LATE NIGHT ONLINE HORROR STORY

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. 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.