"An App Called "New Eyes" Has Taken Over Our Town"

Via Reddit: I don’t remember what my wife and I were arguing about, but it lasted for more than three days. About three weeks ago, I came home from work and prepared myself for the incoming argument, but when I walked in through the door my wife jumped into my arms and planted me with kisses. Pleasantly surprised by the change of pace, I started to relax and asked her what the kisses were all about.

While rushing back to the kitchen she yelled out, “I’ll tell you after dinner, honey!” She brought out a large pizza from Papa John’s and I let out a quiet chuckle. She was never much of a cook. I couldn’t blame her. She was the town’s only dentist so she was almost always busy. We watched a little bit of tv while we ate, but my mind was distracted. It wasn’t like her to end an argument so abruptly.

As soon as I finished off the last slice of pizza my wife put her phone on my lap. The screen was filled with a pink background and little blue dots that floated around the screen leaving trails that vanished after a second. I looked at her, but with a soft voice she whispered, “Tap the screen three times and don’t take your eyes off of the phone.”

Feeling curious, I tapped the screen three times and the screen went dark for a couple of seconds. I started to look back at my wife, but the screen flashed a white light twice and bounced to a park.

It was the park that I used to go to with my mother and father, but the park was demolished 7 years ago and both of my parents passed away while the park was still standing. On the phone screen I saw myself walking around the park looking depressed, but a smile quickly took over my face when my mother and father walked up to me. Both of them looked like the last time I saw them, but they looked perfect.

My father didn’t have a limp on his right leg, and my mother didn’t need a cane to walk. We all walked around the park while we walked around and I could hear, inside of my head, my mother talking about how proud of me she was. My father kept making the same corny little jokes he used to make. As we made our way around the park for the fifth time the screen shut off and I noticed that I had a smile on my face.

It was only for a short time, but I was completely at peace for the first time in my life. I looked at my wife and she asked, “What did you see?”

With a teasing voice I said, “Don’t tell me you didn’t look at what I was watching.” She laughed and scooted up closer to me while saying, “It doesn’t show the other person what you are watching. If someone tries to see what you are looking at they will only see a black screen.”

After I told her about seeing my parents and the park I asked her where I could get the app. She told me that a friend of hers gave it to her because it was still in development, but she could send it to me through Bluetooth. I don’t really know much about phones so I let her handle that when we walked back into our room. After she put the app on my phone I put it on my side table and plugged the charger in. The app was called New Eyes. The icon for the app was a bright pink box with a small pair of eyes inside. I thought about opening up the app, but something in my mind stopped me from clicking it. That night I fell asleep to the sound of my wife letting out happy sighs.

I woke up three times that night, and each time I woke up I saw my wife glued to her cell phone. I tried asking her what she was doing, but she didn’t respond to any of my questions. When I woke up the next morning she was still asleep. I gently shook her till she woke up and I noticed instantly that she barely got any sleep at all the night before. Her eyes were bloodshot red and her face was a lot more pale than usual. I asked her if she was okay and she just nodded at me before going into the restroom and got ready.

It was the same thing every single night after that. Last week, she started to refuse to eat or drink any water. I tried to take her to the doctor, but she refused to go with me.

I couldn’t take it anymore. Five days ago I called 911 and silently waited next to my wife while she kept staring at the black screen on her phone. When the paramedics arrived they quickly picked her up and managed to strap her onto the gurney while she screamed and flailed her arms and legs around.
Two days ago, I noticed something that has made me start to panic. I work at the local bakery as the cashier. When I walked into work both of the bakers were standing together and staring into their phones. When I walked up to them to see what they were looking at I only saw a solid black screen. They were both smiling, but their smiles quickly vanished when I snatched their phones from their hands and placed them on the counter. I gave the phones back to them a couple minutes later, but I told them to not use them out in the open while we worked.

Almost all of the customers that walked into our store were glued to their phone. When I asked for their order they would respond back in monotone voices. Even the repeat customers that always asked how my day was would just come up and slam money on the counter while telling me what they wanted. If I asked them a question they would ignore me.

Stressed and scared out of my mind, I went home as soon as my shift ended at 4 pm.

I called out of work yesterday. I just couldn’t handle whatever was going on. I thought about visiting my wife in the hospital, but I decided to just go the next day. My phone buzzed twice, but when I clicked the power button there wasn’t a notification. It was “New Eyes” blinking from a bright pink to a deep red. Disgusted, I shut my phone off and fell asleep before the sun went down.

I woke up today at 10:45 and prepared myself to go see my wife since it was an off day. After I got dressed, I went to my car and drove to the hospital. The first thing I noticed was the lack of cars in the parking lot. When I walked inside and up to the front counter there was no one there. Ten minutes of waiting later, I lost my patience and checked the log book behind the counter. My wife was in room 203.

Once I found the room I walked inside and saw two nurses sitting in the corner of the room staring into their phones. My wife was lying on the bed staring into her phone. Her cheeks were sunken in and the skin on her face has started to sag. I greeted her, but she did not respond. With tears of stress rolling down my cheeks, I grabbed at my wife and begged her to speak to me, but like the lifeless doll she has become, she did not respond back with a single word.

Only when I grabbed the phone out of her hand did she acknowledge my existence. She pointed her finger at me and began to scream. With a raspy voice I never heard her speak in she yelled, “You are not real life. This is not real life.” Before I could stop them the nurses ran up to my wife and repeatedly stabbed her with their knives. The whole time my wife laughed while saying, “This is not real life. I know. I know. I’m coming. Accept me with open arms.”

After my wife went silent they turned to me and started walking towards me while chanting, “You aren’t. No. You aren’t part of the new world.”

I ran out of the hospital before they could reach me. I got into the car and drove like a madman until I pulled into my driveway. I tried calling the police, but every time they answer I hear someone breathing heavily into the phone while whispering, “New world is coming. You aren’t one of use. Give yourself up. We will accept you with open arms.”