Oh boy was I naive at that time, a youngster so foolish to assume he’d struck a fortune just by scrolling down through his inbox. I was ecstatic with eyes filled with glee when the money came.
I never thought that could have happened– let alone so easily and effortlessly, at least not without some kind of twist. I cannot deny it happened all right, yet I also cannot deny that the twist was beyond imagination. It was a twist that makes some sense only if you ask someone in an asylum for assistance in clarifying such incoherence.
I was perhaps in my teen years back in the days, when it all happened. I had an older sister, Kaylee, who frequently got into violent quarrels against me when our mother, Stacy, wasn’t around. Our family was an artificial one, if you will, as we didn’t share any blood or flesh; our mother had the courtesy to adopt and raise us. We both loved our mother regardless, especially when she shed blood and tears raising us without any help.
I got my first phone when I was around fifteen years old as per my frequent begging for one. I didn’t have good grades, so it took a lot of effort; and when I say a lot, I mean I participated in a 1-hour begging session almost every day for a year. My sister, on the other hand, had grades from another league… let’s just say it earned her bragging rights.
I was addicted to my phone, it took my attention from day to night. My mom was always conducting phone inspections to see if I was up to no good if you know what I mean. But no, I was an innocent fellow that played games like Roblox or watched YouTube like a guilt-free kid.
Browsing through my inbox after finally acquiring my own email address became an everyday habit. It was that fateful day when I spotted an email that was out of the ordinary. The title read, “You have won 100,000,000 in US dollars!” and I ran downstairs right away in an exuberant manner to inform my mom only to see my sister waiting for me on the staircase
“Be careful, bozo,” Kaylee shouted.
As she caught a glimpse of my screen, she was laughing boisterously, criticizing my innocence regarding my lack of judgment on the internet.
“It’s none of your business,” I replied defensively as I felt humiliated
As I eluded my sister at last, I began to search for my mom. Minutes later, Kaylee came downstairs to end my endless scavenger hunt. “She’s not there, you potato. She went out to buy some groceries. Duh.”
I ran back up into my room in defeat while controlling my speed in the process so that it doesn’t appear so, to prevent Kaylee from suspecting that I was so pathetic as to be easily susceptible to tears.
To ease my anger, I went back to indulge in my phone and proceeded with the miraculous email. It said that I was one of the few lucky users to win a lottery. It led me to a link, asking for my name and some semi-sensitive personal information like my home address and even a picture of my face. I wanted my mom to have the money, so I used a picture of her face from our most recent family vacation. Along with some other questions, I finished the survey and pressed the big green button imprinted with a text that states,” SUBMIT”
A notification immediately popped up informing me that the money will be delivered to your address within 48 hours.
After a few minutes, a doorbell rang. I promptly thought of the money until I realized it was just my mom; “just,” as if my mom was nothing compared to the significance of wealth.
I walked back upstairs to my bed, on which I lay for a few hours until another doorbell rang. Kaylee was in her room texting with her friends or whatever she was doing. I ran downstairs as I cleared obstacles in a way as if I was being chased by a Demogorgon. Opening the door, I was greeted by a black suitcase to my delight. Of course, I subsequently swiped it, which took a lot of effort due to the sheer size thereof, from the porch into the house. I was so excited to tell my mom about our potential new life. Again, I was playing an impossible game of scavenger hunt, trying to find my mom. I could just tell her later, I thought.
Opening the suitcase was a struggle, I didn’t know how to navigate my way through such an uncanny process as it was a first for me. After opening it, at last, I was amazed by an extreme degree of exhilaration that immediately redefined “the best day of my life,” but only to be put to my senses upon noticing a small note in the corner. On top of it, in a huge font, it read, “In memory of, ” followed by the same picture I used in the survey with my mom’s name below it. My joy was turned into a grim mood upon realizing what potentially had ensued.
I called mom on my phone, only to be sent to voicemail after a few seconds of wasted time. I ran up to drag Kaylee out of her phone and asked her if she knew where mom went.
“Did she not just come back a few hours ago?” Kaylee yelled as she went back on her phone.
“That’s the thing! She’s not here!”
“That’s ridiculous! Mom!” she yelled while leaving her ears open for a potential response.
Kaylee walked downstairs to search for her. In doing so, she saw the black suitcase filled with cash.
“Mom! Where did all this money come from?” Kaylee shouted, manifesting her resilience in believing that mom still dwells under the same roof.
“From that email. I told you!”
“There is absolutely no way YOU got it from that scam.”
“Why would I lie to you? Just believe it.”
“Whatever, I’m taking it.”
“Why should I split this money with you? You didn’t even contribute anything towards it. You didn’t even believe in me.”
“Just shut up. It’s not even yours,” Kaylee said as she picked up stacks of cash one by one until her hands could no longer contain it.
“No! You don’t deserve any!” I screamed as I pulled the money back from her hands.
“How dare you, you little piece of-” she yelled as she slapped my face so hard that I fainted before hearing her finish her sentence.
Upon waking up, I found myself back in the same place before I fainted. I stood up and saw the suitcase missing. I rushed upstairs to open Kaylee’s door, but it was locked. I yelled, “Open the door!” I caught her talking afterward, so I held my ears against the door.
“Imagine not having millions of dollars right now,” she boasted with music playing.
I knew she was recording a TikTok video. For your information, TikTok is a platform where people create videos to upload. To simply put, it is YouTube but with shorter yet more awkward videos. Maybe some people in this world would substantially value money over family, at least those as wicked as Kaylee.
But I’m different. Or at least I want to be so. I ran upstairs in a hurry to find any clues about this incident lurking on the internet. I came to a Reddit post, claiming that a family member vanished followed by a hundred million dollars lying on their porch and that they don’t know how it happened. Unfortunately, that post was deserted with no replies. That victim definitely had used their own face in the survey.
I scoured the internet, hoping to find more significant clues. It was not too long before I was led to a link. I couldn’t enter the link, though, but there was something strange about it that caught my eye. It ended in “.onion,” which was pretty strange considering that I’ve never seen a link with such a unique ending.
I googled this “suffix,” which led me to the conclusion that these are characteristic of sites on the dark web. As a so-called “innocent” young man, I was pretty afraid to enter such uncharted territory, but I had to– for the sake of my family. I researched how to access these websites, and a browser called “Tor Browser” turned out to be the key to doing so. I installed it on my android phone, and so I began to access that baffling website while using that browser.
I then encountered some marketplace for drugs and perhaps some human trafficking(?), but anyway, I brushed them aside as I came across some kind of forum. With the search bar, I ran through all the posts in the forum using the keywords: email, money, million, in memory of. These keywords may have been suboptimal, but I was able to get the job done thanks to the last of those mentioned.
The author of the post claimed that their father vanished a few hours after completing a survey sent to them, and they also claimed they received a hundred million dollars in return. Someone who replied asked the author for a link, and thus a link was sent publicly within the same post.
I examined the link, and I found it a little weird compared to the link that I received from the email. I then saw this conversation after scrolling down a little.
Person 1: “ok that link actually gave me a hundred million in cash lol”
Person 2: “yeah ok”
Person 1: “my dog died tho”
Person 1: “that bum is so annoying anyways, win-win for me lol”
I stopped reading their conversation, thinking it was too cruel for me to read. No one should ever sacrifice their family.
Or at least I tried to stop the urge to do so, but I grew attached and kept reading on.
Person 2: “you deserve to die imo”
Person 1: “nah”
Person 1: “im technically not guilty as long as there aren’t really any physically concrete evidence”
The more I read, the more I got deprived of innocence. I went downstairs, enraged, knocking–no, pounding– my fists on Kaylee’s door. I asked her one last time for the money. I heard her talking again.
“Oh it’s just someone outside screaming,” Kaylee said to her friend in a call,
“Isn’t he your brother?” Her friend responded through the convenient speaker function so that I could hear.
“Oh no, I wouldn’t say that. That brat is as irritating as one could possibly be.” Kaylee responded with sincerity.
That’s it, I thought. With anger, I ran to my room again. Before I clicked on the link on the same email that I got, I contemplated my actions. One should indeed value family over money. But this one is different…
After a few minutes of experiencing a moral crisis, I came to a conclusion. I have to say, I still regret my ultimate decision, and I regret coming to it in such a short time. Maybe it was because I changed a lot with the guilt that I may have killed my own mother, or maybe because it made sense to continue. Maybe I never changed at all. Maybe Kaylee was as corrupt as one can be. And maybe delivering the final judgment upon her was a favor to society.
I clicked on the link. After a few seconds of loading, an error was prompted, saying that this link has already been used by this device. I don’t even have another phone or a device that can access the internet the same way I can with my current phone. I was furious– but maybe it was time to regress to that formerly innocent boy who played all childish games. As much as I hate to say it, someone on Death Row can never return to a four-year-old asking for a lollipop.
I then found the solution, not to escape the hands of the devil, but a solution to proceed with my plan to eliminate a threat to humanity. I remembered that link in the dark web, so I pulled back up my Tor Browser and went back to that same post, and scrolled down.
I clicked on the link which was clear of the suppressing obstacle, and I was met with the very screen that started it all. Like in my first one, the survey asked for my name, address, and a picture of my face along with some other questions. I used a picture of Kaylee’s face from the same family vacation that should’ve never existed, and I filled in the other questions. I pressed the big green button, and an error appeared on my screen, reminding me to put in my name.
Oh right,
Kaylee Ehrmantraut
I pressed the big green button again, and the same notification appeared, informing me that the prize will be delivered to my address within 48 hours.
I waited patiently for a few hours. Instead of a doorbell ringing, I heard knocks against my door. It was my sister.
“What do you want, Kaylee?” I asked in an antagonizing voice.
“Look, I’m so sorry that it happened, alright? I get bullied at school, and I really needed the money to show off how prominent I can be with all that money.” Kaylee responded in a heartfelt manner.
“Yeah right,” I replied in disbelief.
“Sorry I called you a brat and all the other things that separated us. I said all those things about you in the call to prove that I’m not always so docile and vulnerable.” Kaylee declared.
“Well, you can apologize in another life.” I yelped while forcing her out of my room and closing my door.
After a few minutes of watching YouTube to kill time, I heard a doorbell. I went outside to catch the doorbell and little did I know! A whole suitcase full of cash, indicating success in my plan.
I went to Kaylee’s room to make sure. Yep, she’s gone! All her belongings were still there.
I went back downstairs to reap the benefits of my hard work. For a few hours, I went shopping outside to look for the latest games and a PS5 that I could never have gotten had this not happened. After that, I went back home with my new modes of relaxation. I was ready to quit school since I will never need a career anyways with all this money. I slept for the night.
After minutes of trying to set up my new game console, I took a break and went upstairs into my room. While going upstairs, I stumbled across Kaylee’s cell phone. But it was passcode locked, so I tried using my passcode for my phone to see if such an impossible coincidence could exist. To my utter surprise, it worked. My passcode was zero-eight-zero-nine because I was born on August 9th. I thought it was nothing more than just a simple coincidence.
I went through her contacts and messages to see what she had been doing. Apparently, she had been talking to a person named “Kim.” That sounds like a unisex name but definitely indicates a female since it seems almost too impossible for Kaylee to have a boy as a friend, let alone a boyfriend. I clicked on her conversation with Kim and saw she had been texting about me.
Kaylee: “Hey Kim, what should I get for my brother as a surprise?”
Kaylee: “I feel so sorry for him since I said lots of awful things to him…”
Kim: “Hmm, well, definitely something worth a lot in that case.”
Kaylee: “Yeah… I will certainly be broke after doing this.”
Kim: “Well, you definitely can’t buy a new house, so you can look for things like toys, games, and whatnots.”
Kaylee: “Well you’re right in the first half, but I can’t just give my Mikey a measly toy.
~A few days later~
Kaylee: “You will not believe this! I literally obtained a fortune.”
Kaylee: “Maybe a house isn’t out of the question..”
Kim: “Totally lol, how much money are we talking about?”
Kaylee: “In the ballpark of a 100m”
Kim: “100m my ass lmao”
Kaylee: “You don’t believe me?”
Kim: “you’re saying a hundred million dollars in cash suddenly appeared at your door?”
Kaylee: “Yeah, isn’t that great?! God is wonderful!”
Kim: “Shut up. I am not in the mood for jokes right now.”
Kim: “Go apologize to your brother if you’re in that mood.”
~A few minutes later~
Kaylee: “I just apologized to him.”
Kaylee: “He still hates me”
Kaylee: “Maybe I should just buy a house for the family with this 100m as an apology”
Kim: “Man, you really lack social skills. When I say I’m not in the mood for jokes, I mean it.”
Kim: “No wonder why you get bullied in school.”
This can’t be real… Kaylee has been trying to help all this time? What have I done?
She is my sister, and family always matters. That’s right, I cannot ever forget that.
It showed how naive of an immature boy I was. Every evil I had manifested within approximately two days. No person should ever kill a family member, and no person should ever kill for trivial matters.
I rushed back to my room and dug for information within the forum as to what I can do to fix my regret and un-kill them. That’s right, it isn’t known whether the victims are killed or just relocated to some mysterious place. I came across a post from the same person who killed his dog over money. The title of the post read, “Do not put your own name and face in the survey.” Inside the post, the author elaborated as to what he meant and the dangers that could ensue. He claimed that he had tried it on himself after receiving his own survey in the form of an email.
Knowing that victims are not immediately put to death, as if morphed into suitcases, sparked hope. I can probably try the survey again to save them. My tension relaxed.
A conversation went on in the replies:
Person 1: “what survey?”
Person 2: “a survey u receive in your inbox that claims u won 100m in USD”
Person 1: “send link to survey pls”
Person 2 then sends the link
I immediately stopped scrolling down and pressed the link to try it for myself. I was greeted by an error, saying that this link has already been used on this device and that I can’t use it again. It looked like the author of that post didn’t post the same link as in the email sent to him. Instead, he posted the same link that the other person used in the first post.
I began to search the forum for another link that I could use. After minutes of desperately trying to locate one, I ran out of luck. I thought that was it, maybe my actions can never be fixed. I thought the regret will forever be glued to my life. Suddenly, I remembered that I had access to my sister’s phone. I can just use that, unlike last time.
Zero-eight-zero-nine, unlocked. One by one I pressed a letter to copy the link by hand. After a few minutes of my ineptitude, I finally managed to access the website on Kaylee’s phone. Took a few more seconds than usual to load it on this phone, however.
After it was done loading, I was free from the error, and I was free to venture into the most dangerous journey of mankind. I put my name, my face, and my address along with my answers to the same insignificant questions. I pressed the big green button and waited on my bed for one or two hours.
After the time had passed, I had the chills. I walked outside for some fresh air with a backpack holding a million dollars for comfort and went for a stroll around the neighborhood. When I finished my lap, I saw a black van in front of my door. I thought it was them, the kidnappers.
I was thinking of a plan as to how to proceed with this. Either I was thinking about sneaking into the van, or perhaps letting myself deliberately get captured and kidnapped in hopes of reuniting with my lost family. Whatever it was that I was planning, I stopped when I saw the front of the van. I got myself a closer look, and I never believed that could have happened. The drivers– they were my mom and my sister, but with deformed faces. A face like that of a zombie’s, yet I could recognize them from a mile away. I didn’t think much of it at that time, partially due to the possibility of it being a mistake; but I walked up to the front of the van and greeted them but still separated by a distance.
They caught sight of me, and immediately drove the van to close off our distance. As they did so, I realized those faces I saw weren’t mistakes, they were real. Their faces look melted as if a vacuum was trying to suck away their faces for a whole day. What unquestionably got sucked away were their memories, including those of me.
I ran as far as I could into the horizon until I saw an alleyway that I squeezed my way through. I was on some sidewalks when I saw a car stop at a red light. It was some middle-aged lady driving a car. I tried to open the door but it was locked. The lady generously unlocked the door, so I entered. I told her where to go, but she kindly reminded me that she wasn’t a taxi driver, but a mother buying groceries for her children.
What I did there I still regret, but I had to do it. I pushed her out of the car, and I ran through the green light as soon as it popped up. I went to the nearest airport and booked a flight to the other side of the world with the wealth in my backpack. I booked a flight on the spot to some place called Hong Kong by bribing every staff member that questioned me with thousands of dollars since I was not of legal age. I especially bribed the person that asked me for my passport and ID with money stacks of considerable size. I somehow managed to book the last seat on my flight.
At length, when my flight was called, I slept on my comfortable bed in first class. It was relaxing until the airplane arrived at my destination. I immediately exchanged currency after locating the money symbol since everything was in Chinese. I bought a new SIM card and charged my phone for a few hours.
With my new SIM card, I acquired access to Google Translate which helped me rent an apartment along with some linguistic difficulties.
This was all a year ago. Throughout the years, I have been hallucinating. I occasionally see my zombified sister and mother in a crowd whenever I go outside. I rarely go outside now because of that. Just last week, I received 50,000,000 in USD in a black suitcase in front of my door. I don’t know what this means. I don’t know what to do. Yes, I still live in Hong Kong. Yes, I still regret what I did to my family. And yes, I am still marked for life.
These mysterious emails hold enormous power. Whatever you do, don’t listen to them.
Do not pay any mind to emails sent by an address starting with “moneyislife155”
This lottery remains a mystery. A mystery yet to be solved. If anyone knows anything, please contact me. I don’t know how much longer I have and how much longer I can keep up with this.