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Author's Chapter Notes:

My first story. Enjoy.

 

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I must have sat there staring blankly at the screen for a good thirty seconds, a spoonful of the ice cream I was gleefully enjoying not too long ago now melting on top of my bed before I truly began to process the words of the handsome man talking on the screen.

Feeling the cold of the ice cream touching my leg and hearing my increasingly louder heartbeat, I put the bowl of ice cream that was resting on my lap to the side and brought the laptop closer to myself, rewinding the video while swiping the flocks of sweaty, messy hair away from my face. I silently prayed to no one in particular for there to be some kind of mistake.

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My name is Maryam, Mary for short, I'm a high school student, currently, me and my younger sister, Vivian, are living with both my aunt and cousin while our parents are overseas.

Today I woke up not too long ago, after another night full of insomnia, high fever and sweat the size of bullets thanks to some cold I had caught a couple days earlier.

Thankfully, this morning I was feeling way better, although in dire need of a bath.

The house was silent, so I figured everyone had already left for either work or school. I started to lazily stretch my arms and legs over the bed, feeling sore all over, when I noticed something on sitting on my nightstand. A little bowl of what appeared to be strawberry ice cream with a small note attached.

'Good morning sweetheart! I bought this yesterday just for you! Hope this cheers you up and maybe it could help you get out of bed? Just so you know, I'll be back earlier from work than usual. Kisses! -Beth<3' Nice! Ice cream for breakfast! Being bedridden is surprisingly nice.

My aunt Beth is a nice, lovely, good-looking woman, definitely on the chubby side, but Candy has told me multiple times that there's a lot of people that find that to be quite sexy. I personally don't quite get it, but she probably knows more about that than I do.

I wasted no time and picked up both the bowl, along with the spoon my aunt left beside it, and my laptop to entertain myself while eating. I sat cross-legged on my bed, starting to thoughtlessly dig into the bowl of ice cream that sat on my lap while I went through the motions, turning on my laptop.

Logging into social media, looking for some good videos to watch, the usual stuff. While I was doing this, a notification popped up on the corner of the screen, apparently, Tanya sent me a message sometime after I was done chatting with her and Candy.

In school, you could say I was considered to be one of the popular girls, hanging out with the In crowd, going to parties and getting wasted off my ass multiple times on a good week. In reality, it was, for the most part, my friend Tanya that went around asserting herself, with our friend Candy and me just going along for the ride. Candy and I had actually gotten a bit of a reputation as Tanya's lackeys, which I'd say was only partially true.

The notification was from a group chat between us three. The two of them should already be at school by now.

'Heyaa you awake? ... Nvm I gtg to school like 15 minutes ago, just watch this and send me a PM when you're done.'

Tanya had sent a link to a video. It seemed to be from a local news youtube channel that I vaguely recognized. Clicking on the video, I started listening.

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I sat silently while attentively watching the video, my lips and throat drying up. The video starred a reporter in his late twenties speaking with, as far as she gathered, doctors and police officers. They were talking about some outbreak of an unknown virus from a lab a few towns over a couple weeks ago, from what I gathered, it seemed like enough time had transpired since the initial outbreak for the virus to spread farther than was thought possible without it being detected.

Now came the part I was interested in the most. A doctor that was being interviewed was asked about the effects of the virus. 'For a few weeks now, some of the initial carriers have been kept under close vigilance to try and assess the effects of the virus. As of now, all patients have shown the following symptoms: upon the initial infection, the patients show symptoms quite similar, albeit slightly stronger than those of the common cold, immediately followed by the slow and gradual loss of mass. Some subjects have shrunk to just under 3 feet tall and show no signs of stopping. If you at home have shown any of these symptoms, please remain calm, right now isn't the time to panic, go todo your local hospital as soon as possible. We are doing everything we can to help those affected.'

My mind flashed back to the previous night, where, while talking to my friends, I briefly mentioned how recently my cousin was annoyingly putting the cereal boxes further back in the pantry, making me have to stretch todo reach them when trying to make myself breakfast.

With that thought, I hurried to the kitchen, where I immediately attempted to reach for my usual box of cereal. Only to realize that no matter how much I stretched I could only barely grasp the box.

With a sullen look, I returned to my room. Where I sent Tanya a few messages begging her to reply as soon as she could. I took my phone and tried calling my aunt. Busy. Must be at a meeting or something.

With a heavy heart, I wiped the bed clean from the ice cream that had spilled onto it and sat down to watch youtube videos to kill some time.

There wasn't much else for me to do, was there? Just wait for my aunt. Eating ice cream.

What a way to start the day.

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