Episode 1

It was the biggest mistake of my life and the last one as well……………………….

Two days ago.

It was a long day at office and Penny was super tired. It was a Monday

night and many of you, might relate.  Almost everyone hates Mondays.

Boss’s nagging, meeting deadlines and colleagues’ cold shoulders. She

was an editor’s apprentice in a newspaper company and got often

maltreated by others.

It was a rainy night and the rain’s pitter patter was the only sound

along the occasional thunder in her small apartment consisting of two

rooms. Penny was unable to fall asleep and just listened to the sound

of rain. Trying her best to fall asleep but she couldn’t. She felt

uneasy. Her room was completely dark.

“Pitter, patter, pitter, patter.” The sound of rain.

Penny kept on looking at her dark surroundings and thought, “Ugh, Why

can’t I sleep? I’ll be shouted at again by my boss in the morning if I

get late. Try to sleep Penny. Try to sleep.”

She tried to sleep but couldn’t and finally gave up. She walked

towards her computer and switched it on.

“Let’s watch some funny videos.”  She said to herself. She watched a

few videos until she felt sleepy. She looked at the time on her

computer. It was 1 am and decided to sleep.

“Ping.” She had just received a popup on her computer.

“CLICK ON THIS LINK. YOU HAVE ABOUT 60 SECS TILL THIS LINK DISAPPEARS

FROM YOUR SCREEN.”

Penny looks at her screen and thinks, “Just another stupid popup. I

must block these cookies from my computer.”

She blocks the cookies and checks the pop-up. It’s gone.

“Ping.” It is the same popup again but this time with a slight change.

“CLICK ON THIS LINK. YOU HAVE 60 SECS TILL THIS LINK DISAPPEARS FROM

YOUR SCREEN, TODAY.”

Penny gets annoyed and shuts off her computer after dismissing the pop-up.

She goes back to her bed and falls asleep.

Episode 2

The next day, Penny is tired and reaches the office late. She gets

shouted at by her boss and her mood goes down the drain. At lunch

time, her coworkers are talking and she tries to talk to them while

eating.

“How are you Penny?” Said Samantha, her only friend in the entire

office. “I’m fine, what about you?” Asked Penny.

“You don’t look as if you have slept properly. Said Samantha. “Yeah, I

just got annoyed by a stupid popup last night.” Penny answered.

“What pop-up? Tell me about it.” Samantha is intrigued.

Penny tells her the whole story. “Well I think that a few eccentric

people do this to scare people. They might be hackers or some kind of

fraudsters. You shouldn’t click on such stuff. There’s tons of rubbish

on the internet. And it’s annoying. You did good by not clicking on

such stupid pop-up.”

Another colleague hears this and said, “that sometimes you might get

to know about different things by clicking. Some people become

millionaires by clicking on such ads.”

“Just go ahead and do whatever you like. Ignore it or click on it the

next time.” Said Samantha.

Penny nodded. Lunchtime had ended and Penny went back to her cabin to do work.

Later on, she returned home in the evening and was tired a lot. She

made some quick food, ate it and fell asleep. When Penny woke up, it

was around 11:40 pm. “Oh no, I fell asleep for a long period.” She

thought. “Let’s finish the leftover work and I’ll sleep again.”

She made some coffee and continued to work till 1 am. “Ok, I’m done.

Now let’s watch something on the computer.” She turned on her PC and

watched a movie. Until a pop-up appeared again.

“Ugh, I can’t even watch a movie peacefully.” She dismissed it and

unlike yesterday, this time it kept on appearing again and again.

It said, “CLICK ON THIS LINK, WE HAVE TO TELL YOU SOMETHING”.

Penny was frustrated and she remembered the entire conversation she

had with her colleagues during the day. “Ok, Let’s click on it.”

On clicking, a black screen appeared in front of her which was very

odd. A girl was sitting on the chair and staring at the screen. The

girl looked very familiar. It was herself. It was Penny. The odd thing

was that Penny didn’t have a camera attached to her PC. Penny had

gotten pissed off. What kind of scare is this?

Penny asked, “Hello, who are you and why do you look like me?”

The girl on the black screen asked the same question. Penny became

quiet until a voice rang out from the screen. “Look behind you.” It

was pitch dark and Penny said, “Nice way to scare me.” She didn’t pay

heed to the IDENTICAL Penny. “Hey, you must listen to me. You must.

Run away from here now.” Said the girl from the screen.

“Why should I listen to you?” Penny asked. The girl from the screen

started paling and said, “Because you must.” And said no more.

Penny kept on asking but with every second, the girl on the screen

became more and more pale. Little did Penny know that a hideous

creature of the night had crawled out from under her bed and was

slowly moving towards her.

It was crawling so slowly and had a bloody stench. Penny didn’t feel

anything yet as she was busy looking at the girl in the black screen

of her PC. The creature crawled under the table and looked at her. It

was looking right at her. In other words, it was waiting for the right

time to pounce upon her.

The girl on the screen started crying. And this time whispered,

“Please run. Save yourself.”

Suddenly Penny felt very warm. As if something was breathing upon her.

She could literally smell blood in the air now. She had gotten

goosebumps all over her body. She understood now, why the girl had

warned her.

She looked down and froze. She screamed then. Just screamed once

because she wasn’t allowed to scream anymore. The creature ended her

on the spot, leaving no sign of her body behind.

A few days later,, People came in search of Penny and found her PC

turned on. There was a strange trail of blood from the bed to the PC

table. But no one could tell Penny's whereabouts. The creature ate her

that night.

“Now how do I know this? Because I’m Penny, the girl on the black screen.”