Down below is part 1 of my story, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it look cool, Hunter was the one who was good with Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/s/ehdAQS10nw Thank you to everyone who tried to help me out. My dad has decided he’s going to conduct his own search. As badly as I want to join, he won’t let me. He said “if there’s a dead body, I don’t need you seeing it.” I doubt there would be because the journal said it happened about 5 years ago. I’ve tried locating the barbecue restaurant myself, but there’s plenty of barbecue spots in Prescott and I don’t know the area too well. But I promised you all I’d give an update when I was able to break another encryption. This one was actually translated by a peer I’ve been chatting with online. And he gave me a fair warning I wasn’t going to like what he wrote. I ignored his warning and read it anyway. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn’t walk in our apartment without looking over my own shoulder. Even if it could possibly be fake, I was jumpy at every noise. I present the next entry:
August 19th, 2019
I’m back home. Isaiah has been asking where I’ve been. I lied and told him my grandma hasn’t been doing well so I decided to take care of her for a bit. I stayed a week with my grandparents, recovering from what I saw in the woods. It’s pretty jarring seeing a dead body wearing your clothes, but even more jarring to see it wear your face. According to my grandparents, I looked like a corpse myself. My face was pale, and my lips were nearly purple.
Grandma: Hunter, honey, what’s wrong?
Me: I’ve just missed you guys is all. I called out of work for the week. Needed some quality time you know?
Grandpa: Well sure buddy, but are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.
Me: Oh yeah…I’m good. Just had some bad gas station hot dogs for breakfast.
I retreated to the guest bedroom and immediately wrote down what had happened. I didn’t take a picture. I didn’t log it in the moment. I was a coward. This was supposed to be fun. Sure I thought there’d be some grand discovery, but I thought it’d be $10,000 for solving a puzzle, not a lifetime in therapy for something no one would believe.
Now a week later, I’m still reeling about it. I deleted the app. I unfollowed randonauting pages on all of my social media. I needed a break mentally. Isaiah knocked on my door. “What’s up?” I said, our universal code for “come in, I’m not naked.”
Isaiah: Hey man. I don’t mean to be Sherlock Holmes right now but I texted your grandma. I just told her I hope she’s feeling better. She didn’t know what I was talking about.
Me: How the hell do you have Darlene’s phone number?
Isaiah: Your party. She gave me her number so she could check up on you, because you don’t text her back.
Me: Because I’m busy. I work and go to school. Do you have any idea how hard bio-engineering is?
Isaiah: Harder than texting Darlene back?
There’s a pause for both of us to chuckle.
Me: Alright asshole I’ll text my grandma.
Isaiah: Listen man. I don’t know why you left for a week. But give me a heads up next time. If you’re homesick, I get it.
Me: Okay man. I’m sorry for lying. Isaiah: It’s cool. You down to play COD later?
Me: Oh hell yeah. Gotta prestige somehow.
After I study for a few hours I hop on my Xbox. There’s a message. Probably from some scrub I dumpstered on COD. It’s from a username that looked like someone mashed on a keyboard. But what’s really odd is that I received it right as my Xbox booted up.
WHBWYS2017: Do you trust him Hunter?
My heart sinks. Do I trust who?
Me: do i trust who??
Message failed to send. Weird. I brush it off and get on COD. People can see my real name. Unironically it’s so people can see the name of their superior. Isaiah is on, and three hours later I’m getting off to eat dinner and go to bed. Whooping ass weighs on you sometimes.
After I ate dinner, I checked my phone so Isaiah wouldn’t crucify me for not replying to my grandma. There’s three unread texts from Isaiah, one from Darlene, and two from a number I don’t have saved. I read and reply to my grandmas. Then I read the texts from the number I don’t have saved.
731-###-####: We have been watching you. We see what you see.
I’m back in the woods again. My heart is beating through my shirt. My hands shake so hard I almost drop my phone.
Who the hell is watching me? And even more so, why are there footsteps outside my window?