The Internet Stalker

Chapter One

It was Friday and the sun was brighter than ever. Henry had that last day of school type of glow.

It was just after 3pm and the last day of high school was behind him. He walked home and let the sun wash over him. Everything felt kind of good, and for the first time in a while that was alright.

Henry had worked hard for four years. After AP classes and college workshops, and buckets of unnecessary homework, he was ready to reap the rewards. He was one step from getting accepted into his dream college. He felt unstoppable.

When he got home his Mom and step dad were gone, thank god. He didn't need them to ruin the peace of today. He went straight to his room, plugged in his phone to his computer and flopped onto his bed to relax.

Deciding to check the time, he heard his phone buzz twice two and noticed a message. Getting random texts wasn't normal for him.

When he opened his phone he noticed he'd been added to a group chat by an unknown number. Now getting an out of the blue text was weird, but getting added to a group chat was borderline fucking creepy. Maybe, more like hopefully, the person had the wrong number and accidentally added him. Henry had no clue who anyone in the group chat was.

Only one text had appeared so far.

Unknown Number: "Hello? Why was I added to this?"

He was taken aback that they didn't know either, so he sent back.

Henry: "yeah um what the fuck is this?"

Checking the chat details he found he didn't recognize any numbers. Their area code weren't even Maryland, what the fuck does this mean?

While he was looking at the numbers the group got another text.

Unknown Number: "Bro, what is this?"

Quickly followed by two more.

Unknown Number: "Why am I in here?"

Unknown Number: "Who are you?"

Henry chopped it down to spam. As he went to leave the chat His phone started ringing.

He had gotten a call. It was by an unknown number, so he was quite nervous to answer. When he did he heard an ear-piercing screech, "You were added to the group chat for a reason, and you will come to know that reason soon enough." The voice was deep and low. It was definitely a cover for the person's real voice. No human sounded so mysterious and scratchy.

Thinking about what the person said made chills shoot down Henry's back. What did they mean? He quickly took the chat out of spam. And waited to see if anyone else had responded to being added into a mysterious group chat.

He waited a while, but nobody texted the group after that. He assumed they were all as weary of the chat as he was.

He threw his phone on his bed and sank into his covers. He stared at the ceiling, dreading what he had to do next.

Homework.

He needed to do his homework to pass his class, but he really didn't want to. He didn't even like the class, why should he do the homework if he didn't like the class? Yeah, that's reasonable. He just won't do it. Instead, he'll binge YouTube, and plunge into the void of the web until morning.

Henry groans, and pulls out his homework. He slugs to his desk, and plops down in the chair. Henry stares down at the piece of paper, wondering what the hell is he supposed to do with this. After ten minutes of staring, he decided to text his friends. He took a picture of the assignment and sent it to the group chat.

Me: "What the hell am I supposed to do again?"

Unknown Number: "I think you sent this to the wrong group chat?"

Henry's face flushed. "Omg I am an I d i o t" he face palms.

Unknown Number: "Haha me. It's ok, relatable"

Henry chuckled. "I guess Lol. Just Ignore me"

Unknown Number: "okay, but I guess we should be able to call each other something, if we're all gunna stay in this chat..."

Henry was sceptical. He shouldn't give them his real name, but there's nothing wrong with a a nickname, right? It'll be fine.

"You can call me HW"

Unknown Number: "call me Acacia!"

Unknown Number: "You all can call me Josh, except the girls, you can call me loverboy"

Unknown Number: "No one is gunna call you that. I'm Alice"

Unknown Number: "coca"

Henry: "Nice to formally meet you all"

Acacia: "you too!"

Josh: "likewise my dude"

Alice: "<3"

Coca: "don't you have homework, HW"

Yes, he did.

Henry: "oh right, haha bye"

Henry called his friend and they helped him through his homework. Afterwards, he Mayer on his bed and thought about what happened. He made some, stranger friends. He didn't know what was gunna happen, but somehow, it felt like his life was about to either get really fun or really complicated.