I was a streamer once, before this all happened. Mostly played an asymmetric 1v4 horror game with my friends, you probably know the one.
It had been a regular night for us. Our streams had been going for a good hour or so and we taking names of try-hard noobs.
After laughing at the last person’s attempt at beating us, we queued up in another lobby. A lot of people were playing at that time so we got an opponent almost immediately.
“Idle Hands? What a stupid name. Private profile too. Probably has less than ten hours.” One of my friends, let’s call her J, huffed.
“Easy pickings then.” I said, cracking my neck.
I won’t go too much into how the match went, but it was obvious they were stream snipping. They always knew where me and my friends were.
The end chat went like this:
Idle Hands: gg
Me: no gg you cheater
Idle Hands: ? How did I cheat?
Me: Obviously stream snipping
Idle Hands: nah, I was behind you the whole time
I had only rolled my eyes at that, not bothering to even check my web cam.
Idle Hands: you should get a vpn
Idle Hands: also take a shower, you smell like a corpse
I typed out a clever come back but they had disconnected. As my friends cracked jokes at this Idle Hands’ expense, I checked my chat to find them freaking out about my door.
Turning around, I found my door out of my room to be shut, just like always was when I was streaming.
It was the next day when I was looking back at my viewer’s clips that I saw what freaked them out. Right before Idle Hands had declared they were behind me, the door had cracked open. It had remained open even when I had glanced back to check it.
But it had been shut. I was hundred percent sure it had been shut.
Paranoia getting to me, I swept my house for any sign of a break in.
Nothing.
I had calmed down by the time it was time to stream again. I didn’t know how to explain to chat what happened yesterday so I just pretended it didn’t happen.
About two hours in, chat started freaking out again. This time when I turned around, I saw what had disturbed them so.
Written on the wall behind me in bloody letters was the statement “you reap what you sow.” The door out of my room was also slowly swinging open like someone had made a quick escape through it.
I scrambled to end the stream before picking up the baseball bat I kept next to my bed.
“I know you’re there!” I bellowed, trying to get this freak to show themselves.
Nothing.
My heart pounded in my ears.
I went through the door bat first and slowly scanned the area. The house I had was pretty small so there wasn’t many places to hide.
The back door, the most obvious escape route, was shut. Carefully, I made my way over and checked if it was locked.
It was.
I don’t think they would have the time to relock it if they had exited through here without banging the door open or shut. So they were either still in the house or they had exited through the front door.
The front door was also locked though, which meant they were definitely still here.
Hours seemed to pass as I searched every nook and cranny for the intruder, but there was not a trace of anyone but me actually being there.
I was back in my room, staring at the bloody message when I realized I should call the police. It was probably just pigs’ blood or something, but it was a definite sign of a break in.
As I waited for them to arrive, I skimmed over the stream footage, ignoring all the messages and comments saying I was haunted. What I found was frankly impossible.
The door began to swing open and at that same moment, the words were swiftly painted onto the wall, faster and more legibly that most could pull off.
Only there was no one in the footage except me, who was still busy playing at that time.
My first instinct said it had to be a greenscreen trick, but I did not have the equipment for that and there was none of those fitters active on my camera.
My mind was in overdrive as I watched the cops examine the message. There was no way I was haunted. Ghosts don’t exist and things had only started happening yesterday when I played with that Idle Hands person…
Even if they were the person that broke in, they couldn’t had possibly pulled something like this off. If they lived next door, then it would have still taken them a bit to break in and find my room to open the door yesterday.
But that still didn’t explain why the door was in a different position on the camera than it was in real life.
The police asked some questions before leaving a few hours later. By then, I was exhausted. I headed to bed after scheduling an appointment with some cleaners and announcing I was taking a short break from streaming.
Things were quiet for the next day. It seemed like whoever was messing with me was aiming on catching me mid-stream.
Then I got a call back from the police and they had the gall to accuse me of making it all up for attention. They said the blood was mine, which was completely impossible.
I hung up when they said that. They didn’t bother to call me back and I didn’t want them to.
I had fallen asleep on the couch that night. I didn’t realize at the time such a small thing could be such a big mistake.
I woke up to my phone screaming with notifications. On the top were several dozen missed calls from my friends. I couldn’t read anything else as another call shook my phone.
“What the hell, J?” I said, picking up.
“Oh my god, you picked up.” Her tone immediately changed from relieved to furious. “What the fuck where you thinking? You can’t just pull a prank like that! There’s a snowball’s chance in hell that you’re getting your ass unbanned.”
“What are you even talking about?”
“The stream you just did, idiot!”
“Stream?” I checked the clock. “I’ve been asleep since like 11 last night.”
The line went quiet briefly until J said “then who was on the stream?”
I glanced at the doorway to my room and a ball of ice formed in my chest.
The door was shut.
I crept up to the door, listening for movement inside.
Nothing.
After waiting for some sign that there was someone in there, I slowly pushed open the door.
The first thing I saw was the body. The second, the noose suspending it in air.
The third, my set up’s recording light on.
“What the fuck…”
At my whisper, the body stirred. With crackling scraping sound, its broken neck lurked up before twisting inhumanly to point it’s head at me. “About time. You’re too heavy of a sleeper.”
I fell under the weight of seeing my own face pale and deathly, hearing my own voice from that doppelganger’s lips.
Shakily, I held up my phone. “J, J call the cops. J-”
Then I recognized the call disconnected tone.
“Call the cops?” The body turned to face me, the head returning to as natural a position it could. “And that went so well last time.”
I searched the room for my bat.
It was across the room. To get it, I would have to get up and get closer to the doppelganger swaying back and forth from its broken neck.
“Do you want to try?” It grinned. “I’ll even give you a head start… Though what are you even planning to do with it? Cave my head in? Do you think that’ll help?”
“W-what the fuck are you?” I demanded.
Its expression fell into an icy stare. “Give me a good reason why I should tell you.”
I gaped, trying to sputter out something coherent.
“Tick tock. Time’s running out.”
Just as I was about to say something, the corpse announced, “Annnnddddd there goes your chance. You lost. And you’ve never been a good loser, have you?”
I wanted to run. Logically, I should run, but I found myself glued to the floor.
“You really should think twice before accusing someone, especially if you don’t know who’s on the other side of the screen.” That grin returned. “We wouldn’t be here if your little comment hadn’t sparked me to do a little digging, and boy, the skeletons I found. Most streamers don’t have a body count.”
I knew what it was talking about. “That had nothing to do with me! She ended her own life herself!”
It tilted its head to any even more stomach-churning angle. “But who was the one who launched a harassment campaign against her? Because she hurt your itty-bitty baby feelings?”
“How is that any different than you?”
The doppelganger burst out laughing. Its laugh was certainly not my own, more akin to a hyena than anything else.
An hour seemed to pass until its laughter faded into a chuckle. “You think I’m doing this because your stupid stream snipping comment hurt my feelings? You think pettiness motivates me?” All cheer drained from its features. “Why do people play games?”
The sudden shift threw me off too much for me to answer.
“Come on. You play games for a living. You should know.”
I straightened my back, trying to show my best brave face. “What does that have to do with anything?”
It rolled its eyes. “Jeez, I’m losing braincells talking to you. I’m trying to spell it out for you, but apparently, you’re illiterate.”
Anger was starting to boil underneath my fear. “Shut up!”
The doppelganger tilted its head. “Do you think you’re capable of forcing me to do so? Really, you should be grateful I’m only ruining your career, not mutilating you or straight up taking your life. You really don’t deserve such mercy.”
“Who are you to ruin people’s lives?” I demanded.
“I could say the same to you.” It stared at me with unblinking eyes. “I’m simply distributing karma, but to go out of your way to bully someone to death… Who’s supposed to be the monster here?”
“How dare you compare me to-” I wasn’t quite sure what happened. I was certain I was out of reach of the doppelganger yet somehow, I wound up on the floor with a broken nose.
“I’m done with you. Pray you never get my attention again as I will not be so merciful next time.”
I looked up and only the noose remained, swinging idly back and forth.
I never got my streaming account back, and I figured starting a new one would put me back on Idle Hands radar.
I was trying to get a job when the recruiter said something offhandedly that made my blood freeze in my veins.
“Well, idle hands are the Devil’s playthings after all.”