It was late, and we were young. Spencer and I were messing about on the computer, looking at hot teenage girls doing stupid stuff on YouTube, then he got an idea, one that no one should think of.
"Hey man, lets check out the Deep Web!" Spencer anxiously fidgeted in her seat, awaiting my response. I hesitated in saying anything. I'd heard the stories, and I know that place is full of things only psychopaths could imagine. But she seemed to disregard my discomfort. "Come on, Zach! It'll be fun!" she said, overly cheery. I glared at her, then finally gave in.
"Okay, fine!" I groaned. She was giddy and excited. She put her foot against my rolling chair, and gave it a kick.
"Really!" I said, irritated that she invaded my computer then claimed the entire screen for herself. I wheeled back over to her, and gave her chair a slight push, but that didn't seem to phase her. Her entire focus was locked onto the screen.
She opened up Reddit, then logged in. Instantly, dozens of chat boxes appeared. All with links and pictures, advertisements and messages. She began to close all of the chat boxes, but one caught my eye.
"Stop!" I exclaimed, slapping her hand away from the mouse. She looked at me with spite.
"What! I know where we're going!" she hissed, trying to push my hand away, but I refused to let go of the mouse. "Seriously, let go!" she said, this time with more hostility. She started to argue more, but I stopped her before she could go any further.
"Look!" I said, pointing to the chat-box that was displayed. Her eyes widened and she stopped trying to fight me. There was an obnoxiously long link in the chat, followed by a gruesome picture. Words can't describe what it showed. I looked over to Spencer, who was completely still in her chair. Her naturally blush face was now bone white and expressionless.
"I, I don't think we should do this anymore," I stuttered. Spencer eagarly nodded in agreement. She clicked out of the screen to close out of the chat box, but it didn't seem to work. She clicked the exit again, but still, the chat box remained on our screen.
"Seriously, close it!" I hissed. I started to feel a deep fear resonating throughout my body. One you get when you know something horrible is about to happen. She smashed the mouse button, desperately trying to close the window, but nothing we did seemed to work. By now, she was in tears and I was ready to rip the power cord from the wall and hurl it out of the window, then the mouse started to move on its on. Now, I was as bone white as Spencer was.
The mouse slowly hovered over to the link, then clicked on it. Several different windows popped up, all of them more disturbing than the other. Images flashed, horrifying pictures of girls, younger and older blind folded, with slits all along their bodies. My heart started to pound, like it was ready to burst from my chest and land in my hands. I pushed Spencer's chair out of the way and spam clicked the mouse button as fast as I could, trying to close the continuous stream of pop-up windows that appeared. New websites appeared every time. Young boys no older than twelve were being used as slaves. Women, bound with rope, blind folded and bloody. I was petrified with fear. Unable to move a muscle, I sank back into my chair. Then, a pure black window appeared in the center of the screen, and all of the other windows closed.
"Spence," I whispered softly. She stopped crying, and slid her chair next to mine. She snatched my hand from the desk and clasped it between hers. She squeezed so tightly, it felt as if the bones were cracking beneath the skin. We shook in our seats, then everything got worse.
The black screen gradually faded into a crystal clear picture of the two of us. Bile rose to the back of my throat, but I managed to choke it down. Spencer leaped from her chair and started screaming. She fell to her knees, then backed herself into the closest corner. I tried to close out of the window, but nothing was working. The live feed was replaced by pictures of my family, of my friends. I went to move the mouse, but it sat frozen in the middle of the screen. I started to feel light headed, then bright red words scrolled across the screen.
My address printed across the top of the monitor, then the names of my parents, and my siblings followed. I shook with fear, then the entire screen went black. The only words that were left, were "See you soon."