I get home from the bar, and the feelings of happiness and fun quickly fade away. I hop onto my lounge, and turn on the tv. After scrolling through the channels for a few minutes I decide to just watch a rerun of the last footy game. Getting bored, I decide to open tinder on my phone. I keep scrolling, until I find a person who catches my eye. Her name was Ashley, and we were the same age. Her bio was vague and short, saying only “I want you baby.”
I had a “What the fuck” thought in the back of my head, but being bored, lonely, and drunk, I swiped right. Surprisingly, she instantly responded, saying “Hey baby, I’m Ashley. You look really hot and I’d love to get to know you. ;)” She seemed like a bot, and to be honest I thought she was, but I kept chatting to her anyway. I kept my response short and simple, complimenting her and just trying to have a basic chat. We kept going back and forth until she asked for my email. Usually I don’t give my email out to people I don’t know, but I didn’t care if I’d get a couple of emails from a spam bot. I gave it to her and went to sleep, not thinking much of the interaction. I woke up the next morning, tired and hungover. I opened up my computer and checked my emails. I’d gotten an email from Ashley, it didn’t have any text, only one attachment. She’d sent a video called ‘HEYBABY.mp4’.
I reluctantly opened the video and the video seemed to be taken at night. The quality was bad, and I could barely see anything. From the looks of it, the person who recorded it was in an abandoned house. Then a voice came from the background, “Why are you hiding baby? I won’t hurt you.” The person recording started running, before hiding inside of a closet. The person flipped the camera to reveal what looked to be the person on Ashley’s picture. She looked horrified in the video, whispering “Please, help me.” before the video ended. I found myself with my jaw dropped in horror, whilst I was barely breathing.
I contain myself, before deciding to get ready to go to the gym so that I can hopefully take my mind off of what happened. I drive down there, and while driving I see a house that looks almost abandoned, the same as how it was on the video. I shook my head thinking it was a coincidence and kept driving. I stayed at the gym for almost the whole day, before finally going home. I checked my computer to see if I’d gotten any other videos, none were there, and the previous email from Ashley had been deleted. The next morning, I checked again, and nothing. This went on for around a week until finally I got another email. This time, the video was titled “YOURHOT.mp4”. The video started with a police officer searching the same house that I’d seen the day I went to the gym. The house was completely empty, up until she got to the basement, when she opened the door, the video got cut off, with the only thing I was able to see being the silhouette of a man.
I kept trying to convince myself that it wasn’t real, and that someone was fucking with me, but it made me remember a story of a police officer in my area going missing, that had only happened a couple of months ago. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, but there was nothing I could do. I eventually let myself forget, until I got a package at my door. I opened it and out fell a handgun, ammo, and a VHS tape. “ILOVEYOU.mp4”. I dig out my VCR and play the tape. It starts in a cell, with the camera seeming to be hidden, revealing what happens to Ashley. The man from the previous video opens the door, saying to Ashley “We need you to get more people in, if you don’t, you know what’ll happen, and you don’t want that, do you?” Ashley shakes her head, with him leaving, and her asking one final time for me to help her. The video ends abruptly, and I decide to finally step in. I hop into my car, load the handgun, and get ready to end whatever the fuck is going on there.
I finally made it to the house, kicking in the door whilst tightly gripping my handgun, I look around each room, each being empty. I eventually make it to the basement, trying to be as quiet as I can. Opening the door, I check each corner, nobody there. As I walk deeper, I feel someone grab me, whispering into my ear “Welcome home, Ashley.” before getting knocked out cold. Waking up, I’m sitting down chained up inside of a cell. Looking around, I see the girl, with her saying to me “You saved me, now it’s your turn.” with a demonic smile growing on her face, before she leaves. I notice a phone on the floor next to me, being opened on tinder to Ashley’s profile, only now I’m Ashley.
I’m shaking as I write this, I’m using that same phone that the tinder profile was on to sneak it whilst they aren’t looking. Please help me, I don’t know what to do.