Hastin woke up the next morning as usual at the same time. He did everything as per his norm until he suddenly remembered about the app. He ran towards his bedroom and took the mobile in his hand.
He unlocked it and found his mobile being flooded by messages from the app. He slowly read one by one while munching on his breakfast.
Few messages he found were totally funny as the app kept on giving the impression that there were real people locked in that abandoned warehouse. How could an app gather real people from all over the world? Whoever created this app must have lost his mind thinking everything happening in an imaginative world is real.
But this feeling is really good as it would make the story which he was going to write will seem totally real! He thought that he must appreciate the app's effort for this. He was even ready to give the app a five-star rating if Hastin was asked to provide.
Hastin then relaxedly walked towards his writing desk and opened the laptop. He looked outside the window at the dark sky. Even today the whole area was filled with darkness and he actually liked it.
He hoped every day it would be a dark sky around his mansion. He searched for the birds that messed his room yesterday. He found nothing, not even a single bird was visible.
He walked around the table to open the windows and check. He saw a giant vulture devouring a dead animal. He wondered how such a huge animal entered his property.
Before building the wall around the property, his father had made sure to remove all the animals. That was really weird as the vulture could have never lifted such a huge animal and brought it inside his mansion!
Now he was left with some extra cleaning work outside. The giant bird mercilessly pecked on the dead animal. It sure left some dirt on his front yard which looked horrible.
He hoped that the giant bird would consume everything so that he would not have much to clean. Right at that moment, his phone raised an alarm with a terrifying sound. He jumped up in surprise.
Hastin ran towards his phone and picked it up. It's one of the app messages and it sounded just like code RED.
'One of the victims escaped! CODE RED! So we now have only four left in the warehouse'
"Come on! I can simply imagine that no one escaped and will continue to write the story" Hastin replied relaxedly.
'No! We will wait until another one is chosen'
He wondered why they had to wait. He could just write the story perfectly with the five people he would envisage. The app was putting too much stress on itself to make everything factual.
Suddenly, he remembered that he did not complete the task that was assigned by the app yesterday. He went towards his laptop in a hurry and opened the word document to type the outline.
Without any prior notice, an almost realistic vulture came on the laptop screen and screeched. Hastin jumped up in terror and his chair fell down. Looking at the vulture which looked almost similar to the one he just saw outside the window, he froze for a minute. Before he could come out of his trepidation, a message popped out on his laptop.
'Is the outline for the story ready?'
"Oh! Slaughter, we can even communicate from my laptop? That is so cool" Hastin grinned.
'Yes, we can Quietus! But did you finish the outline?'
After he sensed that the question could not be avoided anymore, Hastin replied,
"Obviously! It is all in my head and I could just start to write anytime now"
'Then please type the outline on your laptop'
He now understood that it was now difficult to escape from his lie. Still, he wanted to give a try before he could accept the defeat. He decided to come up with the outline on the go.
But once he put his hands on the laptop, truly he could think of nothing! NOTHING! Nothing at all! It's blank! Completely blank!
'Looks like we could not finish it on time for the next batch with your speed', a message popped up on the screen.
The next minute a warning message appeared.
'Warning:Error: Punishment: Quietus, as a punishment for not finishing the task, you would go and clean your front yard outside. The slayer had already finished with his meal. And the yard now requires a complete makeover. CHOP-CHOP!!!'
"Slayer? Do you mean the giant vulture which I saw outside on the yard? Was it your pet? Who are you? How do you know about the vulture on my front yard preying on the dead animal and why is that even here, with an insentient animal on my property?" He Catechized.
'Warning: Error: Punishment: One month reduced from the free trial and half views deducted from your account.'
'Current offer: You are now left with four months of free trial and twenty-five thousand views'
"What the hell? What did I do now? Why did you reduce my offer once again?" Hastin who almost lost his temper now shouted at the app.
Until now he was taking the app as some lifeless bot that was helping him with his story. Now he realized it was not an exanimate but a real menacing creature. He suddenly got a bad feeling about all the things happening around him.
Slaughter spoke with its eerie voice,
'You are not allowed to ask us any questions. All you have to do is follow the instructions which we give you and accept the punishment when you do not follow the rules and regulations. This is as per the rule which you agreed upon.'
"Slaughter, take me to the rules and regulations page" Hastin yelled.
'Sorry, Quietus! This page is still under construction, I will notify you once it is available.'
He kicked the chair and turned to leave frustrated. Slaughter issued a warning to him at that time.
'Quietus, please follow what the app says in order to avoid further punishments.'
He closed his eyes and thought what was wrong with him to put himself in so much torture. Wasn't he living a better life before? All he could have done is lived gaily with the inheritance left behind by his parents.
But, no! He wanted to do something thrilling or else it felt like he was not living his life to the fullest anymore. Fine!Whatever! Who cares about what that app actually wants? Until he finds that this can give him the feel of liveliness, he would go ahead doing anything that app wants.
Once he feels that the app was not up to his mark, then he would simply uninstall it. Again, he forgot he had an agreement with the app that he could not uninstall the app for the next six months.
He went into his storehouse grudgingly and picked up the cleaning supplies. Everything was fine until he saw what the vulture ate before. Even though he had never seen another human being for a long time now, he could still recognize one.
The vulture named Slayer ate almost all the flesh out and only the skeleton of the human was left behind. He could not even tell if it was a male or female. Chills ran down his spine and he dropped down.
He later got up within a few seconds and ran back inside the house. Hastin locked the door tightly as he imagined that the skeleton he saw just a second before was chasing behind him.
Shit! Shit! What did I get myself into? Why're there human remains in my yard?
Hastin slid down the door and sat there for quite a few minutes. Then he lifted himself up at a slow pace after putting on great efforts and walked into his room almost lifelessly. He saw a message popped up on the screen. He was sure he had shut the laptop before leaving his room.
But now it was wide opened and the spider was crawling up and down on the screen impatiently. He felt fear for the first time in his whole life. There was one more warning message displayed with the timer on the laptop screen.
'You have twenty-five minutes left to clean your yard! Tick-Tock...'
He understood that if he does not do as the app says, he might be devoured by the giant bird. Just like the human in his yard who right now had only the skeleton left out of his whole body.
He ran down the stairs swiftly and pushed the door open. He wore gloves and tried to lift the skeleton with a stick. But it slid down and broke into pieces.
He brought a huge garbage bag and put the human remains into it. He tied it tightly and kept it aside. He first put some sand on the blood-covered ground. Then slowly Hastin dug up the whole place. He filled the dirt in another garbage bag.
He got some mud from behind and covered the hole in front of his house. He decided to order some grass patches to cover the whole area. Then he lifted the two garbage bags and walked into the dark forest behind his mansion.
Once he was sure that he was far enough, he dug a hole deep enough to dump the two bags. He pushed both the bags with his legs into the pit and buried them. Then, Hastin walked towards his mansion exhausted.