Fortunately Mom did not walk in on me waving at the air like a maniac when I decided to tear my eyes away from the screen and get rid of the hologram that emitted from the metal box. (It was a LASAL-box I had created actually: the company had liked them so much after I got a patent that they used them as the typical quest communication device. They didn't like the acronym that much though-- "Looking At Solangelo in Artifical Lights" Box isn't great for the company's image. Or mine really. I definetly come off as a creep with it, but  some healthy obsessions with your friends being happy is normal! Okay!?)

As usual, wiping away the lights was as easy as dragging your hand through the sun's rays is-- thus very easy. I just constantly miss one or two pixels and have to jump and wave my hands around. I look stupid every time.

I slip into my room and lay on my bed simply contemplating the task at hand. How do they expect an 18 year old from the future, who has just found out their partner is one of the people missing, to save time? I can't be everywhere at once. Even with my DIM-pockets ("Dimension Intermediate Machine"-pockets: Dimension pockets was just too long, you know?) and the little computer in my head and the other little robots running through my veins... this seemed like an impossible task.

I sighed aloud and laid back in my bed. This light-fatigue sucked. It was like a headache that didn't hurt and instead pressed on and around your eyes with invisible hands until the feeling sunk into your skull. I pulled the blankets over me and slept...

Except now I had a quest again, and time waits for no lady. Even if she is technically a genius, and super cool, and has lots of inventions, and a slight hyperfixation on her friends being happy, and... what was happening? Oh right; time doesn't wait even for me and my stupid light fatigue.

The little computer in my brain, which I don't recommend getting-- it is annoying when you're trying to sleep, plus it's why light fatigue exists-- beeps loudly. This means that while I was trying to not think about the new quest, and the impending doom of my partner, and possibly soon my friends, my subconscious and thus the computer went calculating away on possible solutions or places to start looking.

Despite the light fatigue, I snapped up in bed. I was still presentable enough so I held my watch up to my head for half a second then tapped the screen. In an instant, I was no longer home.

I was in a closet. Ironic.

I peaked outside and saw pretty much the exact opposite of who I wanted to see.

Holly.

Now, if it wasn't for the fact that obviously this bitch has informatiom for me, I would have left her to get mauled by this dog. Unfortunately, I was duty-bound.

Why couldn't she be one of the ones to disappear?

"Fuck! Get off me you bitch!"

"Wow," I stepped out of the closet, "I didn't know dogs could talk. It really doesn't like you it seems; I mean it did call you a bitch Holly, not that I disagree."

"Cakey." She hissed it at me like the snake she is, but it didn't scare me.

I pull the dog off her and hold it in my lap for a minute. It calms down pretty easily. It's that monent when I notice the camera.

"Oh? Were you filming something? Was I interrupting? I can release the puppy if you wa-"

"Release that dog, and I kill you."

"Based on what I just watched it'll kill you first."

She growls and turns towards the camera, ignoring me, "Anyways chat... as you can see animals", the world was hissed in a very targeted way, almost like she was insinuating something about me, "don't like me very much. Chose something else for a dare next time we reach a goal please."

"How many people just watched you get attacked by this sweetheart?" I teased, looking around subtly for the screen that might display the number.

She ignored me again. Rude, but expected from her.

"Anyways Loves, I am going to have to end to deal with this intruder. I hope you all have an awful day!"

She clicks a seemingly random button, and turns back towards me.

"Cakey."

"Yes; that was established last I checked."

"Why are you here? You're the whole reason I am in THIS--" she motions to her wheelchair, looking quite annoyed. "Are you here to torment me again?"

"Of course not! I was saving you from a dog! Were you trying to get popularity from sympathy? What are you going to do when your precious followers find out you're a rapist and cancel you on Twitter, well X?"

She doesn't deny anything, probably assuming I'll just turn it against her and decides to state the obvious: "You came out of my closet."

"Yeah? So? I'm pan. Get lost loser." I walk through another random door, with the dog, and tap my watch twice sending me home.

I hate Holly.

But! Positives! Dog!

I named them Solangelo. For obvious reasons.

...I wasn't just going to throw the sweetheart out! It had attacked Holly! Like me! A pup after my own heart.

Now, maybe I should've been more worried about the fact that there is now live footage of me coming out of a closet with no possible way to have gotten in, or the fact that I probably should've subtly questioned Holly about the quest, but none of that had felt right. We work solely on vibes in this household, and somehow I think the dog was the most important key to how I was going to figure out what comes next.