late night horror

 it was 2

25 am

i sat at my laptop aimlessly scrolling

as the minutes dragged by

 

only three more hours left until i

needed to start getting ready

for a long day of work

i leaned back in my chair and cracked my

neck

as i heard the tension being released i

contemplated crawling into my bed

and calling in a night but my over

stimulated brain was

still rushing after several hours of

scrolling through

endless tweets half-reading reddit posts

and hitting the next recommended video

on youtube

i eventually found myself in the deadly

cycle of switching between the home page

and the inbox page on facebook

i reached across the table and took a

long swig

of my now flat pepsi then lurched

as i felt a trickle running down my chin

and onto my exposed keyboard

quickly using the sleeve of my hoodie i

frantically wiped off

the keys that the sugary liquid splashed

onto

i really need to stop snacking at my

computer

i thought to myself as i observed the

many crumbs

scattered between the keys don't judge

me

i'm sure you have done it too after

looking over my somewhat cleaner

keyboard

with satisfaction i looked back onto the

screen

a massive jumble of letters were strewn

across the google search bar

as a result of my late night keyboard

scrubbing session

i briefly considered googling my own

name for the third time that night

but then decided that those three hours

of sleep

might be just enough to get me through

my next eight hours shift

as i was about to stand up a small

square

suddenly appeared in the corner of my

screen

it was plain white with a red frame with

the bold letters flashing from blue to

red

reading this link will disappear

in 60 seconds

below a small timer began counting down

from 60 to 59

to 58

nice try probably some low budget

website

or internet scam trying to trick me into

taking their surveys

or giving out my credit card information

so that i can win that free new ipad

the numbers counted down from 40 to 39

to 38.

as the numbers counted down my curiosity

of where that link will take me began to

grow

i hovered the mouse over the box then

stopped myself

what if clicking this link would install

some virus onto my computer

i reached for the top of my screen and

began to close it

what if it was the fbi trying to bait me

into clicking a link to an illegal

website

 

just as the screen was about to meet my

keyboard

i stopped what if

it really was a once in a lifetime

opportunity

and by clicking this link i would get

the chance to view something

no one has ever seen before

the thought of never knowing where that

link would take me is going to drive me

crazy

and i could surely see myself losing

sleep over it

i slowly lifted my laptop screen again

and saw the numbers count down from five

to four to three

and click the link just as the timer

reached

one

a new tab appeared on my screen as would

look like

a video began buffering

do

 

i blinked in confusion as all i saw was

a

very dark video feed with a blinking red

dot

in the corner of the screen next to the

words

life

i stared at it for a few seconds trying

to make out what exactly i was supposed

to be looking at

it appeared to be the shape of someone's

silhouette

 

did the link bring me to a live stream

chat with some random person

hello hello

hello hello

can you hear me

can you hear me you hear me you hear me

the person on the other end of the

stream

just sat there as i heard my voice echo

for my computer speakers

it kind of sounded like when you're on

the phone with someone

and they have their volume turned up so

you can hear your voice repeating while

you're talking to them

i sat there for a full minute not saying

anything

waiting for the person in the live

stream to respond

or move or do pretty much anything they

just

sat there the whole time barely moving

then from the corner of the screen i saw

another figure standing in the

background

 

at first the second figure just stood

there

unmoving then began to sway

back and forth the figure behind

no longer seemed human

its movement was just too strange

and unnatural

 

this continued for another minute then

it stopped

and went rigid

its head began to twitch to the side

every so often becoming

faster and more rapid

the other figure just sat there

motionless

as if unaware of what's going on behind

it

i then shifted my gaze to the figure

behind

as it began to slowly walk closer and

closer to the person sitting closest to

the screen

who still to this moment just sat there

motionless just staring at the screen

 

my heart began to race

why don't they notice what's going on

 

are they drugged is this some kind of

prank

or some sick film being streamed on the

dark web by some

psychopath i wanted to yell out to that

person

warning them of the figures standing

dangerously close to them whose movement

was no doubt not human

god i wish that the image was more clear

just when i thought it was about to be

all over

the twitching figure stopped then slowly

began to crouch down off camera

and i could no longer see it from behind

the seated figure

in front of the screen

after my heart began to slow down

i leaned in closer to the screen to try

to get a better

view of the mysterious figure in front

of me

 

then to my surprise the seated figure

leaned in

as well

[Music]

this guy's mimicking me

i then noticed a small light at the top

of my computer monitor

a steady green light

it was then i noticed that my camera

lens was extremely dusty

it's a wonder that the fecker on the

other end could not even

see me i reached my sleeve up

and gently wiped the dust off the

monitor camera

second my gaze returned to my screen

i felt my heart begin to race

the figure i've been staring at this

whole time

was me this whole live stream was not a

two-way video chat

it was just a recording of me sitting in

front of my laptop

then just like that the image

disappeared

from the screen

my mind raised as everything began to

settle in

if this was a recording of me

that means that the figure behind

was a recording as well

i made two mistakes that night

the first was clicking that link

and the second was looking

under my table