The List

It's been a month since the Paul Basin University opened for it's thirteenth year after re-opening. Of course, you haven't been here all that time but in some ways, you're starting to feel as if you have.

Almost everyone is nice to you (especially as you're no longer a freshman, or as they usually call them, target) and to each other, sometimes you might even find yourself entertaining the childish notion of forgetting the outside world becoming a Professor here someday. It's like a second home. The combined atmosphere and amazing facilities always make you think about how you made it into this place and you almost always settle on it's age. If Paul Basin was much older, you'd probably have to find somewhere else to study.

You look down at your coursework in the middle of the cafe just slightly off campus. Outside the floor to ceiling windows you can see the piles of leaves in various earth tones gathering around the base of the main Science hall. It's surprisingly quiet in the cafe today, considering it's a Friday. In fact, you'd be doing something with friends or in your room, but this assignment begs to be completed. The gloomy period nicknamed by the students "First Deadlines" is coming up. There's a single couple sitting all the way across from you and some other students around you, they're all cramming for tests and doing assignments.

Suddenly your phone buzzes, breaking the silence. To your surprise, your phone is joined by a few others around you. You fish it out from where you'd put it and what you see isn't your average text message.

Your entire screen has gone blue and is flashing numbers. Finally, a single set of letters settles and you're able to make sense of the message:

"ACCEPT? Y/N"

"YOU CAN NOT REFUSE"

Y

Jason's phone flashes and text appears at the speed of light, as if the ghostly hands of a serial texter are moving over his keypad:

After a few minutes the screen goes blank and then returns to normal, leaving Jason there to wonder if what he just experienced had taken place in the real world and not his mind that was running on little sleep.