Chapter Text
So you’re doom scrolling on Tumblr again. That’s okay. Should you get out of bed and off your phone to do something else? Maybe…
Oh look, your mutual is spam reblogging art of their blorbo again… You don’t know his name but he’s cute you guess. He’s from an anime or something? Whatever. You keep scrolling.
The next post is a video. It’s a repost of a Tiktok and your eyes glaze over the image of a girl with mischievous eyes and firey red hair covering her mouth with one hand. Her surroundings are dark, and she's dimly lit by an overhead light. There’s text on the screen just above her head that you look at for about half a second.
You keep scrolling
It’s a long post, shortened by tumblr’s Long Post function. A few posts down, your brain finally catches up with you and processes the caption on that video
“Who’s soulmate is this? Girl you’re obviously not treating him right, I’ll trade you”
Man, you hate TikTokers but you’re a sucker for anything to do with soulmates. You haven’t met yours yet.
You scroll back up, fullscreen the video, unmute, and click play.
There’s some indie song playing in the background, and the text to speech woman reads out that caption.
The video cuts away from the girl’s face and zooms into a skinny little twink of a man with messy black hair and the palest skin you’ve ever seen. He’s wearing an oversized nasa crewneck sweater with the left sleeve pulled up to his elbow. In his right hand he’s holding a blue pen.
He’s hunched over, resting his elbows on a table, and swaying in sync with the camera. It looks like they’re on a train.
From the angle of the video, it’s obvious the girl recording is trying to be sneaky while filming over her shoulder. The edge of her seat obscures a third of the screen.
The boy’s eyes are being obscured by his hair as he looks down at his arm.
He brings the pen to his arm as if to write, holds it there for a second, and then pulls it away again. He clicks and unclicks it a few times. He twirls the pen between his fingers, brings it back down to his arm, and then lifts it away again.
He’s bouncing his leg while he repeats this a few more times.
You feel a little bad watching this. You feel like you’re looking into a private moment in someone else’s life. You disagree on principle with people recording strangers without their consent and then uploading it online.
However, you’re more than a little invested in what will happen next with this mysterious stranger. And… It’s nice to see that soulmate troubles are a shared human experience. Everyone acts like just because you share a soul bond with someone it means you will get along perfectly all the time. Sometimes you can hardly stand your own damn soul.
Bringing your attention back to the video, the guy finally stops going back and forth with the pen and ends up placing it down on the table. He buries his face in his left hand.
The camera swivels back to the red haired girl and she looks like she’s trying not to laugh. There’s another caption above her head. The text to speech bot reads it out: “Oh my god what a drama king”
She turns the camera back to the guy. He’s got his head buried in both of his hands now. The pen lays forgotten on the table in front of him.
Another caption appears at the bottom of the screen
“Idk what exactly is going on but im guessing he messed up and just needs to get over himself and apologize”
The Text to Speech Woman’s voice makes everything sound so stupid.
Another caption appears at the top of the screen as the other one disappears. The girl points the camera at her face once again. She’s raising an eyebrow and zooming into herself “Maybe i should go over there and tell him to man up”
Jesus Christ people are the fucking worst. You have no idea how some people have the fucking audacity. This girl just 1: made up a narrative about a stranger and assumed she was Correct. And now 2: wants to go over there and offer advice this guy most likely doesn’t want. You hope that she 3: Gets her ass kicked.
The video cuts to the black end screen with an icon in the middle.
You exit fullscreen and expand the tumblr post. It has a couple reblogs with people complaining about the girl’s actions, and a couple people asking to know if she actually did it.
There’s a reblog with screenshots of comments from the tiktok. Most of the people there are siding with the girl, telling her to go and talk to him.
Several people are thirsty for the guy.
Thank god you are not on tiktok. That place is uninhabitable.
You read past a few Tumblr people’s steaming hot takes like respecting other people and not being an entitled asshole, and at the very end of the post there’s another video. The timestamp is from 6 minutes ago.
There’s a caption underneath the video that reads:
SHE UPLOADED A PART 2 AND ITS NOT WHAT YOU FUCKING THINK IT WILL BE.
Your mutual is losing their mind in the tags.
You fullscreen the video and click play.
It starts, of course, with a close up of the girl’s face. She is shaking, visibly trying to hold back laughter.
There are two captions on the screen. One of them reads “WATCH TILL THE END YOU WONT BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS”
The other one is read out by the text to speech woman: “I was going to approach him when i saw this”
Unlike the first video, this one does not have a song playing. Once the Text to Speech Woman’s voice fades out, the only sound is the knocking train wheels and shuffling from the girl adjusting her phone.
The boy now has his forehead pressed to the table. Both of his arms are down at his sides.
The camera begins to shake and the girl lets out a little snort.
Instantly the boy’s head snaps up and though his eyes are still being obscured by his hair, they’re glowing a bright neon green.
The girl lets out a gasp and the camera pulls back to an unflattering low angle on her face. Her mouth is gaping and she turns her neck around the edge of the seat. She glances back at her phone and then back up at where the boy was.
She’s stood up now, turned facing completely towards the boy.
“Oh my god” She’s speaking to the camera.
She’s looking all around the train car now.
“That guy just totally disappeared.”
One of her hands comes up to cover her gaping mouth. She looks like she’s truly shocked at what's happening.
“I am not kidding you guys like that guy is just completely gone” She draws her phone in closer and she speaks like she’s telling a secret. she glances down at the camera and back up twice “Like, he’s just gone!” She’s whisper-yelling.
She flips the camera towards the empty table seat the boy was at. “I’m like, actually scared right now, what the hell?”
The video jumps to the girl sitting back in her seat but she’s hunched over herself and still looking around warily.
“You saw his eyes though, right? I didn’t imagine that, tell me I didn’t just imagine that. There’s no way…” She trails off and looks at something above the camera.
She whips her head over her shoulder and then back. She glances down at the camera, and in that moment you can see that in her eyes there is genuine fear.
For the first time, she raises her voice to a normal speaking voice, “…hello…?”
She’s no longer paying attention to the camera angle. Her phone is pointed almost directly at the roof. You can see a few lights on the roof are flickering. She sets it down on the table and you can see the back of her head in the corner of the screen. She’s still looking at something over her shoulder.
You watch her curly hair sway gently in time with the movement of the train, and for a few moments, the sound of the train on the tracks makes for a haunting atmosphere.
Then all of a sudden, the girl gets up from her chair in one jerky movement. She pauses. She doesn’t take her eyes off of whatever she’s looking at. You can see her hands trembling.
Then again in an instant she moves back frantically and you can hear for a fraction of a second; a scream.
The video cuts to black and a tiktok icon fades into the center of the screen.
1: What the fuck
2: There’s no fucking way that’s it.
You click on the notes. People are calling the dude a cryptid. Some are theorizing about her accidentally taking a train into some kind of mirror dimension.
Several people are asking if she’s okay. All of them are being answered with something along the lines of “she wouldn’t have been able to upload this if she were dead”
Some people are acting like they’re better than everyone else because “it’s staged, idiots.”
In a world brimming with superhumans, where the supernatural is not so uncommon, you think the possibility of this being fake is a lot slimmer than you’d like for it to be.
To be honest it was kinda scary. You can’t imagine being the girl in that situation.
You zone out thinking about that.
Hm no, yeah definitely scary.
You look back at your phone and instantly your eyes lock onto one single reply
I didn’t really agree with the people thirsting over Nasa Hoodie guy after part one, but after part 2 i totally get it. Those eyes were so hot, I bet he’s not human. Bet you anything that he’s got sharp teeth and pointy claws. I want him to rip my throat out.
You lock your phone and set it down. Stretching, you get out of bed.
That’s enough of that for now. You need to touch some grass.