by Cora Choi
Chapter 5: Fear
That evening my new roommates came back from the dining hall, laughing and joking as they walked down the spiral stairs.
“Well, even though the housing situation is disappointing, the meals are definitely something to look forward to,” said Irving.
“How many times did you go to the dessert bar, Irving?” Max laughed.
“Remember, it’s a five minute walk to the nearest toilet—and Sora closes its doors by midnight,” said Drev. “Like the other places on this island.”
“Why midnight?” asked Irving.
“They don’t want students roaming around past midnight—precautionary thing,” said Max. “That’s why if you go up the main road past the dorms and dining halls on the fifth ring, you’ll see that all the bars and cafes are closed by 10:00 p.m.”
“How about the library?” asked Irving.
“That closes at midnight,” said Max.
“But if I stay until midnight at the library and it takes me an hour to walk down the Five Ring Road to the dorms, I’m still outside past midnight,” said Irving.
“Exactly, Einstein, so the bottom line is don’t be at the library until midnight,” quipped J.P.
They all made their way to their respective beds. J.P., still wearing his sunglasses, picked up a book. Irving, using a small spray bottle, was wiping his lenses. Drev was making his bed after having aired out the mattress. And Max was fiddling with what looked like a small metallic board.
“Hey guys, so you want to know how I got sent to this underground prison with you? Check this out,” he said, holding up the thin square board that came to life with a bright light.
I crept out of my corner to get a better look at it. It was almost like a miniature computer screen, but it was very small, the thickness was like that of a magazine, and it seemed to weigh nothing at all the way Max was holding it. Instead of typing on buttons, he traced his finger along the surface. I crept in closer, as the other three crowded around him. Knowing they wouldn’t notice me with their backs toward me, I inched up to get a better look at Max’s device.
“I downloaded a video from the site Intelleaks before my parents dropped me off at this crazy school a couple days ago. This video, it’s wild. It’s taken off a surveillance camera in a store, but the guy in it is absolutely nuts. See for yourself. It’ll take a second to load up.”
He held up the device so all of us could get a good look at the screen. Although I was behind them, a few feet away, I could see it clearly. I was enthralled. On that tiny screen, a clock appeared, its hands rotating quickly. I looked at Max to see how he was manipulating it, but he wasn’t. He was just holding it up. I looked back at the screen and saw a black and white film emerge. The scene showed one rapidly moving object, everything else was still.
“See, that’s the guy moving there. He’s in a jewelry store and stealing stuff like a madman. But watch as the video goes on.”
We all watched, and to my horror, the man on the screen thrashed about uncontrollably, knocking into the tables and shelves, grabbing items and throwing them onto the floor or into a large bag. His gestures were jerky and spastic, like a wind-up toy. The frantic pace with which he hurled himself around the store was more animal-like than human. At one point, he shoved his face into the camera and all of us got an unexpected up-close look at his rolling eyes and bloodied mouth.
“What’s wrong with him?” asked Irving, cringing. He took off his spectacles and wiped them as if the image had sullied the lenses.
“No one knows. I mean, this video isn’t supposed to be released to the public. The government’s trying to keep it quiet,” said Max.
“He’s a crackhead, plain and simple,” said J.P., peering at the screen through his dark shades.
“No, see, that’s just the thing. He’s not,” said Max, his voice getting more excited with every syllable. “It happened in the morning, around 4:30 a.m. The guy who uploaded the video wrote that the feds came and shot the guy in cold blood. He was some big shot import-export business guy, and they don’t know why—”
“You say you got this off of Intelleaks?” smirked J.P.
“What is Intelleaks?” asked Irving. I was glad Irving asked. I was curious myself.
“It’s a website where people upload videos of crimes being committed or other things that are just wrong,” said Drev, his eyes on the screen. “It’s a kinda hub for the vigilante with a video camera.”
“They should take it to the police! Why post it up here?” asked Irving.
“Because the police don’t do anything. They never do.” said Max. “Especially stuff like this that the government doesn’t want anyone to know about. It’s up to people like us to care and do something about it.”
“Oh c’mon, Max,” snorted J.P. “You know half that bullshit on there is made by jackasses living in their mom’s backyard.”
“This is not some bullshit!”
“How do you know?” asked J.P. “C’mon, man, get off of that government’s hiding everything conspiracy crap. This is just some idiot with too much time on his hands.”
His voice trailed off as Drev took the device from Max’s hands and peered more closely into it. “Look, there’s something weird around him.”
All of them gathered closer to the screen, and I did too, as close as I dared. A dark shadow outlined the man’s body. The shadow moved along with the man, despite his flurry of activity. Where before there had been no sound coming from the film, now I could hear white noise and a growl. I craned my neck to see better and noticed that Drev squinted his eyes as he studied the image in front of him.
“What do you mean?” asked Max, coming closer into the screen. “I don’t see anything around him.”
“Look! Don’t you see that dark mist hovering over him?” asked Drev, looking at the faces of his roommates. Max scrunched his nose and pulled his face back from the screen. Irving and J.P. shook their heads.
“There’s nothing,” both of them said.
I looked at Drev. I knew he could see what I saw, but why couldn’t the others?
Drev was silent for a long minute before shrugging his shoulders as though it didn’t matter. Since Drev didn’t pursue the subject any further, neither did the other roommates. They turned back to the screen and continued to watch. But I kept my eyes on Drev. He could see me and he could see what I, a dead man, could see, yet he was alive.
I pondered over how this could be, but no logical explanation presented itself. Many minutes passed. My new roommates continued to watch the character on the screen who continued to bounce off the shelved walls and roll himself on the floor. However, now there was an air of apathy around him, as though he were already dead and some invisible strings were tied to him and pulling him around.
“This is lame!” sniggered J.P. “It’s gotta be a joke. I mean, c’mon!”
“It’s not J.P.!” Max wagged his finger at him. “Don’t you get it? Whatever’s happening to the guy . . . it’s unhuman! That’s why the feds shot him. And they don’t want the public to know about it because it’s creepy as hell. You don’t see it right now. But look, I’ll move it to the end when the guy is on his last leg.”
Max had forwarded the film so that it was showing the man at a more advanced stage. I saw Irving shudder. J.P. finally lifted off his sunglasses. Drev pressed his lips together, looking more serious than ever.
I wanted to gasp, but I was so close to all of them that I didn’t dare. The man in the video had shrunk in size, while the subtle outline of the shadow had grown into a monstrous, diaphanous black. Before, it had seemed like the man was able to make some of his own movements, but I now saw that the shadow was controlling the man’s every gesture, even twisting his facial expressions. The most disturbing part was the whispers, like a series of guttural groans and hisses.
“Can you guys understand what he’s saying?” asked Drev, moving away from the screen.
“He’s not saying anything,” said Ma
x. “There’s no sound.”
“Why? Are you hearing something?” asked Irving.
“Um, no,” said Drev, shaking his head.
He was lying. I wanted to tell him that I heard the diabolical growls and hisses, too, but I didn’t dare. I stepped away instead, retreating into the darker areas of the room where the four couldn’t see me. The film had been disturbing. If it was real, it meant that this man had succumbed to some sort of evil spirit. Some sort of dark power had invaded his body and mind completely, in a matter of minutes.
There was an eerie familiarity to it all, and I wondered if I had read about this phenomenon before. I searched my brain and tried to place it in a story I had heard, but nothing seemed to fit.
“So this is what got you in trouble,” said Drev, turning to Max.
“Yeah, but I didn’t know it would. I had downloaded it while in my parents’ car, before they dropped me off here. I was watching it while sitting outside of Stauros Hall when Horace suddenly grabbed me by ear and sent me to the chancellor’s. When the chancellor told me that it was against the school’s philosophy to watch videos uploaded on Intelleaks, I realized I had done something wrong. He yelled at me to delete it. I did, but I kept a copy of everything on a pen drive,” he said, holding up a tiny piece of metal.
“I wonder what’s so threatening about this?” murmured Drev, looking at the video again.
“The university is run by control freaks that don’t even bother trying to understand why they do what they do,” replied Max. “They probably just didn’t like that one of their students was watching this stuff because it’s controversial.”
“Or just plain stupid,” added J.P.
“Max, aren’t you going to get into trouble if you have that on a pen drive?” asked Irving.
“No, because nobody knows—except you guys. But now you’re all in the hot seat with me, so I doubt you’ll tell anyone. I mean, just watching what I showed you would get you all in trouble.”
“Great. Thanks,” said J.P.
“Sure, don’t mention it,” laughed Max, as he tucked away the pen drive. Irving studied the video one more time before taking a deep breath.
“I think you committed the biggest transgression here,” he said gravely.
“What?” asked Max. His voice was defensive, but his grin revealed how pleased he was at the accusation. “How’s this a transgression?”
“Well, I mean, compared to what J.P. and I did, this is far worse,” said Irving. “This video is terrible—”
“Hold on, before you start crowning Max as the worst, let’s hear what gnarly mess Drev shat,” said J.P.
All three roommates turned their eyes toward Drev. I followed them, just as interested.
Drev looked at them curiously. He then gave them that crooked quasi grin, the same one he had shown me earlier that day. I saw clearly now that it was more of an amused sneer.
“Someone sent me a letter,” he said.
“Someone sent you a letter?” repeated Max.
“And that’s how you got into trouble?”
“Something like that.”
“What kind of crazy letter is it?”
“I’ll show you.”
