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It's been a year since our town's adults disappeared. Everyone thinks it was ME.
I was screaming at Mom when she exploded. One minute she was completely in control of the argument, shooting me the mother of all glares across the dining room table, and the next she was dripping from my face like congealed spaghetti sauce. Her voice was still alive in my ears, even with her staining my cheeks. Dripping from my lashes. I could taste her in my mouth. "You're a child," Mom’s voice echoed in my mind. "I'm old enough to drive a car," I had said matter-of-factly, waving my spoon in protest. I reached for my favorite cereal, but she slapped my hand away and placed a bowl of plain oats in front of me. I had been cursed with an almond Mom. Which meant the only snacks I ever saw had raisins instead of chocolate chips. Breakfast was always the root of all disagreements in the Sinclair household. Mom wasn’t a morning person. My brother and sister had headed to school early. I couldn’t imagine why. "With your father supervising," Mom’s grip on her coffee tightened. I could tell she was ready to blow up, but I was determined to change her mind. Her argument was that she didn’t want me to get hurt, but I knew it went deeper than that. Mom wanted to ruin my life. She was an expert at it, already forbidding me from going out of town and enforcing a curfew. "I said no, and I mean no," Mom said with a sigh. "You're inexperienced. When you’re eighteen, I’ll think about it. End of conversation." She prodded the table impatiently. "Eat your breakfast, please." "But that’s not fair." I could feel my blood boiling. "Why am I the one being punished? You’re giving Sera lessons!” She fixed me with a warning look. "You’re not being punished." "I clearly am," I retorted. "I don’t see this same energy with Nathaniel!" Mom sighed. "Your brother is one year older. He is old enough to drive a car. I’m finished discussing this matter with you. If you disagree, you’re free to move out and make up your own rules." I slammed my spoon on the table. "But—" Mom sipped her coffee. "End of conversation." "You’re not even being fair!" Mom’s eyes narrowed. "End," she put heavy emphasis on the word, "of con—" I didn’t even want to hear it. She was so stubborn. Even more childish than me, and I was supposed to be the kid. Instead of listening to her, I pressed my hands over my ears and screamed in frustration. My own words trembled on my lips, halting, when something warm splashed across my face, followed by a high-pitched ringing in my ears. I felt the shock of it, rich copper filling my mouth and splattering over my eyes. Initially, I thought she'd gone to the extreme and thrown her coffee in my face. But coffee wasn't this thick and coppery, clinging to my lashes and blurring my vision. It sounded like a nuclear bomb had gone off right in front of me. A slowly expanding bright light, darkness speckling across my eyes, and then… nothing. Mom was there, scowling at me disapprovingly, and then she wasn't. I remember her face being carved with morning sunlight filtering through the blinds, her loose ponytail trailing down her back, and her bright pink bathrobe. I blinked slowly, the ringing sound growing louder, more intense. Like a singular coin rattling around in my skull. The sunlight was still there. But it was blocked out, only existing in strands of glittering light peeking through the intense smear of red covering my eyes. She was everywhere, and yet also somehow still existing in front of me, her torso swaying back and forth like a bad fucking cartoon. Blinking red from my eyes, I could sense a cry slowly clawing its way up my throat. Different shades of red covered our kitchen, painting the walls and dripping from the countertop. The coin rattling in my skull stopped dancing, my ears popped, and the world came to a grinding stop around me. Something wet and fleshy dropped from the ceiling, and the scream that had been wrangled in my throat, fighting for an escape, slipped out in a sob that wracked my chest. Mom felt like congealed spaghetti sauce clinging to my face, pieces of her skull sticking to my pajamas. When her torso smacked onto the ground, a horrifying cavern where her head used to be, I stumbled back, slipping in the spreading red pool gliding across our kitchen tiles. I remembered how to move. In one stride, I was out of the kitchen, gasping for breath, my hands on my knees. In two strides, I was standing on our doorstep staring dazedly at a crashed car in the middle of the road. Several of them scattered down the block. I recognized this one. Mrs. Petra's Honda Civic. The car had flipped onto its side, but I could see the scarlet dripping from the windows. There was someone in there. A little girl, five or six years old. Her mouth was wide, O-shaped, streaks of red pooling down her face, dark ringlets of hair stuck to her pale skin. Emily, her daughter. I didn't hear her cries until my ears popped again. But this time it wasn't just Emily. Screams were erupting across my neighborhood. Our town had come to a standstill, shrieking car alarms joining the cacophony of cries enveloping together. Pulling Emily out of the smoking wreck of the car, I covered the little girl's eyes and held her to my chest. What was left of Mrs. Petra was slumped in her seatbelt. It wasn't just my mother and Mrs. Petra. After taking Emily home, the effects of seeing my mother blown to pieces right in front of me started to blossom. I scratched at the skin of my arm, but I couldn't get her off of me. She was caked into my hair and glued to my lashes. I spat several times, and then my gut lurched, heaving up undigested cereal. In a daze, I checked every house. Each one held a similar scene: an explosion of grisly red, and children without parents. Once the ringing in my ears subsided and I regained some control over myself. I joined the growing crowd of kids searching for answers. A kid on a skateboard told me there had been a crash at the end of the road, and I remembered my siblings. I headed toward the school, feeling sick to my stomach. I found them among a group of kids, sitting on the sidewalk, looking dazed. They didn’t react when I tried to hug them. Sera’s eyes were vacant, unseeing caverns staring into oblivion. Nathaniel wouldn’t look me in the eye, squeezing me a little too tightly, pressing his head into my shoulder still stained with our mother. He was a shell of his former self, the brother I had playfully fought with just hours earlier because he refused to let me drive his car. Sera had wanted to ride the bus, and in a mark of rebellion, Nathaniel had followed her. If they had decided to drive to school, they could have been dead. Nathaniel dropped his head into his lap, panting into his jeans. Sera kept shooting me hopeful looks. Like I would know what to do. Two years younger than me, my little sister was already looking at me as if I were an adult. Their bus had overturned, intense red seeping onto the road, shattered windows, and headless bodies littering the sidewalk. Kids wandered around, confused, covered in what remained of the bus driver. Nathaniel and Sera seemed to be the only ones consciously awake while others cried out for their parents. The three of us hugged, but I could barely feel my siblings wrapped around me. I had no idea how to tell them that our mother’s blood was all over me. From their expressions, Nathaniel wrapping Sera into a hug and my sister sobbing into his chest, they already knew. Our town had been normal, like every other, and in the blink of an eye, everything was gone. Parents. We were covered in them. Teachers. Upon pushing through the school entrance, there was carnage. Traumatized fourteen-year-olds were hysterical, dripping in scarlet, while the older kids seized the opportunity to run wild without adult authority, trashing classrooms and raiding vending machines. It was everyone. 99.9% of our town's population exploded that day, but it was my mother who was still staining my face, her blood ingrained into my flesh. I couldn't scrub her off of me, no matter what I did. The outside came to help in a matter of hours. I wouldn't call it "help" though. According to the outside, we were a town going through an unprecedented event. Which meant a quarantine cutting us off from the outside world. After briefing us in the school auditorium, we were told not to panic, and that help was coming. Spoiler alert: they were scared of us and what they thought was a contagion, so that so-called help didn't exist. That left babies without mother's, the preschoolers without parental figures, and an entire school of teenagers to fend for themselves. You would think a group of kids would know what to do in a town-wide apocalypse, right? Especially when we had been abandoned by the outside world. In the first few weeks, we went kind of insane. Lord of the flies, insane. If you were vocal, you became a leader. And that meant the popular kids started to take control, taking advantage of kids with no family and nothing to lose, and recruiting them into gangs. Thankfully, that stopped when help did eventually come. Several drones were sent into our quarantine zone one month into the town-wide lockdown. They brought boxes full of medical supplies, food, electronics (despite them turning off the internet two months later due to a breach in security. Wendy Carmichael had made a now deleted reddit post entitled "We are TRAPPED! The story of my town under quarantine.") Wendy quickly became an outsider, after we were forced to hand over all of our electronics. There were also instructions on building a community in unprecedented times. We were told to elect a leader, a spokesperson who would make the rules. Gracie Lockhart became that person. She was the only one who wanted to run, and I guess everyone was scared of her because her now dead father happened to be mayor. Still though, kids wanted someone to look up to, someone to tell them what to do and give them a sense of purpose. Rules were put into place and everyone over the age of 13 were given a job, whether that was a cook at the university where meals were served, or stuck in the preschool with the kids. In the first month, I was a delivery girl. When the electronics were still working, kids used all of that pent up frustration and trauma on shopping. So, I would wake up at 5am every day, bike to the barrier standing between our town and the outside world, and pick up the growing mountain of Amazon packages dumped on our side. I enjoyed my time as a delivery girl. I used it as a distraction from thinking about Mom's death. I barely saw my brother and sister, apart from at night. The three of us had taken up residence in a random house we'd found. Sera liked the swimming pool, but we chose it because it was far away from our parents. Sera's job was at the kindergarten, which she hated with a passion. While Nathaniel was an unwilling member of the research committee. Not exactly a job that helped us, but Gracie and her carefully chosen council, who were just literally her friends, forced my brother and several others to scour the town and find out how this happened. Nathaniel said it was just an excuse for the popular kids to slack off. We already had a scientific explanation, presented to us by the CDC themselves. It was a contagion that worked like spontaneous human combustion, and seemed to be leaving children alone. Gracie's group were obsessed with this huge conspiracy that went from aliens, to a lab-leak at the local university where they were convinced biological weapons were being made. Nathaniel had requested several times to be given another job– but one particular girl on the research committee had a crush on my brother. With her being so close to Gracie and the newly instated town council, she had a certain amount of authority, and could abuse it anyway she wanted. And fuck, did she abuse it. Gradually, as it became progressively more obvious that the outside world had left us to rot, and our community started to run out of the rations provided for us, the council began to take advantage of the amount of power they had. Sure, blame it on repressed trauma or PTSD. But I would go as far to say these kids were sociopaths. We called them The Dark Days. Because in a matter of weeks, our world started to come apart. It started with a message from the outside, that our food was delayed. So, we starved. The kids in power started getting bored. Kids were refusing to work without food. Normal crashed and burned, humanity bleeding away into something else. Those in authoritative positions were no longer quietly plucking the good looking guys and girls for their own personal pleasure. They were ordering our 'police force', a small group of volunteers, to drag them from their homes and present them to the council. Please bring ALL chocolate to the council. Guys with gross fucking hair cuts (I'm talking about YOU Oliver Bentley) are no longer allowed inside the cafeteria. Cut your hair and look decent, or starve. Any cute dogs must be handed over. If you're physically attractive and want one of the last cans of soup, you can earn it. ONLY hot guys and girls! If you look like a hobbit, you'll be turned away. So yeah, normal began to crumble. We tried to uphold it, but when the council started using older kids as toys and playthings, that was when our little community fell apart. Nathaniel was one of those chosen to serve the council, in what started as a stupid announcement, and quickly turned into a rule. Those who were chosen to be right hands to the council must NOT resist, or their loved ones would suffer. We were starving, delirious, and going crazy. Before our leader could go full Lord of the Flies, however, the outside world stepped in. Thank god. Gracie had her leadership revoked, along with her council, and all of her orders were thankfully banned. Nathaniel and the others were freed. Sera and I dragged him from a hotel room, which looked innocent enough. We found him playing Switch games cross legged on the floor. According to Nathaniel, there was a lot of PG13 non-consensual groping. He laughed it off, but there was an emptiness in his eyes I didn't like. His smile was too big. Sera pointed out blood on the bed sheets, but I blocked it out, nodding dizzily when Nathaniel insisted he was fine. The perpetrator, who had my brother and five other senior girls and guys trapped in her hotel room fashioned into a sex den, was nowhere to be seen. Probably hiding in shame. I called it out as sexual assault and thankfully, more kids spoke out. Gracie was indirectly arrested. Meaning, as soon as the quarantine was over, she and her little group were in big trouble. I heard the charges were severe. Forced imprisonment and non-consensual sex. For the time being, they were put on house arrest. Thankfully, a new council was built from kids with actual intelligence and a passion for leadership. Liam Cartwright became our leader, and in his first role of replacement mayor, he demanded the soldiers bring us enough food and supplies to last us for a month. The outside world reluctantly complied and we went back to normal. Ish. The girl who sexually assaulted my brother, Tally Edwards, was officially a missing person, which became our first real case. Liam put together a force of ten able bodied kids to act as a police force and investigate the girl's disappearance. I got my job back as a delivery girl. When our Internet was cut off though, I became a sort-of food delivery service instead. But I liked it. There was something therapeutic about awaiting our daily shipments, watching the outside world continue while we had come to a grinding halt. A year passed. Without parents, adults, and normality. But we made it work. We were a bunch of sixteen and seventeen year olds trying to keep afloat. Normal. But just like the world outside, death existed in our makeshift community too. Five kids. Mostly from neglect. Taryn James and her friends had found a dead baby inside the wreck of a car. A fifteen year old girl had jumped out of a tree on a dare and landed head first. Three toddlers had come down with fevers that killed them despite us having the right medical supplies. We might have had medicine, but the kids working at the hospital had no idea what they were doing. Why would they? The eldest was seventeen, and he ran away, puking into his hand, when the fifteen year old was brought in, half of her skull caved in. The outside world only helped us with food. The rest, we had to fend for ourselves. The assholes didn't even send in medics. In their words, it was a risk they couldn't take. Little kids were dying, but because of a phantom contagion that was yet to claim any more lives, they couldn't save them. Kids weren't just dying, they were disappearing too. The missing had doubled. Two kids were now gone, both of them part of Gracie's original council, and Gracie herself had somehow managed to build her own little cult. She believed that God had taken her friends, and they had simply followed our parents to heaven. Judgement day was a new one. The week before, Gracie was screaming about aliens and lights in the sky when I biked past the school, where a concerning number of followers sat in a circle around her. Now she was convinced her friends had been raptured. Cliques had formed around town, which became noticeable on my bike ride. You can't be cut off from the outside without forming a cult-like group. But hey, we all had our ways of coping with losses we couldn't even register. I had my own group. My fellow delivery kids. We weren't exactly a cult, but we were a family, and we had cute lime green uniforms and caps. The sun was setting when I was starting my night shift, sitting on the barrier, my legs dangling. The sky was a smear of orange and red, and I found myself hypnotised by the dying sunlight illuminating the clouds. I wasn't technically allowed to sit on the barrier. If I fell off, I was donezo. But it was fun to get a peek into the outside world. If I tilted my head at just the right angle, I could see a fully functioning Mcdonalds in the distance, ironically bathed in a heavenly glow. Below me, the winding road was blocked off with yellow tape, barricades in place. Nathaniel was on my mind. His new job was taking up all of his time, but when he was free, he still didn't come home. I told him to request a zoom appointment with a therapist. The outside world was offering them every week in the library, where there was restricted internet access. But he kept saying he was good. He seemed like it on the outside. On weekends, Nate would act like the annoying older brother he had always been, fighting over the shower, and hiding cereal from Sera and I. But even when he was laughing, his expression didn't match his eyes. I wanted to talk about what happened with him and Tally. Maybe he thought it was his fault she was missing. Sera had told me to step off for a while, though this had been going on for months. It's like something inside was killing him, eating away at him. And I knew it was what happened inside that hotel suite. "Testing, testing," a familiar drawl crackled through my talkie sticking out of my pocket and cutting through my thoughts. Nathaniel was fine, I thought. I was just over reacting. My colleague's voice was a welcome distraction, bleeding into the peaceful silence. The British accent was the icing on the cake. "Do they have ramen? I repeat. We are in short supply of ramen," He paused. "Especially the carbonara style ones. You know, the ones in the TikTok store." He sighed, his voice immediately bringing my mood up. "Ah, yes, TikTok! I miss my daily supply of brain rotting dopamine. Do you remember those pool filling videos? They were what made me realize I had undiagnosed ADHD." Jude Lightwood was an unlikely friend. I barely knew him before the quarantine, and now I knew his deepest, darkest secrets he spilled to me during our night shift awaiting our weekly delivery. Jude took the other side of town, while I took the main entrance. We spent most of our time talking on the talkies, or in his case, giving me his entire life story. Still though, nothing beat staying up until the early hours of the morning, watching the first flicker of dawn appear in the sky, listening to him half deliriously reenact the entire first season of Breaking Bad from memory. Yes, even with the voices. I missed a delivery once because I was almost on the edge of hysterics, laughing at his Jesse Pinkman impression which was to a freakin' T. Pulling out my talkie, I pressed the button, swinging my legs in mid-air. "You do know they're MRE'S, right? I don't think we have a choice. We'll be lucky to get rice and chicken." I paused. "Also, you don't seem like the type of guy who used to go on TikTok." He wasn't. Before the disaster, Jude spent most of his time in the school library. He was known for his side hustle, selling candy to seniors. He started as a British exchange student who nobody could understand, and quickly rose up in the social hierarchy due to his accent. I only knew him from English class, when our teacher had asked him what the capital of Australia was, and Jude, half asleep, had responded with, "Huhh? New Zealand?" He was officially 'New Zealand' to me, until he formally introduced himself on my second day on the job, offering me coffee, and spilling it all over himself. Jude scoffed. I enjoyed his presence. Even if it was just his voice. "I just said I watched pool filling videos, like, in a total trance," he laughed, but then his laugh kind of choked up. I could tell he was having a light bulb moment. He had them a lot, and they were all related to what happened to the town's adults. "What if it's like, Gods?" Jude had proclaimed into the whipping wind one morning, the two of us cycling to work. When I twisted around to shoot him a pointed look, he shrugged, cycling harder, reddish dark hair flying in a blur around him. "It's probable! Like, what if Zeus is pissed? He's punishing us!” "Aliens?" he'd said, while we were lifting packages onto the loading bay. I hit him with a package in my hands. “Cthulhu?” Jude mumbled, half asleep, the two of us labelling envelopes. What if it's microchips in our brains?" Jude came out with it through a mouthful of mash potato during lunch, the two of us lounging on the school roof. His second epiphany of the day. When I shoved him, he laughed. This guy's charming smile made it hard for me to hate him. He came up with these "What if's" to drive me crazy, I swear. His 'theories' stretched all the way to our town somehow being related to The Simpson Movie. Though this time, I caught a certain seriousness in his tone. "What if that is what saved us?" I pondered his question, watching a bird swoop across the sky. "You think TikTok saved us from combusting?" "No!" he laughed. "Well, yes. Stay with me here, but adults don't use it much, right?" Jude took a deep breath. I could tell he had already jumped to the next tangent. "Wait. I can see a group of kids in the town across from us eating Five Guys. My mouth is watering," he groaned. "This is torture. I can see the fried onions. I can see the animal style fries and sauce!" Jeez, how good was his sight? "Do you have binoculars?" I couldn't resist a laugh. "No! Yes. Maybe. I'm just borrowing them." "Jude," I said, shuffling uncomfortably. My butt had gone to sleep. "Are you sitting on the barrier?" He didn't reply for a moment. "That depends. Is a certain Liam Cartwright with you?" I spluttered, holding the button down. "You think our seventeen year old mayor is checking up on the delivery kids? Poor Liam is probably asleep." "Oh god, yeah," I could sense him making a face. "Our boy is starting to look like a divorced father of three." Jude cleared his throat, and the feedback went right through me. "I am sitting on the barrier, by the way. I can see Orion from here. I used to look at constellations with my Mum. She had one of those cool ancient telescopes." Something sickly twisted in my gut. Tipping my head back, I searched for the star, though I wasn't sure where I was looking. "So, you're looking through the tiny hole in the barrier?" "Mmmhmm." He chuckled. "Curse my 20/20 vision. I wanted to get an idea of what normal life is like, and I get hit in the face with burgers. I want Five Guys so bad. I would kill for one." I could hear him adjusting the dial on the talkie. "Did you know some people, desperate enough, would kill for takeout?" There was a pause, and I heard his slight intake of breath, his shuffling crackling into interference. I didn't even have to reply. Jude never stopped talking. "Don't you think this is… kinda cool? Apart from the whole, uh, end of the world, dystopian, only our town thing." I could see my breath dancing in front of me and zipped up my jacket, responding in a gasp, "Freezing our asses off waiting for mediocre meals?" "No. Like, what we're doing. I feel like I'm keeping watch for the undead while my friends, the last survivors of humanity, sleep." Jude snorted. "Instead, I'm a glorified UberEats delivery guy for a community of kids." "You enjoy it though," I said through a yawn, rubbing my hands together. The early November chill was already seeping into my bones. He responded in a hum. "It's aight." Jude sighed, leaving us both in a peaceful silence. "How did you get on the barrier, Ria?" His question took me off guard, an ice cold shiver ripping down my spine. "What?" "Well, I have Ben to give me a hand to climb up. Even if he sleeps all the way through his shift, his bulky legs make up for it. But you? You're alone, so how exactly are you getting up there?" He paused, and the shriek of feedback sent me jolting, immediately losing my concentration. Jude laughed, and I couldn't resist twisting around, scanning the empty road behind me. No sign of any life. My radio crackled, and I jumped for the first time in a while. "Wait, wait, wait," Jude's tone had significantly darkened. "So, you're telling me you managed to scale a barrier this high with zero help?" For a moment, my tongue was tangled. "I stand on crates," I said, "Obviously." Jude hummed. "Sounds like bullshit, Ria.” I tightened my grip on my talkie, fingering the off switch. "Why do you care?" "Oh, I don't," He chuckled. "I'm just curious how you learned how to climb this high." The silence that followed twisted my gut into knots. I could just hear Jude's breathing, and, if I really listened out for it, the late evening traffic coming through the town over the barrier. Jude surprised me with a laugh. "I'm just messin' with ya, Ria. The night shift goes to my head, y'know? I gotta find new ways of bantering wi' ya." "Sure," I said, but my chest was clenching. "Ooh, shit. I think my delivery is here. I gotta go before they spot me on the barrier," he panted. "Uh, over and out! Or whatever you're supposed to say–" Switching off the talkie and cutting off his farewell, a fresh slither crept down my spine. My delivery came soon after. 5000 MRE's. I tore into the first one, unable to help myself. But Jude's words were still in my mind, making me paranoid. Paranoia made me desperate. Being desperate made me remember how hungry I was. I was stuffing handfuls of cold rice and chicken into my mouth when the sour-faced man helping me unload the shipment cleared his throat. "You're supposed to microwave it, sweetheart." I ignored him. "Is this it?" I said through a mouthful of mush. Mush had never tasted so fucking good. "No snacks?" He threw me a crushed Milky Way, making sure to keep his distance. "There's a snack. Knock yourself out." After spending all night delivering MRE'S to locked doors that were normally open and welcoming, I finally reached home with three ready to eat. I had picked the best ones for my family. Chilli for Nathaniel, chicken and noodles for Sera, and fried rice for me. When I opened the door, I was greeted to soft snores, my little sister sleeping on the couch, and Nathaniel wrapped up in a blanket on the floor. I pulled my food out of the package, threw it in the microwave, and then collapsed on the floor next to my brother. I was so tired. So fucking tired, I could barely move my legs. What did Jude say again? How exactly did you get onto the barrier, Ria? The microwave dinging didn't wake me up. The stink of burning plastic and cremated food did. "Get up." The voice was familiar, pulling me out of my thoughts. When I didn't move, someone kicked me violently in the stomach, and something was dropped onto my head. I sat up, a scream clawing in my throat, the burned remnants of my dinner dripping down my face. Standing over me were two pairs of feet, and when I looked up, I glimpsed Gracie Lockhart. She made sense, she was a psycho. But not Liam, our mayor, who was supposed to be sane. "Get up!" This time, I was kicked in the head. I felt my brain bounce around my skull, my vision blurring. I was on my feet, off balance. All around me was a startling orange. I thought it was from the microwave catching fire, but then the blurred orange was moving. Gracie, Liam, and two other guys held flaming torches. The light was mesmerizing. I found myself transfixed, until I snapped out of it. Nathaniel was in front of me, his arms bound behind his back. A squeaking, muffling Sera was struggling in between two girls' grasp. I found my voice. "What… what's going on?" My arms were violently pinned behind my back. When I twisted around, I found myself eye to eye with my best friend. Jude wore a hooded sweatshirt, his curls hidden underneath. He didn’t meet my gaze, shoving me toward the door along with the others. "Witch," Gracie spat in my face before yanking me out of our house and throwing me to my knees. I tried to lift my head, but Gracie stomped on my back, and I bit back a shriek. Nathaniel and Sera were thrown down next to me, and I stared at the reflection in my brother’s eyes, following the orange glow that lit up the darkness. In front of us, a horde of kids stood, all holding torches burning bright. "We’ve found them!" Gracie cried to the crowd, and they cheered, a psychotic hive mind thirsty for our blood. "We have FOUND the evil who did this to our parents! Who trapped us!" She had to be kidding, right? Nathaniel shook his head, eyes wide. "What? You’re fucking serious?!" Gracie crouched in front of us and held up her phone. Her "evidence" was a screenshot of a tweet posted the same day the adults exploded. It read only: "The Sinclairs are witches." Posted from an account with zero followers, zero likes, and a default profile picture. Panic crept into my gut. The town was already losing their minds from isolation and starvation. Could they really believe we had started this? "Jude," I found my voice, a sharp squeak I didn't trust. When Gracie screamed, blood for blood! And forced me to my feet by my hair, I caught his eye in the crowd. "Jude, I'm not a fucking witch!" "You killed my mum," he said in a whisper, a demented laugh slipping through his lips. "She was all over me, and I couldn't breathe. Her blood was stuck to me. She was everywhere, Ria." "You know me," I managed to cry out. "Jude, you know this is bullshit!" He didn't reply, his expression hardening. I wish I could have seen a glitter of influence in his eyes. But it was all him. Jude's fear had turned him into a monster. "Burn the witch," he said in a whimper, his lip curling. The boy's expression contorted, his hiss became a yell, cutting through the crowd's screams. "Fucking burn them!" "Burn them!" The crowd hollered. I stopped fighting when we were dragged through town, rotten food and soiled diapers thrown in our faces. I knew where we were headed, and my body had gone numb. Nathaniel stayed still, silent, his dark eyes finding his friends in the crowd. Sera screamed, sobbing, begging to a group of kids who already decided her fate. It was Jude who shoved me against our founder tree, binding me to my siblings. It was Jude who stepped back, gripping his torch for dear life. They surrounded us, a ring of blazing fire and expressions riddled with excitement. Gracie stepped forward, Liam by her side. I knew in her fucked up little mind, killing us would bring back the adults. And she had spread the word, like a virus, polluting the town's minds. "Ria Sinclair," she stepped in front of me. Then the others. "Nathaniel Sinclair." She was gentle with my sister, forcing Sera's head up with the tip of her manicure. "And Sera Sinclair." "We find you guilty of Witchcraft," she said. "Your sentence is burning in the pits of hell where you belong." I didn't take her seriously, not even with a burning torch in her grasp, until the girl pulled out a knife from her pocket. I turned my attention to the sky when the blade was drawn across my sobbing sister's throat. When her cries gurgled and deep, dark red spotted the earth, I looked at the moon poking from the clouds instead. I didn't see my sister die. I just saw her body slump over, her head of dark brown curls hanging in her face. The crowd's reaction was haunting, calls for my sister's head to be severed and waved in the air in triumph. I kept my gaze on the sky, tears filling my eyes. "Nate." I managed to get out. She's dead, I wanted to scream. Our sister is dead. "Nate!" I screamed. He didn't reply, even when Gracie knelt in front of him and dragged the blade of the knife down his cheek and forcing him to look at her with the tip of her nail. "You're a fucking murderer," he said in a whimper, only for her to spit in his face. Nathaniel didn't blink, struggling in his restraints. "Witch," Gracie Lockhart snarled at him, pressing the knife deeper. "You're a filthy witch, Nathaniel Sinclair." I don't know what sealed the deal. Was it Gracie parading my sister's body in front of him, or spitting in his face? I could feel it already, icy prickles creeping down my bare arms, already playing with strands of my hair. When I twisted my head, Nathaniel was smiling. I saw the contortion in his cheeks, amusement morphing into agony, unnatural darkness spider-webbing across his pupils. Velvet magic. He stunk of it. I fucking knew the asshole was using it! Velvet magic, also known as possession magic, had been banned a long time ago. It is to witches, what drugs are to humans. Addictive. Drawn from dark energy that humans naturally make, it is well known to take over the mind and soul of the witch possessing it. If my brother had been using Velvet magic, he was doing so with purpose. I was too, but I was… inexperienced. Just like my mother said that morning. Only when I turned eighteen, would I be able to experiment with possession magic. I have a confession. What I wrote at the start wasn't the complete truth. Yes, I did scream at my mother. How was I supposed to know fuck off and die would actually work? And more so, how would I know it would take out half of the fucking town? Nathaniel was our family witch. Why was he using velvet magic in the first place? I had secretly been tearing myself apart for a year over my magic being the cause of our town-wide disaster. Was I wrong? Did he kill the adults? I should have been horrified when Gracie's brains started to leak out of her ears. Except she murdered my sister, and had bound me to a tree. Led a 'government' that assaulted my brother. The girl squeaked, slamming her hand over her mouth, smearing red dripping down her face. "Nate," I shot him a look. But I don't think he saw it. Nathaniel just saw our little sister's dead body. I lost my breath when, with a single flick of his finger behind his back, Gracie's head was splitting apart, her delighted grin twisting into horror. She didn't even get to feel it; a mercy I knew the bitch didn't deserve. When a chunk of the girl's skull landed on the ground, lips still split into a grotesque skeletal grin, the crowd went silent. Before... Screams. Gracie's body hit the ground, and then caught alight, flames dancing across her skin. Without a word, Nathaniel calmly pulled apart his restraints, and with a single jerk of his wrist, an agonising scream escaping his lips, his eyes filled with black, sent the crowd flying several feet. I watched kids thrown back, helpless dolls caught in an invisible wind. One boy slammed into a tree, his body crumpling, a girl bisected on a wire fence. I didn't realize how powerful my brother really was. I should have cared about them, cared that they were dying. Hurting. But. They had murdered my fucking sister. When Nate dropped his hands, his gaze found mine and he opened his mouth. But his words were drowned out by mechanical shrieking from above us. Looking up, a helicopter was hovering, and I remembered my Mom's words. Do not draw attention to yourselves, do you hear me? Her words echoed in my mind, when another helicopter appeared. There are bad people, Ria. Bad witches looking for us. And if they find us, they'll kill us. Our entire coven in this town. They'll burn it to the ground. Nathaniel ignored the presence in the sky, wrapping his arms around me, squeezing me into a hug. The darkness in his eyes, spider webbing across his face, was something else. Velvet magic. He was consumed by it, drowning darkness. But I didn't… hate it. If he was going to avenge Sera, then so be it. "One thousand five hundred." Nate whispered into my shoulder before pulling away, his breaths heavy. "One thousand five hundred." His voice contorted into a giggle which wasn't my brother's. Mom taught us about possession magic. It converts witches, filling their minds with Dark influence. But I wanted it to fill him. If he was going to save our sister. "Blood for blood." Before I could respond, rough hands were on my bindings, tugging them apart. "Come on," a voice hissed out. But I was watching my brother scoop Sera's body into his arms. "Are you stupid? Do you really want to hang around and let yourself be caught?" I was dizzy, dragged by a shadow I fought against. But I was too weak, my magic rolling right off of him. "They're rounding up witches, idiot!" the shadow's voice bled into one I knew. Jude. Immediately, I twisted around, aiming a kick to his face which he easily dodged, grabbing my shoulders. I glimpsed that exact same flicker of darkness in his eyes. Velvet magic. The asshole was one of us, hiding in plain sight, and didn't save my sister. In fact, the bastard watched. He dragged me back, pulling me into a clearing when the crowd started screaming, this time led by Liam. Nathaniel had killed at least ten kids. When I risked a look, my brother was carrying my sister away, unfazed by the yells from above telling him to stay where he was. When sparks of dazzling purple hit the ground like fireworks, I realized the people shooting at us were not human. Witches. Jude's lips latched to my ear, his breath ice cold. "Your idiot brother just gave them a reason to start hunting us down, and the Sinclairs are at the top of their list. So if I were you?" He spoke through gritted teeth. "I would start running.” submitted by /u/Trash_Tia to r/scarystories [link] [comments]
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r/scarystories |
Trash_Tia |
Sep 27, 2025 |
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Choose 10 out of these 100 abilities
My friend has been obsessed with ben 10 recently so it got me thinking of the number 10. Here are 100 random goofy abilities in no order whatsoever, there are also a few abilities that are purposefully made to synergize with each other so look out for those: Doors act as waypoints for you. Every time you enter a door, you can exit to any door you've ever gone through before You can split each one of your arms into 5 arms of equal length, but each arm is 5x thinner and only has 1 finger Run at up to Mach 10 speeds, but only when walking backwards You can create bitch versions of yourself and others Choose 1 object to be psychically linked to, you can now move and manipulate that object with your mind Whenever you need information on something, a 500 page book will appear containing the info you need, but you'll have to search the book to find it Summon a butler named Jerry by yelling "OH, JERRY!!!!!" as loud as you can. He will obey any command, be your bodyguard, make you any food you want, always give you good advice, be your friend, your therapist, and your attorney. You can solve any problem ever, but you only have 99 uses When wearing a pair of glasses, you can read things 10 times faster and understand what you read better. It also translates written language When you wear a pair of sunglasses, your brain automatically tunes out anything you don't care about, unless it poses a legitimate threat to you You can make toys function as they would if they were real, but they remain the same size You can jump into paintings and photographs like in Super Mario 64 Every dream you have is a premonition dream, it has some form of hint as to something that will happen in the future, and you have to figure it out Every time you are rejected in any way, your strength speed and intelligence doubles You can store time in a bottle. You can open the bottle to skip hours of your life and use them later on, plus you get 1 hour per day to spend You can perfectly stack things on top of each other in a way that they wont fall over You can calmly defuse any toxic situation or argument at will Your mental capabilities multiply by 100, and you can now have 100% control of your body and all it's functions You become a master building and can build anything from an IKEA flatpack chair to an entire aircraft carrier effortlessly and with limited materials in a matter of seconds. It basically works like being a master builder in the Lego movie/video game universe, and also it makes the Lego star wars building sound effect when done. When you vomit, your puke will mold into a little minion that will obey your commands You can do cool stunts and parkour and backflips and stuff effortlessly without risk of getting hurt Become undetectable when standing perfectly still Travel through power lines and internet lines Ride a skateboard at sports car speeds perfectly without risk of messing up or hurting yourself or others Pull things out of reflections, but they will be mirrored. Basically if you pull a red mug out of a mirror it will be blue, if you pull a person out a reflection in water their personality will be the opposite of their real personality, etc. Burger manipulation: create, destroy, reshape and move burgers You gain the abilities of the current pets you own, i.e. enhanced smell if you own a dog, night vision if you own a cat, etc. You can communicate with animals, but they all hate you now You can change your voice at will to have any volume or accent You'll never be hungry and never be full, and you'll always have room for more food. you also don't need food to survive and any food you eat will taste delicious Whenever you hold a tape measure you can learn the measurements of any object you see. You can also use it as a grappling hook You become smarter. By how much depends on how stupid you were before. if you were average intelligence, you become decently smarter, if you were slightly below average, you become a super genius, and if you were really dumb, you become virtually omniscient You can control what material you're made out of, but your mobility is affected. if you become water or air you can move around freely but if you become metal or rock you wont be able to move. You obtain up to 10 new forms. Each for has you as a base, and you can add on up to 4 abilities from any living organism both alive and extinct to each form. but you cant pick the same organism twice You get a 35% off discount on anything if you offer to pay in reddit karma (they will reject the offer but provide the discount out of pity) You have a pet dragon who loves you and takes care of himself and comes with his own little dragon hut to stay in You can make deals with the devil to do stuff for you but they will come at a price You can go to heaven/hell without having to die 1st Every time you do a good thing, a good thing will happen to you that is twice as good as the good thing you did You can blatantly cheat at any game and nobody will question you You can heal any living being by touching them, doesn't work on yourself You can shoot a lighting bolt that turns non living objects into minions You can combine yourself with objects and assimilate them into you to gain the abilities of said objects (lamps for light manipulation, lighters for fire manipulation, computers to gain remote access to the internet, etc.) You can manipulate your perception of time. You can make one minute feel like one hour to you, or make one year feel like a day to you You can add, subtract, multiply and divide anything by any number between 0-10 (you can multiply a person by zero to make them disappear, you can multiply your net worth by 5, you can add 10 points to your test results, etc.) Also you cannot perform this ability on the same thing more than once, but you can reverse the process and perform the ability again You can make anything edible. Spoiled milk, dirty water, moldy bread, even rusty screws. Just touch them and they will purify and be edible, nutritious and tasty You can travel in time to any point of the current day by changing the time on your clock You become a god tier master of using yoyos and you can utilize them to their full potential to the point you can use them in various ways, like you can hit things with it and extend your reach, pull things to you, trip over people, roll on your own yoyo for transportation, anything. you also get a set of indestructible yoyos with 2,000 km of reach If you tell someone to shut up they will shut up for an hour or until you undo it Your words greatly affect people. If you complement them they will feel amazing and will probably succeed at what they do. If you insult them, they will take it seriously, be very hurt and will probably be worse at the particular thing you insulted them about You never have to wait in lines for stuff you want to do, and you'll always be last in line for things you don't want to do Pick up to 20 people or objects, you can now swap places with any of those people/objects at will. If you select a person to switch with they have to agree to it 1st You can bring back the dead, but they will come back in a random new body. This new body could be the body of a person, or an animal You can calculate math like a calculator. You aren't smarter or anything, you can just instantly get the answer to any written math problem You can detect the problems of things. You can't solve them, you can just identify them You can get drunk without any of the negative side effects of drinking, also you get drunk really easily You can see signals like internet and radar and such. This ability can be turned on and off Any device you own will now have infinite storage space, 8k HD resolution, 1000 FPS, immunity to viruses, will always have internet and will never have any errors. You can also apply this ability to your friend's devices You can figure out perfect solutions to problems, but they will be extremely farfetched and impractical and nobody will take you seriously You can choose 1 law of physics that you will now be able to break You will be extremely skilled at every skill except for the skills required for whatever your job is. This will change dynamically depending on what your job is at the time, and it wont affect any of your skills negatively You can make tiny Mandela effect like changes to the world. Only one random human being will notice each change you make, nobody will believe you if you admit to changing it You have enhanced productivity to the point of you being guaranteed to accomplish any realistic goal and meet any deadline You can literally leap over Mount Everest in a single bound You can adapt to any situation. If you're drowning, you gain water breathing abilities. If you need to climb a tree, your grip is improved to climb them, etc. Anything you hear or see you can convert to an mp4 or mp3 file on your computer at perfect quality You can change your voice in any way and also throw your voice in any spot within a 50km radius You have access to a secret underground hideout connected by a series of tunnels through the earth in which all the most powerful individuals discuss things You'll never be offended, disappointed, afraid or feel any negative emotion from anything anymore. You'll still receive the benefits of negative emotions, like increased productivity when stressed or increased carefulness when afraid, but besides that you will just always feel good You will always make the right decisions, no matter what they are People will always believe your tricks, for example if you lie to someone that you won the lottery as a prank they will believe you. They wont believe anything you say, just anything that involves trickery of some sort. You cant just lie to people and say you're the president and then get to be the president, or something like that, basically You can open an F3 menu like in Minecraft that will tell you your geographical coordinate, what city/country you're in, and other information like that You can always tell when people are lying or telling the truth, and you can cause people to tell the truth to their highest ability You can savor food better. When you eat food, you can eat it in a way that will make it taste better, and the good taste will stay for longer. It also helps make the food more nutritious and removes aftertaste You can heal yourself by briefly ascending as a holy light shines upon you and heals you with an angelic choir in the background Your fingers now act as guns. When you do a finger gun, it will work as an actual pistol. You can also use 2 hands to make it work as a shotgun. The bullets also never miss, they make a cartoon "pew" sound effect when shot, and they don't leave behind any blood or gore or anything You can actually go super sayin 1 or 2, but you have to scream out loud as hard as you can. it also only works if at least 1 person that doesn't know you have this power is able to hear you and identify you are the one screaming You choose to share your abilities to 5 people of you choosing. This takes up a slot of your abilities, but doesn't affect them otherwise You are able to do anything better than the people you envy. If there's a person who's better at you at a particular skill and you envy them, you will gain these skills and keep them permanently You can clone any item of your choosing by slamming the nearest desk/table and scream "ANOTHER!" Whenever you vote for something, the thing you vote will win guaranteed You gain the power of convenience. Don't want to go to school today? Class canceled! stuck in traffic? Not anymore You can turn yourself into a giant version of yourself that's around a third of the size of a skyscraper You can manipulate the size of objects You can create your own pocket dimensions in which you are omnipotent and anything can happen, but you don't really get any powers in real life, only in the pocket dimension. also nothing created in the pocket dimension can be taken out Everyone's opinions align with yours, and change dynamically Whenever there is an item that comes in a set, or requires/works better with other items, you get the full set with it. I.E. if you have a grill you don't need to pay for charcoal or gas tanks and stuff You are guaranteed to get anything right on the 1st try, this power can be turned on/off if you want No Power for this one, you just become a really good person :) You obtain 1 item from any fictional universe you choose, as long as it is planetary-level powerful or below You can choose 1 law of physics that you will now be able to break You can do the Thanos snap in real life. You can choose specific people to be snapped, half the life on a planet, half the life in the universe, you can limit it to just humans or all life forms, and you can bring people back the same way Have the ability to speak fluent dolphin in landlocked countries You can casually talk to god. He could do stuff for you, but he probably won't. you can just talk to him as if he were your friend Every time you do something cool or impressive, Barrack Obama will be there to whiteness it Gain the ability to wish for anything, but you'll be really dumb and only wish for dumbass shit. You also can't wish to be smart, or become smarter by any other means. You become nigh omnipotent with the only limit being that you will die within 2 weeks and you cant do anything to stop it You become nigh omnipotent for a random day of each year you live. you wont know what day it is, you'll just have to guess Instead of another power, upgrade one of your existing powers Roll a random power on the Superpower Wiki (hover over the explore tab and click random page) submitted by /u/ausernamethatisnotta to r/6Perks [link] [comments]
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r/6Perks |
ausernamethatisnotta |
Nov 12, 2023 |
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Teenagers Scare The Living Hell Out Of Me
It all started with a bit of innocent curiosity. Over the past few days, I’ve come to realize that there are doors that should’ve never been opened. That old expression, “curiosity killed the cat” had never felt any truer than it does now. I’ve opened something that I now have learned is far darker than anything I’d have ever expected. Things only seemed to get worse, and like an onion, each layer I peeled back exposed more than my senses could ever handle. But once you start, you’re obligated to proceed. It all began when I noticed strange billboards over the highway. Nothing stood out, but something about them always bothered me. The ads were always so vague; nothing relevant to the website written at the bottom, other than a few smiling children, standing together with their arms over each other’s shoulder as if they were best pals. Another ad was of a teenage boy, hiding in a tree while 2 others below had their backs turned and were looking off into the dark purple background. I’d always notice the new ad whenever I’d turn onto the freeway. Something about them would always manage to catch my attention. I had composed a theory that it was some after-school program where they keep kids out of trouble by occupying their time. I eventually gave in to my curiosity. I decided to enter the URL from the sign into my web browser when I got home one evening. It took quite some time to load, then I was greeted by a message prompt. “MEMBERS ONLY. Please log in or make an account.” I found that odd since they were advertising the website to the public, so why did it only allow access to members? The thought I landed on was: exclusivity creates interest, that alone can be a cunning marketing tactic. I played along and decided to sign up. It asked for a full name, date of birth, and email. After punching in my info, I was denied access since I wasn’t within their age range; you had to be 17 or under to become a member. I tried again, only this time changing my last name and age to 17 years old. Again, access denied. It must’ve had an IP recognition software. I managed to mask my IP address and made an account under my new identity. That’s when things got a little weird… It didn’t ask for email confirmation, but it did ask for proof of age. It required me to upload a photo of a state-issued ID, driver’s license, or school ID to prove I was legitimate. Fortunately, I had an old high school ID card in one of my junk drawers. All it took was a few minutes on photoshop to edit my name and age. After submitting the file, I was told I’d receive an email with my user info after they verified my credentials. I received a response the next day while I was at work. I was approved and given a username and password which granted me access to the site. I decided to wait until I got home to further investigate. Time felt as if it were moving at half-speed. Finally, the clock turned to 4:30PM and I was on my way home. Traffic was terrible that evening and it didn’t help that I was so eager to get home. I pulled into my driveway and tossed my keys on to the kitchen counter, making a beeline to my computer desk. I logged in to my personal email and opened the message. I copied the username and abnormally long password and was granted access to the site. It looked like something out of a movie; a black background gave the page an ominous appearance. The page was topped with a green text that read “Tyrants” and below were long columns that resembled some sort of blog. I got halfway through the latest entry that described how users can now gain access to anyone’s medical history, even private files, through a link on the page. I was suddenly closed out of my browser and that’s when it clicked in my head. The email was sent to my personal account! When I signed up under false pretenses, I used a brand-new email address. How did it end up in my own inbox? I started to panic. I instantly unplugged my internet modem, hoping that it wouldn’t allow anyone to track me down. I ran around the house and locked all my doors and windows and pulled the blinds shut. Something about that whole situation scared the living shit out of me. I cowered in my room for the next few hours in complete silence. My anxiety started to dwindle away until I heard a loud knocking at my door. At first, I ignored it, but it persisted. Quickly, I tiptoed to my front door and peered through the viewer. 2 figures stood on my front porch wearing dark clothes and their hoods pulled low over their faces. They pounded several times and even jiggled the knob viciously. Sweat started to pour down my face and my heart shot up into my throat. Eventually, they stepped away and I backpedaled into the hallway. I heard rustling at living room window; the thin pane of glass rattled against its frame as they tried to slide it open. I had to cover my mouth to refrain from screaming in fear. They continued in attempt to breach every possible entrance to my home. It went on for almost an hour until it finally stopped. When it did, I pushed my couch in front of the door and all other miscellaneous furniture in front of all possible entryways. I didn’t sleep a wink that night. I was finally starting to doze off when my alarm began to scream. 5am, time to get up for work. I was already awake, of course, but I did not plan on going to work that day. Then I thought of how I couldn’t afford to miss a day at work, I thought of how if I sat at home, maybe they’d come back in full force. I made a quick pot of coffee and nearly chugged the whole thing before I started my commute. I saw the billboard again as I merged into traffic. I couldn’t decipher the ad since graffiti writers managed to get to it during the night. Work went by slow in the first part of the day. I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t take my mind off what happened the previous night. But mostly, I was dead-ass tired. I spent the day trying to power nap at my desk, in between short bursts of productivity, when I overheard a conversation between 2 of my coworkers in the cubicle next door. “Clay has been wonderful since he joined that after-school program. His grades have improved significantly, he finally gained some manners, and he’s just been so involved the community that I don’t even have to worry about him getting into trouble!” “Do you know the name of it? I would love to get Tabitha into one of those, maybe she’d learn to keep away from that loser boyfriend of hers.” “No, and I don’t bother Clay about it much. He’s made such a great progress, I don’t want to intrude on that at all. He’s graduating this year and the one thing I don’t want is to get in the way of that. I’ll find out what I can for you!” My eavesdropping was interrupted by a phone call to my desk. “Kyle, you have a visitor here. He says he’s you’re expecting him…?” I could sense the confusion in her voice. My blood ran cold, but I knew I couldn’t alarm anyone. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if anything were to happen to my innocent coworkers. “Oh ya. One second, Phoebe, I’ll be right out. Have him wait there for me.” I scrambled to gather my things. I didn’t even bother to stop by my boss’s office before slipping out the back door and sprinted around the building towards my car. When I got around the corner, I could see 3 teenagers: 2 boys and 1 girl, standing around my car smoking cigarettes. I knew something was wrong and I didn’t want to find out. I turned around and crossed over the property to the adjacent street. After about 3 miles of walking, decided to take the bus. If I was in public, at least there would be less of a chance of being apprehended. The bus arrived shortly after getting to the stop and I stepped inside. The smallest bill I had on me was a 5, so I slid it into the machine and the bus took off. The front of the bus was crowded; I’d have hoped to find a spot as close to the driver, or the door, as possible. There wasn’t even much room to stand and I had to push through the crowd towards the back of the bus. The back seats were all occupied by none other than a group of teenagers. They all stared at me as I wiggled my way through the crowd to find an appropriate place to stand. They never took their gaze off me as I tried my best not to look over at them. I made the mistake of turning my head, to make sure they were indeed looking at me, and I locked eyes with one of them. A boy about the age of 17 with black hair and gray eyes glared at me in a malicious way. The blonde girl sitting next to him leaned over and whispered something in his ear. I got even more nervous. They seemed to be threatening me just with their eyes. I couldn’t shake the thought that at any moment, one of them would pounce. I decided to pull the string that notified the bus driver to let me off at the next stop. The bus driver pulled over and I quickly pushed through the crowd that was huddled around the back door. I looked behind me to find that all 4 of the teenagers had stood up and were beginning to do the same. They were going to follow me. I pushed through the door before it had even opened all the way and booked it down the sidewalk. I got about a block down the street when I turned around to see that they were following me. Their expressions remained blank but their eyes said it all. I picked up the pace; running through intersections without even looking. A few cars slammed on their brakes and honked at me. but I didn’t care. My only goal was getting as far away from them as possible. I must’ve ran at least 2 miles in 5 minutes until I became too winded to run any further. I turned into an alleyway between buildings and pulled my phone from my pocket. I had started to dial 911, but a hand smacked it out of grasp. Jumping back, I turned to see all 4 of the teenagers had me surrounded. The boy with the grey eyes was wielding a knife; his expression remained the same. “Why are you doing this?!” I cried. No response - only that same, sinister stare. Their faces looked stone cold, like they were under some sort of spell. I stepped away from them but had backed myself into a dumpster. The group got closer, and with each step I became more and more terrified. Suddenly, the sound of a car horn broke through the silence. I turned around to get a look at my savior, it was an angry old man who had started to shout obscenities at the group kids blocking his path. The boy tucked the knife away and gestured to his followers that it was time to leave. They stared at me long and hard before slowly walking back out into the street. I dropped to my knees and began to sob. At that moment, I knew that my life was in danger. Worst of all, I didn’t even know why. There wasn’t any reasonable explanation to what instigated these kids. It was even more stressful knowing that they had made a great attempt to do so. It had to be something regarding that website. Something bad was happening and that website was my only connection. My phone must’ve slid about 20 feet away, the screen was shattered but still barely functional. I intended to call the police, but what for? I had no evidence at the time. I didn’t even have a suspect other than some vague descriptions of the kids who had attacked me. If I were to get the police involved, there needed to be a crime committed. Until then, I was on my own. It was well after dusk when I got home. I didn’t even notice until I got to my front door that it had been kicked in; my home had been destroyed. Furniture was turned over, drawers pulled open with all its contents thrown onto the floor. My bedroom was in complete disarray and my computer had been stolen. At that point, I didn’t feel safe in my own home. I was in the process of gathering a week’s worth of clothes when I noticed a note pinned to the wall above my desk. “Go ahead, try and run from us.” I nearly shit my pants in the sight of it. This rabbit hole I had fallen into was far deeper than I could’ve imagined. And it only seemed to get worse… I called the police. I mentioned that 2 teenagers had been scoping the place out the night before. I gave them the description of the boy who tried to attack me earlier but didn’t tell them why. They claimed that my computer more than likely won’t be recovered but they will open an investigation and keep an eye around the neighborhood for any suspicious activity. After that, I called my friend Nick. I made up some excuse about how I needed a place to stay for a few days while exterminators come to my house and get rid of a bug infestation. Nick agreed, but said he’d like more of a notice next time since he was going to have another house guest that weekend. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I had been a little too distracted by the whole ordeal to even consider. “What’s up, Kyle?!” Nick said as he opened the door. He didn’t even bother to put pants on as he was dressed in only his boxers and a Slayer t-shirt he’s had since we were 17. “Sup, bro.” I droned and entered the living room where Nick had a crudely made bed waiting for me on the couch. he didn’t bother to clean anything else as his coffee table was covered in beer cans and an ash tray that was overflowing with blunt roaches. “I was about to roll one up, want to smoke this with me?” Nick asked as he plopped down on the couch. He pulled a large bag of weed from inside a concealed drawer in his coffee table. I hadn’t smoked weed since my senior year in high school, but I thought it might’ve been a good idea since I was under so much stress. Nick and I pa ssed the blunt back and forth. I could tell that I had been high as hell because after only a few hits, I was telling Nick every detail about what happened in the past few days. He stared at me with a blank look and nodded his head slightly every few sentences as I told him the story. When I finished, his blood-shot eyes had grown as wide as they possibly could for the state he was in. “Whoa. That’s some heavy shit, dude. What do you think it is? Do you think they’re like brainwashing the kids or do you think it’s like some Fight Club type of shit where you’re a threat to their organization and they’re trying to kill you since they found out you stumbled across their plans?” I was surprised by his response, although Nick was pretty fucked up. Something about his level of understanding gave me a bit of relief. Him and I had been best friends since our freshman year in high school. We would always skip 4th period and get stoned behind the gym. Since then, we’ve always been close. He made a living selling weed, enjoying a simpler life and he was a pretty good businessman. Although he was an avid stoner, he was a level-headed guy. He never judged anyone and could always empathize with people. Nick was a great friend. Nick stepped away for a second and to take a phone call. I had been stoned out of my mind and didn’t really think much of it; I was too busy watching a derogatory cartoon on the television about a drunk scientist and an idiot child who get into all types of crazy situations. Nick came back into the living room with a large mason jar in hand and a small scale. “Yo, my neighbor’s gonna swing by and pick up some bud. Is that cool?” Nick asked as he tare’d the weight of a cup onto the scale and dumped a handful of weed inside. I was too stoned to truly understand his question. I only nodded and continued watching my show. Nick bagged up the weed and soon after, there was a knock at his door. Nick jumped out of his seat and answered it. “Come in, bro!” I heard footsteps approaching and the door slam behind them. When I turned to see who it was, I nearly jumped out of my skin. He looked about 16 years old. He had a shaved head and a scar crossing his left eye – like some sort of villain cliché. His expression changed from a casual attitude to a sharp gaze when he saw me. The kid took a seat in the chair across from me and didn’t take look away the entire time Nick spoke. He handed Nick the money and stuffed the bag of weed into his pocket without even blinking. “Thanks.” He said in a robotic tone. The kid practically turned his neck around like an owl as he made his way to the front door. He didn’t look away until Nick shut the door behind him. “Dude, that was fucking weird. Did you see how he was looking at you?!” Nick squawked. I was practically shivering in fear at this point. He was just next door to us, and he knew that I was there. He knew exactly where to find me. The worst of it all was that Nick had became a potential target. I worried that they would come after him; using him as leverage to get to me. “Nick, they know I’m here. They’re dangerous. I’m worried that they are going to hurt you knowing that you and I are connected! We have to get out here!” Nick chuckled. “Dude, I’ve known Damien since he was 13. The kid just likes to skateboard and smoke weed. There’s no way he has plans to hurt either of us. You need to chill. Here, hit the bong and I’ll grab ya a beer.” I took a giant pull from the bong and Nick brought me a 24oz Steel Reserve from the fridge. He always had shit taste in beer. Cheap bastard. I pounded it as quick as I could, hoping it would settle my nerves. Shortly after, my head started to spin and I laid down on the couch. All my worries disappeared and were replaced with a heavy sense of nausea – I passed out shortly after. Heavy pounding on the front door pulled me out of my intoxicated slumber. Nick stumbled out of his room towards the front door; cigarette hanging from his mouth. When I saw who had been on the other side, I flipped off the couch and fell to the floor. “Tommy! What’s up?! I didn’t expect you to be here so early, dude!” A short, frail boy with curly brown hair stepped through the threshold. He had a giant backpack on and a tote bag around his shoulder. I recognized him, it was Nick’s little brother. That didn’t make me feel any different as I was already on hyper-alert. Anyone could potentially be a threat – Tommy wasn’t an exception. Tommy dropped his backpack next to the door and let out a deep, relieving sigh. “Next time, you or Mom are driving me. I hate taking the bus here. They’re always full of thugs and bums. I could’ve sworn one of them wanted to steal my computer!” Tommy clutched his tote bag and peered over at me. His face had a look of confusion, which shortly changed to a look of recognition. “Hi, Kyle.” He muttered as he kicked off his shoes and plopped down on the couch. Nick frantically started to clean up the junk from his coffee table and tried to hide the 3ft bong which sat in the middle of the mess. “Nick, you don’t have to hide your paraphernalia. Mom and I both know you’re a pothead. I honestly don’t care.” Tommy confessed while pulling his laptop out of its bag. “What’s your wifi password?” “Uhh…it’s chronic1224 I think.” Nick replied. Tommy pounded away at his keyboard. I didn’t interact with him much when we were kids. He was a lot younger than us and kind of a hermit. His mom got him a computer for his birthday when he was young and he’s always been glued to that thing. Tommy was a computer wizard. “Hey, Tommy.” I said hesitantly. “What’s up, Kyle. You look like shit, dude. Party hard with Nick last night?” “No. Actually, I was hoping you could help me with something…” Tommy stopped typing and glanced over at me. He was always somewhat abrasive, but him and I always seemed to get along. Nick came in and set a beer down in front of me and a Mountain Dew in front of Tommy. Nick cracked open his beer. “Hair of the dog. Isn’t that right, Kyle!” Nick playfully smacked me in the back. I picked up the beer, popped it open, and took a swig. My stomach coiled as the cold malt-liquor slithered down my throat. “Kyle, what is it you were gonna ask me?” Reminded Tommy. Nick interrupted. “OH SHIT! Dude! So, Kyle was tellin’ me about how he found this creepy website, but it blocked him. Now he’s apparently being followed by teenagers and they’re trying to kill him and shit! Dude it’s fuckin’ crazy!” Tommy snorted. “Nick, that’s ridiculous. You must’ve been smoking too much pot because I HIGHLY doubt that is the case. Kyle, please explain.” “No… he’s pretty much right. I stumbled upon this website. You have to be 17 or younger to gain access and they make you prove your age and everything.” I took in a deep breath. I was speaking way too fast for my lungs to keep up. “The site was just weird. I didn’t get to see much before they kicked me out but I know there are things on there that shouldn’t be there, I know that much. They’re very strict on who can and can’t view its contents.” Tommy’s eyes grew wide with interest. “So, after all of that, someone tried breaking into my house later that night. It was 2 teenagers. They were at it for hours. After that, a group of them showed up at my work looking for me. I had to leave my car, but there were even more on the bus and they cornered me. I’m almost positive they were trying to kill me because one of them had a knife and I was trapped in an alleyway before I managed to get away with a stroke of luck.” Re-telling the story made me so tense that I had crushed the beer enough to spill all over the floor. “Holy shit. You’re kidding? I fucking read about something like that this morning. Some guy posted on Reddit about it but the post got removed before I could reopen it when I got here. Wow. This is insane. What’s the URL? I’m gonna see if I can get in.” I told Tommy the website and he typed away at his keyboard for what felt like forever. “The security of this website is tight. Something you would see on a government page. It’s gonna take a while to get in but I’m confident that I can.” Nick came back with a towel and wiped the beer off the floor. Tommy got up and moved over to the kitchen where he could comfortably sit and plug in his laptop. While Tommy did his thing, Nick and I chatted about the whole ordeal. He rolled up a blunt and we passed it back and forth until Tommy called me into the kitchen. “Look.” Tommy pointed to the screen which was just a jumbled mess of text that I didn’t understand. “Uhh…” “Oh shit. Sorry. So, Kyle, you’re in some deep shit, dude. This isn’t just some weird website, or even a cult. This is a deep criminal ring. Maybe like the mafia, only smarter. They have access to any person’s medical archives, as well as their criminal backgrounds. They’ve shared with each other these confidential files that were very well secured. They have a network of personal information at their disposal: Addresses, names, social security numbers, bank account information, everything. Nothing is off limits to them. This is bad, Kyle. This is terrorist level. How is it that a bunch of teenagers are capable of such a thing?” “Well there’s you…” my voice quivered. “Ya, but I’m an exception. There aren’t many people my age who are capable of this kind of stuff. But I’m just good with computers. These people are like super-geniuses, or at least the collection of them. I tried locating a member list but I haven’t found one yet. I’ve only managed to bypass their basic security. If I plan on digging any deeper, I’m going to have to get a hold of a few friends. Do they know you’re here?” I paused… the sudden realization forced me to run out of the kitchen. The living room was empty. Nick’s still-lit blunt was sitting in the ash tray. “Nick!” I yelled frantically. My heart pounded so hard against my chest that the loud, rapid pulse was near deafening. I froze in fear once I realized Nick was gone; his front door left wide open. At the entrance of the door was a small puddle of blood. I only hoped it wasn’t Nick’s. “Tommy, we have to go now!” I howled. Tommy turned his head and looked at me in confusion. “Tommy, LET’S GO!” “What the hell is going on?!” He exclaimed. “Nick! Nick is gone. They took him! We had to go now!” Tommy didn’t question me any further. He swiped up his laptop as I ran through the house gathering any necessities. Nick’s cell phone and keys were lying on the living room table and I snatched them up as we headed out the door. I threw our possessions in the back of Nick’s pickup and peeled out of there in a cloud of smoke. “Where are we going?!” Tommy demanded, his arms clenched around his computer. “We're going to get somewhere safe, then we're going to call the police.” I jumped onto the highway and drove south until dusk. We pulled off exit 126 leading to a small, rundown motel. It was a small junction of rooms, probably about 12 or so. The front had a paved parking lot, behind the building was a large gravel lot with a few semi-trucks parked inside – we parked behind the building. A bell chimed as we entered he rental office. The room was worn down and an old man sat at the counter reading the previous day’s newspaper. I noticed the headlining article: 6 casualties and 3 in critical condition in violent bus-jacking. A group of teens took control of the bus and lead police on a 2 hour pursuit which ended in a head-on collision with a garbage truck. There was a picture of the suspects below the title; it was the kids who cornered me in the alleyway. Tommy nudged me and I snapped out of my state of shock. The old man at the counter had been looking up at me with an annoyed look on his face. “Can I help you?” “Ya, we need a room for the night.” “We only got singles available. Is that ok?” “Ya, sure.” I reached for my wallet and saw I only had $80 in cash. “Credit only.” Fuck I didn’t have a credit card. Before I knew it, Tommy slapped a shiny blue credit card down on the table. He then signed the roster under “bugs bunny”. We were in room 6 which was smack-dab in the middle of the block of rooms. “Tommy, who’s card was that?” “The card was my mom’s. She gave it to me for emergencies only, that seemed like an emergency to me.” Tommy chuckled. When we checked in, he paid the extra $10 for wifi so he busted out his computer and started pounding away. I took it upon myself to start fiddling with Nick’s phone. When I unlocked the screen, I saw he had 1 new message from an unknown number. It was a media message. It was a picture of Nick with a piece of silver duct-tape over his mouth. His left eye was swollen shut and blood leaked from his nose. The message read underneath: Do not call the police. I dropped the phone in shock. In just a few hours, things had escalated to the point where my best friend’s life was in danger. I looked over at Tommy. He had started a video chat with a husky, balding man. A lot of the stuff they were talking about involved computers and hacking so I couldn’t really understand. Tommy explained it all to me. “Ok, so tomorrow we’re going to meet up with Tooner. Tooner is going to stay up all night and work his way into their system. He’s the best, I learned almost everything I know from him. If anyone can get to the bottom of what’s going on, he’s our guy.” Tommy carried a surprisingly high level of confidence. It really gave me a sense of relief. At the time, he was my most valuable resource. I had a hard time trying to figure out what to do with myself so I flipped on the TV and ran through the news channels, trying to find anything relevant. -was robbed. The suspects managed to get away with 8.2 million dollars and police have no leads on the case. Two teens were shot down by police officers after a shootout in downtow- Police are on the lookout for Kyle Alexander for the kidnapping if Nick Gorie and his little brother, Thomas Gorie. “Tommy…” I didn’t need to get his attention - he was already glued to the tv. Kyle is assumed to be armed and dangerous. He was last seen in a white Nissan pickup with the license plate #A734KJ. If seen, please dial 911. Do not attempt to confront him. Tommy jumped off the bed and snatched the remote out of my hand, shutting off the TV. We both stood there in silence for a few moments. The tension was thick; suffocating and crowding the room like a dense fog. I broke the silence. “I need a minute.” I stepped outside, slamming the door behind me. I trotted around back to the truck and found an old pack of cigarettes underneath the driver’s seat. I shook it. Luckily, there was the rattle of 1 remaining cigarette left in the pack. I pushed in the cigarette lighter in the dash and waited for it to get hot. The sound of a car engine echoed in the distance, followed by silence. I scanned the area for red and blue police lights; nothing but darkness and the glow of the flickering “Vacancy” sign of the motel. I finished the cigarette and dropped it, smothering the ember with the sole of my shoe. I walked back around the building with my hands stuffed in my pockets. My eyes were pointed at the ground, staring at my feet as I returned to room #6. When I looked up, I saw a brand-spanking-new Dodge Charger parked in front of the rental office. That’s when I turned to look at our room. The door… the door was ajar. My walk turned into a full-on sprint. I charged through the door. The room was trashed and Tommy was missing. The bathroom door was shut. I bust through the door to see a man. Tommy was on his back; thrashing about as the man had him pinned down inside the bathtub. He was choking Tommy to death. I snatched up the soap dispenser from the counter and smacked the man over the back of his hooded skull with it. The man let out a sharp grunt and his body went limp, collapsing on top of Tommy and releasing his grip. Tommy suck in a huge breath of air and started to cough violently. I pulled the dead-weight off him and helped Tommy to his feet. Once he caught his breath, he spun around and started to look at the back of the man’s head; blood had leaked out of the wound, all over the bathroom floor and inside the tub. “Did you kill him?!” He shouted in panic. “Fuck, I hope so.” Tommy grabbed a hand-towel and held it firmly against the man’s bleeding head. I just stood there. I was baffled at the idea of Tommy trying to perform first-aid on the man who had just tried to kill him. “Please be okay. Please be okay.” Tommy pleaded as he held the towel over the wound with both hands in attempt to stop the bleeding. “Tommy, what the fuck are you doing? Let’s finish this guy off and call the police!” I growled, readying the ceramic soap dispenser once again. “It’s fucking Nick! It’s Nick!” Tommy shrieked. You could hear his voice crack as he tried to hold back the tears. Pushing Tommy aside, I got closer to the man. He smelled like weed and beer. My stomach flip-flopped as I turned the man’s head over to see the bruised and poorly groomed face of my best friend. His eye was still swollen shut, just like the picture, and his nose was bent crooked. I ran my hand over the back of Nick’s head. Then I felt something strange… I gently turned his head back around and parted his brown, oily hair. There were stitches. The blunt object to the back of his head had reopened Nick’s wound and I could see something behind the skin. I reached out and grabbed at it with my fingernails. With a little bit of force, it came free. Two long, skinny threads followed as I extracted the device from the back of Nick’s skull. I wiped off the blood to reveal a polished silver chip about a square inch in size and maybe a millimeter thick. The two threads appeared to be fine wires that were attached to the side of the device. I turned around to show it to Tommy who was sitting on the toilet hyperventilating. His eyes widened as I held the strange device in front of his face. “What the hell is that?” He asked between gasps. “I don’t know. But I found it in the back of Nick’s head. Help me get him up.” I waited for Tommy to compose himself and together we pulled Nick out of the tub and sat him on the toilet. We cleaned him up and got most of the blood off the floor. I found a first-aid kit underneath the bathroom sink and did the best I could to bandage and disinfect his wound. Afterwards, we gently laid Nick down on the bed. I was relieved knowing that my friend was okay, but things were spinning out of control. I didn’t realize that I was only making a scratch in the surface. Nick woke up in complete shock at about 4AM the next morning. Tommy and I were each sleeping on the floor next to the bed when we were snapped out of our restless daze. Nick was screaming like a tortured animal. It took us nearly 15 minutes just to settle him down. The bed sheets were soaked in blood and Nick was obviously in shock. With all that set aside, I was glad he was back to his normal self. It took almost an hour for us to explain what had happened. We explained everything that had occurred after his capture. He told us he didn’t remember a thing other than seeing his neighbor who had bought the bag of weed from him earlier that day. “I’m so sorry, Tommy. I would never do that to you.” Nick had started to become hysterical. Tommy assured him that he understood and didn’t hold him accountable for his actions. Tommy got back in contact with his friend, Tooner, and he gave him an update. He was in a video chat with the guy, so he did what he could to show Tooner what we had pulled out of Nick’s head. The guy told us to get there ASAP and make sure we aren’t being followed or tracked. He gave us an address to a grocery store near his house and told us to meet him there. This is where I’m going to have to leave you. Tommy allowed me to use his computer to write down the whole thing and I felt like this would be the place to share it. What happened next The end of it all submitted by /u/TheBigSp00k to r/nosleep [link] [comments]
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r/nosleep |
TheBigSp00k |
Sep 8, 2017 |
United States