This is a Halloween special!!!

his is my first attempt at horror that I'm actually publishing. Trigger warnings for death and sensitive topics, such as mental health, violence, and bullying.

It had been three weeks since Alec Brandson died.

I had attended his funeral, which was an incredibly grand affair as far as funerals go. It was my first funeral, so I had nothing to compare it to. Yet, each moment I spent in that graveyard, with those people, I felt anger and resentment stirring within me.

The killers hadn't been found, but it was suspected that they went to his school. He was only fifteen.

I didn't know it at the time, but I was his closest friend. Despite the fact that we had only spoken online, we had talked every single day for the past seven months. I had even been brought in for questioning, but that was quickly dismissed as they realised I wasn't even in the same country.

England was dark and dull. It was probably just like it was when he died on the side of the road. I still couldn't believe it.

My parents were in the hotel room next door, we were leaving tomorrow. They didn't quite understand why I insisted that we travelled all the way to England in order to attend someone's funeral who I didn't know, but they couldn't disagree when I told them I had the money, and that I would go with or without them.

I was scrolling through our old Discord messages, just like I had been doing since I got the news two weeks ago. Our conversations were immensely cringe, especially the ones from when we first started to chat. He had commented on one of my stupid band fanfictions, and we had just went from there. We even had a few stories which we collaborated on, that I had saved to a USB and left at the cemetery in hopes that it wouldn't get stolen.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the 'new' sign pop up in the top left corner of my screen. I furrowed my eyebrows. I wasn't in many servers, nobody had really DM'd me either. I scrolled to the top of my server list and froze when I saw his avatar there.

I clicked on the circle, which displayed a cat with bat wings, after a few minutes. I hoped that it was just a stupid notification. Maybe he had found a bot before he had died, which sent me messages after a certain amount of time. Granted, I didn't know of any such bot.

Hiya Shy :D

The message read. That was his nickname for me, as my name, Shyama, was a little too long.

I gulped and shivered at how creepy it was to receive the message. That was until my breath caught in my throat when I saw the words 'BattieCatt is typing' appear at the bottom of the screen.

Thank you for coming, I wish I could've hugged you when you were here.

My breathing quickened and I slammed my laptop shut. I stood from the bed and paced the room. I looked out the window, I was on the fifth floor. It had to be someone who hacked Alec's account, or his sib-he doesn't have any siblings. Why on earth would his parents do anything like that? Did they even know that he had Discord? They wouldn't have known me, either way. Well, they would now. But I didn't introduce myself as Shy.

I resisted the urge to go and see my parents, claiming that I was terrified like I did when I was a toddler. I put the light on, in hopes that would ease my nerves. All it did was create shadows in the corners of the room.

I lifted the lid of my laptop and blinked at the screen, hoping that something would've changed. Maybe it was a mutual friend, messing with me. The very thought made me sick to my stomach.

Please don't ignore me :c

I nearly closed the laptop again, but I had to figure out what was going on. I needed to know if this was someone playing a twisted joke, or if Alec had just found something I didn't know existed.

Hello?

I sent the message before I could think about it. I stared at the word for so long that it didn't even look like a word anymore. It looked like a person laying flat on the floor, the middle line of the 'H' looking like the body whilst the other lines were its limbs.

Hi!!!

I miss you

Okay, so it wasn't a bot which Alec had found. I resisted the urge to be sick and grabbed the bin, placing it beside the bed which I was sitting on again.

I miss you too

It didn't feel like me not to put an exclamation mark or an emoji, but I didn't qutie feel like myself right now.

What's wrong? I know England is dark, but there's no need to take away your smiles :D

Thank you for coming to see me, maybe we could see each other again?

I bit my tongue so hard it started to throb. My hands were shaking as I tried to write a response, but I ended up deleting everything that I wrote.

Shy? You there?

A noise came from the back of my throat, a scared whimper of confirmation that I was here, that I wasn't in a nightmare which I couldn't escape from.

Yes

Then why aren't you answering? You'd like to meet up again, yeah?

I would but

I didn't know how to finish the sentence. I wasn't sure why I wrote that, my fingers had just worked by themselves. What was I going to write? He, no this couldn't be Alec. Alec is dead, this is someone messing with me. Why was I scared? There couldn't be anything at all which could hurt me in this hotel room.

Shy? You lost connection or something?

Yeah, sorry

That's strange, the hotel usually has good wifi

Who was this person and why could they read my mind? I stood up from my position again and shut the curtains, blocking out any sights from the road below or the large building across the street.

What are you doing?

I didn't know why he was asking, was it because I shut the curtains and they could no longer se eme? I don't know why I kept saying 'he', as though it was from him. It couldn't be, it couldn't be.

I was shutting the curtains, it's dark

Why hadn't I blocked him? Would that delete all of our conversations? I don't think it does, it just comes up as a message from a blocked user, right? So I could block him and it'd be all good. I'd still have our messages, and I wouldn't receive any from whoever was using his account.

I right clicked on his username, and clicked block.

Really? I don't think it's too dark.

The blocking didn't work. Why didn't it work? Maybe it was a bug. I closed the tab and re-opened it, hoping that the screen would change.

There was nothing at all different. The cat/bat was still grinning at me with it's fangs showing, our messages were still there, clear as day.

I just wanted the curtains shut, is that a crime?

Absolutely notttt- it's just a bit strange for you

He wasn't wrong, I had told him many times that I got distracted by something happening outside. He knows me well enough to know that I never shut the curtains to my room, except for when I am just about to go to sleep, and even then I sometimes forget.

I know, but I'm not at home

I know, silly! You came to see me

You really should sleep Shy- your're not thinking at all :D

Yeah, I should sleep. Goodnight alec

Nighty night shy!

I logged out of my discord account and turned my laptop off. I immediately picked up my phone and opened messenger, scrolling down until the name Oreo' was on my screen

Oreo? You up?

Dudee, it's 1am ...of course

I just had the weirdest conversation- you know alec right?

Yeah...course i do- you're there for his funeral after all

I mentlaly facepalmed- oreo was my closest online friend, we were even closer than me and Alec were- I had known oreo since I was nine. He was the one who convinced me to get discord in the first place. We had originally met on a child's social website, which probably wasn't the safest website to promote to children.

Yeah I think his discord has been hacked

What? Why?

Well it might have something to dow ith the fact that he was online talking to me. He talked about how i was there to visit him and stuff

Omgggg that's so creepy!

I know- has he messaged you?

Uh let me check

Nope- I haven't got anything from him.

A notification appeared on the top of my screen 'ABC is typing'. I swallowed the lump in my throat as I headed over to Snapchat.

Why are you bothering Oreo? You should be sleeping

I'm not bothering him :D we're talking

About me tho- dat's rude shy

I felt like a child who had just been told off, the words seemed to circle on the screen. I felt dizzy reading them. Realisation washed over me. It had to be Oreo messing with me, it had to be. Unless they were just in on the prank. I went back to Oreo's messages

Haha very funny

What?

You're the one who hacked alec's account

Wtf? Why would I do that?

I don't know, why are you doing it?

I'm not- seriously shy. He's dead- I wouldn't do anything like that

The very blunt wording made me want to shrivel up and cry. He was dead- but someone was using his account. It had to be the case and how would anyone else know that I was talking to oreo? We didn't have any mutual friends who also knew alec. I wanted to go back to Snapchat and confront the person, but my thumb clicked the button at the side of my phone and I placed it on the nightstand.

I fell asleep.

I didn't know how long I was asleep before my phone started to rng. It wasn't it's normal ringtone, but rather a high-pitched screeching noise. It was as though I had put it into a blender whilst listening to music, it was unnerving.

Yet, in my groggy state, I answered the call.

Hello?

Shy, hello.

It was unmistakingly Alec's voice. My breathing hitched and I tried to turn the light on, but I couldn't. There was no light in the room. I remembered that I had even fallen asleep with the light on. A power cut? Perfect.

Shy, hellooooo?

I cleared my throat and hummed to show i was listening.

I know that you were asleep, but this might be the only chance for you to visit me.

I started to hyperventilate. What did he mean? Why was he so happy? Why was this the voice of one of my best friends? Who was messing with me?

What's wrong? Don't you want to visit me?

His voice sounded so sad and borderlining angry. I was scared that he would come out of the phone and pull me into it. My fear was so bad, I pulled my phone away from my ear and put it on speaker.

I visited you, that's why I'm here, isn't it?

He chuckled, and for a moment I could imagine that I was back home playing games with him. I would be listening about his parents troubles and a new boy that he had a crush on, but never had the confidence to talk to.

Well now we can see each other, face to face.

A clicking from behind me caught my attention. I couldn't look to face what it was out of pure fear. Instead I looked into the mirror which faced the door which was slowly opening. The hallway was dark.

At least I thought it was until the darkness charged at me, clawing at my back and wrapping itself around my stomach as it dragged me into the hallway, out of the hotel, across the dead street, and to the cemetery. That is where I now lie. I screamed the whole time, but the sound never made any difference. Everything was dark and dead.

I got to see my friend again.

I'm glad Oreo finally introduced himself.