The floorboards beyond his bedroom door creaked, the wood groaned as whatever disturbed the otherwise quiet night approached. David Gaffney jolted out of bed, his body awake before his mind. Sleep was shallow these days but necessary. He reached the door undoing the two deadbolts he had installed earlier in the week or maybe last week? Time had a funny way of overlapping on David of late. The door swung inward and he looked out, seeing… nothing. The same nothing he had been greeted with every other time he did this dance, once again ending up without a dance partner. The empty hallway comforted him for a moment, and enraged him for many more. He never knew exactly when he would hear the strange shuffling in the hallway but each night he knew it would come.
Catching a glimpse of who or what was outside his door was akin to reaching out and trying to grab hold of fog. He was certain there was someone or something else here in the house with him, even if everyone he tried to convince suffered from a shared skepticism. Slowly he closed the door again, locking both deadbolts before collapsing onto the bed. Perhaps this time he would be allowed to rest for a few hours, his stinging eyes hoped so, but his heart had its doubts.
He could scarcely believe that he moved into this house 6 months ago. A suburbanite by birth and a city man for most of his adult life, there was only one thing that could convince him to move from his rent controlled apartment to the woods. A woman, more specifically Abigail, or Abby as she preferred to go by. She was free spirited in all the ways he wasn’t, chief among them the inability to hold down anything resembling a job. She was an artist at heart and that dedication to maintaining her image as an artist caused her to rebel against anything that could be seen as selling out. These included but are not limited to a disregard for a company’s working hours, a three month period where she attempted to make a living drawing smut for people she met in chat rooms on the less traveled areas of the web, and most recently a shouting match with a client over the shade of orange that should go on the graphic included in a promotional email blast. It wasn’t the hue that was the issue really but instead the fact that and these were her words,
“That lady has to be the biggest bitch I’ve ever had the displeasure of knowing, what would she know about color theory? Honestly, if she's so smart, why even hire my firm? What a cunt!”
David had never met this client but he had read the email chain between her and Abby, and while he didn’t feel comfortable labeling any woman he had never met a cunt he could agree she at the very least had cunt like tendencies. Unfortunately her boss didn’t agree strongly enough or the client’s account was too valuable to lose and so Abby found herself once again unemployed.
This didn’t bother David so much, he had a well paying job in IT managing various crucial systems for his employer, at least that's how he explained his job when asked at dinner parties and holiday gatherings. In truth, the majority of his job was spent helping employees reset their passwords or devising phishing emails so as to test employees on their email security knowledge. It was rarely surprising when people learned that the employees who were constantly forgetting their login information and the employees who would have to be reprimanded for clicking on emails offering Amazon gift cards were oftentimes one in the same. That anecdote frequently received a hearty laugh at the aforementioned social gatherings. As did the follow up that more likely than not the offenders were the people in charge of making important decisions for the company. Everyone loves to believe their boss is an idiot and as someone who could see his own boss’ emails, and instant messages he had trouble arguing with their belief.
While the role wasn’t a dream it did provide him with flexibility in how often he had to be at the office and where he lived if he decided that being in the office wasn’t all that important. So when Abby came to him with a job post offering free room and board as well as a monthly stipend to look after a wealthy widow’s vacation home he was intrigued. It seemed unlikely that Abby would be let go for cussing anyone out and it would allow her time to focus on her art. For David’s part it offered a chance to save up for an engagement ring. So with little hesitation the couple packed up their city life into his hardly used 2018 Honda pilot and made their way upstate to a small vacation home nestled in the trees.
As David considered the slightly worn engagement ring on his nightstand he thought ruefully that if given the chance to go back in time he would sooner total his car in transit than ever cross the threshold of this house. But that line of thinking didn’t help him here and now, rumination leaves the hands idle and he had much work to attend to.
In the daylight the hallway lost all sense of foreboding. The noise never came during the day and so he was safe to move about the house freely with little fear of meeting whatever caused it. He turned on the ancient coffeemaker near the sink. A relic of an era when appliances were built to last, the coffee dripped rhythmically, into the glass coffee pot that was so stained you could easily convince someone it was always that shade of brown. The sound accompanied by the aroma steadied his nerves.
Across from the counter on the kitchen table he placed his company laptop, and next to that his personal computer. For work he only had to keep the laptop awake and answer an email every now and then. While it was true he had some meetings to video call into, they rarely required more than a polite nod or the occasional vague noise that indicated he agreed with whatever was being said. He wasn’t an exemplary employee by any metric but at least he has the decency to browse the web on his own computer. A courtesy that wasn’t shared by several higher ups whose history he had access to and that he stored should anyone question what it exactly was he accomplished day to day.
As the last of the coffee filled the pot David opened his personal laptop and navigated to a subreddit he had been frequenting of late. r/TheaterofStrange. A meeting place for people who had experienced something otherworldly to discuss the unbelievable with those who uncritically believed. There was little judgment in a community like this, while the anonymity undoubtedly helped there was certain kinship that arose when members were allowed to share their experiences with an audience that wasn’t just humoring them but engaging with the bizarre stories in the same way one would comment on a local sports team. Sure there were many people here only to larp or establish some kind of Alternate Reality Game but they were outnumbered by those who genuinely wanted to discuss the paranormal.
Three months ago David would never have spent a second humoring the stories of UFOs or bigfoot that made up the majority of the sub. However, that was before he spent two weeks convincing himself that the noise was only a squirrel or maybe a raccoon on the roof. Before he moved here and became fixated on a door that would not open. As he poured himself a cup of coffee he glanced at the door that sat across from the kitchen table. Next to it was a hook with Abby’s hoodie, something left behind as she made her escape from the house or maybe from him, as true as that probably was he didn’t wish to believe it so in his mind he settled on her leaving the house behind. It had all started with the door hadn’t it? One that wouldn’t open and a man who was too curious to let it remain shut.
It felt like a lifetime ago, or maybe it felt like it was part of someone else’s life, regardless he could recall their first day in their temporary home as clearly as if it were happening this very moment. The sweat coming down his forehead in beads, stinging his eyes as he unloaded the last of the boxes into the living room. Abby’s smile as she made one corner of the room into her art corner. The difficulties of wire management as he set up his work station on the kitchen table. It was only meant to be temporary, but he couldn’t sit at the kitchen table staring at the closed door without knowing what was inside. When he finally had enough of wondering he twisted the doorknob and pulled, when it didn’t budge he pulled harder. Still nothing.
“What are you doing?” asked Abby, her arms full of painting supplies
“Nothing, well actually this door, it’s stuck, did they mention anything about any rooms they wanted us to stay out of?”
Abby continued to her corner, arranging the paints by shade on a side table, she squinted her eyes and creased her brow before responding.
“Not that I can recall, is it locked?”
“The door isn’t locked, the knob turns, I think it’s just stuck.”
“Maybe there’s a padlock on the inside?”
“I didn’t see a bulkhead or another door when we were bringing the stuff in, if it’s padlocked how would someone have gotten out?”
Abby crossed the room and tried opening it herself but came to the same conclusion as David, the door wasn’t moving.
“You don’t think there would be someone in whatever room is on the other side right?”
David’s blood ran cold as he considered the possibility of someone being on the other side of the door, watching them turn the knob and attempt to enter. He shook his head partly to put the idea out of his mind and partly to assure Abby that there was no one in there.
“No, don’t be ridiculous, I’m sure the wood just swelled up or something, it’s probably a broom closet,”
“Yeah, let’s just forget about it for now, we have a lot to unpack,”
“Absolutely,” David replied while putting one arm around Abby.
As the pair walked toward the pile of boxes he took one more look at the door. David knew he was the kind of guy who needed answers even if the question was unimportant and so he knew he wouldn’t just forget about it.
A ding on his work computer brought him back to the here and now. His boss asked if he had some report that showed the data usage for a plug-in. He made quick work of downloading the report and sending it over, now he could focus on what was really important, seeing if anyone had responded to his latest thread update. His initial post about the noise on the subreddit was met with little fanfare. A few polite suggestions asking if he had ruled out his girlfriend playing tricks on him and an animal being stuck in the crawl space, followed by some less polite accusations of him making it up for clout or perhaps he was off his meds.
One person shared their concern that it was possible the oven was leaking gas into the house and he was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. While the idea of being poisoned was frightening he had hoped there was something to it. At least then there would be a reason and he would be able to prove to the commenters and himself that he wasn’t just losing his mind in the woods. However after a quick trip into town and David being upsold on the model of detector at the hardware store by an overly eager middle-aged man.
“How could you gamble with your health? I had a great aunt who died from that, not a great way to go, granted she did it to herself in the garage but that’s beside the point,”
David returned home with the second most expensive carbon monoxide detector at the store, a compromise he and the middle-aged man could be happy with. Though he suspected the man had come out ahead in their stand off. Much to the subreddit’s disappointment the detector indicated that he wasn’t slowly being poisoned in his sleep. So he would have to think of more possible explanations or else admit he was losing it. Though if he was so too was Abby.
Abby slept each night as if she had been on the run for months and finally found a safe place to lay her head. She was dead to the world and the world was dead to her. So the first two times he had heard the noise he had no luck shaking her from her slumber. Then one night she was up late reading a fantasy novel with a little extra spice as she described it. Her face was illuminated softly by the light of her kindle, as she reached a climatic moment she let out a soft gasp that turned into a scream as in that moment a loud bang like a textbook falling in an empty classroom shattered the previously silent evening. The couple shot up from their bed, Abby held a pillow above her head ready to bludgeon whatever came through the door with expensive memory foam. David was empty handed.
“David what the fuck was that?”
“I don’t know, an animal?”
“An animal in the house?”
He strained hard to hear anything in the hallway, it was silent at first but then a shuffling that would become too familiar started up.
“Are you going to check?”
“Why does it have to be me?”
“Because you’re the guy,”
He cursed the traditional values she had suddenly embraced before summoning every bit of courage he in truth didn't possess. When he pulled the door open he expected to see glowing eyes staring back at him, but there was nothing. He flipped on the light to the hallway and still nothing.
“There’s nothing there, maybe the foundation shifted or a branch fell off a tree and hit the roof,” He hoped he sounded as reassuring as he was attempting to.
Abby put down her comfortable weapon and slumped back down onto the bed. Her breaths were quick and shallow at first but returned to normal after a few minutes. David sat as well and began rubbing her back. She turned to him and joked.
“I can’t believe you talked me into living in the woods just for some extra money,”
They both laughed and tried their best to get to sleep as if it were any other night.
As he listened to a middle manager drone on about being more mindful regarding the number of software licenses the company purchased in the next quarter David allowed his gaze to fall onto his personal laptop monitor. After refreshing the page he saw that a new person had responded to his latest post.
BigTyler232 asked Can you walk me through how this started again? I’m sure you’ve responded to others but I don’t want to have to dig through your post history to put the pieces together.
He thought to himself and instinctively looked at the door across from him again. For the first two weeks after moving in he has managed to keep his curiosity relatively in check. True he would pull on the handle when he walked past it but it wasn’t the obsession it would turn into. That was until he rose to get himself a glass of water, this was in a meeting with the same license concerned manager, though on this day he was explaining the benefits of an email plugin that would automatically summarize the conversation between a sales rep and their clients when you prompted it to. It was powered by AI and abandoned in two months by 90% of the sales team. When passing the door he twisted the handle and pulled as was routine. Though this time the door began to open before getting stuck again and then seemingly being pulled to its initial position.
David gasped his eyes wide, the hairs on his neck standing up. Had he imagined it? He pulled again but the door provided the usual resistance. He tried harder, each tug was accompanied by a strained grunt. It was no use, the door held firm.
“Fuck!” the manager on call had stopped speaking, evidently David had left his mic on.
“Is… is everything okay David?”
“Uh, yes, yeah sorry about that I went to get a glass of water and stubbed my toe on the kitchen counter, didn’t realize my mic was on, again… really really sorry about that!”
David muted his mic and the virtual meeting resumed. Abby turned the corner as it did.
“What was that?”
“The door”
The confusion hung heavy on her face before it turned into a sly smile.
“The door screamed fuck?”
“No, I” he smiled to himself before rolling his eyes and continuing “No the door nearly opened,”
“Oh finally”
“But then it slammed shut again”
“Slammed shut again? Like it moved?”
“You think I’m crazy?”
“Not crazy but… I mean doors don’t move are you fucking with me?”
“Maybe it was the person on the other side,”
“Don’t joke about that” her smile was gone. “You know I watched a video online people live in other people’s house for the thrill of it, it’s called phrogging”
“Okay now you’re fucking with me”
“You don’t believe people do that?”
“I’m sure they do, I just don’t believe it’s called that”
“It’s with a PH instead of an F”
“Oh well now it’s all coming together”
They both laughed. Abby pulled on the door but it didn’t budge.
“Seems like it’s back to where it was, just don’t worry too much about it”
“I won’t” he lied.
The following week saw David attempt every method of opening the door he could think of. Nothing worked, he was Sisyphus and this door his rock. He would often skip out on hanging with Abby after work, spending his time instead consulting people online to get their opinions on which method he should try next. Very few offered advice that could help in any meaningful way, many suggested destruction. The methods varied from running at the frame with full force to embracing his inner Jack Nicholson while screaming “Here’s Johnny”. As much as he wanted to break the door from its hinges David had to comment that the house and the door didn't belong to him, only the obsession about what was hidden behind it.
Friday night did provide a breaking point but not for the door. Instead Abby, already disgruntled by the borderline neglect the only other living person around her for miles had been providing, took it upon herself to solve the problem. Just as David was about to put to the test his newly acquired skills on jimmying a door frame, obtained from watching a tutorial on 2 times speed she closed the book she was reading with such vigor the resulting sound must have bumped up against the sound barrier. David dropped the metal bar he was about to go to work with and stepped back from her. She crossed the room and got into his face.
“This has to stop,”
“I… well I-”
“No, the stupid door is all you’ve been thinking about for days,”
“I mean I thought you were interested in-”
“I was, I am, but not enough to make me forget my responsibilities”
David eyed the sink overrun with dishes, then the trash similarly overflowing. Both chores he had assured her that he was just about to get to every time she went to start them. As if allowing her to complete the chores would betray that the door had become something bordering on obsession, a fact that was plainly and as he now saw painfully obvious to her.
“I’m sorry I swear I’ll take care of them,”
“Now, take care of them now, and forget about this door, there’s nothing important on the other side or the owners would have told us,”
“I… that’s not the-”
“David!”
“Right, you’re right I’m sorry it’s just-”
This time he wasn’t cut off, instead his voice faltered as he heard a click from the other side of the door. He looked at Abby who was also silent, her eyes wide and fixed on the doorknob. It remained still. The pair made eye contact, both unsure of what to do next until she grabbed the doorknob in her hand, took a deep breath and opened.
Inside sat a single wood chair, above it a light on string which illuminated the rest of what was some kind of pantry. There were three steps down to a concrete floor, the walls each had a shelf, all were sparsely filled, a can of tomatoes on one, three jars of pickles on another and trashbags on the third. The room was dusty but not horribly so, perhaps the fact that it had remained sealed for so long protected it from getting too dirty. When David finished looking the room over he was met with an undeniable disappointment, all of this time he was transfixed by what amounted to some expired canned goods and a chair that matched the other three already sat around the kitchen table. Abby wasn’t disappointed, in fact she seemed amused, more than amused as she began laughing hysterically.
David gave her a look of confusion, before he realized she wasn’t laughing at him, she was laughing at the outcome of the work. He had to admit that now he did feel silly and so he joined in, the pair stood there laughing until the air refused to fill their lungs and their sides hurt. They may have continued laughing all night had the chair not fallen over, and a huge gust of what can best be described as wind pushed past them. The air had changed, the gust brought with it a chill as unexplainable as where it had come from. The lightbulb flickered out and the room returned to its previous calm state.
David hit submit on his response and waited for BigTyler232 or anyone else to reply. Though for hours no one did. The rest of his day at work had been uneventful and he resigned himself to another lonely night punctuated by frozen pizza and reality tv until darkness washed the house in that uncomfortable feeling that necessitated a padlock and door to separate him and the rest of the unknown.
As he lay in bed he occasionally refreshed his reddit app until at last a notification alerted him to a response. BigTyler232 had finally replied.
That is so creepy, have you ever tried to catch whatever it is on tape? I know that security cameras are pretty cheap these days and have some killer night vision. Could be worth a shot?
Before David had a chance to respond another user chimed in.
ThatWitch2w8: I do some ghost hunting with friends, we use these. The night vision is great! Just be sure to share whatever you capture on this sub, I’m invested!
Her comment linked to an amazon page for four security cameras and wireless hub that they all stream to. David could feel excitement bubbling up, If he could capture it on camera then he could finally get a solid look at whatever it was. If it was an animal he wouldn’t have to worry himself with much more than pest control and if it were something else, well he’ll cross that bridge should it come. He added the security system to his cart and quickly checked out.
So sure was he that this would solve the issue that he didn’t even bother getting up and checking the hallway when he heard it moving around outside his door that evening. In fact he was almost enthused by the noise. It was becoming familiar and once the cameras were set up it would become known.
The rest of the work week went by in a manner most uneventful, reports were shared and nightly disturbances mostly slept through. Finally on Saturday morning a delivery truck driven by an older gentleman who wore an expression that communicated he had little interest in his job and even less in any small talk with David beyond telling him where to sign dropped off the cameras.
After a few hours of scouting out the perfect angles and searching youtube for tutorials on how to properly connect the central hub with a companion app David was ready to finally figure out what was on the other side of his door. As the evening approached again he sat on the side of the bed and leaned his phone up against some of Abby’s books, the top one had a woman and what can only be described as a minotaur with the body of Chris Hemsworth on the cover. The ring sat next to the books. As nothing appeared to be happening on the phone screen David considered it for a moment.
Maybe if he could prove the noise was just a racoon or some other animal he could show that to Abby. Prove that the house didn’t need an exorcism but pest control instead, maybe that would give her peace of mind. Maybe then she could return to the house. Or just return his calls. Even as he had the thought he knew that it wasn’t likely to be the case.
Roughly a month after the incident with the door and the beginning of the noise the pair had taken a long weekend to a small coastal town some four hours away from the house. Initially Abby had been apprehensive to leave her post. This was made more complicated by the fact that she couldn’t get in touch with the owner. Something she chalked up to her being in Europe and maybe she didn’t have a way to get their phone to work over there.
After David had dropped some hints about romantic dinners at the restaurant connected to the sea side hotel he wanted to book. Or how the beach was perfect for romantic walks she eventually caught on and figured what could one long weekend hurt? We’ll make sure everything is off, nothing will happen while we’re gone, besides surely the owners didn’t expect them to not live life at all for the entire year right?
The vacation had been everything they wanted and more. The accommodations were picturesque, the food divine, when David dropped to one knee on one of those romantic walks Abby let out a joyous scream that crescendoed into yes a dozen times. Nothing seemed like it could ruin the high of the weekend, until they arrived at the house on Sunday evening.
Upon crossing the entry way the air felt off, the quiet house betrayed no immediate threat, but the hairs on David’s neck stood tall all the same. He knew Abby felt uneasy as well, then they saw the living room. The couch had been moved to the opposite wall, the coffee table was overturned, and the strangest sight was the contents of Abby’s sketch book which now lined the room. Each picture was hung by a drawing pencil forced into the wall. Portraits of Abby, himself and various other members of their family and friends looked out at them. The pair stared back then met each other’s gaze. David tried to speak but couldn’t find any words, just as he was about to ask if she was okay all of the pencils fell from the wall at once, the faces fluttering slowly to the ground.
“What the fuck” was all Abby could say, repeating it over and over.
David tried to comfort her.
“Maybe the owners had gotten one of her messages, maybe they did this as some kind of… prank?”
“What kind of person would pull a prank like this? What are you saying that they were upset with us? Upset with me for leaving so they decided to freak us out?”
“I… well, I mean what else could it be? The door was locked when we came in, it isn’t like someone broke the door down”
“You know what it is,”
“I know what?”
“Something came out of that room,”
David shot a quick glance to the closed door leading to the spare room before replying.
“Listen that was just like a change in pressure, maybe a vent kicked on when the temperature changed after we opened the door,”
“What about the noises?”
“The noises?”
“Don’t play dumb, when we’re trying to sleep, something is outside of our room and you know it,”
“I mean, we check every time and nothing is there!”
“Something is there! You know it, I know it! The Fucking woman who own this house knows it, that’s probably why she wanted someone to watch it for her!”
“Let’s not get too-”
“What crazy? As if this shit isn’t crazy? You know what, I can’t do this, I’m going to bed, we’re getting a lock for our room,”
“Yeah of course, I’ll order one right now!”
“Order two!”
She stormed off to their room without another word. David collected the pictures and pencils and returned them to Abby’s art corner. He moved the couch to its original spot and turned the table right side up. The next morning when David woke up she was gone, just her engagement ring and a note about needing some time to think things over remained. It did come with a note that she would reach out to him when she was ready, that was three weeks ago and still nothing.
David’s attention returned to his phone’s screen, he took a screenshot and shared it with the members of the paranormal subreddit, as he did it registered that these anonymous members were closer to him than anyone in his real life. He pushed that out of his mind with the promise that once this whole affair was settled things would go back to normal. Abby would return and so to his normal life. As he fantasized about what his life would look like after he captured this footage his eyelids grew heavy just as the shuffling started up once again.
“Come on fucker, smile for the cameras,” David said to himself before turning over and falling asleep.
Saturday morning started with excitement and ended in dread. The footage had corrupted minutes after David had last looked at his phone. There was no way to recover the lost footage, that point had been emphasised to him by several customer service employees that had the displeasure of fielding his call. They didn’t understand how important this footage was, they didn’t understand what it meant for David, for Abby, for his friends on reddit. How could they?.
They didn’t deserve the choice words David had shared with them before hanging up, he was embarrassed by that but the cameras had screwed him over. While he replayed the conversations in his mind he opened his laptop and pulled up the footage. It wasn’t a total loss, the footage ran until 11:43 before cutting out abruptly and then returned at 6:36 the next morning. David downloaded a free video editing software so that he could scrub though what remained of the footage frame by frame.
When he did he noticed a shadow or something dark just barely entering the frame before the footage stopped. He had done it, well partially anyway. He finally had proof that something was there even if he didn’t have the full picture.
Unfortunately for David the members of the subreddit weren’t as impressed. BigTyler232 was the most gracious saying that he could kind of see a bit of a dark spot, but ThatWitch2w8 wasn’t so sure.
ThatWitch2w8: It really could just before some dust or maybe even digital artifacting, since the camera cuts out immediately after.
What did she know anyways? She wasn’t here, she couldn’t hear the noises.
BigTyler232: You know what you should do is download OBS and live stream all night, but that would require staying up all night to monitor it to make sure the stream doesn’t go down. Then we could also tune in.
David stared at the message for a long time, before googling OBS and finding out that it was a piece of software that enabled livestreaming. David didn’t know where to begin but BigTyler232 was an expert. The pair exchanged messages until David had set up a twitch channel. He was ecstatic until he read BigTyler232’s newest message.
BigTyler232: You should probably wait outside of your bedroom, near wherever the router is, that way you’ll be able to reset it quickly if the feed goes down.
David didn’t want to do that, the door was his protection from whatever went bump in the night, he couldn’t admit that to himself before but he was hiding from whatever it was as much as it seemed to be hiding from him. He responded to BigTyler232, making a joke about how he didn’t want it to get him or anything. BigTyler 232 countered with the suggestion that he put a camera on himself too, that way the members of the subreddit could watch his back.
Admittedly he wasn’t enthused by the suggestion but knew that it was the right thing to do if he ever wanted to put this whole thing to rest. Fuck it. David resolved himself to sit in the living room near the router all night. It probably is just an animal and the feed going out last night was just a coincidence, something that could be blamed on faulty internet cables, or the fact that he was miles from town which itself wasn’t exactly a population hub.
So when the sun began to set he set himself up on a comfortable chair that Abby once liked to nap on, snacks at his side, caffeine coursing through his veins. He told himself that was what made his heart race, not the adrenaline that came with the panic that he assured himself he wasn’t feeling. Eventually the rush wore off, as did the caffeine, the sound hadn’t come and he was beginning to get bored, with only the occasional chat message from BigTyler or ThatWitch2w8 to keep him company. That was until he heard the shuffling from the hallway… but if it was in the upstairs hallway why did it sound so close?
His entire body tensed up, whatever it was, it wasn’t upstairs, it was in the kitchen the best he could tell just about ten or so feet behind him, but getting closer. He could feel whatever it was as it moved towards him, past Abby’s art corner, he heard papers fall softly. The way the camera was positioned it only showed a bit above his head, he thought he saw a shadow, but maybe it had always been that dark behind him. The shuffling stopped, it would have been only feet behind him, he realized that he was slumped down in the chair as if he could pretend he wasn’t there at all if he made himself small enough. But that wasn’t what this was for, he had wanted to see what was making the noise and now was his chance, still he hesitated, the feeling that none of this was real if he didn’t look, if he didn’t see what was standing in the room, but he had to see. David straightened up, summoning every bit of courage he could mustered, pushed on by the thought of Abby coming back to him he stood up and turned.
Tyler Was Alone
Tyler Blevins could hardly keep up with the notifications coming to his reddit account. The clip of David, standing up and turning towards darkness shouting before the stream had crashed had somehow reached the front page of Reddit. Users argued over what David was saying, some just heard a scream others swear he said Abby. The debate raged, as did the argument over its legitimacy, some pointed to the fact that David had been posting for months with minimal interactions as evidence that it was legit. Others thought it was a larp or Alternate Reality Game, that this was always the ending, Tyler tried to convince people that couldn’t have been the case since he had been the one to suggest live streaming.
To the doubters that could be explained away by the fact that Tyler and David were the same person with multiple accounts, that they or a singular he had spent months talking to themselves on the subreddit so that everything looked real when they cashed in on the ruse with this clip.
The backstory meant to deceive, Tyler couldn’t get them to believe that they were two different people. Others pointed to the fact that David worked in IT but didn’t know what OBS was as a crucial plothole. ThatWitch2w8 tried to quell the descent but it was no use, people would believe what they wanted to believe regardless of what either of them said. Tyler shut his laptop and plopped down onto his bed.
He was exhausted from the day, arguing in the comments and fielding questions from accounts linked to youtube channels that covered these kinds of events. It was important to him that at least they had the entire story. But what was the entire story? Had Tyler been tricked by David? Was he just a pawn in David’s game? An outside observer who could lend legitimacy to the charade?
He simply didn’t know, he had tried reaching out to David on reddit but received no response. He sighed and repositioned himself into a more comfortable spot. He checked his phone and registered that it was 11:42 before closing his eyes. His mind racing, was any of this real? Had he gotten pulled into someone’s ARG? But if he had, to what end? It’s not like David could have really cashed in on one twitch stream.
Maybe it was just a prank, an elaborate ruse to entertain himself when David was bored at the house in the woods. There was one problem with that, before David stood up, before he yelled, or said Abby, Tyler had heard the shuffling on the stream, the noise that had perplexed David, it was real. He replayed it over and over, the shuffling growing close to David, it was real, it was there, it was almost as if he could hear it in his own home, outside his bedroom door. That was crazy though, he was just overtired, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment