Hastin sat on his chair and started to type the story 'Deathly App'. He wrote everything which had happened to him until now as his first chapter. The app scanned the chapter and a message appeared on the screen.
'Stop playing around and start with a real horror story'
"Slaughter, I think this is already scary enough and has a new vibe to it. Tell your boss that no one would have written such a story until now. He would not even have to put any effort to draw the audience towards my book. Just wait and watch how it becomes popular in just a few hours after I post it online. Anyways, as per the agreement, your boss is not supposed to interfere with the story flow!" He primed.
'Are you challenging the app?...' Before Slaughter could say anymore, the app silenced it.
A message popped up in his laptop,
'Very well then, let us go on with your story for now but I want you to write at least twenty thousand words a day. This will be your first mission. The more missions you complete, the more points you can claim. Once you reach a thousand points you will be leveled up and given some special privileges.'
"I do not want any special privileges but I want to see the victims first," he said hurriedly.
He realized that he spoke in a hasty manner, so he coughed lightly. He then explained to the app why he wanted to see the victim, so that he wouldn't raise an alarm and alert the app.
He really wanted to save those people who were held captive by the app. He also needs to gather information about them as well as understand how the app got those people into the abandoned warehouse in the first place.
"To write the story I want to know all the details about the people, or else how can I describe them in my story? Also, I want to know how they were all brought into that place." Hastin tested his luck while trying to control his anxiety.
He hoped that the app would not notice his nervousness when he asked those details. He sweated a lot, almost the back of his shirt got soaked wet. He hid his cold, tingling hands below the desk. His muscles got tensed and the feet became numb.
He licked his dry lips while trying to keep his heart palpitations in check. The waiting time without any response from the app made him gasp for his breath.
His face turned pale after waiting for almost a few minutes. He closed his eyes. Hastin thought he was done for. He waited for either the vulture or snake to pop out of the screen and swallow him alive.
'TING!'
A message popped up on the screen. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the laptop screen. There was no message. Then his eyes saw a bright light on the phone screen.
He unlocked the phone and saw the picture of the victims. They were still lying on the cold floor with empty expressions. Even though their eyes were open, they did not react and almost felt like they were no longer alive.
"Did you already kill them? Then what would I write in my story? That I found dead corpses in the abandoned warehouse!!!" He lost his mind after looking at their lifeless bodies.
'Yes, why not? will it not make the story even more macabre? Aren't you planning to get the audiences just with your crappy writing? Why not write this down and get even more renowned' Slaughter spoke sarcastically.
He opened his mouth to speak but no words could come out of his mouth. He just opened and closed it a few times. His brain was now short-circuited and needed some space to breathe.
He felt like the room was closing on him and he would suffocate if he stayed there even for a second. He rushed out of the room without responding to the slaughter's comment.
He ran upstairs to the rooftop terrace. He plopped down the next second and without him realizing, tears formed on his eyes. He cried his heart out. What did I get myself into? Is there no escape from this hell? Why? Why me?
He stood up and looked around him. The vast dark forest surrounding the mansion never gave him angst before. But now he shivered while he looked at it. He remembered the bones he buried in that forest.
He broke down once again and murmured in a voice, he could not hear himself.
"I am sorry! I am sorry! I am so sorry! I didn't mean it! I did not mean all this to happen! Help me, daddy! Help me! Please! I beg you! Help"
He laid on the cold terrace floor until morning. The next morning when the sun hit his face, he got up. Hastin walked down with a determination to break all the electronic devices in the house to get rid of the app.
But when he went down, he saw a girl sleeping on his bed with a blanket covered until her neck. He walked near his bed to look at her face clearly. He got terrified and hit his leg on the nightstand when he moved back hastily.
Why is she here? Isn't she one of the victims who laid motionless in that photo which that app sent? If she is really dead then does the app once again want me to bury her as well?
No! Never! I am calling the cops! Even if I get arrested falsely, I cannot let the app continue to kill people randomly. She doesn't even look like she was from around here. Her face structure totally looked different and he felt like she might be from some other country.
His father had told him stories of different nations he visited before when he was alive. He used to describe that the skin color and the face structure would have vast differences, even within the same continents. Their beliefs, culture, behavior, languages, and practices differ vastly with each other.
There were even countries that speak multiple languages in each state or region. In one country the slang which was used in the North would differ greatly when you move towards the south.
Hastin moved closer to her so that he could examine her a little more. Her eyes were too small and he thought if he did not know that every human has two eyes. He really would have thought she was born without eyes.
If only the girl knows what he was thinking about her, she would have fought with him for describing her eyes as small.
He leaned even more closer and poked her cheeks. So she is real and I am definitely not imagining her. He tried to poke her cheeks a few more times to make sure that he did not mistake her presence.
Her cheeks were soft and every time he pokes it would go in and come out. She looked pretty and with her eyes closed, she exactly resembled a doll.
After poking her for his heart's content, he stood up. He moved towards his desk to pick up the phone and give the cops a call. He did not want to bother whether she was alive or not. All he wanted to do was get himself out of control from this app.
When he moved near the desk, the app sent him a message. He took a reverse and walked towards the landline phone. He picked up the phone's handset and dialed the emergency number.
The phone was an older model and he had to rotate the number each time he needed to select one. By the time he rotated the last number, a Code Red message tone was alerted.
The call connected but the person on the other end couldn't hear him because of the noise behind him.
"Hello, I would like to make a report!" Hastin said.
"Sir, could you please stop the screeching noise. I cannot hear properly. Hello! Hello! Oh, my ears are gone" the emergency call operator shouted through the call.
"Ok hold on!" Hastin kept the phone's handset down on the side.
Now left with no other option, Hastin moved towards the desk once again. His smart TV automatically switched on and started to play loud music. The operator heard that and pushed the receiver away from her ears. The operator even complained to his colleague about this.
"I asked him to reduce the noise behind him and he went to put on more loud music. I do not know why do these people even call us? To make us deaf?" The operator grunted.
The colleague found something fishy in her statement, so he asked
"Tell me the number from which you received the call. I will check the address and see. Who knows he might be in trouble!"
Once he got the phone number, he pulled out the address and found that it belonged to the mansion which people believed that it was haunted.
"No one lives in this place! Everyone knows that it is a haunted mansion. I don't know why such an old number even exists in our system. Are you sure that is the number you received the call from?" Simon asked questioningly.
"Yes, why would I lie to you?" Saira turned the monitor to show him the number displayed on the screen.
Simon, on the other end, sent an emergency alert to the officer in charge of that area to check the mansion. And also he described the rumors about that mansion along with the call details to them. A police car dispatched towards the mansion to check on the person who made the emergency call.