The Online Ghost (2nd draft)

OK this is the second draft. For anyone who read the first and past comment I have edited some bits but the main change is the ending; it's longer and more drawn out. Hope you like it

Language: None
Sexual references: None
Violence: None
Other: Horror, stalking, ghostly


Susanna began typing away on her keyboard. She loved these quiet nights in by herself. The warm buzz of her computer, the blue light being produced from her monitor and the friendly chit-chat of her Internet companions was all the comfort she needed. The house was dark and empty but she didn’t mind, once she became engrossed in her online activities the hours just flew by. All was generally silent around apart from the odd background noise; next door neighbour’s dog barking, children laughing outside, taps dripping that last drop of water and of course the rattling of fingers on the keyboard.

In a way Susanna was much like any other girl. She enjoyed social drinking with friends and partners, soap operas on television, a fashionable dress sense and most chart music. The difference with Susanna is that she’s twenty four, single, unemployed and still lives with her parents. Saturday night was always her Mum and Dad’s night and as usual they would spend the majority of the evening away from home at a restaurant or a pub or a nightclub or the cinema, or perhaps a combination. She had grown accustomed to this since becoming involved with the Internet. She could spend hours on local chat rooms (perhaps even days if her body clock allowed it). She loved the phoniness of chat rooms; anyone could login and pretend to be anyone they wanted, nobody could physically harm you, nobody would be non-the-wiser about your true persona. Susanna didn’t judge people by how they portrayed themselves online, even if she didn’t believe what they were saying;
‘Hello, my name is Beefcake I’m 6’2” with big muscles. I like long blonde hair, romantic dinners and rescuing small puppies’
Perhaps it was these white lies that made the conversation more interesting. She would challenge them to see how deep down in their lies they could dig, by questioning minor details about their ‘life’, to see if they had thought of every possible angle if approached by a skeptic.

This particular Saturday night seemed no different to any other. Susanna’s parents had barely closed the door behind them when she was already logged on and ready to start chatting. She began scrolling down the list of people in her favorite chat room to see if she recognized anybody. This was usually how she begun her night; saying hello to all of her many anonymous friends and absorbing the highlights of the days events from each person. She fed off gossip like people feed off watermelons; the juicier it is the better. Much to her disappointment there was nobody she knew in sight, this was rather a let down but she decided to hang around and wait, surely someone would eventually turn up; these people were just as anti social and addicted to chat rooms as her. However, rather than sitting at her computer desk swiveling on her expensive leather office chair (bought especially for long innings at the computer) or twiddling her thumbs she decided it best to head for the kitchen and get a snack in order to kill some time.

As she stood from her familiar sitting position she gained touch with reality and realized just how dark the house was on a Saturday night. Every light was off except for the light coming from the monitor and from the large family TV, which was set to mute anyway. Through fear of doing serious damage to her eyes she reached over to the light switch on the wall and flicked it on, the sudden burst of brilliant light made her squint and almost dazzled her. After giving herself a few seconds to get used to it she ventured out to the hall and turned the light on there. The place looked so much more inviting when everything was switched on but it was such a waste of electricity being as she knew she wouldn’t be moving much from the computer. She entered the kitchen and placed her hand on the light switch almost forgetting were it was. Susanna loved Quavers and dashed straight for the cupboard she knew they would be kept and removed several packets in one swift move. Her parents always bought her multi packs of Quavers when they went shopping as they knew they were her favorite; however it was very rare if they lasted till the end of the week. Before heading back to the living room to see if anyone was online, she quickly opened the fridge and pulled out a nice cold bottle of Coke just to wash the crisps down. That was it; she got what she came for and walked out of the kitchen and back to the computer, turning all lights off on her way of course.

Throwing her crisps by her side she sat down in her chair and noticed something flashing at the bottom of the monitor. She clicked on it and became over thrown with glee after realizing it was a private message from someone;
‘Hello there’, the message said. Susanna didn’t recognize the name of the person who was talking to her. Perhaps it was someone local who knew of her chat room name. She clicked on the persons name to bring up his/her profile. Much to her disappointment this person had not filled anything in; no name, no country of residence, no gender, no hobbies, nothing was filled in. A chance to talk to someone new for a change, she thought. So she replied in kind;
‘Hello’, Susanna was getting quite excited. It’d been a while since she spoken to a new person, everybody else she knew pretty much inside out and was almost closer to her than her real ‘offline’ friends. Not only was this person new, they were also quite mysterious. She decided it would be fun to try and get as much information out of this person as she could. She quickly sent another message;
‘What’s your name?’
‘I am not telling’, replied the stranger. Susanna was trying to figure out whether this person was being ignorant or mysterious. She didn’t hesitate to ask further questions;
‘OK no problem, where do you come from?’
‘Oh I’m pretty close’, the stranger said. Being as Susanna had written in her profile that she was from London, well that response didn’t really narrow it down too much;
‘I take it you mean near London. Where in London are you from?’
‘I am not telling’, eight sentences into the conversation she was already beginning to lose patience. Susanna reached down beside her to reach for a bag of crisps, as she regained her upward position she noticed another message from the stranger;
‘Did you hear that?’ said the stranger. Susanna became rather confused at this point. Was this person trying to scare her or was he just being weird?
‘Hear what?’ She replied;
‘It will do it again soon. I promise’, she wondered what this meant. She hadn’t heard anything. Mind you the house could be being torn to shreds by a tornado and Susanna wouldn’t even bat an eyelid. She decided to avoid this line of questioning and ask something else;
‘So, what do you like doing?’
‘Not a great deal. Maybe I like some of the things you like’, that seemed like a nice friendly sentence. There was nothing weird or threatening about that. She paused for a minute and thought about her next reply. She braced her finger tips for her next movement but before she could type something caught her attention. She noticed the television suddenly switch off. She stared blankly at the now lifeless box, her heart began to beat faster and her breathing became deeper. How the hell did that happen? She thought. It was an old set, perhaps it was just some faulty wiring. She scanned the now even darker room for the remote control forgetting for a moment that her hands were still hovering over the keyboard. Glancing briefly at the monitor she noticed the next sentence on the screen;
‘Sorry about that’ said the stranger;
‘Sorry about what?’ replied Susanna. She could feel herself becoming hot and her whole body began to shake;
‘The TV’ came the response, ‘Ever so sorry about that’ she could hear her frightened breath even stronger, her eyes were now glued to the screen. How did he know about that? How did he know the television had gone off? Was there some kind of fault in the area that made all the TV’s go off? There was no other explanation for it. There was no other way he could’ve known about it;
‘I don’t understand’ Susanna’s typing was slow and jerky as her fingers struggled to concentrate on the correct letters. Then something made her jump, something that made her heart sink and her whole body tense up. Thump! There it was again. What was that? It sounded like it was coming from upstairs. Her heart filled with tremendous fright as she tried to control her paranoia. She caught a glimpse of the screen in the corner of her eye. The stranger had sent another reply;
‘Did you hear that?’ it said. Thump! Sure enough, there it was again. She had indeed heard it. Susanna jumped from her seat in a panic and dashed towards the light switch. Her mind was focused on what was going on upstairs. What was that? Who was that? How did the stranger know? She froze on the spot and stared out to the hallway that leads to the stairs. Would she dare venture upstairs to see what was making that noise? Surely it was all a coincidence, or maybe someone playing a trick. Barley taking her attention off the hallway she reached down to the keyboard and began to type again;
‘What the hell is going on?’ She was both angry and frightened ‘How do you know all these things?’ She waited for the reply. As the stranger begun to type Susanna could feel every letter that proceeded stabbing her in the stomach. Her eyes widened as she finished reading the sentence;
‘I am here’ another thump sounded, this time much louder and furious than the last. Susanna stepped away from the computer with her hand held up to her mouth. She felt a tear gently roll down the side of her cheek. She was scared beyond belief. Whoever this person was clearly knew what was going on. Perhaps this person was indeed here;
‘I like your room’ said the stranger. Images of her bedroom flooded her mind. She tried to picture the stranger in her room, staring at her. She could clearly see this person as nothing more than a silhouette; after all she had no description of what he/she/it looked like. Susanna had never felt fear like this, she knew someone or something was in the house with her somehow communicating with her. Her visitor was metres away from her. Should she go upstairs and see for herself? What if it really was a joke? What if someone was really spying on her and knew what was going on? Her mind raced with nightmarish thoughts. She turned again to the monitor to see what else was on screen. Breathing very heavily now and sweating profusely she didn’t feel as though she could be anymore frightened until she read what came next;
‘I like your hair. Why are you crying?’ Oh god! Was he here? Was he watching her? Susanna scanned the room in a panic to see if she could see anyone. She saw nothing. She dashed to the keyboard and began to type;
‘Where are you?! How do you know all this?’
‘I told you. I am here’
‘Prove it!’ She was now so scared she was losing rational thought. She was becoming angry with someone she wasn’t sure even existed;
‘I don’t like it when people get angry’ and with that he logged off. Susanna stared
at the screen for a few seconds before the realization of what was going on became apparent again. She stood up from her desk and began to concentrate on the hallway once more. She realized that she must get out. She began to edge slowly out of the living room but before she could make more than a few steps, darkness fell. Every light in the house went out, even the computer was off. The power had been cut somehow. She reached her trembling arm towards the light switch and began to tamper with it. On. Off. On. Off. It didn’t work. Her eyes were filled with tears; she didn’t know what to do. Thump! Another noise came from upstairs, quickly followed by another. More thumping noises followed one after the other. It was as if someone was running around.

Susanna crept slowly out of the room trying in vain to focus her eyes. It was incredibly difficult to see where she was going. Her mind began to play tricks on her. Was that a figure she saw in the corner of her eye? Did something move in the next room? It was all too much for her, her heartbeat was pounding so heavy and fast she swore other people would be able to hear it. Stepping out into the hallway she remembered they kept a torch in the drawer on the telephone table incase of power cuts. Edging towards the table, which was at the bottom of the stairs, she kept her eyes focused on the same position leading upstairs. Fumbling and dabbing her hand she franticly searched for the drawer handle. She found it! Gently pulling the torch from its position inside the drawer she flicked it on rapidly and swished it round to aim it at the top of the stairs. As she did, something dashed out of the light suddenly. Someone, or something, was definitely up there.
“Who’s there??” Susanna cried desperately, hoping that whoever was up there would confess to the pranks they’d been pulling on her. Hoping that someone relieve her of her fright and come clean about what was going on. No answer.

She wanted desperately to know who, or what, was doing all this. Why were they doing it? She took a deep breath and placed one foot onto the first step. Still staring upstairs, still focusing on the spot light which shone at the top, which was now quivering through her lack of control. She was going to get to the bottom of this. In a strange way she would rather the ‘thing’ be some hideous creature rather than a real person. She knew monsters and the likes were nonsense and if it was a monster, then she would dismiss the whole ordeal as being nothing more than her mind playing tricks on her. She attempted to take the second step, each second seemed to last a lifetime. Her breathing was still very heavy as if she had just finished a race. Before she could even contemplate taking the third stop something caught her attention. Something that made her think she was being watched, from behind. Something that was breathing lightly. She gasped suddenly and swung the torch round to where she thought it was coming from. In the split second the spotlight focused, she caught a glimpse of a figure. Yes! It was a definite figure, with a definite face, standing in front of the front door. Within a split second Susanna had dropped the torch in shock. The light flickered and darkness fell once more. She stood staring at the figure. The street light shining through the small stain glass window of the front door silhouetted the figure stood in front of it. Susanna let out a cry. Tears were streaming down her face and her heavy breathing was now hyperventilation.
“What do you want!?!?” cried Susanna. The figure didn’t move or say anything. She never hesitated any further. She turned quickly and darted upstairs. Pelting along through the certain blackness she had no idea what she was going to do. She headed into her bedroom where, for some reason, she would feel safer and dove into her bed covering her entire body with her duvet. What was she doing? She was trapped. There was no exit.

The house was completely still and silent except for thudding sounds. Someone was coming upstairs. Susanna could hear them getting louder as the stranger progressed its way up each step. She clasped her hands over her mouth in a vain attempt to muffle the whimpering sobs coming from her mouth. She counted the last step in her head as the footsteps fell on it. Then, silence. Everything seemed to be quiet again. She couldn’t hear anymore footsteps. The door to her bedroom hadn’t creaked open. She didn’t feel any safer under her bed; she knew that she wouldn’t be any safer if she removed the duvet from her. She took her hands away from her mouth and slowly gripped the duvet underneath. The air there was warm and sticky and she was beginning to sweat a lot. Slowly but surely she pulled the duvet down over her head, past her hair, past her forehead until she could just about see over it. As she pulled it over her eyes Susanna let out an almighty scream. Amongst the blackness of the room, there stood a pair of fiery red eyes standing over her. The same two eyes she had seen at the front door. She couldn’t see the figure itself, just the two evil eyes staring daggers at her. Susanna let out another ear splitting scream, then darkness fell for the last time.