Aug. 28, Vancouver; Afternoon

Thorne wandered around the busy Vancouver streets, uneasily trusting his GPS even though it seemed like it wasn't working correctly. He zoomed out the map on the screen of his phone. He'd bookmarked the location of his grandfather's house on the edge of town, yet he knew he wasn't anywhere near there. The only way to make it there in a reasonable length of time was to catch one of the frequent skytrains, but the nearest skytrain station wasn't even nearby. "What the heck?" he groaned. "Where are you taking me?"

"In twenty meters, turn right," the GPS's robotic feminine voice said.

"What?" Thorne scoffed. "But I'm in an alley, thanks to you." He shrugged, shaking his head, but walked forward anyway.

"Turn right."

Thorne looked down at the screen. He then looked back up, then to his right, where we was supposedly supposed to go. "That's a wall."

He continued to walk forward, towards the other end of the alley. Maybe he could ask someone how to get to the skytrain station from here.

"Turn right."

"No," Thorne denied as he continued walking onward.

"Turn back and turn right."

"I swear to god…" He started to turn back, but as soon as he started walking he felt lightheaded. As he continued walking, everything got blurry until eventually everything was black.

When existence continued, the first thing Thorne saw were many bright lime-green sentences of computer code everywhere around him, before they began to form into what looked like an environment. He rubbed his forehead. "What the fuck…" he groaned.

Aug. 28, Location Unverified, PsykoNet; Afternoon

The environment that formed around him was full of red and yellow colours. There was a long hallway before him, with red carpets spanning over marbled floors, and trimmed golden walls with framed pictures on them. For the glamorous aesthetic of the environment, the pictures looked as if they'd been taken on a cell phone and posted online. They were pictures of people in modern clothes in modern situations, including selfies. However, something was notably off about them. Every subject in the photographs was wearing a masquerade mask over their eyes. Each masquerade mask looked pretty much identical, too, as if it were part of a uniform.

"Where am I?" he asked, not really expecting an answer. "I don't… remember falling asleep…" Curiously, he walked forward. He noticed there were some arching doors on both sides of the walls, but he was too disoriented to investigate. The door on the other end of the hallway was open, though. It led into a ballroom, with many other doors around it. There was a dramatic balcony above the ballroom and a case of curving stairs that look like they were straight out of Disney's Cinderella movie. Thorne looked around, taking in his surroundings, still totally unsure of where he was or how he'd gotten there.

Thorne's eyes caught on a woman. She looked young, and she wore a red, flowing princess-style dress. She elegantly walked along the landing at the top of the curving stairs. Her long, black, shiny, straight hair bounced as she walked. Her shoes must have been heels, as their sound echoed through the entire ballroom. Her back was turned to Thorne, though, so he couldn't see anything of her face. She walked through a large arched door at the top of the stairs.

"H-hey!" he called, making chase.

The woman ignored him. She simply kept walking through the door, which opened before her as if it was automatic, even though it was huge and made of wood and metal. Thorne hurried up the stairs, hoping to catch up to her. The chandelier swayed above. It was an absolutely marvelous chandelier, small jewels subtly reflecting the lights on the fixture.

"W-wait!" Thorne called, continuing to follow the well-dressed young woman. "What is this place? How did I get here!?" He shouted after her, but the huge door she'd walked through closed behind her without anyone even nudging it.

Thorne proceeded to the door. He expected maybe it would open for him like it had for the lady. However, it did not. He pushed on it… god, it was a heavy door. He did, however, manage to push it open just enough for him to squeeze through. Behind him, it made a loud sound as it shut itself from its own weight.

Thorne jumped at the loud noise, even though he knew what had made it. There was another long hallway, but Thorne could see the woman he had been pursuing. He noticed something shiny on her head… but it didn't quite look like a tiara or crown like he might have expected. It was red, like her outfit… or perhaps more of a ruby. It was a masquerade mask, just enough to cover her eyes and forehead. It looked different from the ones the people in the framed pictures were wearing, though. It featured a large red rose above her right eye and two horn-like protrusions where they would naturally belong.

"Excuse me!" shouted Thorne, in a demanding tone now. "Please, don't ignore me!"

"Oh!" the woman gasped, her shoulders raising in surprise. "Hello?"

The masked woman turned around. Thorne scrutinized her facial features. Something about her face… its structure… or her lips, perhaps… was undoubtedly familiar to him. But, of course, she was wearing a mask that covered her eyes. However, he could tell that her eyes were yellow. Not just yellow, a glowing gold. He reeled, slightly unsettled.

"Oh, a guest!" she said. "You're early! The ball hasn't even started yet!"

"What… ball…?" Thorne asked, shoulders now tense. "I-I'm lost… what is this place?"

"Why, this is my ballroom!" the finely-presented lady exclaimed, throwing out her arms as if to take in the exuberant setting's glory. "In just a few short days, we'll hold a ball here to celebrate my rise back into grace!"

"What the fuck…?" Thorne questioned. He looked down at his phone, something he hadn't thought to do since he'd found himself lost in the mysterious setting.

His phone screen displayed multiple bits of information that had never been there before. On the top of his phone screen, there were letters spelling out the word 'PsykoLink'. There was an image of a person on the screen, as well. In fact, it was an image of the masked girl standing right before Thorne's eyes. There was even a name underneath the image. 'Heather Holland' was apparently the name of the ominous young woman.

"H-Heather?" he asked. "Is that really you? What is all this?" he asked.

"Heather is indeed my name, my dear guest!" the young lady responded. "However, I need to ask you to leave. It'll spoil the party if you're here before it starts."

"H-how do I leave thought…?" Thorne inquired. "I don't know how to leave this place."

"I have preparations to make, so I must be going," the figure, apparently Heather, apologized. "Oh, I like your mask though. It really stands out."

Thorne felt his face, just to make sure he wasn't wearing a mask. He was indeed not wearing a mask, as he'd expected. "I'm not wearing a mask."

"Heheh," giggled the masked Heather, "don't be ridiculous. Everyone is wearing a mask these days. Cheerio!" With that, she pirouetted on her red heeled shoe, then continued walking down the hall, ignoring Thorne once again.

Thorne looked back at his phone. He immediately noticed that his home button refused to take him away from the screen that his phone was on. In fact, nothing he tapped on the screen or anywhere on the phone closed that screen. He fiddled around with his phone for a while, before finally coming on a button that said 'Exit'.

"Ah, I'll use this to close this darn screen and try calling my grampa or something," Thorne thought aloud. He tapped the button, but the app did not close. Instead, the ballroom around him disappeared yet again, and he found himself on the brink of passing out.

Aug. 28, Vancouver; Afternoon

Thorne held his head again. However, he now knew where he was again. That was reassuring, at least. "I'm… back in the alley?" he questioned, feeling the wall next to him and the concrete ground. "What the fuck just happened… did I fall asleep?"

He looked down at his phone. It wasn't automatically turned on like it had been in his dream. He turned it on, and it went to his regular home screen with all his apps on it. He noticed a new app on it, though. It had a green app thumbnail, with a P on it. The name of the app, as spelled underneath the thumbnail, was PsykoLink, apparently. Thorne thought about tapping the app… but stopped himself and shook his head. He walked out of the alley and into the street. There was a bus waiting at a stop on the sidewalk. He ran up to the bus. "Does this bus go near a skytrain station?' he asked.

The bus driver nodded. "Indeed-y we do," the bus driver confirmed. "The one on King Edward Ave."

"Oh, that's good," Thorne sighed in relief. He dug a toonie, which he was thankful he even had, out of his pocket and put it into the bus's coin slot. He took a seat and immediately went to text someone.

"Heather," he texted to the same-named contact. "I just went through the weirdest thing." He went on to explain what exactly had just happened in what he thought was a dream, then he also explained how the same app appeared on his phone when he woke up.

"Whoa, that's trippy," Heather responded, including an emoji face with swirly eyes.

After multiple bus stops, a skytrain ride, and more bus stops, he arrived at his grandfather's house. He immediately collapsed on the bed.

"Oh, by the way," Heather texted.

Thorne groaned as he heard the notification. He lazily removed his cell phone from his pocket and looked blankly at the screen. "What?" he replied, letting auto-complete fill in the word for him.

"Did you hear?" she asked. "The school is getting extra government funding this year, so they're giving the students free bus passes that are valid all year."

"Wow, cool," Thorne lazily replied, though he was exhausted from his stressful afternoon and just wanted to go to sleep, even if it was only the bud of the early evening. Which, he did.

REVIEW QUESTION: What are your thoughts on Psykonet and PsykoLink so far, even though not much has been revealed? What would you like to find out about PsykoNet/PsykoLink sooner rather than later?