Chapter 11 (K)

We enter his place, and he ushers me into his room. I find it surprisingly neat for the guy who normally procrastinates over everything that has anything to do with work. There’s an old desktop in the corner, even older than mine. It looks at least 5 years old.

“Want anything to drink?” he offers.

“No thanks. Is that a 2016 model?” I ask, pointing to the desktop.

“Even older. 2014 SP model,” he says. “It quits on me so many times that I often think about throwing this one out the balcony and buying a new one.”

“And let me guess, you’re too lazy to. You would kill someone if you threw that giant 44 floors above ground!”

“I never even thought of that. I guess if I ever want to murder somebody, it would be with that.” He pauses. “Anyways, I’ll get the charger. Feel free to explore,” he waves his hand and leaves the room.

I put my purse down and take out the tablet, laying it on his bed. I spot some printed photos on the wall close to the window. Almost no one prints out stuff anymore, since the number of trees dropped to about 20% or what it used to be a decade ago, and paper price shot up. Besides, it’s much more convenient to just share and find stuff on our devices. These photos must be pretty important if they’re printed out.

I look at the photos carefully. There’s a shot of a cute, 7 year old Gerad with his parents and some pictures of him with friends. In the photos of friends, I realize that one guy keeps popping up. My age, with brown spiky hair and midnight black eyes. I remember him, although I’m not sure where.

“You look like you’ve never seen a printed photo before,” says Gerad, startling me. He holds out the charger.

“I have…but usually they’re more important photos. And they’re not usually used for sentimental value.” I take the charger and plug it into the wall. I connect my tablet, and it slowly flickers to life.

“My parents printed off the one where I’m 7. And the other one…let’s just say I like being different.” He sighs something to himself under his breath.

“What did you say?” I ask, not unkindly.

“Nothing,” and sadness fleets across his face. I decide to leave it at that. There’s something wrong, and I’m not going to be the one making it worse.

My tablet beeps, telling me that I ejected the USB improperly, and that I might’ve damaged the files. I ignore it, and pick it up. I go to my downloads and find the software. I sit down on Gerad’s bed and open the software.

“Gerad, listen to this,” I hold up the tablet. The message starts.

“Hello, Gerad. I hope you’re doing well. I know you think I’m gone, but don’t worry, I’m always watching. I’m always with you.” I shiver, goose bumps crawling up my spine. “Don’t tell anyone about this incidence, or I just might have to do something bad. If you catch my meaning.” A laugh resounds, a horrible scratchy laugh that fills the room. This guy is such a creep, to be threatening Gerad like this. I want to shut it off, but my hand is frozen, unable to silence the voice.

“I’ll be seeing you soon Gerad. Much sooner then you would like.” The voice starts crackling, and I’m glad that the tablet damaged the software. I don’t think I would’ve been able to listen more of this madness. The screen starts fizzling, but all the two of us can hear is a low, menacing chuckle that slowly fades away into crackling and skips.

I turn off the tablet, trembling slightly. That was worse than I thought at first. I delete the software from my tablet. I don’t want to reminded of this. I look up at Gerad, and I’m shocked to see his face.

He’s pale, so white that he looks ethereal. He looks nauseous, and so shell-shocked. “It can’t be him, it can’t be…” he mutters. I can hear how much he wants to be proven wrong, so much raw pain in his voice. His breath is shallow, and he’s on the verge of hyperventilating I’ve never seen or heard him like this. He slumps against the wall and slides down until he hits the floor. I scurry over to him, alarm making my heart race. I kneel down beside him.

“Gerad, are you ok? Come on, don’t be like this, it’s only a message. It’s nothing to be freaking out over,” I try to soothe him, trying to keep my voice calm and even, although being tranquil is the last thing I want to do right now. He’s staring off into space, and I can’t get him to look at me.

“How can it be him? He’s dead…he’s dead…” his voice rises, to the brink of yelling.

“Gerad, shush, calm down, please…” I can hear my voice crack. I grip his hand tightly.

I don’t know how much time passed, but finally Gerad’s breathing regulates, and colour returns to his face. I start to calm a bit. Maybe he’ll be ok.

He finally looks at me. “I know who it is. The one who made the software.” He takes a deep breath, and I’m worried that he might start freaking out again. “His name is—I mean was, Lukas.”

That name…now I remember who that guy was in those pictures. He went to the same junior high as I did. He was in the news a while ago…something about an accident…

“And where can I find Lukas? Can you tell me that?” I ask gently, cautiously. I don’t want to send him over the edge again. Seeing him melt down once was enough for me.

“That’s the thing. Lukas…he’s dead. And I killed him.”

And this is where my imagination goes overboard :D

I hope you enjoyed this chapter (I certainly loved writing it). I'm on a creative roll today, and I hope it continues cause otherwise we're in for another dry spell. Which would suck.