“You haven’t heard about the dark web?” My friend Jason expressed to me.
“No why would I have?”
“It’s this place where you can find some of the weirdest shit on the internet. I have tried to look for things myself but have never really found anything cool”
“Sounds dumb”
“It’s not. I’m sure there’s some weird shit on there I just haven’t found any. Look, how about after college I come over to yours and I can install this browser. The two of us can look on this together?”
I really couldn’t be bothered with all the hassle however the expressive nature of his tone made me fold into letting him install this browser onto my computer. He was a computer nerd so I just trusted him with that stuff, I was unfamiliar with this sort of thing.
I never told him this but Jason was my best friend. He was always there for me when I lost my mum and was just a very funny guy. He always used to play the most creative pranks on me. This might be cringey to some of you but I gave him this wristband as a gift when I was younger for helping me through those times. He wore it quite a lot so clearly he valued our friendship. He was really like a brother to me.
Jason came to my house later that day and installed the software. We had a few drinks after that and later on in the day he left to go home and play some World of Warcraft. He was obsessed with that game.
You see I never really had any intention of going onto this dark web browser. Jason wanted me to explore it myself to see if I could find anything but I really didn’t care. For the next 2 days I pretended to use the browser. When Jason asked me what I found, I just gave him short answers.
“Yeah I looked and I haven’t seen anything cool or interesting, sorry man.”
Jason let out an elongated sigh in disappointment every time.
After the week was finished I was in my room profoundly bored. You see, I lived alone in a small apartment. It was actually a place owned by my father however he let me stay in it as it was really close to my college.
I didn’t spend much time in that apartment. I liked to go out with my other friends, have drinks, go to watch sports matches and spend time at the local arcade.
On this Friday night many of my friends didn’t have time for me. Some of them were going to a concert which was already sold out. Jason was alone in his apartment feeling unwell. Another one of them had things to do with their partner too. I was left single in this tiny apartment with not an awful lot of entertainment.
So, my stale state of affairs got the better of me. I made myself a cup of coffee and sat in isolation by my computer desk. I decided to use the browser Jason had installed to see if I could actually find anything of interest.
When I opened the software I was surprised to see that it looked like any other natural browser. It was called “DoorFront” which I thought was an extremely bizarre title.
It had everything you’d expect, a search bar, some tabs at the top of the screen and some colourful touches to the background of the page.
My eyes skimmed across all of the tabs and everything seemed exactly like Google.
In the corner of the browser something caught my eye. There was a smaller link which had a different colour than the rest of the headings. It read:
*Show me something I might not want to see*
All of the other links were blue however this one was in a dark red, hidden away carefully in the corner of the page.
Naturally, human beings are suckers for doing the opposite of what is told of them. I tell you not to think about elephants, you think about elephants.
Naively, I pressed on the link expecting to see some really messed up shit. After a few seconds of tense waiting I was pushed to a new page.
I was stunned to see that the page displayed…the image of a goat. That’s it. Just an image of a goat. It looked like it was laughing and had its tongue out skewed at a 90 degree angle.
Immediately I thought that this link was some sort of troll. I smirked at how random this was however the link was still in that corner of the screen.
Again, I pressed on it.
This time I was presented with a Wikipedia page of a war that took place in Egypt during the early 1000’s.
After a few more clicks I realised what this *Show me something I might not want to see* link actually was. It was a random search of the internet. Kind of a cool concept however I wasn’t seeing anything cool or interesting.
Just as I was about to stop pressing this random internet search button I was taken to a type of page I’d never seen before.
It was a chat room with a distinct red background. It had a large chat box and also featured webcam images. Almost identical to how something like Omegle looks except with a more sinister tone.
Thankfully, my webcam wasn’t on and it seemed like the other webcam was off too as all I saw were two black squares. I just sort of stared into the dark screen for a few seconds before perceiving that this page was probably broken.
I was moving the mouse towards the “x” at the top right of the tab when suddenly
*user-274 started typing*
I waited anxiously for a few seconds before seeing.
“Hello there ;)”
Talking to strangers at 11:45pm wasn’t really of interest to me. On this night however I was alone with no friends so I decided to reply. I let out an enthusiastic
“Hi”
After a few long awkward seconds they started typing again.
“What are you doing right now?”
This seemed like a forward question however, I lousily answered
“Not much tbh”
I was already getting bored. Pressing the random internet search button was more fun than engaging in small talk with a random person.
I moved the mouse over towards the *show me something I might not want to see* button. After a firm click, it appeared that the link was now not working for some strange reason.
The person in the chatroom started typing again.
“Me too, I’m looking for someone to talk to. I haven’t been feeling well lately”
This made me feel guilty however I really couldn’t be bothered engaging in chit-chat.
I then decided to press the “x” to close the tab. To my shock, it would not respond to my clicks on this button. It appeared that I was internet stranded in this weird, creepy chat room.
Before I could even reply to the previous message, the user in the chat started to type again.
“Why would you want to leave me? :(“
My heart froze. Did they know that I tried to exit the chat room? Could they perhaps see what I was seeing on my computer? Stupidly, I decided to reply to the person.
“Hi sorry, I just want to search the internet. I think my browser is frozen tho”
The user started typing almost instantaneously.
“No it’s not”
“What do you mean?” I asked whilst bewildered.
“Your browser isn’t frozen”
There was a dead silence before they promptly messaged.
“I just decided to pause you ;)”
I started to sweat profusely. My hands began to shake as I typed in my concerned queries.
“I don’t understand?”
The anxiety and fear was starting to hit me hard. I was sat alone, in a small room, in the pitch dark. The only light source was the radiant computer screen which lit up my face. They typed for a while and said
“I didn’t want you to leave like the rest of them.”
“Don’t worry, I have fun plans for us :)”
My fear levels raised even higher. What did this creep want with me?
They started typing again as my mind was struggling to process the freaky conversation that was unravelling.
“I need you to do something for me.”
“Could you turn on the webcam please? :)”
By this stage I’d completely forgotten about the fact this was even an option. My eyes were frozen with fear on the chat box for so long that the two black boxes were totally neglected.
I hesitantly decided to reply.
“No, I don’t want to turn it on.”
Surprisingly, I was hit with the longest dead silence so far. The other person stopped typing for quite some time. In this period, I once again tried to press the “x” to close the tab. It still refused to let me off this chat space.
Almost instantly after I tried this the user started typing again.
“If you try to leave again, something really bad will happen. STOP TRYING IT!”
My heart felt like it was trying to break out of my chest. I began to tremble as I typed
“What do you want from me?”
They instantly responded with
“Turn on the webcam”
“No. Why would I do that?” I hit back with.
“I just want to see you react to something ;)”
Part of me was tempted to just press the “webcam on” button. Maybe if I reacted to whatever this freak wanted he’d leave me the hell alone. Nevertheless, I stood firm that I was not going to turn on the webcam.
“I’m not going to do that. Can you please just leave me alone?”
All of a sudden something strange happened. My mouse was completely frozen. No matter how I moved it, the cursor was stuck near the bottom of the screen. The user started typing
“Fine”
“I’ll do it myself then :)”
I read in confusion before I was drawn to something horrifying. The cursor started to move on its own accord. I held a shaky stare as I watched it slowly move towards the “webcam on” text.
Before I knew anything else, the button was pressed and my webcam was on. I saw my startled, shaky face pop up in the black box for a few seconds. Very quickly I put my hand over the webcam and covered it with a firm grip.
The person started typing again.
“Now I’ve seen what you look like.”
“Wow ;)”
“Move your hand right now I need you to see this.”
I didn’t oblige and if anything I further tightened my grip on the webcam camera. By this stage, my instincts started to kick in and I realised how fucked up this whole situation was. Whoever this was, must’ve been hacking my computer somehow.
I decided to press the power off button on the side of my computer.
It didn’t work. How can the power button on my computer not work?
I watched in terror as the person typed again.
“I told you, if you tried to do that again. Something bad would happen.”
“I don’t think you understand how serious I am Jordan.”
I felt my soul leave my body. Jordan…was my name. They somehow got information on who I am. I never told them my name or anything about myself. All of a sudden I could see them begin to type again.
“Look, I mean YOU no harm, if you just show your face and let me see your reaction I’ll leave you alone.”
I decided to do something very stupid. Going through it in my head, what was the worst that could happen in they saw my face? They might actually leave me the hell alone.
My grip loosened and I slowly moved my hand from covering the webcam. My worried expression now showed on the screen for this crazy person to see. The user started to type again.
“Perfect!”
“Enjoy ;)”
“Enjoy what?” I thought in my head.
I stared at the screen for what might’ve been minutes and absolutely nothing happened. Only thing I could do was look at my own trembling face.
Eventually, the other screen started to flicker and it appeared that this user had now turned on their webcam. I couldn’t make out what I was looking at, their was a dim light and also some glass. I then suddenly heard the opening of a door.
I now realised what I was looking at. It appeared that this camera feed was coming from the inside of a car. Whoever was on the other end, had left the webcam of what I presumed was a laptop, facing towards the car door.
When the car door opened I gasped as I saw a figure in a dark hooded coat just stand there, menacingly. They leaned in and looked directly into the webcam. I could see that they were wearing a dark ski-mask. The person then raised their hand slowly and waved directly at the camera. Directly at me.
The person then did a quick 180 degree turn and began to walk the opposite direction away from the car. As the person visibly got smaller, I could see more and more about where this person was parked as they left the car door open.
In the darkness I could vaguely make out some garden decorations and a house number 16 that was illuminated by the dim street lights. It was at that moment when it hit me. I was horrified to see that this person had parked his car…outside of Jason’s house.
I could see from the webcam in the car that this dark figure was just standing outside his front door in the middle of the night. The hooded person appeared to press on the doorbell.
I ran straight to my phone which was on the desk behind me to call Jason. I needed to warn him not to open the door. My brain still wasn’t processing all that was happening. How did this person know Jason’s address?
The phone rang for what felt like years.
*no answer*
I tried to call again.
*no answer*
I muttered “no no no no no” under my breath. The no’s gradually getting louder as the seriousness of this fucked up situation hit me.
I ran outside and got in my car. Frantically, I began to drive to Jason’s house. He only lived a few minutes away from me so I knew I could get there fast.
On my way there I called the police. I tried to explain the situation to them but I was panicking so much that every other word was mumbled. They understood enough to send help to Jason’s house as soon as possible.
As I turned the corner to Jason’s street I looked right, towards his house. To my shock, the car from which I was witnessing this whole thing was no longer there.
Jason’s front door was visibly left wide open.
I bursted out of my car and ran into his house.
“Jason! Jason! JASON!” I called out into the many rooms of his home.
I wildly looked around his house but there was no sign of Jason anywhere. I checked the basement, the toilets, the closets, everywhere you could think of.
Jason was nowhere to be seen.
Everything became blurry.
The anxiety, the panic, the fear, it all began to get too much. Mentally I couldn’t take it. My friend was gone and I had no idea where he was.
A thought hit me in amongst my emotional breakdown. I still didn’t end the chat that I was in with whoever this creep was. Maybe there was a chance the webcam was still on and I could figure out where he went.
I sprinted back to my car and started to hurry home. I was going about 20 miles over the limit but the journey felt like it lasted a lifetime.
After getting home I bursted out my car without even locking it.
Suddenly, I slowed down as I noticed a small piece of cloth located just outside my front door.
My heart was in my mouth as slowly I approached this dark red cloth. It was placed by my front door without any real care.
My eyes were drawn to a piece of paper that was tucked under the cloth. I could see that on the opposite side of this piece of paper there was writing.
Rapidly, I flipped the paper over. It read..
“Show me something I might not want to see”
The words chilled my spine. Slowly, I began to unravel the cloth with my shakey hands. The cloth felt really wet but it needed to be opened one way or another. Something slipped out of the cloth and hit the floor with a “mush” sound.
I looked under the cloth I was holding and began to scream.
A human hand had fallen out of the piece of cloth. The hand was covered in blood and there was an item located next to the body part.
It was a wristband.
Jason’s wristband.
I screamed in horror and fell to my knees as the realisation hit me…
It’s been a few months since this event. The police conducted searches in the local area however they never found Jason. I told them about everything that happened regarding the chat room and messages. They didn’t help at all. I moved back in with my dad shortly after this event and also sold my computer after doing a factory reset. I couldn’t find the link to the chat room that I’d previously been in so what was the point anymore.
So much about that night doesn’t make sense. I play it over in my mind every single day but I can’t figure it out. Can anyone help me rationalise this?
There’s only one thing that ultimately matters. I lost my best friend. The person who was always there for me.
I haven’t given up on you Jason. If you’re still out there, I promise I will find you.