THREE MONTHS! SHIT! I think it has been three months! Oh shit! Oh god, I hope this is a fucking joke!
I… I was asleep. I think. I was asleep…
I hope anyone is still out there, reading this. I hope I have not been forgotten; I hope I am not just a sidenote on some webpage… Did you already forget about me?
But I’d better start from the beginning. I’d better start after my return from the forest, shortly after my last post. Shortly after I escaped from the monster. Or whatever that thing was…
The strange… cube still lay in front of me on the table. The longer I gazed at it, the more uneasy I felt.
More and more questions raced through my mind.
What was this object? What kind of forest had that been? Was it something like another dimension I had entered? Had aliens abducted me? What kind of monster was it, something from Earth, maybe a tiger or wolf? Or was it a creature from another planet or somewhere else entirely? How could it be that my bedroom door had led me into such a damned forest?
The object was malevolently black, and upon closer examination, I could see that its surface was covered in a tiny pattern. Countless ripples were visible, regular, almost artificial. I mean, of course, the thing had been artificially created, so why was I surprised? But… who had created it? And why had I been instructed to retrieve it?
A humming that made me jump. And a new message…
Give me the CUBE. Place it in front of the DOOR.
Oh, fuck.
FUCK!
I was supposed to open the door? That damned monster was standing in front of it! This was asinine! On the other hand… I hadn’t heard it anymore. I hadn’t heard it since I closed the door. Maybe it was gone?
GIVE. ME. THE. CUBE.
Okay, all in capslock, understood. My Friend really wants this strange object.
Shit. I am in so much shit.
And my bedroom door… It feels so strange. I’m probably repeating myself, I know! But my room, everything in it seems so alien, even though I’ve lived in it for so long… And especially this door!
Behind the door, it’s as if pure horror awaits. As if only a few inches of wood separate me from something terrible.
NOW.
Shit!
I slowly stood up. My friend, I’m sure he’s watching me. My webcam blinked. I looked into the cold eye of the camera. And I was sure my friend was looking back.
Determined, I took the cube – or whatever that thing was – and walked to the door.
Do you know that kind of… fear? That kind of fear that is so strong it paralyzes you? The kind that tries desperately to warn, save, protect you? It was exactly that kind of fear that was trying to prevent me from approaching the door. I think it was my survival instinct.
N. O. W.
SHIT!
I stepped forward, slowly but steadily. As the distance to the door shrank, I felt nauseous, but I continued.
When my hand rested on the cold door handle, I nearly blacked out, and my muscles ached and cramped, but it didn’t help. I was more afraid of what would happen if I didn’t follow my Friend’s instructions than of what lurked behind the door.
Finally, I pressed down the handle, and the door creaked open.
There was no forest outside.
I stared into a rectangular tunnel with bare, gray rock walls that disappeared into a gaping darkness not far from me. The passage before me looked artificial, as if it had been worked with precise tools into the alien gray material a long time ago. But I didn’t have time to dwell on that. I received another message.
PLACE the CUBE DOWN.
I didn’t need to be told twice and set the horribly shaped object on the gray, smooth floor in front of my door. I just wanted to get away, back into the room and slam the door so I wouldn’t have to look into that gaping darkness anymore. Who knows where this tunnel led? Who knows what lurked in the darkness?
A shiver ran down my spine, and my blood ran cold as I heard… felt that something was sliding toward me from the darkness. Of course, I couldn’t see anything out there, but I simply felt it deep inside me. I knew something was coming.
I quickly closed the bedroom door and braced against it. I had no key, so I could only use my meager body weight to keep the door closed. A dull, shrill cackling reached my ears through the wood. Then, not a second later, something slammed against the door.
BAM.
I felt the impact throughout my body, fearing the thin wood might shatter. But the door held. But I was no longer alone.
“David… David… you took so long… David, I’m your Friend… David, thank you, thank you for my cube…”
„GO FUCK YOURSELF!“
“David, David, you’re making me sad…”
It sounded like claws or long fingernails scratching at the door, and the voice was distorted, almost whiny.
“David, please… I’m your Friend… and you gave me my cube… Thank you… If you keep this up, I might reward you…”
I didn’t know whether to be scared or relieved. The thing on the other side now sounded disgustingly sweet.
“You’re good, David, you’re a good friend… If you continue to be a good friend, I’ll reward you. You want that, don’t you…? You want to be a good friend, don’t you…?”
“I WANT OUT!”
I think I might have cried a bit, like the biggest loser.
“PLEASE, I WANT OUT!”
“David… David… you want to be my friend, don’t you? I can reward you… You’ll love me, trust me…”
Images of a torn-apart body flashed into my consciousness, and Mort’s words, who was sure his Friend would save him from bleeding out. What kind of sick and twisted shit was this?
“You want to talk to someone, don’t you? I can give you a number, someone else’s… If you’re a good boy… David… If you continue to be my friend, I can give you a new contact…”
Yes! Damn, yes, I wanted that! Oh, shit, I felt so dirty, but just the thought of talking to another person… I needed someone!
Aubrey!
“Can you… can you give me Aubrey’s number? Do you know her? Please, give me Aubrey’s number, and I’ll be your friend! PLEASE!”
I’m not exactly sure why I wanted her number so badly. I mean, she got me into this mess, but I also heard the fear in her voice, the guilt. Who knows what had happened to her. Who knows what they had done to her in this hell – and for how long! Plus, she might be able to tell me more. Because I was pretty sure she had been here for quite a while. A horribly long while…
“You’ll get a number, but only if you continue to be my friend… David… I’ll need your help very soon…”
The voice chuckled and faded away, leaving me alone.
Sobbing, like the ultimate idiot, I sank to the floor. Suddenly, an overwhelming fatigue I couldn’t shake overcame me. When I looked at my bed, I felt calm inside again.
I wanted to sleep, just sleep…
***
I was woken up by my smartphone, maybe fifteen minutes before I started writing this post.
New energy filled me, along with endurance and fitness I rarely experienced, coursing through my body. It was relieving. Finally, no more fear. Finally, I felt rested. My computer screen blinked.
Hesitantly, I sat down at the desk and saw an open YouTube page. It was that damn channel again. SocietyofEb. For heaven’s sake!
Then I almost lost my mind. Two things caught my eye and made me scream out loud.
First, the channel now had 3 subscribers. I told you not to subscribe! DAMN IT! You idiots! I hope you haven’t been taken too… I warned you…
But more importantly, I saw that there was a new video. It was titled “Mountains #1 - Tunnel.mov” and showed a bluish-lit tunnel. Though, what disturbed me even more was that the other video, which I had already seen, was uploaded three months ago.
THREE MONTHS AGO!
GODDAMN IT!
Have I been stuck here for so long? Three months? I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it. I’ve slept for three months… Or have I traveled in time? Fuck, I don’t know… How long has it been since you heard from me?
The video… the new video…
I knew I had to watch it. Still half in a trance, I clicked on it after putting on my headphones. The screen went into full-screen mode again.
At first, just darkness. A biting, eerie darkness that reminded me of the darkness I had just seen… three months ago… in that gray tunnel. My heart was pounding. The darkness continued. Then…
A rocky tunnel, bathed in blue light. The camera slowly moved through it, and an eerie whistling sound came from my headphones. The image appeared strangely fluid and unnatural in some places. A scene change to a hole in a wall, held in black and white, slowly zooming into the darkness, accompanied by ugly noise.
Suddenly, another scene change, and an old, blue-lit bunker or factory room was visible, again unusually fluid and accompanied by the whistling, but this time deeper. Again the black and white image, darker noise, the hole in the wall growing larger. Another corridor, another bunker, again blue-lit. I was afraid that something would jump around one of the corners I saw there, but only the dark whistling, nothing else… The black and white image, now almost filling the screen. Then, white text on a black background.
“Explore the tunnels. Explore Explore.”
A distorted computer voice spoke these words, before once again the hole was visible, accompanied by noise. Then the sound died out, and only the hole was visible, dark, deep. And I believed I saw something in it…
When my phone vibrated, my heart almost stopped.
A new message.
REPORT to THEM. Then EXPLORE.
With a creak, my room door swung open, and I nearly knocked over the chair as I jumped up and pressed myself against the opposite wall.
There was no forest or corridor. I was looking at a solid rock wall with a gaping hole, just big enough for me to crawl into.
NO! FUCK!
I didn’t want to go in there! I didn’t want to. But I could get a number. I could finally communicate with someone…
REPORT to THEM. ENTERTAIN THEM. THEN EXPLORE.
Shit. That is how I wrote this, always with the hole at my back! I am so afraid! I’m afraid something will crawl out of it and into the room without me noticing while I type this, but I also know… I have to go in there. An indicator has appeared on my smartphone.
Exploration: 0%
I think I have to climb in there. I think I have to go now. I’ve told you everything I’ve experienced. Please, tell me that not three months have passed. And please, don’t look for the channel. Don’t risk ending up like me. I hope I come back this time too and can report again.
Until then – I hope!