Hell Screen

Shinichi sat at the computer, scratching his nose. He was looking for music files to download from the internet. Then, the email icon flashed in the bottom corner of the screen. He clicked on his inbox, and the message appeared.



From: Ryo
FW:

There was no message, just two file attachments.

video.mpg
program.exe

Shinichi downloaded the video file and clicked it. The screen turned an abrupt black, and then an image appeared. It was his friend Ryo, hunched over the keyboard, filmed through a web-camera. He looked frightened.

Sweat, or tears, trickled down Ryo’s cheeks. He glanced briefly over his shoulder and then turned his wide-eyed gaze to face Shinichi. Behind him, the room darkened, obscuring the rock music and anime posters, and shadows slowly took shape in the blackness.

The shapes edged forwards, towards the hunched figure of Ryo. They had the vague forms of people, dressed in ethereal layers of everyday clothes. Schoolchildren, businessmen, housewives. But they had no faces, just blank ovals.

Ryo typed as the faceless figures crept closer, his neck muscles taut in an effort not to look backwards.

Shinichi watched in horror as the ghostly shapes crowded around Ryo as he typed. The video bar showed only seconds left of the footage. Then, Ryo clicked his mouse button and the image vanished. Blackness filled the screen once more.

Shinichi sat back in his chair. Phew! He wiped his sweat-beaded brow. That was scary!

Then, a window popped up on his computer screen. The program.exe file had started automatically. The red link of the webcam flickered on and Shinichi sat up in shock as he saw his own face appear in the screen.

He cast a panicked glance back over his shoulder but there was nothing there. This must be a joke of some kind, he thought.

He looked back at the screen. A message flashed up: DO NOT LOOK BEHIND YOU. DO NOT LOOK BEHIND YOU. DO NOT LOOK BEHIND YOU.

The computer fan whirred in agony as strange impulses surged through the microprocessers and silicon chips. The room suddenly felt icy-cold, although scorching air was being blasted out of the computer, with the burnt-ozone smell of lightning storms.

Shinichi shivered in frigid terror. The room was darkening around him and he could sense the faceless figures creeping close behind him, getting closer and closer….

Another message flashed on the screen. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE AND YOUR SOUL WILL BE DEVOURED IN HELL UNLESS YOU FORWARD THIS EMAIL IMMEDIATELY TO ONE OTHER PERSON.

Ice-cold air tickled the back of his neck as silent tears trickled down his cheeks.

The message flashed a second time. YOU ARE GOING TO DIE AND YOUR SOUL WILL BE DEVOURED IN HELL UNLESS YOU FORWARD THIS EMAIL IMMEDIATELY TO ONE OTHER PERSON.

Shinichi clicked on his email account and desperately searched for names. His girlfriend Naoko. No way, he thought. Then he had an idea. Her sister Teiko, she’s a complete bitch. He found Teiko’s email address in a circular sent by Naoko earlier that day. With quivering fingers, he clicked ‘Forward’ and then typed in her email address, before clicking ‘Send’.

The red eye of the webcam flickered off. And, in the next instant, all returned to normality.

***
A mile or so away, in the Isogo neighbourhood of Yokohama, Naoko sat in front of the computer. Her sister shouted from the bathroom, over the noise of the shower. ‘Don’t switch my email off if you’re using my computer, I want to check it before I go out.’

An email popped into the in-box. It was from Shinichi, addressed to Teiko. What’s he doing, thought Naoko. He hates Teiko.

Curious, she opened the email. There was a video file and a program file. She clicked on the video and the computer screen went blank.

***
Naoko darted downstairs, clutching her bag. She was furious.

‘How dare he send a scary video to my sister,’ she muttered under her breath. ‘I’ll dump him for this.’ She wouldn’t of course, but she was angry. Teiko was hard to get along with, but didn’t deserve that.

She strode past the noodle bar and stopped at the pedestrian crossing. The green ‘walk’ light came on and the loudspeaker played ‘Sakura’ as the traffic waited at the red lights. A black van sat with its engine idling close to the opposite side. It looked like one of the loudspeaker vans used by the uyoko dantai nationalists. She stepped out onto the road. On the other side, a group of people waited to cross.

The black van surged forward and knocked Naoko to the ground. She smashed her head on the concrete with a wet smack and a spray of blood. She lay on her back, unable to move. The people who had been waiting on the other side of the road had gathered around her. She looked up at them with failing vision. They have no faces, she thought as they reached downwards towards her.

(c) I Paton 2010