the stars to shine a little brighter.

"Sorry," he said suddenly, annoyance from the phone starting wear off. "That was kind of insensitive."

Aaron was hugging his knees to his chest. "It's okay," he replied. "I'm not the one you should be apologising to."

Miles frowned, a silent prompt for further information.

Aaron elaborated, "The stars. You told them they always look the same."

"And I said sorry."

"No, you said sorry to me."

So Miles sat up, stared at the stars, and said, "I'm terribly sorry, Stars, for saying such a thing to you all."

A cloud crossed the moon, leaving just the stars to illuminate the night sky.

"I think they're happy again."

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+1128 Words

Star whisperer.