*ding! ding! ding-a-ling ding!*


    "Aw shucks, gotta get up for work again", Jake muttered while rolling off of his cot. Looking around, he rolled his eyes at his grimy little bachelor pad and donned his torn company tee shirt and cargo pants before dousing himself in noxious deodorant spray and sprinting out the door to catch the bus to the warehouse without so much as a look in the mirror.


    Nine hours later, he slogged home with some carry-out and whipped out his phone charger with a groan.


    "Cool, no more work till tomorrow. Guess I''ll scroll InstantFeed again and see what those cute gals are up to," Jake sighed as he opened a can and reached for the remote to listen to country music in the background.


    Phone in hand, he began watching more of ChicaBonita66''s viral swimsuit videos. Hours pass, and Jake''s still sitting on his stained secondhand couch scrolling on his cracked phone screen, marveling at how everything seems so bright and happy in the influencers'' world while ignoring his sore muscles and the fact that he was rather burnt out from his low-paying job as a package handler where he was referred to not by name, but by his employee number, 5555555.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Around 9PM, just when Jake was about to fall asleep on the couch but still didn''t really feel like getting up and going to bed, a push notification appeared on his phone:


    "Congrats, you''ve scrolled for 1000 hours this month! Tap to claim your prize!"


    Jake chuckled, murmuring "Ha, did I just win the lottery? What''s this all about?" before tapping the popup.


    Suddenly, a bright light flooded the room and a strong wind kicked up, rather like a hurricane.


    --


    Thanks for reading! Join me next week to see what this little apartment storm is all about...


    -DS