Chat Room D

Let me tell you about myself. My name is Natalie, and I have a twin sister named Meghan. I also have an older sister, but I won’t mention her name as this is not a story about her. My sister and I have shared a room at the back of our house for almost all of our lives. The yellow painted walls, and the movie posters draped around them, remind us of safety. It was our room, which we shared. It was definitely a safe place.

I slept, and still sleep in, a single bed on the left side of the room. Meghan used to sleep on a single bed on the right side of the room. Although this was the most common set up of our sleeping arrangements, we rearranged often. We would sometimes push our beds together, to make a double bed, just to feel safer when we heard the house settling in the middle of the night. I remember that one time my sister and I were going to get bunk beds in our room, and our single beds would be thrown away, or given to charity. We displayed such distaste in this idea that our parents, instead, forced us to keep the single beds until we were well into our teenage years. As we grew bigger, and the beds seemed to grow smaller, we soon came to the realization that we could no longer share the room at the back of the house with yellow walls.

Meghan was the one who ‘moved out’, if you will. My older sister had turned 18, finished school, and taken a gap year overseas. A perfectly good bedroom with a perfectly good double bed was her departing gift to us, left behind after she left home. Meghan took this room as her own immediately, and began to redecorate. She now had a room to herself, and so did I.

It was exciting to begin with. She could play the music she wanted without me yelling at her to plug in her headphones, and I could write stories and watch videos without her watching over my shoulder. Yes, like I said before, the start of the change was a new and fun experience for us both. But the longer we stayed away from each other, the lonelier we became.

This was during the time when Facebook was really new and kind of unheard of, and Nintendo DS’s were all the rage. Pictochat was a feature on the Nintendo DS where you were able to chat with one another by either typing (slowly and tediously) or writing a message with a stylus on the touch screen. Meghan and I often chose the latter option, as it was much faster and you could also recognize the handwriting. There were four chat rooms you could chose from, A, B, C and D, and the Nintendo DS’s would wirelessly connect (over a short distance) and recognize which chat room the other person had entered.

Meghan and I began to communicate through Pictochat, and we would often take turns in choosing the chat room to enter. One would wait while the other picked a chat room, and then they would join them in that chat room. It was really fun, and you could write just about anything you wanted without fear of it being recorded or traced, as the conversation would delete itself as soon as you left.

So, Meghan would be in her room, and I would be in mine, and we would talk for hours on Pictochat, about every noise we heard in the house. About how scary it was to have an entire room to ourselves, and about random and pointless things that had happened during the day. And then, after about four weeks of this, strange things began to happen.

One night, I was waiting for Meghan to pick a chat room so I could enter and talk with her. She wasn't picking one, and we always turned our DS’s on at the same time each night. We followed the same pattern, and she knew it was her turn to pick. Seeing as her room was next to mine, I leaned over and tapped on the wall. She tapped back, and entered chat room D. Finally, she had responded. As soon as you enter a chat room, you are able to see who else is in it. Expecting to see ‘Meghan12’ pop up in purple as soon as I entered, I was surprised to instead find ‘DtDtDjUD3’ in blue. Cool, I thought, someone next door must have a DS as well, and I can talk to them! At the time it was really exciting. I’d always wanted to be able to talk to a new person on Pictochat, because it was always Meghan and I who would talk.

‘DtDtDjUD3’ sent me a message before I could send them one. It read: Are you sure you should be up this late? All typed out, instead of being written by hand with the stylus. I messaged them back, typing as well, to make them feel comfortable. Below is as much of the conversation as I can remember. NatsCats33: I could ask you the same. What’s your name?

DtDtDjUD3: You can see my name on the top left hand of the message.

NatsCats33: I meant your real name.

DtDtDjUD3: My name is D.

NatsCats33: Is that your favorite letter or something?

DtDtDjUD3: Are you mocking me?

NatsCats33: No. I’m sorry. How are you?

DtDtDjUD3: Not happy. I've been fighting a lot lately.

NatsCats33: I haven’t heard anything from next door.

DtDtDjUD3: That's because we don't let you, Natalie.

‘DttJU3’ has left the chat room.

I stared at the touch screen of my Nintendo DS, completely shocked and amazed at what had just happened. I almost wanted to take a picture of the screen, just to confirm to myself that it had in fact happened. How did he know my name? Who was this person? Where did they live? Sinister theories began to fill my mind, and I forced myself to sleep. I didn't want to think about it anymore that night.

The next day when Meghan woke up, I walked into her room and asked her why she hadn't gone into a chat room last night. She apologized and said she’d accidentally fallen asleep reading about half an hour earlier than the appointed time we usually talk. I told her not to lie to me, and she got really defensive.

“Why would I be lying?” she said.

“Because I heard you knock back on the wall, Meghan. I’m not an idiot, I just wanted to know,” I said, turning to walk out of her room.

“Are you serious, Natalie? Are you actually being serious now?” she said, her voice filled with worry.

“Yes,” I said, now suddenly concerned at her dramatic shift in tone, “Why?”

“I never knocked on any walls last night, Natalie. Not once.”

I left the room with a sigh, assuming she was trying to scare me. I wasn't going to fall for it. I felt clever for seeing through her dumb trick. I didn't talk to her all day; despite the nervous glances she gave me every time I passed her. I had decided that on Pictochat that night, I was going to congratulate her on her acting performance, but tell her I had had enough of her game. I climbed into my bed and pulled the blanket up to my chin. I grabbed my Nintendo DS, entered a chat room and waited.

‘DtDtDjUD3’ has entered the chatroom.

DtDtDjUD3: Hi. Welcome back. Why did you pick Chatroom A?

NatsCats33: Hi. I’m waiting for my sister. I didn’t expect you to enter.

DtDtDjUD3: Why didn’t you pick D?

NatsCats33: How did you know my name last night by the way?

DtDtDjUD3: I DON’T CARE. GO TO CHATROOM D NOW.

NatsCats33: Okay, chill. We can go there. You can meet my sister.

DtDtDjUD3: Good.

NatsCats33: As long as you tell me how you knew my name.

''‘DtDtDjUD3’ has left the chatroom.

‘NatsCats33’ has left the chatroom.

‘Meghan12’ has entered the chat room.

‘NatsCats33’ has entered the chat room.''

NatsCats33: Go to chat D some guy is in there.

Meaghan12: Really? Another person?

NatsCats33: Yeah. He’s a bit weird. Let’s just go.

Meghan12: Okay.

Meghan and I both left the chat room and entered chat room D. The following is the conversation which I can vividly remember:

''‘NatsCats33’ has entered the chatroom.

‘DtDtDjUD3’ has entered the chatroom.

‘Meghan12’ has entered the chatroom.''

DtDtDjUD3: Hello. It feels good to talk to you again.

NatsCats33: How did you know my name?

Meghan12: Ur my sister, that’s how.

NatsCats33: Not you, DtDtDjUD3 up there.

DtDtDjUD3: I like the letter D.

Meghan12: Ther is no 1 else here. Why r u typing?

NatsCats33: Nice try Meghan he just sent a message.

DtDtDjUD3: It starts the best words.

Meghan12: Are you okay Natalie?

NatsCats33: Meghan look I’ll show you.

I left the room and walked into my sister’s. I showed her the screen where our messages had appeared and she stared wide-eyed at my screen. She then showed me her screen where none of ‘DtDtDjUD3’s messages had showed up. I was bewildered. That wasn’t a glitch, was it? No, glitches don’t do that sort of thing. The messages just hadn’t appeared on her screen, and it didn’t even say that he was in the chatroom on her device. I heard a familiar ‘ping’ and looked down to check my screen. Another message:

DtDtDjUD3: Don’t you think so too? D starts the best words, doesn’t it?

NatsCats33: Like, dessert?

DtDtDjUD3: No. Disease, Disaster, Diabolical, Destroy, Damned, Defeat, Danger, Deceived, Decline, DEMONIC and my favourite, DEATH.

‘DtDtDjUD3’ has left the chatroom.

Meghan and I no longer went on Pictochat. We soon came to the realisation that whoever this was, they weren’t nice. They didn’t want to be friends. They wanted to hurt someone. I left the chatroom and so did Meaghan, and as soon as we did we knew we couldn’t tell our parents. We had just destroyed the evidence. We would just have to pretend like it didn't happen.



A few weeks later, we had almost forgotten what had happened. No more unusual things had been happening, and so life went on as normal. Meghan was missing her single bed, so I offered to swap her double bed into my room, and she could take the single bed out. She was thrilled at the idea, and I thought she had gotten the short end of the stick. She was stuck with an old single bed, and I now had so much more space to sleep! I was definitely winning. That night, to celebrate, Meghan agreed to watch a scary movie with me. She only did this on rare occasions, because she had a tendency to get nightmares. But because she was so happy with the state of her new room, and also because we were missing our older sister, we snuggled up to watch a horror flick.

I have to admit, it was actually terrifying. The story idea was bone-chillingly creepy, and the scenes were shot so well you thought you were actually part of the movie. When the movie finished, Meghan and I looked at each other in horror. “I wouldn't be surprised if I have nightmares tonight,” I said, and we both laughed a little, our nerve returning. We finally gathered enough courage to leave the room and go to bed. I said goodnight to her, and walked into my bedroom, jumping onto the new double bed and switching off the light.

A couple of hours into a deep slumber I awoke to the sound of my bedroom door opening. Meghan. She must have had a nightmare and come into my room for safety. I noticed something black in her hands, concluded it was her Nintendo DS, and pulled out my own. She was being smart; we didn't want to wake up mum and dad.

I flipped open the screen, and entered the only chat room with another person in it. ''‘NatsCats33’ has entered the chatroom.

‘Meghan12’ has entered the chatroom.''

NatCats33: Couldn't sleep?

Meghan12: I shouldn't have watched that movie, huh?

NatsCats33: Maybe not.

Meghan12: I had a nightmare.

NatsCats33: Well, you were smart to come in here; you can keep me safe too. :)

I heard her clacking away with her stylus on her Nintendo DS behind me, and I almost laughed. How silly that we weren’t talking face-to-face. I was about to turn to her, until another message was sent. I looked down at the screen:

‘DtDtDjUD3’ has entered the chatroom.

DtDtDjUD3: You breathe funny.

Meghan12: I’m in my own room.