Shared

story by pizzataph, video art by blandonproductions
Subject: "I need your help."
September 18th, 2021, 11:05 AM
FROM: RLancaster@█████.com
TO: laganothegoon0089@█████████.com
Joey, I'm fucked. Like, super fucked. 
I'll be honest with you; I wouldn't be telling this to anyone if it weren't for the fact that this shit is so unbelievable that *you* would think it was a cool story. I'm not even sure who I am anymore and it's probably all my fault. I wouldn't know what to do if I was alone, but I'm sure you can help me out here. Please read until the end, Joey. This is really important. Life or death important. 
This happened about a week ago. Kept getting spam email. Brushed it off. Owen came over a few days ago, both of us laughed like hyenas just looking at the damn templates they were using. Cash disguised as gold bars in boxes, twenty million dollars for winning some Google lottery, a princess thinking I'm beautiful overseas needing plane tickets to come see me, the works. All that kind of shit.
Then I got one that felt personal right after he left.
Subject line was just "Hi! My name is Reggie!". I already knew it was that video you kept annoying me with back when it was popular because you know I got the same name. I was pretty insecure, and you knew it bothered me, so I thought it was you. It wasn't even that big of an email; all it had was that video attached to it. I just thought you were fucking with me again, so I put it off for a bit. Then I kept getting the same email. Over. And over. And over.
At first, it would just pop up every now and then when I was checking my email for work. Then, it started burying shit from my boss. Remember that call I gave you that night where I told you to stop fucking with me? That was what I was screaming about. I thought it was you the whole goddamn time because you constantly do shit like this. It started flooding my inbox to the point where I literally couldn't do anything but either open the attachment or make a new email. You can see which option I picked. It was a late night, and I opened the video, and... there he was. That fucking rat.
"Hi! My name is Reggie, and..."
It was like 3 AM, so you can't really blame me for this, but I fell asleep at my desk. I slept for a bit. My dream was pretty foggy. I don't remember where it took place, but I know it was in a school building of some kind. Stuck in a locker. People passed by and generally ignored me. I was completely alone. Then one of them looked through the slots of the locker... and walked towards it. Some shit like that. I can't remember anything after and, frankly, I don't care. I slowly woke up with him in my ear. 
"Hey. Heyyy. Cutie. Wake up, wake up, wake up."
It kind of threw me off, because I was tired as shit and wasn't thinking straight. I was barely awake. Hell, I thought it was still a dream. 
"I need to ask you a favor. It's kind of important. Can you help me?" 
I just laid there and looked up at my laptop's screen, eager to see where this was going. As far as I can remember, he just sat there too. His eyes almost seemed to study me before he spoke up again
"Well?"
I didn't answer. It was just a video, after all. It was a pre-written, pre-recorded script. At least, that's what I thought until I realized that I wasn't even wearing my earbuds. They fell out of my ears while I was asleep. They were plugged in clear as day, but the sound still came out of the speakers. You can make fun of me for this all you want, but when I realized this... I fucking nodded. I sat up slightly and nodded directly at the computer screen like he could even see. Turns out he did, excitedly perking up.
"Ah! So, you can hear me! Okay, okay... that makes this easier..."
Holy shit.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Don't close the video! I need you to help me!"
I think I visibly freaked out because he started panicking and trying to reassure me. I don't know how but, eventually, he calmed me down. He... was strangely soothing. For some unfunny meme that annoyed me every time I saw it, he actually comforted me. He calmed me down, he told me to breathe in and out, and... I did. I felt better, more awake. I was actually ready to listen at that point, sitting upright and staring intently at the screen. He spoke again.
"Okay... look... I know this sounds bad, and... well, really, it might be, but... could you do something for me? Something you might not want to do at first?"
I... nodded in agreement. I didn't know what else to do. It was 3 AM and I was responding to my computer that had a anthropomorphic rat talking to me.
"You know that gun you have in your desk?"
At this point, I knew it wasn't you. I never told you this, but I keep a Colt Detective Special underneath the papers in my computer desk. Hell, I never told *anyone* this. I didn't know what else to do, so I slowly shuffled through cloth and paper alike until I grabbed the cold metal handle of the revolver, gripping it in my hand tightly.
"Yeah! That! Do you keep it loaded?"
I released the cylinder, revealing the empty slots. It was unloaded. I had never fired it before; I never needed to.
"Aww, that's too bad... where do you keep the bullets at?"
I'll be honest with you, I don't know why I let it slip out of my mouth, but I told him. "They're in the desk, too." I fucking spoke to him, and he answered.
"Could you maybe... load it for me? You don't need all six shots. One is fine."
To add onto the events that I can't explain why I wholeheartedly did, I actively loaded the firearm. The whole clip. I closed the cylinder and spun it, making rapid clicks before stopping.
He smiled again before continuing. "Okay... now, you need to trust me on this... can you maybe... shoot your screen?"
"...No," I told him.
"I know it sounds bad, but..."
"I'm not doing that."
"Come on, please! I need your help!"
"I need this computer for work."
"B-but..."
"I can't. I can't do it."
"I-it'll be fine! I promise!"
He seemed to be pleading with me at this point to destroy my laptop. Even while I was half asleep, I knew that was a shitty idea. I protested further. "It's three in the morning," I told him.
"I promise to you that nothing bad is going to happen! I just need you to do this for me. J-just aim the gun at my head! Right here!"
He pointed at his forehead, trying to tempt me to fire a bullet into the screen as if it'd hit him.
"I can't," I told him. "It's a work laptop."
"B-but... I need you to!"
"No."
"Look, if you do this for me, I'll do whatever you want! I promise!"
"I'm not shooting my fucking computer."
"Just do it! Break it! I don't know, use a hammer or something! J-just break it open!"
I backed further away from the screen, not having noticed how, for lack of a better term, "undistorted" it sounded until I started writing this email to you. You know how when audio comes out of a speaker, it usually sounds like it's coming through an actual output until you put it up to your ear and you hear the audio clearer? I could swear I heard him clear up as he kept talking, but at this point, I had stood up, stumbling with my back against the wall. I was nowhere near the speakers and yet he was louder than ever, as if he were actually in the room.
"P-please..." he begged me. "I... I don't to keep pestering you, but... you're my only hope..."
Reggie, almost lifelike at this point, looked like he was on the verge of tears. I almost felt bad for the guy. Maybe it was because he was speaking directly to me, but I couldn't help it. Sympathy for a guy that didn't even exist, I moved back to my computer, and he almost seemed to perk up. It... genuinely felt like it was an actual person in the room with me, even if it was just some mouse character on my computer screen.
"I swear," he told me, "I'll buy you another one. Please... help me out here."
I... almost relented then and there. I don't know why I gave such a shit, it was clearly some computer virus, but... fuck. I didn't understand it at the time. I was just waking up and I thought I was just in a lucid dream. Then he pulled a really dirty fucking trick. He decided to scare me. Got all up in the screen, screaming "shoot me, shoot me, shoot me"... So, I did. I jumped. It was a reflex. I couldn't help it. It freaked me out. My heart immediately sunk into my chest. "Well... shit," I thought. "There goes all the money I spent on my computer and now I'm submerged in complete darkness." I stumbled for a light switch... when I heard his voice again.
"Thank you... so much..."
The next few moments were a complete blur. A loud slam on the desk below, voices of hundreds of people screaming... I fired a couple shots but they either didn't hit anything or didn't do shit. I felt searing, sharp pains all over my face, my neck... my chest... and then I was in front of a computer screen. My emails. All of them, still that damned spam email. This time there was one at the top. The subject line was just "shared". I hesitated, knowing what kind of shit happened when I relented the first time, but eventually I clicked on it. The sight nearly made me vomit.
It was me. My body, to be precise. My throat stitched shut with this white, almost animal-like hair. My arms were dangling by my side, barely connected by mere strings of muscle tissue. It like tin cans tied with a string. My legs were fused with the chair. My stomach, or what was left of it, had nothing. There weren't any intestines, no guts, just wires. Cables and cords. I was a fucking monster. The worst part was my head... oh god, my head... my mouth and my nose almost fused, extending outwards like a fucked-up snout. My ears were stretched, wider than I thought was possible. My mouth was completely open, most of my teeth on the top row completely gone except for the front two. The laptop wasn't even broken. Not at all, in fact it was displaying a white screen. I didn't understand at first, but it hit me.
That's the backdrop of the video. He was gone. Entirely.
I tried to turn my head away, but I couldn't. I tried to move my arms out, but I couldn't even feel them moving. All I felt was the keyboard. I tried to move the rest of my body; my hips were stuck completely, I couldn't feel my legs, and neck was completely numb. I felt like I was in a glue trap. I was completely stuck outside of my arms. I couldn't even move my waist. I was stuck on the other end. I could go onto any site I wanted, but I couldn't leave. I couldn't even look away from the screen, but I felt it. The touch, the smell, the... taste of rotting flesh. I could feel it. I didn't understand it. I had no idea where to go from there, but an idea struck me. I decided to call Owen.
So, I did. I tried to call him on Discord at four in the morning and, after two straight hours of spamming the call button, I finally caught him. He answered.
"ugh... what the fuck do you want," he groggily muttered. I barely heard him through his shitty phone mic before I spoke up.
"Hey. It's an emergency," I told him.
"what...?"
"I... Can you like... get to my house real fast?"
"what the fuck... dude, I just woke up man, give me a few."
"You don't even live that far dude. I think someone broke in."
"wait... seriously?"
He perked up, sensing I might actually in danger. "...reg, where are you right now?" he asked me. The sound of concerned echoed in his voice as he kept speaking. "Why aren't you home? Turn on your cam, dude, where the hell are you?" Then I realized... I've never seen what I looked like since I got here. I hesitated, almost horrified of what I might look like on the other end. I audibly stuttered, which led him to pressure me just a bit more.
"Dude," he told me. "Are you visiting your dad's or something?"
"No, I... I don't know where I am."
"...what? Let me see."
I wasn't going to get anywhere, so I turned on my camera. I fucking screamed. It was him. Reggie. He was my entire webcam, and he echoed my actions. I didn't even realize how much I sounded like him until I saw it.
"...are you fuckin' with me?"
"N-no, come on! What the fuck?!"
"Okay, I'll be real, you got me, but... you finally owning that bit kind of proved you're more manly than the rest of us, dude."
"I'm not joking!"
"It's a cool avatar, but like... I got to get my coffee and head to work."
"P-please... you have to check on the house!"
"I'm not falling for the rest of this schtick, I got money to make."
"There's no schtick! Please!"
"...alright, dude... I'll call you again when I'm off work and we can hit up Minecraft, alright?"
I stammered out a no and desperately tried to protest, but he already hung up. He was gone. Fuck. I opened up the Camera app. I sat there for hours, looking at my digital reflection. A white void I couldn't even turn my head or move in. I lifted my hand and waved, and he copied. Down to the last detail. I tried moving around, and he moved as if I would. I tilted my head, spun around... almost like I was standing up. But it didn't matter. I couldn't leave the screen. I couldn't look away; it was like it was permanently attached to my vision. It was me. I was him and he was me. That fucking character you compared me with is now actually who I am. It was disorienting at first, but I figured it out. 
I looked in the Videos folder and there it was. The video that was sent to me is attached to this email. I tried to watch it, but it didn't open. I can imagine it'll open for you. You can look at my place if you want proof that any of this is legitimate. I'd imagine that the body is going to be found soon enough anyway. I don't care if you do or not. I don't want to be some fictional character. I want to be me again. So, if you're reading this, please; open the attachment. I'll most likely be there. When you get it open, I want you to destroy your computer monitor. Even if it's that CRT you like using. Shoot it, smash it with a hammer, blow it up with an improvised explosive, I don't care. Just break it. Please. Break your monitor. Hell, go to my house, steal mine, and break that. I don't fucking care. Just get me out of here.
I can't live like this, but I know you can. I know you're an outcast. I know your family hates you and you're a shut-in and all that other shit. I know no one but Owen and I are going to miss you. I know you'll come back when someone else does the same for you, and I'll come back for you when you do. Please, download the video and open it. Break your monitor as soon as you do. I swear to god, I'll come find you again. I'll come see you. I'll find someone to do the same for you. Honest. I've known you since we were kids. I wouldn't lie to you if I was at gunpoint, Joey. You're a fucking brother to me. Please, for the love of god, get me out of here. It's so hot in here. I think the recording is making whatever computer I'm at overheat. I can feel the fucking fan like breathing on the back of my neck. There's already so much shit open and I had to buy something cheap for work, so maybe it's that.
Download the video, open it, and break your monitor.
Please.
attachment: shared.mp4 
thumb|shared.mp4
Category:Computers and Internet
Category:Videos
Category:Memes