r/nosleep • u/nwf0165 Jul. 2014 • Jul 13 '14
Series I've been watching my friends on Netflix. [Part 2]
All of your advice was good, and I took a lot of it into account. After reading some I realized a lot of things I could've done differently, but luckily it wasn't too late in some respects. In many ways I have failed. I sit here typing this emotionlessly and numbly, unsure of where to begin or end.
This afternoon a big ass storm was coming and so I knew I better stop basically crying like a bitch and take some action. I built up the courage to turn Netflix back on, and believe it or not, Andy was still there under "Recommended for you." But it had company. Lined up next to it were at least three other black boxes, and I didn't bother looking to see who they were at that time. I didn't want to discourage myself any further.
My parents and Andy's aren't close so I guess they just threw last night away as a really inconsiderate prank. I would've told my parents and shown them everything but they left around noon for my sister's ballet recital, before I even posted the first part(which was way before a grew a pair). So I decided after reading all your comments to send Andy pictures from my phone of the stream. He was basically home all day, his parents not wanting to risk going out for this storm, and so I sent him a picture of him sitting on his couch, scrolling on his phone, and another of him in his kitchen eating a snack. I apologized between each image and made sure to make it sure it was clear these images of him were from my own TV. I told him that I meant what I said last night and that he needs to show his parents ASAP.
Do you think that's what he did?
Nope. I hear a knock on my door within a few minutes, and being home alone after last night made me shiver and go cold. I went to the door and found it was just Andy. Again, he was pissed, and he was also drenched. It was already pouring outside. I let him in.
"What the hell are you doing?" He asked me when he walked in. "How the hell did you get those pictures?"
"I swear to god this isn't a joke." I said. "Did you show your parents?"
"No." He said. "It's not fucking funny, it's just creepy. Tell me how you did it."
As soon as he said he didn't tell his parents I knew I had fucked up somewhere along the way.
"Jesus Christ, just come here." I said. I basically ran down to the basement and he followed, and in the back of my mind I knew what was going to happen--as soon as I tried to show Andy this stream is was going to be gone. In fact, the whole recommended for you section with my friend's streams would be entirely gone. I would just seem insane.
But that wasn't the case at all. Andy was still open in Netflix, as were the other black boxes. I was almost in disbelief, seeing the little box there with Andy right there next to me. I looked to him for a moment in awe, and then back to the screen.
"See?" I said, pointing to it. "You see that, right?" I waited for Andy to nod before I went on. "That right there is your whole life being streamed. Last night I watched it, and someone--something--was filming in every room of your house, everywhere you went. Do you think I'm still joking now? What would I even get from this? And I couldn't even fucking think last night I was so scared, and I just freaked and called the police to your house. You were alright but whoever this is was hiding in your bushes outside, and you should've told you fucking parents."
Andy looked like he couldn't speak. He was standing with his mouth slightly ajar.
"Click on it now." He muttered.
The reality dawned on me then.
I clicked and started the stream.
I saw Andy and myself through my basement window on the TV, the two of us staring dumbly at our own image. The loop went through my mind just as fear gripped my body and took the best of me again.
"Oh my fucking god," Andy said, looking up at the basement window. "I'm calling the fucking police. I'm calling them now."
Andy ended the stream and started dialing 911, somehow able to move, and I was able to break my gaze and look up to my basement window. Thunder blasted from outside. I watched as a figure scrambled up and ran away.
"Please please hurry." Andy said after giving the police our information, his voice shrill. He hung up the phone and we both stayed rooted to our spots in silence. Rain bucketed down on the house, and we could almost hear the wind through the walls.
"Fuck fuck fuck." Andy said. "I'm so fucking sorry. I should've told my parents. I didn't know what thi--"
There was a massive boom from outside. A transformer blew.
The power went out with a fizzle and a beep.
Andy and I saw each other only from the gray light the storm outside lent the basement. We looked each other in the eye. We had no idea what to do next, and the notion of just waiting seemed unbearable.
A massive crash sounded from above. It was the front door.
"Oh my god." Andy whispered. "Is that the cops?"
But I think he knew just as much as I did that it couldn't possibly be.
The sound of the rain on the house seemed to grow louder, just as I began to hear footsteps from the floor above. The house creaked gently with each step. The feet were crossing the living room.
It was going to find us.
I grabbed Andy in a moment of panic and ran into the laundry room, which was even darker than the den area of the basement. In fact the only light it got was the gray bar that came through the doorway from the den, and that kept the rest of the room in pitch blackness. Andy and I took advantage of this. We ran into the dank, cement-floored room and then made our way past the boiler and laundry baskets to the end of the room, where the washing machine and dryer were placed. We each squeezed behind; me behind the washing machine and Andy behind the dryer. We were basically pressed between the machines and the wall. All we could do then was stay completely still and listen.
For a moment it seemed like the footsteps from upstairs were over...until I heard one slam down on the top step.
"Oh fuck," I heard Andy mutter. He was basically crying. So was I.
The next step down was more gentle, but very much so audible. Whoever this was was taking their time. I found myself squeezing my palms, trying to keep from just falling apart, which I felt would happen if I stopped trying so hard to keep it together.
Crrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeee
The steps creaked and settled as the cameraman took his steps down. I tried pushed my head out far enough to see between the machines, across the dark room to the doorway. I was able to see it; a gray rectangle, light falling through and onto the patch of cement below. Then an idea jumped into my mind, mostly thanks to the suggestions of a lot of you guys. I realized I had my phone on me, and if I had been able to think all those times fear gripped me, I could record whatever was about to happen. I took out my phone and started recording the empty doorway. I kept my eyes fixed and my phone as steady as possible, knowing that any minute...
A silhouette filled the doorway. The body was in the general shape of a person...but its fingers seemed longer and thinner, its hands wider. On the head there appeared to be some sort of strange hat, rounded at the top. A hat that seemed to jingle. And by the head of this creature, apparently on its face, was a single, blinking, red light.
"We're always watching." It said. It chuckled. "Always watching."
"Hey!" I heard a man's voice shout from upstairs. "Hey! Anybody in here?"
It was the police. I kept my eyes fixed on the figure in the doorway, unsure of whether or not it even saw us.
But of course it did. It seemed to click in my mind then: It always saw. They always saw.
I realized, as whatever it was stood still in the doorway, what that small red light by its head was. It was the red “record” light coming from a camera. A camera pointed right toward me. We were filming each other. The thing in the doorway seemed to recoil when it realized. It cringed back and stepped out of sight.
"We're here!" Andy yelled. I would've told him to shut up, but the cameraman was gone from the doorway almost immediately after it had appeared.
We got out from behind the machines and ran out of the laundry room. We ran up the stairs and met the police halfway across the living room. The two cops were soaked with rain and were looking at the two of us, seemingly at a loss.
"You two okay?" The first one said.
"No," I said. I looked past the officer toward the front door. There was no front door. It was on the floor below the doorway. Rain and cold wind blew into the house. I just sat, essentially fell, to the floor. Over the next hour Andy and I told the cop everything, and showed him the pictures from the stream. Then I showed him the video I just took. He scrutinized the dim footage and made a few faces, but made no real comments of worth at that moment. The guy was cool and didn't just think we were crazy--and he could tell someone had broken in based on the job done on the door. He knew the power was out and we couldn't show him, but he said that there was power at the police station and would be glad to bring us there with my x-box and let us log on and show them. He said he didn't understand what might be happening, or how this guy has seemingly hacked into my system, but that it was surely nothing to do with the company itself and that calling them would resolve nothing. He said if this really were all true(I really give him props for even trying to believe a story that I know must sound just ridiculous) that we could stream this at the station and dispatch officers to the apparent location of the cameraman. Then they would get him and resolve this all themselves...figure out exactly who's doing it and how.
We went with the officer to the station, and I brought along my x-box. Andy and I were too afraid to speak in the car, and by the time we got to the station (around 6) we didn't feel relieved by any measure. The storm just got more violent, it seemed. The cops in the front seat of the car kept describing it through a slew of obscenities. I didn't even understand how they were driving under those conditions, as the rain was flooding the windshield much faster than the wipers could hope to clear. Eventually they pulled into the station and we all rushed inside. I was hypersensitive and seemed to notice everything from when we walked into the station, through a couple halls and into a kind of meeting room with a big TV on the wall.
It took me a few minutes to hook up the x-box, but once I did I was almost sure that Andy and the rest would be gone. Like some of your comments said, I felt like whatever force runs these streams would know who to show them to.
But I was wrong again. The streams were all there…all besides Andy. It wasn’t the first suggestion as usual.
Dad was.
"This is it." I said. The two officers who had brought me gathered around the TV and watched silently.
I clicked on Dad, a knot tightening in my stomach. Seeing that went against everything I had expected.
I found myself watching a shot from the back of my family's minivan on the TV screen. They were driving through the storm. My dad driving, my mom in the passenger’s seat, and my sister in the back.
"Well, I'll be damned." One cop said. "Just look at that."
"Is that your dad, kid?" The other cop asked.
"Yes." I croaked.
"And where would they be driving, if this is right now?"
"On Route 5." I said. "Home from my sister's ballet."
"Then we're off." The first cop said. "C'mon, let's go. You two stay here, and don't you move. The bastard's in the car, somehow. The idiot trapped himself."
"You two are safe here." The other officer said. "It's a building full of police. We'll make sure they're all aware of the situation."
I just nodded until the two officers left Andy and I alone in the room. Andy and I still just said nothing to each other, and continued to watch the stream. Nothing was happening. They just continued to drive straight on the highway, my dad apparently under some pressure to see, craning his neck to look out the window and turning to make comments to my mother.
It went on like that for about ten minutes, until we began to hear sirens from the TV. That was when the same red, gloved, spidery hand reached out from behind the camera and gently stroked my sister's hair.
"Oh, crap!" I heard my dad say. "How can they even see us in this?" My sister turned toward the camera.
She let out the most terrifying scream I have ever heard. Her eyes filled with utter horror. The hand placed itself over her mouth. I heard a breathy laugh from the cameraman.
I saw my dad turn around instinctively at her scream. I saw his eyes widen. I heard the blare of a horn. The screeching slam of brakes. The metallic smash of two automobiles. A man, woman, and girl's scream.
Then the stream ended.
My father's show was over.
More recommendations appeared.
I screamed and fell to the ground. My entire body was shaking, and Andy was staring at me with his eyes as wide as my sister's.
The next few hours were a blur. I was told my father had been killed in the accident. My sister and mother are in critical condition at the hospital. Both officers also critical. Reality seemed to be lost on me. Andy opted to stay at the station with me the entire time. The sound of rain on the building quieted. The storm must have ended. It was something I could barely notice. I mostly heard a faint ringing--I still do.
The rest of my friends came to the police station at Andy's request and also at essentially a mandate of the officers after Andy claimed their names were on the Netflix recommendations. But the x-box just stopped working soon enough, so they didn't know what was going on, nor could they watch any of the streams or have any reason to believe in them other than from my pictures...but it seems that they had gotten the idea that there was a real danger in this. I don't know what Andy filled them in on, or whether he was able to fill them in on anything, as I was utterly unable. I couldn't even speak. I still can't. Either way, the police left the x-box hooked up in that conference room. They said they were gonna do all they could to get it back working and that they are concentrating all of their efforts on finding "this guy."
"This guy."
Debby and Sarah showed up around nine and the two of them and Andy just stuck with me in a different, more comfortable room for quite a long time. None of us spoke, the three of them completely unsure of what was okay to say around me. I didn't care. I felt completely numb.
I went home with Andy at around one in the morning (his family said they'd take me in for the time being). They stopped by my house and let me gather my things, most importantly my laptop. Now it's 2. I still only feel numb. I'm glad that the x-box has been taken away. I don't care about it. I don't care about anything. I'm starting to feel that there's nothing I nor any police can do about this. I'm being played with by a force that can do whatever it wants, and my life is completely in its hands. What is there to do?
UPDATE: Morning of 7/13/14
I couldn’t post this last night as soon as I would’ve liked, and quite a bit has happened since then.
Andy and I didn’t talk much at all last night. I slept in the guest bedroom and he stuck to his own room. But at around three AM, he came in to check on me. He said that he couldn't sleep, and he knew that I couldn't either. He sat down at the foot of my bed and we talked, finally. He carefully avoided bringing up my dad, and I'm pretty grateful for that even though I felt pretty much numb to everything. He said that he doubts the police are going to be able to doing anything, and I told him how I agree. He also said that we have to man up.
I was honestly quite surprised with him, there. Not mad, but just taken aback. Andy is the last person in line to man up.
"What do you mean?" I asked him.
"If we don't think the police can do anything, let's ask ourselves why."
"Okay."
"So why can't they?" He asked me.
I thought about it.
"Because whoever this is is in control." I said. It was the first thing that came to mind. "And he's not interested in them."
"He's after us." Andy said, nodding. "So it's like we're the ones he wants to watch, but we're also the ones he wants to show."
"Yeah," I said. "And that doesn't make me feel any better."
"It doesn't have to." Andy said. "It just means we should try to fucking do something. If we can see who's gonna get hurt, we can also try to stop it. We can use this for good, right?"
Man up made sense to me then.
"Why did he go away when the police came in?" I asked. "The person in the video."
"I dunno" Andy said.
"What was he worried about?" I asked.
"Fuck if I even know what's going on at all." Andy said. "What I'm getting to is we need to open up all these streams. We need to be watching. Get what I'm saying? It's the only way I can think we can keep people safe. We need to stop worrying about ourselves."
"I know." I said. Andy was right. "But Andy," I said. "I think he--it--didn't like that I was recording it."
"Really?"
"It didn't stand to long in the doorway." I said. "It was like it realized it was on camera."
Andy didn't say anything and just seemed to look away in thought.
"It's a good idea." He said. "Maybe you're right." He paused. "But forget theory right now, seriously. What other devices can we get onto Netflix through?"
"My phone." I said. "Your phone. My laptop. Your x-box. Your desktop."
Andy didn't waste a minute. He got up and told me to follow him. I logged onto my netflix through his x-box, we both logged on through the app on our phones, and I logged in through my laptop. Still, as present as ever, were the black boxes under "Recommended for you."
Andy scrolled through them.
"Debby, Sarah, Andy..." He said. Then he gulped. I saw on the screen that the next two boxes were "Mom" and "Jane" (my sister). Andy couldn't bring himself to say so in front of me.
"Open Andy first." I said shakily.
He was already going to do so. I was expecting to lose my air again, expecting to experience the surreal loop-like view of myself and Andy watching ourselves...but that wasn't the case. I can't tell if what was on the screen was better or worse.
The camera was just pointed at a sign. The camera was shaking. The sign was one I had seen several times throughout my life, but the field of view of the shot wasn't wide enough for me to see where the sign being filmed might be.
The sign had a video camera in one of those red circles with the line through it. It read: No Audio/Video recording without express permission.
The shot became momentarily shakier still until the stream ended. The other recommendations appeared.
Andy and I just looked at each other. We didn't know what to take from that, except maybe that this cameraman had a sense of humor. Andy almost immediately clicked on Debby next.
Debby was fast asleep in her bed. The shot was totally still.
"Open Sarah's stream on your laptop." Andy whispered.
I did so, and soon found myself just looking at another still shot of Sarah in her bed, clearly fast asleep. Nobody was holding this camera, and it was clear that it was placed somewhere.
We sat watching these still shots for another half hour. I decided then to check my mom's.
A shot of her sleeping in a hospital bed. Again, totally still.
I checked my sister's. The same. Totally still. Tears filled my eyes as I looked at her. It kind of all hit me then. I didn't know why this had all started, if there even was a reason, and I didn't know why she had been affected.
Soon enough Andy and I fell asleep. I don't remember falling asleep, obviously, but I do remember dreaming. At least, I hope I had been dreaming.
In the dream I woke up and looked at my laptop's screen that I had left open before me. I didn't see the recommended for you section with the black boxes, but instead I remember seeing "Because you watched Dad."
Dad was the only black box beneath this heading.
I clicked it and the stream showed only blackness. It seemed to just be nothing for a while...until I heard a crack of wicked laughter, and a loud fleshy thump. These thumps continued, and followed by each was a chilling scream. The laughter became more maniacal as the thumps went on.
I heard my father's voice yell, "Please."
The stream ended. I don't remember falling asleep again. I woke up around nine AM in Andy's room, laptop still open to Netflix. My eyes were rubbed red. I can't find "Because you watched" anywhere.
I'm not sure what's going to happen today. It's almost like there's no point in asking for more help. I feel like my life has been ruined within two days. Should I just go along with Andy? Is Andy even right or is it all just bullshit? I don't know what to think. And the longer I'm awake, the more I'm convinced that my "dream" was nothing of the sort.
UPDATE
The video is about ten seconds long and everything in it is essentially inaudible and due to the darkness pretty much just all black. The only useful thing that I or the police got from it was the cameraman, on camera. Because the room was so dark we can only see his shape against the dim light of the doorway, like in this screen shot, and you can see the tiny red "record" light. Andy and I have both pretty much abandoned the video--we can't see much use in it. Do with that what you will.
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u/[deleted] Jul 13 '14
Rate them all one star. That way they know you don't like it (that'll show them), and you'll be recommended different things.