I Played a Horror Game

I’ve been a streamer for a little over a year…or rather I was a streamer up until last night. I only had 40 subscribers, but I tried really hard to make something of my channel. I tried all sorts of videos from DIYs to Mukbangs but nothing really stuck. My videos would have about 10 or maybe 20 views on a good day, but I wanted more. I watched other streamers trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, but no matter what I did my views wouldn’t get any higher.

So I got on Twitter and made a post asking my followers what kind of videos that I should make. Most of them just liked the post, a few retweeted, but none of them replied. One evening I was in my bed scrolling through and groaning over what to do next when I got a message from someone. Their handle was Phobos and all they sent was “I have a suggestion…”, I didn’t recall having a follower by that name so I decided to look at their profile. I clicked on their page but it was completely blank. No posts, retweets, followers, nothing at all.

I was thinking that it was some sort of bot or something so I ignored their message. I dropped my phone to my side and as soon as it hit the bed a notification rang. I looked at my phone again to see another message from Phobos, “I have a suggestion for more views..” I decided to just shrug it off and humor them for a bit, I replied with, “Oh, Awesome! Thanks for supporting my channel! What did you have in mind??”

What they sent me next was a link, a string of letters and numbers highlighted in blue. I know this wasn’t the best decision, but I was so damn curious I couldn’t resist clicking on that link. I was brought to a site that was completely black, for a second I thought my phone had turned off. Slowly red letters started to appear on my screen that formed the words Phobia along with an image of a beating heart cartoonishly spurting out blood. More text came on the screen, Fear Inducing Experiences . It wasn’t the catchiest tag line so I didn’t think anything of it when I pressed on the heart. I felt a light vibration underneath my thumb then the window simply closed. I went back to my inbox to find that Phobos and his messages were gone.

I was sure that I must’ve clicked on a virus or something so I spent some time looking up ways to clean my phone, thankfully there seemed to be nothing wrong. I sat in my room in silence, trying to figure out what to do next when my computer’s monitor turned on. I thought my computer was turned off so I stepped over towards my desk to shut everything down. That’s when I saw an icon in the center of my screen, a small icon of a red heart. I’m not sure how the icon even got there, but sure enough it was the same heart that was from the link.

I’m not much not much of a gamer, I play things pretty casually and horror games are something I just never got into. I know a lot of streamers record themselves playing and reacting to horror games so I thought that I should suck it up and start doing it too. I had everything set up for a livestream and as I started it I waited for a moment until I had a few viewers at least. About ten minutes had passed with…zero viewers, I was about to stop the stream altogether but I thought I should at least start the game and see what happens.

I clicked on the icon and the screen blacked out, slowly the word START in a bold red font came into view. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself to get scared. I looked to see that my stream had gotten 3 more viewers. I played up my nervousness a bit hoping to entertain whoever was watching, talking about the channel a bit and telling them how much I hate being scared. No comments yet, I suppose they were feeling me out. After a bit more of my one sided conversation I clicked the START button.

The game was in a first person perspective, I was in a dark square room surrounded by stone walls, each with a torch on its surface. My character slowly picked themselves up from the floor and when I was upright I was able to move around. I had my headphones on and there wasn’t any music, no trace of sound effects, just absolute silence. I looked around to see no doors or openings, just four walls and four torches. “What kind of game is this?”, I said to myself. I glanced over to see that I now had 15 viewers.

I tried to contain my excitement as the viewer count slowly rose, I thought maybe this wasn’t a bad idea after all. I set my focus back onto the game and continued to look around for some kind of objective. I moved my cursor over one of the torches and a prompt appeared on the screen that said Kill The Light. I clicked the torch and a satisfying hiss filled my ears as the flames went out. I went to two more of the torches and did the same to them, my screen beginning to dim as each flame went out.

I stood in front of the last bit of light that I had from the torch in front of me, I looked at my views to see that I had over 50 people watching me. I couldn’t help but grin a bit as I acted afraid for the viewers as I glided my cursor over the final dim flame and a prompt appeared. Are They Watching? Did it really say that? I quickly moved back to the flame and the prompt Kill The Light appeared. I thought it was just my imagination, so I continued the play through as normal.

I extinguished the last light and my screen went black. I sat there while pressing at the movement keys hoping that the game didn’t crash when I heard something through my headphones. The noise sounded like it was right next to me, a wet squish as if something was moving through mud. I removed my headphones to look around my bedroom, nothing was out of the ordinary, just a dark room lit by my monitor. The moment I placed the headphones the noise continued, even louder than before.

I thought that the game was bugged somehow, I wasn’t sure if I was moving at all in this darkness and the noise…that noise was making my ears ache. I apologized to my viewers and muted the game’s audio. I let out a sigh of relief from not being able to hear that damn squishing noise…until I heard something else. I was sure that I was home alone, I was sure that my bedroom door was locked and I was absolutely sure that the game was muted, but why….why was I hearing shallow breaths coming from behind me.

I took off my headphones and turned around…but no one was there but the breathing continued in my ears, I could feel it behind me making the hairs on the back of my neck stand. Even after I took off my headphones I could hear the breathing right behind me, I could feel the short bursts of air hitting the back of my neck. I quickly closed out of the game and stopped the stream.

I spent the next hour curled up underneath the blankets on my bed. I spent that time with my hands on my neck with my breathing nearly held to listen out for whatever was behind me. I jumped at the sudden noise of my phone vibrating on my desk. I had a moment of clarity as I thought about how childish I was acting over playing some broken game. I lifted my sheets to find myself in the darkness of my room, of course.

I slowly stepped over towards the direction of my desk and found my chair. I turned it to take a seat and repositioned myself in front of my monitor. I felt for my phone and after a moment of fumbling around I was finally able to find it. I turned it on and the bright light from the screen caused me to wince. I looked at my phone to see I had a private message from Phobos, I opened the message to find another link along with a message, “They’re still watching..”

I clicked on the link and it was a full video of my play through of that game. I was surprised to see that it was posted just an hour ago..right after I had ended my stream and it was already at a couple of thousand views. I wasn’t sure if I should’ve felt angry or what but as I scrolled back up to the video I watched in absolute horror as I saw an outline of a head appear from right behind my chair. I just sat there and watched as the room got darker from me taking out the torches, the face would pick itself up, revealing a thin shape of a body and move closer to my head.

I paused the video right before I took out the last light and I was able to see…its face had nothing but a mouth, the rest of its exposed flesh was covered with small eyes, its naked thin body… its pencil-like arms…everything…was covered in lidless eyes. With the video paused I could see that each eye was pointed towards me. I couldn’t help but stare at the eyes and though the video was paused I could feel them staring at me…I could hear each eye with their wet squishing movement go towards me. Once again I could feel that breath hitting the back of my neck.

I slowly turned in my seat and I was met face to face with…whatever that thing was. Each eye wriggled to look at me and its mouth was open to reveal a black void that released that damn shallow breathing. I was absolutely frozen in place as it lifted its hands and grabbed my face…I felt the eyes move around on my cheeks, the feeling of the wet and cold orbs on my skin made me want to throw up. Despite the bile rising from my gut nothing came out of my mouth, not even a scream as it moved its face closer and closer to mine.

I couldn’t let out a shriek but my body knew the fear as it shook uncontrollably. I was helpless in the grasps of this…thing. I didn’t want to look at it anymore…or rather I didn’t want it to look at ME anymore. I squeezed my eyes shut, not its breath was hitting right in my face with the eyes on its eyes still moving against my cheeks. I tried to turn my head away but it was so strong my neck couldn’t budge.

I heard something…a distorted deep voice that filled my ears that said, “I’ll always be watching..” Then I felt it release my head and when I opened my eyes…it was gone. I dashed to my bedroom door and sure enough it was still locked. I looked back onto the phone and the video..the link..the message…it was gone. I went on my computer and scoured the internet for any trace of the game..anything..but there was nothing. I went through my streams and God…there was nothing at all. I turned on all the lights in my apartment, I covered myself in my blankets and I cowered in the corner of my room.

It said that it was watching me and I can still feel its eyes on me. I went online and I deleted all of my videos…I don’t want it to look at me..I don’t want its eyes on me ever again. I didn’t sleep…I couldn’t sleep, every time I closed my eyes I was surrounded in darkness and I could hear the eyes move…I could hear its breathing behind me. Hours had passed until morning finally came, it wasn’t a nightmare…I don’t know what happened. I thought that I had gone crazy until…I got a text message from an unknown number asking me…if I wanted more views. Now I’m here…still so afraid..and I don’t want anyone…anything to look at me ever again.