I was just straining the spaghetti when Eric unlocked the front door. I looked up and saw him struggling with grocery bags while trying to untie his shoelaces. I put down the strainer and hurried toward him, taking some of the grocery bags from him. “Here, let me help you”, I said. He smiled and thanked me. While I went back to the kitchen island and put the groceries on the slightly gray marble, Eric put his coat on the hanger and neatly put his shoes next to each other under it before also heading to the kitchen. He gave me a quick kiss and sit down on the barstool at the counter. “Making spaghetti?” he asked me. I nodded. “Quick food, I was running late at work, Jennifer made me work overtime,” I replied, before slamming the cabinet shut with my hip, “again.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Yup, that’s Jennifer for you.” I grinned and put the spaghetti back in the pot before grabbing the saucepan and bringing them both to the dinner table. “Can you grab the wine next to the fridge? I think it’ll go great together with the sauce.”
Some time later that night we were both sitting on the couch, watching some stupid talk show while debriefing our day to each other. “John kept bringing up the files I turned in last week, he doesn’t seem to be able to comprehend that I finished the work already. It’s like he thinks I’m lying about being suitable for my job.” I patted him on the arm. “Aw well, if anyone’s not suitable for the job, it’s John himself”, I told Eric. He nodded lightly and faced the TV for a bit before looking back at me. “Why did Jennifer made you work overtime this time?” I shrugged and played a bit with a loose fiber on the armrest of the couch. “I honestly don’t know. She said something about having to go home because her daughter was acting but she didn’t explain it any further. And you know me, I also didn’t ask, because the less she talks about that little she-devil of hers, the better. I wouldn’t know how to survive with a kid like that.” The fiber was getting looser and Eric made a disapproving ‘tssk’-sound. “The couch is already falling apart as it is, let’s not contribute to that.” I laughed and looked over to my left where Mr. Whiskers was bathing in the last bit of evening sun. Eyes closed, purring, not a worry in the world. He took a liking to the couch and refused to use his scratching post any longer. “Yeah, we really have to find a solution to that problem.”
With the change of topic, the work-talk died down and we went about our evening watching some more TV. Eric wasn’t much of a TV-guy, so after a little over half an hour, he got up to get his book from the bedroom so he could read a bit while I turned on some chick flick. My phone buzzed and I turned it over so I was able to take a look at the notification on the screen. Jennifer? What could she possibly need at this hour? “Jennifer’s texting me, wanna bet ten bucks she’s asking me to work overtime again tomorrow?” I shouted towards the bedroom. My bet was met with laughter. I unlocked my phone and looked at the message that popped up on my screen.
WARNING! THIS IS NOT A JOKE! CARRY ON READING OR YOU’LL DIE
I chuckled at scrolled further to read the rest of the text.
Once there was a little boy called Billy Blues. He was twelve years old and lived in a small apartment with his parents. Because his parents were always working and didn’t pay much attention to him, he’d take home friends from school every day and play with them until bedtime. This still made him feel lonely, so he began killing his friends so he could keep them with him at night so he would have company. After his parents discovered this, they hired a hitman and made him kill their son.
Little Billy felt betrayed and came back as a ghost to kill his parents. This didn’t stop his lust for blood so now every night after someone reads this chain letter, he appears in their room at 3 AM and kills them as well. Now forward this story to ten other people or Billy will be at your house tonight!!! Then he’ll forget about you and go after others instead.
Example: Rosie didn’t believe this and didn’t forward the message! Soon after that she was found dead in her room because Billy paid her a visit.
I threw my head back and burst out laughing. “What’s going on?” Eric entered the room with the book in his hand, looking at me like I was some kind of lunatic. “You won’t be able to believe this, Jennifer just forwarded me a chain letter. A chain letter! My god, I feel like a fourteen-year-old girl again. I forgot these things even existed.” Eric sat down next to me and read the text I was holding up to him. “That’s crazy, she’s your boss, so far for professionalism.” I continued laughing and shrugged. “Well, she didn’t ask you to work so I guess that’s ten bucks for me”, he grinned. I softly punched him in the shoulder and laid my head down on it after. “Yeah, you won this time, babe.”
I put my phone down again and shook my head, still is disbelief. “I remember being so scared of these texts back when I was younger. They’d keep me up at night, staring at my bedroom door, stuffed animals in my arms to make me less afraid of what could enter my room.” It also made me laugh how badly written those chain letters always were. It was obvious that shock value was mandatory and that the story didn’t have to make sense at all. Like the kids’ parents wouldn’t notice their kid not returning home. And like you’d hire a hitman to kill your son. I sighed and put up my feet, ready to continue watching the movie I had turned on. “Should you not be forwarding that message then?” Eric teased, and I rolled my eyes. “Yeah sure, let me just find all the tweens in my contacts and give them nightmares for a week.” Mr. Whiskers got up and jumped on top of my lap. “No, I’m just going to finish this movie and then head to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow.”
About 90 minutes later the movie had come to an end and so had our evening. Eric looked over the brim of his reading glasses as I got up of the sofa and closed the blinds. “Sleepy time?” he asked. I nodded. “Sleepy time it is.” He closed his book and got up on his feet. “I’ll go lock the front door and turn the lights off, see you in a second.”
As I was brushing my teeth and Eric changed into his pyjama shorts, I had completely forgotten about the text from Jennifer. I turned off the light in our bathroom, crawled under the sheets and put my cold feet on Eric’s leg. He shivered and moved his leg. “Bully”, he muttered. I grinned and gave him a kiss before turning over to get into my favorite sleeping position. “Goodnight”, I said. “Goodnight, Heather.”
I was awoken by a thud in the living room. I slowly opened my eyes and pushed myself up so I could assume a sitting position. Mr. Whiskers was loudly purring next to my face. “Hey silly, what are you doing here?” I asked quietly. Mr. Whiskers was not allowed in the bedroom at night because he’d wake us up with his meowing and his purring. I petted him and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. “How’d you even get in here.” I looked over at the bedroom door and saw it was opened slightly. “Did you jump onto the doorhandle?” He had never done this before and he was quite sturdy so I couldn’t imagine him jumping up that high, although he was heavy enough to make the door swing open. I got up and put Mr. Whiskers back in the living room but got distracted by the motion sensor light in the entryway being on. The timer wasn’t set that long that Mr. Whiskers could’ve set it off before coming into our room. An eerie feeling crept onto me but I tried to shrug it off. I went back to bed and closed the bedroom door on my way in. Soon after I was sound asleep again.
A loud meow next to my ear woke me up a little later. “Mr. Whiskers!” I said accusingly as I immediately got up again and picked him up. “Bad, bad cat!” Eric groaned and looked at me. “How did he get in here?” he asked. “I don’t know, but it’s the second time tonight he has snuck into our room. I’m going to put him in the kitchen so there’s two doors between us.” Mr. Whiskers loudly protested but I was certain of my decision. I closed the kitchen door behind me, walked over to the bedroom and closed that door behind me as well. Before I was able to sit down on my side of the bed, a creaking sound told me the door has opened yet again. “Wha-“ I turned around to face the door and froze. I grabbed the blanket next to me until I could feel Eric’s hand without turning my eyes away from the door. I could notice Eric was holding his breath. A little boy was standing in the doorway with a wide, creepy grin on his face. In his left hand he was holding the arm of a teddybear that had seen better days. His filling was spilling out from between the seams and he was missing an eye. In the other hand the boy was carrying a knife that would have seemed comedically large in any other situation. His little light blue pyjamas would’ve been cute had his button up shirt not been covered in blood. There was also a bullet hole in the side of his head that was oozing blood. It was dripping down his shoulder and had reached the teddybear by the time I realized what I was staring at.
“Didn’t the message tell you to forward it?” He lunged forward and I screamed. I grabbed Eric’s arm and squeezed uncomfortably hard into it. “Now I guess I’ll have to kill you.” If I hadn’t been so incredibly scared, it would have been funny how stereotypical this kid’s lines were.
When Billy reached my side of the bed, I rolled to Eric’s side of the bed, urging him with a push to get up so we could try to make a run for it. Luckily he understood what I was getting at and got out of bed. “Now, you don’t need to do this”, he said while holding his hands out in front of him, trying to reason with the little ghost kid in our bedroom. “Yeah I’m sure this supernatural thing in front of us will listen to you”, I said through my teeth. The second Billy started moving again, we did as well and ran through the door.
The second we were in the living room, I turned toward the kitchen and reached out to open the door. “What are you doing, we need to leave!” Eric yelled. “What about Mr. Whiskers!” I yelled back, annoyed by the fact he didn’t even think about our beautiful tuxedo cat. He groaned loudly and pushed me out of the way, gesturing toward the frontdoor. I nodded and grabbed the keys from the table. For once I was happy that Eric left his keys in the middle of the table instead of keeping them somewhere hidden. I unlocked the front door and held it open for Eric who was carrying a – once again complaining loudly – Mr. Whiskers. The elevators would give the boy too much time to catch up with us so we opened the door to the staircase and started frantically running down the steps, as fast as we possible could. A voice echoed through the staircase. “Don’t leave, I don’t want to be alone again.” For a second I felt bad for lonely Billy Blue, but no money in the world would be able to make me turn around and console the crying boy. When we reached the end of the stairs, we jumped in our car and started driving. I’m sitting at my in-laws’ kitchen table as I am writing this. I’ve just finished forwarding the chain letter to ten people, but I’m afraid it’s too late since Billy already showed up. I’m happy none of us got hurt, but I’m afraid for the upcoming night. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sleep again.