“@Exposing_Witchcraft: Friends, I’m leaving Twitter, as I’ve discovered that it was founded on black magic. Whatever you do, do NOT repeat hashtags out loud.”
The two friends stared at this tweet for quite a while before breaking out in hysterical laughter. “Can you imagine?” Jessie said. “I wonder what this nutball thinks ‘deadbooktitles’ means.”
“It doesn’t mean anything,” Gina replied. “Publishers do that to raise awareness of book titles and thusly generate revenue.”
“That’s what they want you to believe,” cooed Jessie sarcastically. “If what that guy says holds any water, that’s not the meaning of that hashtag at all.”
“Okay... then, what could it mean?”
“Well, for one thing, we’re probably mispronouncing it. Instead of ‘dead book titles,’ it could be, ‘de adbo okt itles.’” As soon as these words were spoken, mayhem broke out. Gina clutched her throat. Jessie smirked, thinking that, for once, her straight-laced friend was playing along with the joke. Seconds later, when Gina vomited blood into her lap, Jessie screamed.
Once the blood stopped flowing, Jessie asked, “Jesus, Gina, are you okay?”
Gina gulped. “I think... we need to delete our Twitter accounts.”
“That’s probably a good idea.”