Chapter 6

My laptop's green camera light was on, meaning that my camera was active. I knew I only had the web browser open, so this meant that... that...

Before thinking of what could be happening, I had to do something. I quickly covered the camera by putting some clean white fabric on it. The camera light subsequently turned off.

Still, in fear of being watched by someone, I closed the web browser and shut my laptop down.

"Was I being watched? For how long was this on? This... can't be! What am I supposed to do?"

I ran to the apartment's door and locked it as many times as I could. Then, I shut the curtains of every window tightly. For a moment, I even thought of staying in my uncle's home.

"Am I hacked? Who could possibly be watching me?"

I went to my bed and hid under the blanket. Even though there was no obvious danger to my well-being, I was scared beyond imagination.

After spending close to an hour hiding under the blanket, I got up.

"I'm being irrational." I thought. And beyond that, I now had some curiosity. I got back in front of my laptop and opened it back up. I launched the web browser again and went to the bookmarked doll-making blog. And then... I started watching my camera light.

It lit up.

Luckily, the white fabric was still covering the actual camera.

"Is this from the website? But why would a blog want to activate my camera?"

I was just in time for another surprise. A new window appeared on the bottom right of the screen... A chat box.

The chat box had no options to resize or close the window, there was only the chat area and nothing else.

The site started playing some slow background music, a celesta tune accompanied by an ambient soundscape... And the first message was typed.

"Are you afraid?"

No usernames, no identification whatsoever. Someone was trying to chat with me.

"Who are you?" I replied with a question on my own, after the initial confusion had passed.

"I am the owner of this site and everything in it. Don't worry, there is nothing to be scared of."

"You write these blog posts? Do you make these dolls?"

"Yes. First time in a while, I've had a permanent visitor like you."

"Really? How do you know I'm a permanent visitor?"

"There is no true anonymity on the internet, my dear. If someone visits my site a second time, I will know. And I want to get to know you. If you are comfortable scrolling through these dolls, you belong here."

Now, what was that supposed to mean?

"I don't understand." I typed.

"You've scrolled through many pictures of more than twelve different dolls today. Don't you ever feel anything 'exotic' while you are on this blog?"

"I guess, sometimes I do."

"Why don't you lift the cover over your camera so I can see your face?"

I didn't type a reply to that for about five minutes.

"Are you still there?"

"I don't want to open my camera."

"Are you afraid?"

That question again... And yes, I was afraid. A lot. I just didn't want to say that.

"I don't know."

"You are. You don't have to be."

At that moment, I just wanted it to end. I moved my mouse cursor on the browser's exit button, but it did not light up. I couldn't click on it.

Instead, I received another message.

"I can help you."

This time, I pressed the power button to force my laptop to shutdown. The screen went black, and the fans stopped spinning.

I looked around the room. It was getting dark. I got up and turned on all the lights inside the apartment, as well as the TV to make some noise in the background. I was scared, and I was feeling defenseless. My sixth sense was telling me that someone was going to knock my door in a few minutes, no- seconds... Right now!

No one really knocked my door, but I wasn't going to be able to sleep.

I grabbed the knife I used earlier to cut my arm, as if I was going to attack and defeat an intruder who could attempt to break into my home.

Or... could I call the police and ask for protection?

"Stop being an idiot." my inner voice started arguing with my subconscious. "You are not in danger, and no one is going to kill you."

After a while, I managed to calm myself down. There was nothing going on, and I was worrying with no good reason. I hadn't done anything illegal, bad or shameful. I was living in a decent neighborhood, and I had nothing to be scared of.

Reminding myself about these, I dropped the knife and turned the TV off, as well as all the unnecessary lights.

Glaring at my doll-making supplies, I made a decision. I was not going to get on that blog ever again, and I was going to throw these things out tomorrow. With relative peace of mind, I went to bed, pulled the blanket over myself and slept.

And I woke up in a way I didn't want to.

A strange noise was coming from outside. I slowly got out of my bed, and rubbed my sleepy eyes.

"What time is it?"

I turned the light on and read the clock on the wall. It was 4.17 - very early in the morning, or arguably very late at night.

I walked towards the window and moved the curtain out of the way to take a look outside. At that moment, the glass started shaking. There was a storm going on, an unpredicted one. The wind was making weird and terrifying noises as it was pushing through the small gaps between the apartments. The trees were bending, and their leaves were flying away one by one.

In the street, I saw the dark silhouette of a girl looking at me. The moment I looked at her, she averted her gaze and walked away.