[sarahsarah]

Chapter 4

“Hold on tight,” Dan shouted, starting the ignition and flying out of the garage onto the street. They accelerated onto the main road and across towards the suspension bridge. The bridge was the fastest way into the city center and they didn’t have much time to get there. The counter continued ticking down with every second. The $200 certainly would come in handy for Liv. Her family never had spare income. Most of her possessions were second hand or from charity stores, she’d never owned a vehicle, the house was small and most of her mother’s earnings went on just keeping them alive.

The sun was just setting as Dan weaved between the cars with ease and for the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Liv let off a genuine smile as she gripped tighter onto Dan’s Jacket.

********************************

Meanwhile, across the city, Sonya was setting up to complete her next dare. She looked down into the bottom of the swipe. @Sonyaknowit was highlighted in the bottom left and in the bottom left was the hieroglyphic eye. Next to it was her largest number to date: 4800. The flashing pyramid dare had caused her numbers to skyrocket and she was now firmly into the top 10 on the leaderboard. Unfortunately, whilst the flashing was fun, it had ignited an expectation among her followers. She read the dare again, read the amount $1000 and took a deep breath.

Sonya tapped accept on the screen and passed the phone to Chevon. She jumped in front of the camera. “Well viewers, you asked for it and now you’re going to get it,” Sonya teased and ran off quickly towards the crowd. “Ladies and Gentlemen, Gather round, gather round and witness the show. I want you to sit back and simply enjoy.” Sonya nodded to Ryan who clicked play on his Swipe and a burst of sexy music filled the air.

In one quick move, Sonya whipped off her white fur coat to reveal a skimpy outfit underneath. The red lace did little to hide her modesty and although it wasn’t technically possible to make out her most private parts, it left little to the imagination. Sonya took four steps forward, took hold of the lamppost and quickly swung around it in a 180 degrees ark. She slowly began to grind, swivel and pull off every sexy pose she could imagine.

She looked over to Chevon who held up her fingers before lowering them one at a time. 5....4....3....2....1.... DARE COMPLETE flashed onto the screen and Chevon gave Sonya a big thumbs up and cheer. Hearts filled the side of the swipe as Sonya ran back to her friend covering herself back up with the thick white coat. A cheer rang around some of the audience as Sonya jumped in delight.

“Who’s your favourite Contender,” Sonya teased as she finally reached Chevon again.
Chevon smirked, “Well... I was definitely going to say you... but now I don’t know.” Chevon passed the swipe across to Sonya. On the screen was a picture of a motorbike flying across a bridge.
Sonya looked on in confusion, “Is that Liv?” She questioned.
“Yeah, she’s joined the game and she already has a ton of viewers,” Chevon explained.
“Wait to go girl,” Ryan added laughing.

********************************

Back in the near the river, Liv was still clinging tightly to Dan’s jacket. “Come on Liv, try screaming,” he stated.
“I don’t... no”
“Come on, it’s fun... wooooooo!” Dan shouted at the top of his voice.
Liv hesitated, “Wooooo!” she squealed before bursting into a fit of laughter.
“There you go,” Dan said happily. Liv repeated the outburst laughing between each one.

As more contenders flashed up around the city, Liv and Dan’s handles appeared together, speedily moving towards the city center. Eventually they stopped at the point the map indicated, outside a large department store. DARE COMPLETE flashed up onto both of the screens. Dan already had another dare lined up on his waiting.

“Do I need to come in with you,” Liv asked hesitantly.
“It doesn’t say that, no,” Dan replied, almost sounding disappointed. “You staying out?” he questioned as he clicked the screen, clearly tapping the accept button as a timer started to tick.
“No... I think I’m going to head home. It’s already getting late,” Liv replied.
“Shame, I’ll see you then,” Dan stated indicating he needed to hurry off. Liv only smiled in response before Dan turned and ran into the store.

As Liv turned to walk away, her swipe beeped again. Liv looked down and saw a picture of a stunning green dress. Below it was written “Try it on... $500” Liv looked back over her shoulder at the department store and then back to the swipe contemplating. $500 was serious money, and all it meant was trying on a simple dress. Without thinking too long she tapped accept and ran towards the store.

She hurried through the main entrance as the 15 minute timer started to tick down.

********************************

Unaware to Liv, across town a hospital assistant was busy dealing with a disabled man. “Just keep up the exercise and you’ll be strong in no time.” The hospital assistant was on her night shift as usual for this time of the week. She helped the young black man back into his chair as her swipe suddenly beeped in her pocket. Not thinking much about it she checked the screen and nearly dropped it in shock. A deposit had just been made into her daughter’s account of $100, shortly followed by another one of $200. Somebody was giving Liv money.

“Everything OK?” Elijah asked looking up and the carer’s white face.
Sandra shook herself from her trance. “Huh, yeah, somebody just put money in my daughter’s account,” She stated confused.
Elijah shook his head, “White people problems.” Sandra continued to look confused before pocketing her swipe. What the hell was her daughter doing, she contemplated before continuing with her work.

********************************

Liv hurried into the store. The place was huge. She stared around and saw handbags, jewellery, perfumes but no dresses. She ran over to a shop assistant and pointed the swipe at him. “Excuse me, have you seen this dress?” she hurriedly asked as the swipe buzzed.
“I think your mum is calling.” He replied.
Liv turned the swipe towards her and saw her mom’s face looking up with the words accept and decline written next to it. “Shit,” she whispered quickly hitting decline and pointing the picture back at the assistant.
“That’s very expensive, are you sure?” he asked. When Liv didn’t reply he sighed. “Designer Dress department, fourth floor.”
“Thanks,” Liv stated before turning and running towards the elevators.

Once she found the department she began to look around. Even the department alone was huge. Each dress looked fancier than the next. Finally on a mannequin, she found the dress she found the outfit she was looking for. She ran over to it, turned the tag over and gasped as she read the price: $4350.00. “What,” she sighed to herself, looking around in horror.

She slowly started to unzip the back as carefully as she could before an assistant seemed to appear from nowhere. “Please don’t undress the mannequins,” she stated.
Liv jumped in shock, startled by the sudden disturbance. The assistant looked the young girl up and down. The red hoody, the scruffy jeans and the untidy hair pulled back in a ponytail. It didn’t really fit the department. The first thing she thought was shoplifter before pushing the thought back, trying not to judge. “I’m sorry,” Liv replied.
“Would you... like to try this on?” the assistant queried. Liv simply nodded giving an approving grunt.
The assistant nodded. “Let me see if we have it in your size.”
“Thank you. If you could curry though, I’m in a rush... for a party,” Liv covered quickly.

A minute later the assistant returned with an identical dress. “Right this way dear,” she seemed to order before leading Liv towards the changing rooms. She pointed at one of the classier ones. “If you need anything just...”
“Thank you,” Liv cut her off quickly sliding the curtain shut between them. She quickly began to pull off her clothes as she looked down at her swipe and saw only 40 seconds remaining and still ticking. Her top came off quickly and she desperately pulled off the jeans.

What Liv couldn’t see was the other side of the swipe. With the camera now pointed at her half naked body from the floor her viewer count had now ticked comfortable over one thousand. The comments were beginning to flow as well:
“Yeah, Get Naked Baby!”
“This is probably her best angle”
“I’d defo hit that”
“Skinny AF”
“Damn Vegans”
“$100 #Sidebet if she can’t zip it”
“I’ll take that action #sidebet @V12819”
“$2 #sidebet if she puts it on backwards”
“Is that a tat on her butt?”
“She must be underage?”
“OK, I’m finally interested in viewing this girl”
“I’d rather watch her boyfriend”
“She looks like a ten year old boy”

As the timer hit 5 seconds, Liv finally got the zip pulled up and the dress secure. She grabbed the camera and gave it a full view of her body. “Okay, I’m dressed,” she stated. In the bottom corner her viewer count had ticked up to 2.1k. Confused at the no response as the timer ticked to zero, liv began to tap on the screen camera. “Hello, this working.”
“Everything OK,” the assistant asked as she reentered the main lobby area.
“Yeah, everything is great,” Liv replied. The assistant hurried off as Liv let out a long sigh. Only then did Liv truly catch a sight of herself in the mirror. She was stunning. The attire pulled out a perfect glamour and accentuated all of her features. It was short but not revealing and it seemed to sparkle as the lights bounced off.

For the second time of the day, Liv was smiling; then she did the unthinkable. For the first time in forever, she reached back and pulled the hairband off allowing her hair to flow down over her shoulders. Liv straightened it out and spread it naturally and again, it looked incredible. She turned and pulled a pose for the mirror. “Hey, what’s... what’s your email number... I mean... what’s your info.” She giggled to herself.

Behind her, one of the other changing room curtains over. Wearing a full length grey suit with dark lapels, red tie, silver cufflinks and smooth brown shoes, holding his swipe in his right hand, entered Dan. As he saw the girl before him, he was breathtaken. “Liv...” The girl shot out of her trance and spun on the spot. “Hey, you look really pretty.”
“Thanks. You too. Handsome I mean.” At that point Dan’s phone beeped.
“Do you know what we have to do.” Dan pointed his switch at Liv and scanned it down her whole body causing her to blush. He stopped on her casual trainers.
“The viewers would like me to complete your ensemble,” he smiled. The viewer count was nearing 2500 on his Swipe.

********************************

Back at the cafe Sam typed a website into his phone. When he clicked enter, Nerve appeared with the usual two options: Viewer or Contender. “Neither, is that an option?” he asked nobody in particular. He quickly tapped on watcher and a new screen appeared. ‘Watch all of your favourite contenders. Just $19.99 for 24 hours. OK’ Sam sighed to himself and then tapped OK.

The enter ID screen appeared and Sam placed his finger onto the screen. In front of his eyes he watched the screen as YOU ARE NOW: SAM ROGER changed to YOU ARE NOW: ANON 27543. He looked over the leaderboard quickly.
1) @RodIsGod 13.4k viewers
2) @IFioNathing 12.3k viewers
3) @JackIt 11.3k viewers
4) @DanDare 10.3k
5) @HellaAtit 9.3k
6) @ReBelle 8.4k
7) @SonyaKnowIt 6.5k
Sam flicked off the page before reading further. He entered the search player screen and typed in Liv Finn. The profile @AllLivsMatter appeared on screen, currently with 532 people viewing. The current video showed her in the department store trying on a pair of silver high heels.

Sam opened up the chat screen to see what was happening:
“Kermit the shiny frog AmIRight”
“Oooooh, I want those so bad”
“That dress is so last dare”
“$20 #sidebet says she trips.”
“I’ll take that.”

“What the hell are you doing Liv” Sam stated out loud watching the video intently.

“How much are they sir,” Liv asked Dan playing the sales assistant.
“They are $900 Madame,” Dan put on the corniest voice he could muster.
“In that case I’ll take two pairs. One for the city and one for the boardwalk.”
“An excellent choice mademoiselle,” Dan joked causing Liv to fall back into the chair giggling.

Unknown to both of them though, there was another contender in the building: @RodIsGod and he was out on his own dare. His screen showed both Dan and Liv trying the shoes off before he hurried off in the other direction towards the changing rooms. He quickly did what he needed and left holding a bag. DARE COMPLETE appeared on his screen.

About five minutes later Liv and Dan returned to the changing rooms. Liv entered and instantly went into panic. Her clothes weren’t there. She quickly checked the adjacent rooms in case she was mistaken but they weren’t in there either. She ran into the central area of the changing rooms and looked behind all the furniture but again nothing. At that point the sales assistant walked by.
“Excuse me miss, did you move my clothes from in there?” Liv asked.
“Of course not,” she replied before continuing to walk away.

Liv walked back into one of the curtained areas closed it and began to panic. ‘This is not happening’ she tried to convince herself, putting a hand to her head as she thought through the situation. She pulled out her swipe and frantically tapped on the swipe expecting something to happen, anything.
“Liv,” a small voice came from outside. Dan sounded nervous. “You round here?”
Liv pulled open the curtain and quickly dragged him inside. “Did you take my stuff? My purse, my clothes, all of it, it’s gone.”
Dan sighed and tried to settle her. “My stuff’s all gone as well.”

That’s when the two swipes simultaneously beeped. Both looked down to see exactly the same message. The timer had started counting down from 4 minutes before they even clicked accept. Both of them looked down in shock and then back to each other as they reread the message and checked they had the same one.

‘LEAVE THE STORE: $2500’