Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25477067-20150203231831

I have had feedback on this in the past, but I fixed the problems and now I need more feedback.

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(Folded laptop discovered in old,unowned house in the slums of Hollywood. Audio Tapes are property of Los Angeles P.D)

(NOTE: Olvera street has been abandoned for 50 years.)

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I live at 209 Olvera Street in Hollywood, California. Something almost demonic is after me. It seems to like the shadows, but it is definitely getting bolder. I am a relatively normal guy, hiding in his house all day until his luck turns around. My story started four months ago. I was searching for some job applications,and all of a sudden, I stumbled upon a small file titled SOURCECODE01 on a random website. I ignored it for a while, but I started to notice that as I surfed the web, It would pop up at random times in the corners of my pages, such as in a link at the bottom of a gaming page, and so on. Deleting did nothing, and I didn’t want to get a virus on my computer from opening an unknown file. I was getting slightly exasperated with the small, seemingly indestructible file, and the final straw came when I exited the web and found it installed onto my desktop. I gave in and decided to click back to the file’s web-page to read about it and possibly delete it. When I reentered the website into my search box and hit enter, the page could no longer be found. Google and Bing, as well as three other smaller search engines came up black, except of course snippets or code speak in random “learn how-to-code blogs.” I was confused, but it was getting late, so I went out for my evening walk. Maybe an long shutdown would cure my computer.



W hen I got back to my home, I realized my computer had only been in sleep mode this whole time. It started to lag the second I got on the internet. I dug through the computer’s history and task manager in search of something, anything that would be lagging the computer and after that turned up nothing, I rebooted my computer. Upon startup, I was greeted with this scrolling green text, seemingly repeating in endless waves. These symbols looked strangely familiar. I keep a small supply of books by my bedside, and I was recently reading “Common Codes of the Past Two Centuries.” The code I was looking for was on the very first page. It was terrifying to find out what the symbols meant as they were repeating the words”ISEEYOU” over and over again. I called my IT guy, and queried about this strange development. They seemed bored, almost robotic...now that I think about it, even that early, I probably was being manipulated by that..thing. “They” said that they’d send a guy out in the morning to look it over. I went back over and started to close my computer screen.The second it reached 45 degrees, the computer booted up normally, but the sight I was shown when it went to my home screen was worse than the symbols. All my work folders had been deleted and replaced with a single file, in the center of my screen reading:



... --- ..- .-. -.-. . -.-. --- -.. . -.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The Morse code translated to “SOURCECODE01”

<span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">My background had been changed to a live stream of me. I have no idea how the hell that was possible, but as I watched my self, I started to notice shadows behind me that weren’t mine.Whenever I turned around, they would be nothing, a lamp or a chair, moved just a tiny bit, enough to make me paranoid. No matter where I clicked (besides the icon in the center) It would simply make the classic error sound and display a small message:

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">NO

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">It was time to get the hell out. I sprang up, knocking my chair over. I ran from my house and dove into my car. I have a new model car with one of those little touchscreens, and the second I got in, all four doors locked. They shouldn't have been able to physically lock from the inside, but they did, and no matter what I did, I couldn’t open the doors. At this point, I was so terrified that I reared back and was about to break a window, when the car started up and began to pull out of the driveway, upsetting my balance and toppling me into the backseat. As I peeked over the center divide, the little touchscreen powered up and instead of showing the normal “Driver Safety Warning,” it showed a telephone number in pulsing green letters. I’m not going to tell you them because I wouldn’t wish this on anyone else and besides, even repeating that number on a computer could give away my plan to that thing. As we rolled down the driveway, my heart was a single, cold, continuous beat of terror, and the sweat sliding down my neck was copious, as if I was in the middle of an amazonian rainforest. As the reality of the paranormal activity set in, I also realized that whatever force that had been controlling the car was vanished, and the car was rolling slowly down the steep hill that led down my street directly towards what looked to be quite possibly the busiest street in the vicinity. The brakes didn’t work (of course)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">My brain made the connection before my consciousness did, and was already screaming for me to dial the phone number. The force obviously wanted me to call or die, taking possibly at least a few people with me too. After staring in horror down the street for about two minutes, I was jolted back into reacting when the car began picking up speed. I broke and reached for the phone. A cold sense of fatalism had settled over me. I was going to die, I thought. All other noises stopped, as if waiting for my death. The phone ringing was the only thing to be heard.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Someone picked up. His voice was punctuated by the screaming and clattering of the city.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">“There...is..no...end….. ”

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The phone went dead.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">And my world became a nightmare of twisted metal and blood.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">I woke to a world of sirens. The sky was blood red and hazy, the smoke orange and red. I looked to my right, only to nearly spear my eye neatly of a twisted huck of door frame. I was lying in a soft bed of ripped up chair, a small comfort. When I looked down at my feet, I almost threw up.. the details of my injuries, I will spare you.

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">As I lay there, my heart was pounding in my ears like a tribal drum. It took the police two hours to clear the wreckage, and as I waited, I philosophically thought about my life, still in shock. About an hour into my ordeal, the shock ebbed and the pain set in. A flare of pain shot up my spine as I turned my head to the left, and I saw spots. Groaning with the effort, I lifted my head from the fluff of the seat, and caught a glimpse of the stars and the night sky as a piece of rubble shifted, then settled again. Then I promptly passed out.

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">As I learned later, my backbone had been badly damaged, and my spinal cord with it. For about two months, I was considered a lost cause, that I would never walk again. Sometimes, to taunt me, the force would change my heartbeat monitor, flatline it when I wasn’t looking, and I would only see it out of the corner of my eye. I knew that this would not be my destiny,to grow old taunted by this thing, and one day, I slipped out of my restraints and managed to take two steps before falling to the ground. I made a quick, unusually quick recovery, and shortly after, was back at work, just as if nothing had happened.

<span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;">(Audio tape recovered from wreckage of abandoned house)

<span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;">October 1,2011

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">--

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">(Shuffling and banging is heard, a man clearing his throat, and the scrape as he pulls up a chair.)

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">I thought about the computer, probably still sitting there in my house, about the file, and how if I maybe ran the file, I would somehow appease the force. after all, The force couldn’t get much worse than it was, right? So I took the long walk to the house(I was now a technophobe) and took out my old key. The door swung open, and the computer was still sitting there, open and running. There was no way the battery lasted for two months, but at this point, I had seen so much that it didn’t faze me. I sat down,and clicked on the fateful icon, wanting the nightmare to be over. A red screen popped up and a flashing red cursor wrote down a strange word in binary. Then this appeared:

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">THANK YOU, HAVE A NICE DAY... :)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">My computer began to melt from the inside out, bubbling as though something was trying to escape. An oily black substance dripped off the table and pooled at my feet, burbling and churning itself like a neverending geyser. A single red eye opened in a slit of the ooze, and soon a dozen were staring at me. It followed me as I backed away in horror, its rudimentary mouth burbling like a maniac. It reached for me and grabbed my hand, flowing up my arm towards my face. I grabbed an eye with my other hand and threw it across the room, then ran as if the demons of hell were on my heels, which they very well could have been.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="text-indent:36pt;font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:rgb(255,255,255);white-space:pre-wrap;">The black ooze burned like cold fire, and a numbness spread up my arm. I heard squelching footsteps behind me and as I glanced back, I saw that it had formed into a facsimile of a man, tall and lean. As it ran after me, the lampposts shattered as he passed by. Porch lights dimmed, then went out, and car alarms were silenced an instant after they went off. I saw his “hands” lengthen into spindly claws and it snatched for me, tearing off my jacket and nicking the back of my neck. A burst of adrenaline carried me out of his reach. It roared in anger, and the world turned black as his wail slammed into my ears. I felt myself falling, but it was like from another perspective, like I was already a ghost. I watched dizzily as I watched the creature leap on top of my body, and the pain of its claws brought me back to reality. I gasped for breath as its claws dug into my throat. As my struggles grew weaker and weaker, I slammed a fist into its eye. It collapsed on top of me, filling my mouth and eyes. I struggled and fought, even as if dragged me down. It felt like trying to swim through cement and I was quickly tiring. I grew weaker and weaker, and it began to reform, to savour its kill. I summoned my last scraps of strength, and ripped it away from me, throwing it off of me and scrambling to my feet. It lay there, eyes glowing with malice as I limped backwards, away from it. It made no move to attack, but instead melted into a shadow on the ground and flitted across the ground, disappearing down a storm drain. I realize what this means. Its <span style="text-indent:36pt;font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:rgb(255,255,255);font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">hunting <span style="text-indent:36pt;font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:rgb(255,255,255);white-space:pre-wrap;"> me...

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">October 10,2011

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">-

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">(Weary voice is heard,Rasping to the point of almost intelligibility )

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">Last night, in my sleep, I dreamt of symbols, repeating,over and over, unintelligible but somehow threatening. My arm is getting colder, and I can no longer write well. My throat is closing up as well.

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<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">October 16, 2012

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">-

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">(Clock ticking in background, muffled voice is heard, someone is pacing. Rasping has faded a little)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">When will this end? I just want to go to sleep, but when I do, terrible things haunt me. The sky bends impossibly and the creature, the THING, is always watching. I hate feeling helpless like this. I have locked myself in, barricaded all the doors. The windows, of course have been boarded up, every time I look outside, I feel its eyes upon me. Everyone I see has red eyes, like the creature. I think I might be going insane! One minute, I will seem to be sleeping, the next I realize I am awake and lucid, but then, the lucidity will slip away and the lines between dream and reality blur. Is this what drugs feel like? I think I may have killed someone yesterday, but when I went back to the site, the body and blood were gone. Everything felt fuzzy, as if covered in peach fuzz. My eyesight is fading, the colors are interchangeable with no discernable difference now. It is like watching the world through a black and white screen.

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">ct08er I6, #:04 AM

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">--

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">(Dead quiet, only the clicking of a lighter can be heard.Man had a resigned tone to his voice.)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;">

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;text-indent:36pt;">I am consisting on a diet of potato chips. No matter my precautions, I am only buying my self time. It will come for me and when it does, the boards will stall it for only second. I have to remain vigilant. I hear it, scratching under the floorboards. I can’t trust myself with a gun, but I think fire will consume it. I have the room soaked in gasoline. The smell should bring it to me. Lighter is in my right hand. I know I can’t get out of here alive, so to save your souls I will take it with me. I now say goodbye to you, unseen listener, and you better pray my mission will go off successfully. Because if it doesn’t, then It is looking at you right now.

<span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;">October 17, Time Undetermined

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">-

<span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;">(gasping and wheezing heard, low dragging noise, dripping and rushing water heard.)

<p dir="ltr" style="line-height:1;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;"><span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:#ffffff;font-weight:normal;font-variant:normal;text-decoration:none;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:pre-wrap;">The...the fire took the whole house. I managed to get out the window. I am in the northwestern sewers. I think that I have done it. Finally!

<span style="color:rgb(255,255,255);font-family:'TimesNewRoman';font-size:16px;white-space:pre-wrap;line-height:1;">(splash is heard, baritone purring growl echos reverberates around the room as if played by a boom box on full volume.)

(Silence ensues, then a low chuckle, then a full throated laugh, building until it becomes a cackle.)

--

<span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:rgb(255,255,255);white-space:pre-wrap;">( <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:rgb(255,255,255);font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">End of tape. NOTE: No bodies found in abandoned house and no footsteps leading away. Nearby sewer lines checked, found destroyed audio recorder w/broken tape inside. Files on laptop undamaged <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:rgb(255,255,255);white-space:pre-wrap;">. <span style="font-size:16px;font-family:'TimesNewRoman';color:rgb(255,255,255);font-style:italic;white-space:pre-wrap;">No formal investigation begun due to lack of evidence.) <ac_metadata title="SOURCECODE01 (Unreviewed Pasta)"> </ac_metadata>