Doomed by Tracy Deebs Read Free Book Online

that case, you won’t be the only one this is happening to.” He waves the mouse around. “So let’s get started already.”
    “Wait a minute!” Eli says. “What’s to say that she won’t make it worse if she opens the box? Maybe we should just wait it out, let them fix the phones and the TV.”
    Theo looks at him then. “What are you even doing here?”
    “Screw you. You think I’m going to stay at home while you hang out with Pandora and save the day?”
    Theo reaches behind him to the phone resting on the table that runs the length of the couch. Clicks on speaker-phone. There’s nothing there. “They’re not going to be able to fix the phones, Eli. Whoever did this has seized control of the whole grid, and he or she isn’t letting it go until the game gets launched. Otherwise, things would be back tonormal already. And even if it does get worse, there’s no way to fix it until Pandora unlocks the game.”
    “How do you know that?” I ask, my voice almost manic. “If what you’re saying is even possible, then won’t it go away if we just don’t play? If we refuse to do anything?”
    Theo’s laugh is anything but happy as he turns his computer to face me. “Worms don’t work that way. They sit there, gathering info and doing what they’re supposed to do, until someone blasts them apart.
    “Besides, did you even read what the game said? ‘The real Pandora’s Box’? ‘Total annihilation in ten days’?” Then he points to my computer. “‘Beat the game. Save the world.’”
    “You can’t actually be taking that seriously, can you? It can’t
actually
annihilate the entire world.”
    I’ve barely finished speaking when the lights go out, plunging the room into shades of purple that echo the inky twilight slowly falling outside. I swallow the scream building in my throat—I already look like a big enough idiot without turning phobic because of the dark—and look around. The only light in the room is coming from the three laptops spread out on the coffee table.
    “Time’s up,” says Eli, who’s looking around the room like he expects the bogeyman to jump out at him at any second. I’m right there with him.
    “No.” Theo ignores his brother and answers me. “I don’t actually think the guy who did this can take out the whole world. But I think he can make life pretty damn uncomfortable for our little corner of it until you decide to go along with him.”
    I look at the screen and I’m tempted. I can’t say that I’mnot. My curiosity is fully piqued, and there’s a part of me that wants to know what’s waiting for me, waiting for
us
, inside that box. Will everything go back to normal if I just click it? Or will everything get worse?
    Theo holds the mouse out to me and I reach for it. But at the last minute, I summon up a little bit of self-control and turn away. “I don’t care. I’m not doing it.”
    I walk into the kitchen, grab a bottle of water from the fridge, and guzzle it down. My stomach is killing me, and even though I’m in another room, all I can see is that present. That box. Waiting for me to open it.
    But I’ve learned from my namesake’s mistakes. I won’t be the Pandora Theo wants me to be. There’s enough evil in the world already.
    “Damn it, Pandora! We don’t have time for this.” Theo’s standing in the doorway, my laptop in his hands. “Open the damn thing or I will!”
    “Why? Why can’t I just refuse to play?”
    He looks around the darkened kitchen. “Because this is happening whether you want it to or not. It’s stupid of you to keep out everyone who can help just because you’re scared.”
    “I’m not scared!” It’s a total lie, but I feel honor bound to say it.
    The look he gives me calls me a liar, but he doesn’t say anything. Just waits. Patiently. Which is somehow much worse than when he was pushing me.
    “You really think you can help?” I finally venture after a long silence.
    “This is what I do,” he