i hired a hitman on myself // joshler [✓]

VI

there was too much happening. the messages about me kept flooding in and i heard pete make his way up the stairs. i had to act fast.

i exited out of the browser, but raz kept messaging me telling me i'm dead for leaving his show. i acted fast and went under my desk and unplugged my computer along with the monitor.

when i heard pete just a few feet down the hall away from my door i hid the post it under a stack of papers. pete opened the door find me tabbing awkwardly next to my desk.

"hey...?" pete gave me a confused look, "everything alright?"
"yeah dude! everything's fine." i forced an awkward chuckle.

pete glanced around my room and then looked right back at me,
"you sure, you looked like you've seen a ghost."

by ghost if you mean i saw a guy get his dick cut off and his own fingers forced fed to him, then yeah pete. i saw a ghost.

"nahh i'm just... real tired." i stretched my arms and faked a yawn.

"well okay," pete shrugged, "you should get some rest anyway. you got your long-ass shift tomorrow and it's already late."

i was confused, and looked over at the cable, it was almost midnight. how the hell did 5 hours past without me knowing?

did i really lose track of time?

"oh shit... you're right," i turned my attention back to pete, "i'm gonna hit the hay then. night night pete."
"goodnight josh." pete still sounded concerned, but left my room anyway and shut the door behind him.

i breathed a sigh of relief thinking i at least got him to stop interrogating me for the night. but there was a still a problem that i didn't know how to fix.

i still had the post-it with the code that i took from petes room.

eventually he will notice it's gone, and then what? i'm screwed. but then again why would pete have it in his room anyways?

why is he roaming the deep web to begin with?

i tried to stop thinking about it to avoid scaring myself, but i decided to lock my door and quickly plug in my monitor again to see what the situation was.

there was a ton of messages from raz piled up on my desktop, but they all seemed to be deleting themselves. when they were all gone, another message popped up.

it was from ann.

"joshua what were you thinking?
raz is not somebody to be associated with.
you've now let him
roam around your computers
data on his own free will."

my jaw dropped, my heart stopped, and i nearly choked on my own spit. i let the psychotic monkey man into my computer.

what the hell have i done?

i kept my voice low but responded to ann,
"i didn't know what i was getting myself into... i didn't know who he was. is-- is there anyway to get him out of my system?"

another message popped up,

"from the few minutes you logged off,
i was able to
block him for your important information.
such as your ip as well as your home address.
but that doesn't mean i can stop him
from accessing
any other device you use."

i reread the message, a bit puzzled. why was she helping me? she's a computer file that i put there by accident.

unless she's something else?

i whispered,
"thanks...? but why'd you help me?"

"i've seen raz and his work.
he is not a man of his word.
he has cheated and lied
to get his way around this broken system.
he is not a man to be trusted.
he has killed all of the people
who worked with him.
he wants to run the deep web
for his own sick games.
not everyone on here is like that.
expect for the occasional psychopath hackers
and the who runs the red room,
but we don't talk about the red room."

despite how scared i clearly was, there was a lot i didn't know about the deep web. it was such a crazy yet interesting place. i was pretty much involved in this shit show anyway.

there's no turning back now.

my voice barely echoing as i spoke,
"what's the red room?"

there was no response from ann for what seemed like a few minutes. until a message suddenly appeared and read,

"you should
go to sleep joshua.
you have
a busy day tomorrow."

i raised my voice slightly,
"ann? what's the red room?"

there was no response. i waited for about 10 minutes and stared at my desktop, but there was nothing. i sighed and got impatient, so i decided to change into my grey sweatpants with no shirt and i was ready to head to bed.

until another message appeared right as i was about to turn off my computer,

"goodnight,
joshua."