With a little bow, the man turned away from the camera and moved out of frame.
They watched in silence for a few more minutes, waiting for something to happen, but the scene remained the same. But for a few small movements by the girl, the video may have appeared frozen.
“What do we do now? April asked.
“One of you go and get your laptop. I’m going to finish the setup of the cameras so that they are ready for motion detection. We’ll load this up on one of yours and keep an eye on it until the next envelope arrives.”
“I’m going to create a TikTok account for CreepyKaylz so that we can upload some clips there. Why don’t you use your laptop for the hollow-eyed stuff?” April said.
Kayleigh continued to stare at the screen, hypnotized by the scene playing out before her. Shaking her head, she snapped back to reality and headed up to her bedroom to grab her laptop. When she returned, Sean and April were busy with their projects. Taking a seat across from them, Kayleigh flipped open the computer and waited for it to boot, drumming her fingers on the granite in agitation. After logging in, she opened a browser and typed in the numbered URL. That time around, the image loaded quickly, but the scene remained the same. The girl still sat slumped over in the chair, a breeze from some unknown source causing her hair to move from side to side, ever so slowly.
“Any changes?” Sean asked, poking his head over the top of his laptop.
“Nope. Just that same girl sitting there.”
“Can you see her face yet?”
“No. She looks totally out of it. How can she maintain that?”
“Maybe she’s been drugged,” April chimed in.
“None of this is real, apes.”
“My guess is that they will switch between live and a loop at some point. I can’t imagine that they’ll show us her taking a dump.”
“You are so fucking gross,” Kayleigh said, trying not to laugh.
“The hollow-assed girl,” April said, flushing a bright shade of red the moment the words passed her lips.
Kayleigh and Sean looked at one another and then turned to stare down April, who went from crimson to almost purple under their gaze. The statement was so out of character for the usually demure April, so it took a moment for it to sink in, at which point, Kayleigh and Sean burst into gales of laughter.
“You nasty heifer,” Kayleigh managed while gasping for breath.
“I don’t know where that came from,” April said, suitably appalled.
“This is why I love you. So innocent on the outside, but so dark inside,” Sean said.
Kayleigh returned her attention to the laptop and jumped backward, the legs of her chair emitting a high-pitched wail as they scraped against the tile floor. “Holy shit, he’s back.”
Her friends hurried around to the other side of the island to see what had startled Kayleigh. They arrived just in time to see the robed figure push his face into the camera, closer and closer until all that was visible was a single eye.
“What is he doing,” Kayleigh said in a trembling voice.
“It’s like he sees us,” April said.
No sooner had the words left her mouth than the man spoke in his altered voice. “Are you watching, little ones? I believe that you are, and so does Falyn. If you listen, perhaps you will hear his whispered words, just as I hear them in my head all the time. He tells me of the delights that will be mine when he takes my eyes and finally allows me to see through his. I know you are watching, Miss Barnes, but who is with you, I wonder.”
“Shut it off,” April moaned.
“I want to know what else he has to say,” Kayleigh said, moving back closer to the laptop.
“Nope.” April reached out and slammed the laptop shut before backing away from the island, arms wrapped around herself as though trying to regain some warmth.
“What the hell, April. Why would you do that,” Kayleigh yelled, opening up the laptop, which had automatically returned to the operating system login screen. She typed in her password, but when the browser reappeared, the man had once again left. “Fuck.”
“I’m sorry, Kaylz. It felt like he could see me. I thought he was about to say my name,” April mumbled apologetically.
Exhaling slowly, Kayleigh fought to quell the waves of anger that were washing over her. Losing her shit on her best friend was not going to change what had just happened, and she had to admit that the whole thing had been disconcerting. She was used to watching all sorts of scary stuff in the movies, but April was more of a Disney type, so it wasn’t her fault that she had become so spooked so quickly. “It’s okay, but please, in the future, if something is going on that you cannot handle, leave the room or close your eyes and cover your ears. Who knows, there may be clues in the things that he says that will help us win the game.”
“You’re right. It won’t happen again.”
“Maybe it’s better if you don’t watch the feed,” Sean said. “Kayleigh and I can do it in shifts. I don’t want to see you get scared.”
“I’m fine; I swear. I just got creeped out. It all looks so real.”
“Remember, apes, it’s just a game,” Kayleigh said, reaching out and pulling her friend in for a hug. She could feel April’s heart hammering, so she pulled her in tightly and rubbed her back until the thumping returned to a more natural pace.
THE REST OF THE DAY passed without incident, with little else happening in the live feed, other than the girl occasionally shifting position, always without raising her head. The man in the robes returned once and checked on his prisoner. He did so, though, wordlessly and without paying any attention to the camera.
As day turned into night, Sean had Kayleigh walked around the home, testing the motion detectors and setting the sensitivity levels so that it would take some real movement to set them off. Kayleigh’s phone screeched loudly every time the cameras picked up any type of motion, forcing her to go into the app and shut down the audible notifications. Since they weren’t really looking for ghosts, there was no point in having that function on all the time.
Satisfied that all was working as it should, Sean shut down his laptop, stood up, and stretched. He moved into the living room and sat down beside April, who was passed out on the couch, sleeping off the rest of her hangover.
Kayleigh continued to watch the live feed, but with little going on, she considered calling it a night or at least taking a couple of hours off. “That girl must be drugged,” she said, her hand resting on top of the screen, ready to close it. “She has barely moved this whole time. It’s been hours.”
“I think they’ve switched to a loop. No way she doesn’t wake up,” Sean said.
“You’re probably right.” Kayleigh pushed down on the screen, but movement caught her eye just before the screen turned black. Opening it up fully again, she watched as the girl raised her head. “She’s moving. Come and see. She’s moving.”
Jumping from the couch, Sean reached back and shook April by the shoulder. “Wake up. Come on, wake up.”
April stirred for a moment, but then rolled over, mumbling something about being left alone. With a shrug of defeat, Sean let her be and trotted over to the island.
They watched as the girl raised her head and gave it a shake, parting the hair that had fallen across her face. A crude blindfold made of some type of ragged cloth covered her eyes, while a ball gag protruded from her mouth. It was quiet, but they could hear her moan, drops of drool sliding off the rubber ball, and onto the cement floor. She began to thrash against the binding that held her in place, her panic evident. The girl tried to scream, but the sound could not entirely escape the confines of the gag.