Chapter 168

We went down the opposite stairs as Terra had taken, which meant we only had to pass close to JC as he was knocking at his and Terra’s door instead of squeezing passed him.

Inside our room I went and sat on the bed and Cassidy stood in front of me, wringing her wrist with one hand and squeezing nervously.

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” she said. “I know I did it again without talking to you, and we agreed I wouldn’t do that. But when that cop brought you and JC down here I got worried, and the lady cop looked weirded out by it too and I knew something was off. So I talked with her for a second and kind of suggested it was weird, and she agreed and went down to check on you, and that’s when I heard the shouting through the open door and I decided to try and use the App to fix things and then I saw that it was weird and her profile had a suggested purchase so I just went with it and immediately realized after I did it and-”

“Cass!” I interrupted her and she clicked her mouth shut. I reached out and took her hands in mine. “Baby, I’m annoyed and maybe a little frustrated, but I’m not mad. You were spinning out a bit.”

“Sorry, I’m just- I don’t want to fuck up and I’m scared I did,” she said quietly.

“Come here,” I said, pulling her towards me, and she stood between my legs as I hugged her and pressed my face to her chest while she hugged me back. “Annoyed. Frustrated. Not mad,” I repeated.

“I’m sorry,” she repeated.

“I know,” I said. We shifted, getting onto the bed more so that we were sitting in front of each other. “Now, what was the weird thing you saw on the App, and what was the purchase you made?”

Cassidy blew out a breath and nodded, taking out her phone and opening the App, even though it looked to me like she was browsing Messenger. “So when I open her profile, it gives me all the statistics, right? Nothing was weird there. But under her perks she already had one called ‘True Justice’ that made her consider all sides and act on what was right and not just the law.”

“That’s not that bad a perk,” I said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t give it to her. I’ve never met someone who already had a perk. That means that someone else gave it to her. She knows, or met, another person with the App.”

“O-Oh,” I said, taking in the ramifications of that.

Another user of the App.

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. It made sense. It was an App, why would there only be one user? The fact that it was magic didn’t stop that, did it? But then, who else in the world had the App? Who could come along and affect me or Cass, or our families, or the girls?

“Fuck,” I said.

“Yeah,” Cassidy nodded.

“OK, that’s a whole can of worms we need to work out,” I said. “What was the suggested purchase?”

“Um,” Cassidy flushed. “It was called ‘Sorry but make it Sexy,’ and it made her want to apologise for things with sexual favours.”

“So she didn’t actually want to have sex with JC and I?” I asked, feeling a little gross now.

“Sort of?” Cassidy hedged. “She had a decently high horny meter, so it’s not like she wasn’t interested in sex. I’ve never used a Perk like that before, even back ... then. I already turned it off.”

“Cass,” I groaned.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized again.

“I know,” I sighed. “You definitely turned it off?”

“Mhmm,” Cassidy nodded and then double-checked just to be sure.

“Can another user turn it back on?” I asked.

“I- I don’t know,” Cassidy said. “The one she had didn’t have a toggle, but I don’t know if that’s because it’s a passive effect like ours that makes us less sick.”

“Fuck,” I said and flopped back on the bed on my back.

“What, um, what should we do?” Cassidy asked.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t think there’s anything we really can do while we’re on this trip. We should really try and figure out more about the app. Is there a way to protect us from other Users?”