~Update Day~
Most kids hate Thursdays. They're like a taunt, a sneer, a trick, so close to the weekend, yet so far away! Many of Diana's classmates saw no point in them and wished the God of Time would snap his fingers and remove the damned twenty-four hours. Not Diana. Thursdays were better than any other days, apart from the weekend.
Which is why she spent the whole day of school grinding her teeth, staring out the window and wishing wildly to be reunited with her beloved laptop, and, of course, Animal Jam.
"Your homework is due next Tuesday. I advise you to get started tonight. Right, get out my classroom, I need a coffee!" The teacher fell back onto her chair, groaning and massaging her temples. Diana's head jerked up and she sprung from her seat, just like the rest of the class. Finally! She grinned ecstatically at her best friend, Maya, who gave her a thumbs up across the room. Swinging her bag on to her shoulder, she joined the flock squeezing through the door. Her head was pounding and a wild smile still growing on her face. "Oh my Mira, I'm so excited!" Maya squealed as she reached Diana. The two managed to push through the doorframe and into the jostling corridor. "We have to get home, like, NOW!"
"You guys are crazy." Their other friend, Bess frowned over her shoulder.
"SHH, you just don't know!"
"Some freaking update? Whoopdedoo. I'm overjoyed. Crud! My bus!" Bess dashed off and was swallowed by the crowd. But Diana could barely see through a screen of excitement. A new animal was going to be added to Animal Jam today!
Diana opened the front door with a clatter. "I'm home!" she called, testing. The house was empty. Even better! Quickly as possible, she pilfered some snacks from the cupboard and grabbed a few blankets. She hung them from the frame of her bunkbed. The perfect den, she thought to herself. She opened all the snack packets so nobody would hear crackling later, threw her laptop into the cosy cave and nestled in between the pillows. It took a while to get the perfect position. She slowly, carefully, lifted the laptop lid and entered a new world.
In this world, she was not Diana the Ordinary, who had shoulder-length black hair, grey eyes and bitten nails. In this world, she was BlackCrown22, the beta player, the amazingly rare, the dark green arctic wolf and eyes anything but grey. Adrenaline surged as she popped a biscuit in her mouth and typed her login. The summer carnival themed loading screen seemed to last a million years, as Diana hoped and dreamed and pleaded.....
The Jamaa Journal popped up on Diana's screen. Music thumped through her earbuds and sweetness exploded in her mouth. "Sloths are here," she read aloud, "YES!" She heard the front door close under the music. Oh no, mum's home! She pulled out her earbuds. "Sweetie, are you okay?" shouted her dad from downstairs. Relief flooded Diana. "I'm fine, just a bit excited. If I scream, don't worry or come up, I'll be completely fine, okay?" she yelled back.
"That's good, I was worried. Did you take a snack from the cupboard? Don't worry, I won't tell your mum! I'm going to do some work so I'll be in headphones. Come down if you need me!"
"You're the best, dad! Thanks!" Diana grinned, squeezing the earbuds back in place. Time to have fun!
Diana went over every last detail of the Jamaa Journal. From hummingbirds to the jamaaliday party to the princess outfit, she pored over every single word. Every page sang with colour, and when she finally exited the news, the chatrooms burst with fun and light. Shielding her eyes, so as not to spoil the surprise, Diana clicked to Map. The Diamond Shop, that's where she'd head. The sloth looked simply adorable, and she needed one RIGHT NOW. Of course, she had ten diamonds saved up for the special update day. Hardly looking at the animal, she clicked 'BUY' and chose the name Magical Thesloth. As her arctic wolf faded away in the green swirls of light, Diana kissed the screen of the laptop. But something was going wrong. The sloth was not appearing.
Green light continued to swirl around where her arctic wolf had been, but nothing happened. Concerned, Diana grabbed her iPhone 5 and tapped Instagram. Nobody was talking about the update. That's..... strange. She looked up and jumped a bit. A misty grey figure was forming in the light. Aware the sweat was beginning to stick to her clothes, Diana emerged from the blanket fort, pulling the laptop with her. It was definitely getting clearer. Two piercing lights.... those must be the eyes. Yes, she could see feet, with claws. A smile, wide and toothy, was also fading in. "Wh-wh..." Diana spluttered. She rubbed her eyes... The mist stayed. It was beginning to cloud her vision. Straining her eyes, she could see the mouth had become completely clear. It was smiling at her with piercing teeth... and dribbling blood. Which was the moment Diana's hand began to bleed.
Warm, crimson blood made her fingers slippery as they slid across the keyboard tiles. She screamed, but it was useless, because nobody would hear. The peaceful music of the Diamond shop was speeding up. Through the translucent grey, Diana could make out the sinister mouth, with glinting teeth. It was moving. A silent laugh. The Diamond Shop was darkening, glitching about and flickering in different colours as Diana's hand bled itself white, all over her keyboard. She jerked her fingers back suddenly, the keys were moving. The music was stuck on a four second loop, pitching up and down, speeding up until it was nothing but a squeak. Diana's vision was dimming even more, but she could see letters on the screen. It was in the classic speech bubble of Animal Jam, coming from the sloth's mouth. 'hahAhahAhhHaahaAha' it read. Sobbing and wailing, Diana watching through a grey haze as the Diamond Shops floor became realistic. The floor was bloodstained, the statue was of a headless wolf and she was sure the tables never used to display nooses, chainsaws and clevers.....
Didn't I mention? Diana was ten.
'i'm hUngry' the demon on her screen spoke, but it was a voice in her earbuds instead of a speech bubble. 'let me eAt!' The music was slowing down, but now it sounded like a twisted version of the carnival music. And then, it was chewing up her arm. Bleeding, blind and dying, Diana begged for mercy, begged for relief, begged for..... death. One last round of searing pain hit her body and she was sure this was the end. 'hey.. cAn i cOme ouT and play?' the demon cackled. There was a final flash of white, and Diana was gone.
Diana woke with her cheek pressed on to a cold, tiled floor. Her eyelashes unstuck and she forced her eyelids open. The floor was grey-blue, freezing and........familiar. She stood up shakily and screamed. In front of her were tables containing gloves, portals and tiny claw machines, a model of a cheetah wearing armour, and a huge stone statue of an arctic wolf.
She laughed to herself. It looked so real! Gave her a shock there, for a second. Nothing to worry about, right? Diana rotated on the spot, taking in the diamond trees, gem and diamond swapping station, and the monsterous face peering at her through miniscule eyes. Yes, yes, that was normal. Just your average day in Animal Jam. She was trapped inside Animal Jam, at the command of a disgusting creature who was sitting on her bed, eating her snacks and stroking her bloodstained keyboard, thinking what to say.
"I am Black Crown 22." Diana stared, surprised. She could hear everything the demon sloth was saying to her through the screen, like it was a window. "The real Black Crown 22. And you are at my command." The beast thumped his claw on the right arrow key. MOVE! She stumbled forwards numbly, outside the Diamond Shop. Her eyes squinted at the amazing brightness of the sun. Animals were everywhere! "Go and observe your little friends, huh?" Diana moved unwillingly towards the first arctic wolf and screamed when she saw it. Puppet strings were bound around its legs, body, neck, tail and head. It was forced into an ugly smile. "Are you o-okay?" Diana stuttered. The wolf jerked its head round. "What do you want?" It sneered in a robotic voice.
"I don't want any trouble, just asking if you're okay!"
"I'm fine! Ugh! What's wrong with you? I was just sitting here!"
Diana's heart burned and her stomach hurt. "Why are there puppet strings on you?"
"EEW! I don't wanna roleplay, you gross noob!"
"No, I don't mean it like that!"
"Get out my way!"
The arctic wolf turned away, but before it is, Diana caught the sadness and sorry in the animal's eyes. Oh my gosh, she thought, they're slaves!
"Yes, they are!" Black Crown 22 grinned malevolently. "And now... you are too."
Puppet strings wrapped around her limbs, but she was already changing, as was the creature controlling her. She became small, hunched and furry. Ugly. And the sloth now had pale, pale skin and black hair and grey eyes, which she used to find so dull and would now give anything for. She saw her reflection in the glinting store sign. Her new eyes were white circles with no life. Diana was not Diana, and neither was the beast who had taken her form. Diana was dead.
Black Crown 22 grinned her gruesome smile, her pink little lips stretched out to reveal pearly little fangs. "I'm going to live your life normally. I will not change your lifestyle. You will be the same and onlookers will not be able to tell the difference."
"Please, stop! Please give me my body back!" Diana begged.
"I will only do this," the sloth-demon continued, "If you be a good little puppet, and do as I say."
"I will, I will." Diana whispered, sinking to her knees. "Look after my body. Please!"
"Let's shake on it." Black Crown outstretched her hand, and so did sloth-Diana. Her paw was inches away from the screen, ready to grasp her sticky little child's fingers in her talons, and to pull herself out of this nightmare. She tried to smile, but she was an animated sloth, not a human child, and things were going to be different.
"I promise to be good."
"I promise to be good."
She was going to pull herself out. It would all be fine.
But her claws just bounced off the hard, glassy computer screen.
"You can't trick me, you ugly beast. Since you won't keep your promise, I won't keep mine."
"No!" Diana gasped. "Please, no! I'll be good!"
"Lie once, lie again. How can I trust you? Now, now... who shall I kill first?"
"NOOO!" Diana screamed in agony. "I swear, I swear...."
"I almost forgot," the still grinning Black Crown winked at her puppet, "Time to log out."
She never logged back in.
~~~
Black Crown killed every single member of her victim's family with one superb supernatural swipe. Just like that, and they were all cut in two. Mother, father, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, everyone. And then she moved on to the town. In less than a day, every single person was dead. The government has covered it up, but it keeps happening. Every time a new animal is added to Animal Jam, a player is taken. AJHQ don't know, of course, as it's all covered up, and not even the ones covering the secret know the innocent children's game is the cause. So how do I know? You'll see.
Almost any jammer can be taken. Famous, unknown, member, non-member, rich, poor, anybody. There's only one condition- they've all done at least one bad thing to another jammer. That's a lot of people to choose from! Hah. So you be careful.
Oh, wait. You want to know what Diana did? She hacked Maya, the one at the start of the story. Took everything, then tried to help Maya solve the mystery. Is she sorry? You can decide that one. Me, I don't think she is.
That's not it? I thought that's what you wanted to know! Ohh, you want to find out how I know about the whole scandal. I thought you'd worked that one out by now.
I am
Black Crown 22. And some time soon, somebody big is going to go. Just you wait and see...
