Don't Shoot The Harbinger

by Ryan Green

I set it up to get access to the internet and sit back down. I click login and all of my old friends list appears. I look through all of my old away messages and I get a laugh at a few of them.

  I can especially remember using one of them on a regular basis:

  “I try to reach your outstretched hands ...oh why do I ? I try. I fail you.”

  That was some of the lyrics from my favorite song by The Beautiful Mistake.

  I guess you could say that I was sort of an emo kid, but that was a phase that I eventually grew out of but the music stuck with me throughout the years as you definitely have heard. Never like feathered black hair and eyeliner emo, more like tight jeans and band shirts emo.

  “Oh ha-ha I can definitely picture that” Megan says,

  I hear the sound of a door opening and I see that a friend is now online.

  “Who the hell uses this still?!?” I laugh out loud to myself.

  I got an instant message.

  It was from someone named SoccerDude2k1.

  SoccerDude2k1:I ! Wow you haven’t been on here in forever

  xXBlaineDamage88Xx:Who is this again?

  SoccerDude2k1:You don’t remember me? :(

  XxBlaineDamage88xX:No, sorry man I don’t.

  SoccerDude2k1:Aww :( that’s too bad, want me to refresh your memory?

  XxBlaineDamage88xX:Umm sure.

  I am getting sent a picture file, it’s loading.

  It pops up and it’s a picture of a man naked from the waist down sitting at a computer desk.

  I responded back to them.

  XxBlaineDamage88xX:Who the fuck is the and what the fuck do you think you’re doing?

  SoccerDude2k1:Haha you remember now don’t you ;)

  XxBlaineDamage88xX:DON’T YOU EVER FUCKING MESSAGE ME AGAIN YOU PERVERT!

  SoccerDude2k1:You used to love these conversations Blaine.

  SoccerDude2k1:What’s wrong, you don’t like me anymore? :(

  XxBlaineDamage88xX:That’s it you fucking pervert I’m reporting you to the cops.

  The chat window goes silent for a minute before it pops back up.

  SoccerDude2k1:You don’t want to do that, Blaine.

  Another picture begins to load. It’s screenshots from prior chat logs that they had dated from 2002.

  I began to skim through the chat logs and I can’t believe what I am reading.

  SoccerDude2k1 sends me another message.

  SoccerDude2k1:You don’t remember saying those things to me Blaine? You don’t remember sending me those pictures of yourself? You are just as guilty as I am. You created those pictures, all I did was look at them. You are just as guilty as me, you would go to prison just like me. That’s creating and distributing child pornography Blaine, think about it.

  I was a 13 year old kid and the fucking pedophile took advantage of me. Now all these years later he wants to blackmail me? He was grooming me to become some sick twisted psychopath like him and I forgot all about it. There is no way in hell I was going to let him get away with this, I couldn't let him. I shout out loud at the wall.

  I turn off my computer and unplug it from the wall.

  “Fuck the guy, fuck the sick freak” I slammed my keyboard on the ground and walked away.

  I spent the next several hours doing everything I could to try and forget about the experience.

  I take a shower to wash off the dirt from all of the boxes and all of the dead bugs, skin cells and other dirty things in the garage of my parent’s house.

  I go to my bedroom to get dressed and then walk into the dining room. I opened my laptop that was sitting on the dining room table and ordered a pizza. I walked to the living room, turned on Netflix and plop down on the couch.

  I take a look at the computer in disgust and I grab the computer off of the coffee table and set it on the floor. I didn’t want that fucking thing anywhere in my line of sight.

  I spent a couple minutes browsing through hundreds of titles and genres unable to really calm my mind. I am looking through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime pretty much every streaming service I had and I can’t find anything to watch, I am just too scatterbrained to find anything of interest to me.

  I hear my doorbell ring.

  “The pizza is here already? It's only been like five minutes” I say to myself out loud as I answer the door.

  Standing at my door is a man in his early forties probably, he's balding on top of his head and with a long greasy looking ponytail, he is extremely overweight and he has on thick framed glasses. He's wearing a blank gray t-shirt and black sweatpants.

  He looks exactly like what you would expect when you think of like a forty year old man who spends all of his time playing video games in his parents basement. The only reason he leaves is because his parents forced him to work a few hours a week to pay for his share of the internet bill.

  He digs in the bag and presents me with the pizza box with an eerie grin on his face.

  "Blaine. here is your pizza sir" he says.

  "Umm, thanks, …. But how'd you know my name?"

  "It's on the receipt Blaine" he says and gives a wink to me.

  I felt extremely uneasy about that interaction as I handed the driver a five dollar bill as a tip and I shut the door.

  "Have a goodnight Blaine damage" he faintly says as I shut the door on him.

  "Did he just say what I thought he said?" I think to myself.

  I reopen the door and step out onto my porch. I looked down the street for any headlights or taillights but I didn't see anything. Nothing and no one is moving, everything is completely quiet.

  I set the pizza box down on my porch and I walked out to the street.

  “That isn’t funny whoever you are. Come back here and say that to my face you fucking coward” I shout out into the empty streets. “That’s what I thought you fucking fat, loser, virgin pussy. Go back to jacking off to pictures of children’s dicks in your parents basement” I scream out down the road.

  I stand in the street for a few more seconds looking up and down the street to see if I can find the man's silhouette moving at all.

  I don't see anything except a pair of headlights coming from far away.

  I walk back towards my house and up the stairs of my porch.

  I pick the box up and examine the box. There are no names or company logos or anything on it, just a weird circle and triangle looking drawing. I gave the box a shake and I didn't hear anything.

  I opened the box and it’s empty. I walked to the side of my house and opened the trash can. I threw the pizza box in the trash can and I headed back inside.

  Once I get inside I take a look at my old computer sitting on the floor where I left it.

  “This isn’t a coincidence, it can’t be.” I try to convince myself

  I bend down to pick it up, I carry it over to the hallway closet and throw it inside.

  “It looks like I’m not eating fucking pizza tonight I guess” I go into the kitchen to make a bowl of cereal and walk back to the living room to decide on a movie.

  I hear another knock on my door.

  “Who the hell is that now?”

  I walk to the kitchen and I grab a butcher's knife out of the kitchen drawer.

  The knocking begins to get louder and faster.

  Now the doorbell starts to ring.

  I grip the knife in my right hand and fling the door open with my left hand.

  “Jeez what the hell are you doing with that knife man?”

  It's another pizza delivery man, only this time it's a twenty year old kid in uniform. He’s maybe six feet tall with greasy blonde hair and few blemishes on his face. He has a really faint mustache like he’s been trying to grow it for twenty years and hasn’t had much success up to that point.

  “Why the hell would you knock and ring the doorbell like that?” I ask the kid.

  “You were taking forever and I was supposed to get off of work like twenty minutes ago dude.” the kid tells me.

  I stare blankly at the guy a
nd I lower the knife.

  “Here's your pizza sir” the kid says to me.

  He hands me the pizza and I take it from him and I shut the door.

  "No tip!? Thanks a lot you dick" the delivery guy shouts as he walks back to his car.

  I open the door and scream an apology to the delivery driver as I watch the driver get back in his car and sped off down the street.

  I wanted to tell him about the phantom delivery driver before him that received his tip. I thought about it for about five seconds before I realized how absolutely crazy that would sound.

  “See that is a perfectly normal interaction, that is how everything is supposed to happen when you order pizza” I told myself in a calming tone.

  “That first guy must have made a mistake. He must have come to the wrong house or something, Blaine Damage was just a coincidence.” “After the way I stiffed that kid now I can never order from the place again. But at least I won't have to eat fucking cereal for dinner again tonight I guess” I tell myself.

  I examined the box, I opened it up and it’s just what I ordered: Pepperoni and banana peppers.

  I set the box onto the coffee table where the computer just was and I go into the kitchen, I open the fridge and grab a beer. I open it and chug it and I put the empty bottle on the counter.

  I breathe a sigh of relief as my stomach intensely starts to growl.

  I grab another beer out of the fridge and I walk back into the living room. I grab a slice of pizza out of the pizza box and take a bite.

  I settled back down onto my couch and put on a Netflix comedy special.

  I should have just fucking eaten at Mother and Father’s house.

  Chapter Nine

  “That’s funny, you still do love ordering Pepperoni and Banana Pepper on your pizza, I still think that's kind of a weird combination, I guess you’ve just always been weird.” Megan tells Blaine.

  “That was all that you took away from what I just told you?” Blaine asks Megan.

  “Well that and the fact that if I ever try to prank you or something I know that there is a fairly decent chance that I’m going to get stabbed”

  “I’m glad you are taking all of this so lightly Megan”

  “Oh, stop being so serious Blaine, keep going with your story.”

  I hear a loud crash coming from what sounds like my kitchen and I am startled awake.

  I jumped out of my bed and I grabbed a baseball bat from behind my bedroom door. I rush to the kitchen and I don't see anything, the beer bottle is exactly where I left it and the fridge is completely closed.

  I look outside my kitchen window and I think I see a silhouette of someone jumping my fence and running around to the front side of my house where my living room is. I ran out of the kitchen and into the living room. I ran to the front door and made sure that it was locked. I look out of my living room window and I don't see anything. I unlock the door, open the front door and look out to the porch but don't see anything.

  I take a step out and I see the same silhouette run out from the bushes around the other side of the house and they take off down the street.

  “Get the fuck back here” I shout to the person.

  I go back inside and shut the door behind me. I relock the door and look out of the window again. I set the bat down beside the door.

  I hear another loud crash coming from my bathroom.

  I rush into the bathroom and see the bathroom window is open. I look out of the window and I see someone jumping over my fence behind my house and running away.

  I can make out a small description of the person as they are running through my neighbors yard and the flood light comes on.

  It is the same person that was at my door earlier.

  I looked around my bathroom and taped to my bathroom mirror is a piece of paper. I take the piece of paper off of the mirror and look closely at it. It's a print out of another chat log between me and SoccerDude2k1.

  I rip the piece of paper off of the mirror and I start to read through the chat log.

  SoccerDude2k1:I am willing to pay you for any pictures you can get me?

  XxBlaineDamage88xX: What kind of pictures do you want?

  SoccerDude2k1:Boys and girls, naked preferably but underwear will do. I will pay more for nakedness.

  XxBlaineDamage88xX: How old do they have to be?

  SoccerDude2k1: Well how old are you ?

  XxBlaineDamage88xX: I'm twelve you know that.

  SoccerDude2k1: We all like looking at you Blaine. So find some around your age then.

  XxBlaineDamage88xX: And you will pay me?

  SoccerDude2k1: Not only will we pay you, eventually we will let you join our club. Would you like that Blaine? Would you like to be a part of our club?

  XxBlaineDamage88xX: Yes! No one around here really likes me. I want to be part of your club!

  SoccerDude2k1: Then you know what you have to do.

  I storm out of the bathroom with the piece of paper in hand and continue to look around the rest of the house. I go through all of the rooms and make sure that all of the windows are locked, I make sure all of the doors are locked and I head into the kitchen.

  I turn on the oven and light the piece of paper on fire and I throw it in the sink. I watch as all of the words on the paper begin to burn away. All that is left of the paper is ash now and I turn the sink on to put out the flames.

  I walk back out into the living room and I notice that my old computer is sitting back on top of the coffee table. I know that I threw it in the closest earlier because I was eating pizza right there before I went to sleep.

  I pace back and forth for several minutes before I plug the computer in. I stared at the blank screen trying to decide what I should do.

  I know that if I log on and confront the man all of this is probably going to escalate. Is that what I really want? But I can’t just keep letting the asshole keep messing with him.

  I take the computer and throw it back into the closet.

  To hell with it, he isn’t worth my time. I’ll just throw the thing out in the morning and that will be the end of it. I’ll call the cops, I’ll get a home security system. I’ll buy a gun and everything will go away.

  I felt better knowing that I had a concrete plan in place.

  I walk out of the living room back to the bedroom and lay down.

  I am laying in bed trying for several minutes to fall back asleep but the computer keeps flashing through my head. I can’t sleep when that is constantly beating into my head.

  I get out of bed and walk back into the living room.

  I walk over to the closet and I take all of the pieces of the computer back out. I assembled it all again and I plugged it in.

  I take a seat on the couch in front of the computer and I log into the instant messenger program.

  No one is online.

  I sit and stare at my computer for a half hour.

  Still nothing.

  I decided to finally give up and walk back to my bedroom.

  Once I reach my bedroom door I hear the sound of a door opening coming from my computer.

  I walked back to the computer and as soon as I sat down I heard a door closing.

  SoccerDude2k1 is offline.

  I sat there for another few minutes before I gave up again.

  I walked away from the computer and once again when I got to my bedroom door I heard the sound of a door opening coming from my computer.

  I ran back to the computer to sit down.

  I hear the sound of a door closing again.

  SoccerDude2k1 is offline.

  I bring up my away messages and create a new one.

  “I know you were at my house. If I see you on my property again I won’t hesitate to fucking kill you. The cops have been called about you trespassing and they are making regular patrols to make sure you don’t come back.”

  My doorbell rings and I jump up.

  I opened my front room door and taped to the door is another print out.<
br />
  I take a close look at the print out.

  It's a screenshot.

  It's a screenshot of my away message.

  On the back there was a symbol that looked like an upside down triangle inside a circle and there was a cross going through it, the same one that was on the pizza box. Only this time with the words “Order of Azoth” written underneath.

  BEEP BEEP BEEP

  I startle myself awake.