I’m not one to be scared of things. Living in Chicago, it’s a dangerous place anyways, so I’ve stopped being frail over certain things.
But enough about me.
I was doing my homework on my Chromebook with headphones on. If I wanted to study, I wanted to be focused.
But then, my phone vibrated.
“Mom did say she might text me.” I said, picking up my phone to see who texted me.
I didn’t see my mom text me, not even my dad, but it was my younger brother, Nathaniel.
His text message read: “Hey, have you heard? There’s a YT video that’s apparently haunted.”
I sighed in disbelief, he’s so gullible, you could tell him that pigs could fly and he’d believe you immediately. “I’ve told you, those videos are fake as hell. There is no such thing as ghosts, vampires, banshees and anything like them.”
He responded quickly to my text, “Ted, I wish I was joking, but I’m not, I’m serious! It’s even been theorized to be linked to disappearances across Chicago.”
He did say something true in that sentence, there have been a bunch of disappearances of young children and adolescents like me, but I always just thought it was linked to that ring of kidnappers who like to use kids as military soldiers and other messed up stuff.
Still not believing him, I texted him again, asking him to send me the video where he learned it.
“Ok, this might take a while…” He texted back.
Just about 10 minutes later, he sent me the video.
It was titled, “Top 10 creepiest YouTube videos found.”
“It’s the last one,” Nathaniel said. “Just please, don’t click any suspicious links, you might disappear, just like the rest of them.”
“Stop trying to scare me, it isn’t working, it never worked anyways.”
I clicked the link, and I skipped to the last one on the list.
“…So, there is one more video we should discuss, it’s titled, “Hiding underneath my bed”, for some weird reason.”
I was a little intrigued, but I continued on.
“It’s a video where a young boy hides underneath his bed as he cries, but then, a shadowy figure grabs him, and the video ends.” The narrator paused, but they continued. “It’s been rumored that it’s linked to the recent disappearances of 4 to 17 year olds, most notably boys.”
I kept quiet, it was a creepy situation, but there was no proof that it was a real situation, I was just about to turn off my phone when I heard: “I’ve left a link to the video if you’re curious, just make the boogie man doesn’t get you too!” They joked. “Please make sure to like, subscribe and sha-“
I paused the video. “So the clip actually exists…”
Scrolling through the description, I was searching for the video they listed down in the description.
“Links to their Subreddit, links to their Discord, links to their Twitter…”
They had too many links, so it looked cluttered. But alas, I found the link.
I clicked the link, but before the video started, I got a warning: “This video contains some disturbing content, are you sure you want to continue?”
I clicked “yes”, as I still didn’t think this was real. “So curse me if you will, I guess.”
The video started, and I saw a young kid, he seemed to be around 7 or 8 in age. He was, indeed, hiding underneath his bed, but he looked like he was distressed, his hand looked like it was slashed, his sleeve was torn and he looked like he was recently crying.
“Please… go away, stop watching the video, do anything else… or he’ll get you too.” The boy said. “Please, just go, he’s coming, he’s comin-“
But then, the camera flipped over, they didn’t mention this in the video.
But then, I heard ear piercing screams from the boy, it sounded like he was getting murdered or something.
“STOP STOP STOP!”
Now I understand why I got warned that the video contained “disturbing content.” Then, the shadowy figure appeared on camera, and the video cuts to black.
The video simply ended. I was going to turn my phone off, but then, I got a message from an unknown number.
It read: “You’re next, Ted.”
I didn’t believe it, none at all.
But I read the comments underneath the video, and then I realized I wasn’t the only one.
“After the video ended, I got a notification saying that I was next. Like, wtf?”
“Should I be concerned that I got texted my first name when the video ended?
“I got texted my first name and it added that I was next, or something, I think I might end up like that kid.”
I shut down my phone. This couldn’t be real. “If I pinch myself hard, then I should wake up, and learn it’s all a dream… right?” I say to myself, horrified.
I flopped down on my bed, horrified, scared. My “brave boy” persona just flew away, it went on vacation.
I felt tired, I wanted to take a nap, I just wanted it to end.
“You’ll wake up, you’ll feel better, and you’ll learn that the whole thing was just fake.” I told myself, breaking a sweat.
I couldn’t fall asleep at all that night. I felt like something would happen to me, like I’d end up like that kid on the video.
I was staring out the window, watching the sky get lit up by stars, and then, I heard something.
“Pssttt!”
I heard a noise, it was in my room, I’ve never heard it before. Understandably, I was confused, my door was closed, my window wasn’t open, and no one is currently awake (from what I know), so I didn’t know what it could’ve been.
I wanted a drink of water, so I reached my hand out next to my bed to grab my water bottle, but it wasn’t there.
“Must’ve rolled underneath my bed, I’ll just grab the flashlight and retrieve it.” I said to myself, grabbing my flashlight and leaving the bed.
But I didn’t find my water bottle, I didn’t even find a puddle of water down there, instead, I found something, much more horrifying.
I found a body, but it looked like it was a real corpse. I observed the body, it’s face wasn’t turned towards me, so I couldn’t read any facial clues.
But I recognized the clothing.
It was the boy from the video I watched.
This, understandably, freaked me out. This boy was supposedly dead, what was he doing underneath my bed?
I reached forward to touch it, but his head snapped towards me, and his eyes shot red.
He then screamed. It was the most ear piercing screams I’ve heard. It could’ve woken up the dead if it screamed even louder.
I jumped back, screaming loudly. It horrified me. I didn’t think I could scream that loudly.
I probably woke up everyone in the house, because before I knew it, I heard my dog running up the stairs, and I heard my parents barge into my room. “What the hell is going on here?” My dad yelled.
I started sobbing horrendously. “I… I saw something underneath my bed, and when I went to touch it, it screeched at me.”
Both my parents checked underneath my bed, but they saw nothing.
“What’s going on…?” I heard my brother say. “Is Ted ok?”
“Everything is fine, Nathaniel, just go back to your room.” My mother replied.
My brother cocked his head to the side. “You sure? I heard some creepy whispering in the house, and I swear I saw something running along-”
“Just go back to bed.” My mother interrupted sternly. He then left and we heard his door close. “Now we have two kids who claim they’re seeing and hearing things.” She added underneath her breath.
“I… I swear I saw something…”
I checked underneath my bed, but the body wasn’t there.
“Just go to sleep,” My mother said, “it might’ve been a nightmare.”
After everyone left my room, my dog entered and sat next to my bed, looking as if she was concerned for me.
“Hey, Lilith.” I said to her, giving her some head rubs. “Thanks for checking on me.”
She whimpered at me, putting her head on my blanket.
“Tomorrow is school, I can’t be flared up by some random… things… that aren’t even real.”
I couldn’t sleep that night. I expected something to pop out and try to grab me, kill me, take me away, and that fear caused me to not fall asleep.
So for the majority of that night, I was staring at the roof, I was scared, I was doing nothing. I hardly even blinked
Like if I was a motionless corpse myself.