Baseline [ 1 ] A - 1 ]

--Baseline [ 1 ] [ Rewrite ] [ A - 1 ] - Unexpected arrival. --

	When you had opened the package from your uncle that had come through the mail, you hadn't expected much. Now, with the crumpled up festive wrapping paper on the floor, shiny new smartphone in hand, you realized that your expectations had been wrong.
	"This thing must have cost a fortune," you mumbled to yourself as you inspected the device closely. It wasn't one of the more common brand names being thrown around lately, but it still looked like it'd function well enough that you'd have no issue with it. The thing was better than your current phone, which you hadn't been able to replace due to the financial situation you had found yourself in as of late.
	You took a moment to wonder how exactly you were going to pay for the actual phone bill for this thing. The grocer was handing out raises like free cupcake samples to sugar-addict children, so maybe you'd catch a bit of good fortune at some point. At least this wouldn't be an issue for the next... three months, as a small card had arrived in the package with the phone. What a guy, your uncle. Fuckin' paying for shit and generally being a nice dude.
	Without delay, you set everything up, and there hadn't even been a single hitch to your surprise, considering the complexity of the phone compared to your previous one. After a half-hour, you were browsing the internet and preparing all of your social media. That being only a few messaging applications and whatnot, it did not take long at all either.
	By the time you were finished, you were nearly half asleep. It was almost midnight, as stated by the convenient clock in the upper right corner of the screen. You dropped back onto your couch and drifted off to the sight of the gentle Christmas lights that were haphazardly wrapped around the tree.

		-\/-

	Soon, the phone tucked into your pocket became a regular part of your everyday life. It allowed you to keep in touch with friends, listen to any music you could find, watch a slew of videos, and read a variety of stories. Soon, it ended up not being special anymore. The novelty had long since worn off, but the thing still retained its value with all of its functionality.
	Eventually though, you got bored. As trends came and went, so did the varieties of applications and games present and suggested on the web store. Now, the augmented reality craze was dying down after several successes, failures, and outright dubious duplicates. One hung around in your recommended feed, however.
	A little dark-colored icon, only appearing to be a white square with some sort of dark silhouette overlaying it. You couldn't exactly tell what it was supposed to be, but the icon stared back at you no matter how many times you clicked the not interested button. At this point, you have had enough of the A.R. games, and guess what category this one fell under.
	Augmented reality, plus a few other descriptive tags. Those being 'simulation', 'social networking', and oddly enough, 'photography'. Well, it wasn't too odd if it used the camera. The odd bit about this thing was the complete lack of any feedback or information about the application save for the previously mentioned tags.
	You left it alone. There was a very high possibility that malware or some other undesired piece of something was nestled within the code of that application.

		-\/-

	Yet, you found yourself staring at it every once in a while, coming back to see it still in the side of the games that the store decided that you might like. At this point, you were considering clicking that blue download button, just for the sake of satiating your curious mind. That same mind was also addled by exhaustion brought on by a very busy work week and a lack of proper rest, accented by high dosages of caffeine and sugar currently thudding through your veins.
	"I don't think they allow bad stuff on the store," you almost-slurred in an attempt to reason with yourself. "Ah, fuck it," was the last thought you could recall before clicking and confirming the download.
	With that, you set the phone on the table and rolled over to find some rest behind the sanctuary of your closed eyes.

		-\/-

	[ Download finished - Mal0-Ver.1.0.1 ]
	"What the fuck do you mean, download finished? I didn't install this shit... did I?"
	You had no clue what you did to the phone last night, but there was no trace of this so called 'application' on your phone. The only reminder you had was the notification, and pressing it did nothing except highlight the message.
	"Fuck it. It'll steal my card info and I'll get to sue the poor fucker behind all of this." Or so you hoped. You wouldn't know until something went wrong. Seeing as your best efforts to track the app down and delete it were in vain, that was the only option you had, except to toss the thing and get a new phone. Couldn't afford that though, and you didn't want to go back to using a flip phone, so whatever came your way, you'd just have to deal with.

		-\/-

	One of the permissions you agreed to must have been location, because you received a text in the middle of work a week later, the message containing a neat little picture of the gas station that you went to to get, well, gas for the old SUV that you drove back and forth to work.
	By augmented reality and photography, this must have been what it meant. This so-called game just sent you images, likely obtained from a public database for businesses and properties, of places that you've been. You didn't think much of it, and learned to ignore the occasional buzz in your pocket that signaled the arrival of one of the unsettling pictures. Of course, you ended up missing more than a few texts from friends and family with that sort of behavior, but soon you ended up finding the healthy balance of simply not clicking on any of the messages from unknown numbers.
	That worked for a while. Hell, it worked for another few weeks, keeping you from worrying about the disconcerting stalker-like application. The thing was just another fact of life you learned to live with.
	Either someone was a vary capable programmer without any desire to use said talents to steal from others, or you were going to receive a letter in the mail stating that you'd bought a variety of useless or over-expensive products in another few months. At least that's what you thought until you decided to check the most recent message, one that had pinged you in the midst of setting up a work schedule for the employees at the grocer.
	The 'thing' you saw almost made you drop your phone.
	First aspect of the entity in the photo, which was one that had been taken as you were departing from your SUV in the store parking lot, is that it was standing in front of the vehicle. That was harrowing on its own, but the creature's appearance only served to further drive little needles of fear and anxiety up your back.
	It stood in the center of the almost frozen weather, steam rising from the skull it wore as a mask with what you could assume to be its breath. The rest of its form was concealed in a dark material, likely some sort of fur coat that was covered in long, black, shaggy fur. Considering the efforts someone must have put into this costume, the little details that drove the sight to be all the more disquieting, that person must have had way too much free time on their hands. Even the legs were odd in shape, almost like a dog's or wolf's.
	Digitigrade legs. That's what the actual term for them was, which you found after a quick search. At the moment, you had a love/hate relationship with the internet, as sometimes it provided you with a never ending pool of answers to all of your questions, and some of the time it pulled shit like what you were dealing with at the moment.
	You were almost in a state of perpetual fight or flight as you drove home. You were lucky that the sky was clear, because if it had been raining and the roads were slick, the chances of making it back to your apartment would have been slim to none.
	A nervous fifteen or so minutes later, you were jamming your keys into the lock of your front door.
	The moment you stepped inside, it felt as if a massive pressure had been lifted off of your entire body. Whatever sort of person, stalker, or entity was after you, they'd have to get through a locked door now.
	Without much ceremony, you dropped the contents of your pockets off on the nearest possible flat surface and collapsed into the recliner in your living room.
	This app on your phone, this 'Mal0' thing, needed to go. You weren't having it. Once again, you found nothing while combing every corner of your phone, so you decided to take your problem to the internet and see if anyone in the entire  had any help or advice to offer. Out of the two hours you spent tearing through relevant websites, you found nothing. What a surprise.
	So, you decided to stop building frustration by way of pointless searching and instead relax with a good movie.
	That's how your night went, finding old videos, movies, and shows to watch and generally trying to keep your mind away from what happened today.

		-\/-

	And so you resumed your policy of not checking the texts. Much to your surprise, and relief, nothing happened. And nothing continued to happen.
	The texts continued to come, chiming at you with every arrival, but you were never assaulted by some demonic creature, your information was never used by anyone else to your knowledge, and you hadn't encountered any strange people. So, maybe the app was harmless. Perhaps this was all a game, with well edited photos meant to scare you. It would fit in with the idea of augmented reality, except that it was toying with actual reality instead of adding onto it.
	With that philosophy behind your actions, you felt better about checking the next message coming in. It couldn't hurt you, and it sure as hell wasn't real. It was just some simple, and actually brilliant game now that you thought about it. That didn't change the bit of hesitation you had as the image loaded.
	It was also not a good decision to do this during your break at work, but curiosity struck once again.
	"Oh," you let out as the scene on your phone popped into existence.
	It was standing behind you. At this exact moment, with your expression still being that same nervous smile that you've had for the past week, the masked creature was positioned so that its face peeked over your shoulder. Its blue, glowing eyes seemed to burn into your own with a blank stare.
	You just let out a nervous laugh and locked the phone. The moment your hand was about to enter your pocket, it buzzed again. A sigh escaped your lips as you unlocked the phone and checked. Why you were still at this, you had no clue. The break you were given was due to be over in a few minutes, and you were wasting it on this creepy thing.
	This time, it was just a photo of the creature standing directly in front of your phone, almost as if you had taken the picture yourself. Its hand was raised, but not in an aggressive manner. Almost as if it was trying to get your attention.
	"Hey, still on break in here?"
	The sudden intrusion of your coworker made you jump, launching the phone into the air with a reflexive movement of your arms. With equal finesse, you caught it and locked it in one motion.
	"Just checking on something, then I'll be out in a minute, alright?" you replied. The man standing in the doorway was one of the few people working here that you could tolerate, who went by the name of Cameron. Good guy and all, though he had this thing with terrible timing, like now.
	"Gotcha," he nodded. He looked as if he was about to leave, but lingered for a moment before asking, "Are you doing alright, man? You've been really on edge lately. Something bothering you?"
	"No, it's nothing," you said in an attempt to get him to leave. The less people knew about your problems, the better. And, well, this was something that you didn't feel like bringing up to anyone.
	"Well, if you're up to talk about it, I'm planning on heading to the Greek place down the street from here after work," he said.
	"I'll, uh, think about it," you replied. Though you were grateful for the offer, you weren't likely to accept at this point.
	"Either way... see you in a bit."

		-\/-

	You decided to forgo staring at the picture until you got home, so you waited with on odd blend of excitement and slight fear, and worked with diligence to shake off the obvious dark cloud that had been following you. It seemed to help the morale of your subordinates, seeing their manager without seeing the apprehension on your face, instead wearing a bright, cheerful expression.
	It was a hard facade to keep up, as you weren't far from going to the aisle containing hard drinks and taking the entire thing to your liver. The feelings came and went, the more your thoughts drifted away from the odd creature, the less you felt the unease. Either there was something odd about this application, or your emotions were more easy to influence than you expected.
	Both of those possibilities were equally distressing.
	You held on though, keeping everything running smoothly until your shift was over. Then, you walked out of the sliding doors, greeted with the bitter, half-cold air of spring. The fragrance of blooming flowers and the sharp of the cold were fighting in the wind as you continued onward to your car.
	'Wait until I get home,' you reminded yourself, 'Then I can open it.'
	The phone chimed once again.

		-\/-

	Now behind the front door of your apartment, safety assured by the double-checking of the lock, you changed out of your uniform and dropped everything off on your desk, next to your computer.
	Ding.
	'This thing is getting more and more active. Is it because I opened one of the pictures?' you asked yourself while pulling on a pair of sweatpants. You grabbed your phone, prepared for almost anything, then sat down on your bed and opened up the newest picture.
	Back facing the front door, it stood outside of your apartment.
	You stood up and quickly strode over to the door and looked through the peephole, and as expected, there was nothing. These pictures were getting unreasonable with the locations and angles they were taken at. There had to be a drone or something of the sort following you around, as anything else would simply be too much to deal with.
	There was not a thing you could do, no solutions to this problem at the moment, so you decided to let go for the moment and enjoy some video games.
	So the night went, until you checked your phone again and realized you had tomorrow off. It was going to end up being an all-nighter for sure. You checked who was online out of your friends, only to find a list of grayed out usernames. Of all the times to not be here, they just had to pick tonight.
	As you were deciding which game to boot up and tear through for a few hours, the hum of your phone vibrating caught your attention. This time, there was a text message on the lock screen, the sight of which drove enough blood to your head to almost force your eyes out.
	[ Hello? Is this functioning? ]