Reset Your Password

Reset your password

Aaron had been working overtime at the office. Everyone else had already left for the day, excited for their Friday night adventures. Aaron didn’t have a social life, however. He pushed everyone away who tried to get too close, a defense that he deemed necessary his entire life.

The building was all dark aside from the light left on in his office. It had a scary vibe at this point of the night, and he kind of liked that. He loved the eerie and dark. He felt as if he belonged in it. He was sure his coworkers would agree with this thought as well.

Oh, he could hear them making comments and whispering among themselves about him. “There’s just something wrong with him. I don’t know what it is,” or “He’s scary. I wouldn’t want to be caught alone in a room with him, that’s for sure.” Things like that made him smile to himself though. He preferred to be alone and the best way to do that is to be unapproachable, a skill he learned early on from his late, estranged father.

He was typing up his latest presentation and going over tomorrow’s meetings when the phone suddenly rang. The loud sound of it startled him so much he jumped in his seat. “Shit!” He yelled at himself as he placed his hand over his pounding heart as if the feel of it might slow it back down.

It rang again. He looked at it suspiciously, hesitating to pick it up. Who the fuck would be calling him at the office this late at night? He hated phone calls, even business calls. The more he thinks about it, the more he realizes he simply hates people in general. He loathes them.

It rings again, and he swallows hard before finally picking up the receiver. “Aaron Galloway’s office,” he said in a monotone voice that portrayed his distaste for the late-night call. There was only breathing on the other end, maybe a little static here and there, but for the most part, no one was saying anything.

“Hello?” The irritation in his voice couldn’t be more apparent if he tried. Still, no answer. Just breathing and static. He slammed down the phone with a rage he was already familiar with. A rage he had inherited from his father.

God Damned phones in this place never work properly. He had called technicians out here for weeks now, and they always say the same thing; there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the phones. Yet every night for the past month and a half, when he was working late like this, he would get the same empty phone calls.

He figured it must just be a cross in the line or something. That happens sometimes, right? Is that a thing that happens? He shook the thought out of his head, “I need to focus,” He thought. He placed his hands back on the home keys of his keyboard and began typing when the screen unexpectedly went black.

He froze, staring at the screen before him in horror. All of those long hours of work had hopefully been saved, but he wasn’t sure. This uncertainty caused a panic. He checked the plugs and wires to see that they were securely in place and plugged in. Then he pressed the power button. To his relief, the light came on the monitor and the startup screen was going through its usual routine.

He exhaled partly in relief and partly to subdue his anger. That anger in him that he inherited from his psychotic father burned in stomach like a flame that won’t go out. It sat dormant most times, but sometimes it boiled over in ways he couldn’t control. He couldn’t help himself. Sometimes, he just wanted to bash people’s brains in and watch the lights leave their eyes.

The login screen finally lit the monitor and Aaron started putting in his password. He typed out the code and pressed enter, but I didn’t log in. Incorrect password it read. His anger was now growing by the second. He tried it again, this time pressing the keys slowly and mindfully. He pressed enter again.

Incorrect password

What the fuck was going on? He had been using this password for the past three years he’s worked for this damned company. He tried it again, slamming his fingers on the keys in frustration as he did so. Still, it said the same thing. He clicked the question mark next to the error message and followed the link until he found the option to reset his password.

He followed the prompts on the screen and clicked ‘submit’ but it didn’t reset his password. The screen went back to the beginning of the whole process. What the hell? He started again, angrily typing away, panic rising in his chest that he might lose all of that data stored on the computer. Again, once he hit submit, it just sent him back to the very beginning again.

He angrily banged his fist on the keyboard, sending keys flying off the keyboard and some even hitting the floor. He huffed in anger, turned the monitor and the modem off and stood up from his desk. As he grabbed his suit jacket from the back of the chair, the phone rang again.

He jumped, almost falling over in the process. He yanked the receiver up and to his ear. “Who the hell is this?” He yelled through the phone. The breathing on the other end seemed louder than all of the other times before. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, and then a computerized female voice came through the speaker, “Please reset your password,” It instructed him.

He mumbled something even he couldn’t tell what he was trying to say. This was unusual for sure, but it did not stop the anger from bubbling up out of him. “Fuck you” he slammed the phone down again. He finished putting his jacket on, deciding he would just have the tech department come fix it in the morning, and while they were at it, they could look at his damned phone line again.

He reached the glass door of his office and was stopped by the ringing of the phone yet again. He paused at the door, looking back at the phone on his desk, all the lights flickering like a Christmas light show. He was puzzled now, his anger subsiding and now being replaced with another emotion he wasn’t typically used to dealing with; fear.

He slowly walked back to his desk and stood beside the phone, watching it light up and listening to the loud tone of the ringing. It echoed throughout the room. His breathing got slower as he cautiously reached down and pressed the speaker button. He gulped, “Galloway’s office.”

Again; inhale... exhale... inhale... exhale...

Then a loud scratching noise like nails on chalkboard roared through the speaker and echoed throughout the entire office. Aaron placed his hands over his ears trying to stop the headache brought on by the screeching sound. The monitor of his computer suddenly flicked on and the voice on the other end of the phone spoke, “Please reset your password.”

Somebody’s gotta be fucking with me, he thought to himself. He sat back down on his desk and attempted to go through the prompts on the screen again. This time, something worked, but not in a way he had hoped. On the screen before him now was a live video feed of himself in his office at this very moment. He could see the back of him.

He cautiously turned around, looking for any cameras that he hadn’t known was there before. He saw nothing, even after getting up and checking every nook and cranny of the wall behind his desk. There was nothing out of the ordinary.

Fury rushed through him again, his irritation taking over his personality once more. He yanked the cord to the computer out of the wall followed by the phone cord. He rushed out the door and made his way to the elevators, using the flashlight on his phone to find his way.

Aaron stopped just short of the elevators when he heard the ringing of his office phone from the other end of the building. It was loud enough that he could probably hear it from downstairs. “Nope!’ he thought to himself and took off running the rest of the way.

He feverishly pressed the down button of the elevator, ready to leave this place for the night. He was a mix of fear and frustration that made him uncomfortable and reminded him of the feeling he would get when his father was around on those nights when he would wake Aaron up to help him move something. He did that often.

The elevator wasn’t moving. It was still stuck on the first floor, and the ringing in his office had suddenly stopped. His heart was racing harder now, and he wasn’t taking any chances, so Aaron dashed for the stairs, feeling like someone was following him along the way. If they were, they weren’t running. They must be quietly tiptoeing as he couldn’t hear any footsteps behind him on the tile floor.

He made it to the exit and pushed the door open wide, letting it slam against the wall as he darted through the doorway and began his quickened descent to the first-floor exit. He made it down one flight when his cell phone began ringing.

This time when he jumped in panic, he fell down a few steps, bumping his head against the handrail. He hollered out in pain, still angry at the sequence of events he found himself stuck in at this moment. Aaron grabbed his phone from his side and looked at the screen. No caller ID.

...of course...

He caught his breath and answered his cell phone, rubbing the back of his now pounding head. “What do you want?” He yelled into the phone.

RESET YOUR PASSWORD

This time as the voice came over the phone, it was yelling and almost sounded like it was in the stairwell with him. The voice was different this time. Screechy and menacing. It sounded like more than one voice crying in pain at once. He cried out, terrified.

“I tried! It won’t let me! What do you want from me?” he cried through gritted teeth. Now he really sounded like his father. Had he finally become his father after all?

The line clicked and hung up. He felt alone in the stairwell for the first time since he entered it. He knew what the caller meant for him to do. It came to him as if it wasn’t his own thought but more of a suggestion of sorts from some other source, he couldn’t quite place. It felt familiar though.

He stood up, brushed himself off and took a deep breath in. He finished making his way to the bottom of the steps and exited into the main office of the building.

He walked through the lobby, passing the customer service desk with the nightly guard sitting dutifully behind it. He glanced at the guard, realizing he didn’t know his name. His eye contact was brief, however, as he knew his demeanor would be coming off as paranoid and jumpy. He didn’t want to draw attention to himself. A habit he also learned from his father.

“Calling it early tonight, Mr. Galloway?” the cheerful guard called out to him as he passed. Aaron just turned his head and answered with a half-smile and shitty excuse for a nod. ‘Real smooth’ he told himself, self-aware of his awkwardness and already off-putting nature to those around him. It was a miracle he even had a job, much less one as high paying as this. He turned back around and exited the garage without another word.

But he paid his dues to get here, damn it. He wasn’t going to let anyone take it away from him. Especially anybody from his past. Besides, it was all his father’s doing, not his. He was just a teenager, lured in to help his father with the promise of the approval he had always sought from him. It never worked. Those nights almost concluded with a backhanded slap across the cheek and rage that threatened to burn the world down if he felt the desire to.

Aaron hurried to his car, shakily pulling his keys out of his pockets, pressing the button to listen for its location. He could hear his own footsteps but only his. This was a relief to him, especially realizing that he still no longer felt that presence with him anymore. Seeing the lights of his car flashing from across the parking lot, he picked up his pace, almost running to the car.

He made it into the car in no time, shutting and locking the door as he dropped into his seat with what felt like all his weight. His heart racing almost to the point of a heart attack, or at least it felt like it. He cranked the car, but lingered there in his driver's seat, not putting it in gear yet. He just stared blankly out of the windshield.

It was empty, as he figured it would be. Trying to control his breathing, he turned the AC on full blast directed at his face and neck. He must be finally having a psychotic break. He's got to be going crazy, he thought of himself. His mind raced with memories of what he had been a part of most of his teenage years and early adulthood, he figured it was only a matter of time.

He gripped the steering wheel, gritting his teeth at the thought of what his father made him do. Angry that he was still paying for his sins even today, even if it is all in his head. He screamed into the empty car, letting out all of the fire in the pit of his stomach that was always ready to boil over, and this time it truly had. He wasn’t just afraid now, he was pissed.

If it is them, coming back to haunt him, how dare they! They knew he was forced to do it. They knew what his father would have done to him had he refused. That son of a bitch was dead now anyway. How dare they? “Go haunt him!” He shouted aloud. “He’s over there with you finally, you’ve got your man! Go take your revenge on him!”

His cell phone rang again. He jumped and let out a startled cry. Damn it. No ID.

“It wasn’t me,” he cried into the phone.

Inhale.... exhale.... inhale.... Please reset your password. Click.

He put the car in drive and headed out of the parking garage to his home in the hills. He drove quietly with ac blasting and no music. He even rolled the window down for some fresh air. Will this be the last time he ever feels this air? He wonders this to himself as he drives on to God knows what was waiting in store for him when he made it to his home computer.

His father died “under suspicious circumstances” just last year and the way he went.... Aaron tried to block it out. Before that, Terry Galloway, the great heir to the Galloway family fortune and most feared enemy, had started to lose his mind slowly. He kept raving on about how “they” wouldn’t leave him alone. No one but Aaron knew who he was talking about.

It was really a guess on his part rather than a knowing. He wasn’t much of a spiritual person, nor did he believe in heaven or hell. Nonetheless, he knew who “they” were.

He remembered one particular night his father had woken him up to help bring some bags out to the trunk of his car. They were always wet and smelled horribly. But Aaron did as he was told, since he had been sure he knew what the contents of those bags were. One bag had blonde hair falling out of it, seemingly stuck in the zipper swinging as the bag swayed in the air with his father gripping the handle then chunking it into the trunk with a disrespectful thud.

“Hurry your ass,” he would yell at him. And Aaron would, using all his strength to carry the weight of the soaking bags. He knew that while his father left, he would be expected to clean up the mess left behind by them. Looking at that night’s mess, he knew he was going to be scrubbing until after dawn.

As he scrubbed the floor on his hands and knees, gloves on up to his elbows, trying not to throw up, he would go over and over in his mind how this all came to be. How he was partly responsible for all this.

His father discovered his usefulness with the internet early on, and as the man that he was, knew immediately how to turn it into something that benefited him. But it didn’t benefit Aaron at all. It only damned him more than he was already genetically destined to be.

His father would show him the profile of a girl he liked, usually blonde and slim with a big pretty smile. Innocent was what he liked best. Aaron was then made to hack into their profiles, sending them fake links that would ask them to reset their passwords to their email accounts and from there, Terry Galloway could get any information he needed on them; where they lived, who they talked to, their routines, etc.

Everything he needed to know was always right at his fingertips thanks to Aaron. It was the only time he ever got a pat on the back from the devil himself. He’d pick them up usually on their way into their cars from the grocery store, bringing them home and tying them up for days while he played whatever sick game he could come up with.

One almost escaped. She managed to get to the front yard for only a few seconds, until his father dragged her back inside by her hair. She looked at Aaron, standing in the hallway, half-curious- half-terrified of what was going on. She was pleading with him to help her. Kicking and screaming as he dragged her back to the room she ran from, the door slamming behind his father.

He blocked out what he heard next. Nobody should have to hear that sound. It was the stuff his nightmares were made of.

Aaron realized he had come upon his house already, and without noticing it, tears had started to run down his cheeks. The drive was enough for him to come to terms with his punishment. Understanding more with each mile what part he had to play in it and what he had to pay for.

He secretly enjoyed the whole thing up until that night. He couldn’t bear to see them look at him like that. That was what made him different from his father, something he must’ve picked up from his mother, who left them when he was five. Or at least, he never saw or heard from her again.

He was shaking horribly now. His hands were uncontrollable as he fumbled to turn the car off. He didn’t want to go inside. He was stalling. The cell phone rang again, he picked up. “I know. I’m going, I’m going.” he said before the thing could speak.

“MOVE YOUR ASS” his father's voice rang through the speaker this time. He quickly hung up the phone and screamed into the air once more. Letting out more rage, more anger, more resentment, more torment.

And then he felt relief. With everything that happened, he knew it was only a matter of time before he too would have to answer for his sins. A strange and empty smile spread across his face. Yes, he was losing his mind now. It was time. This was it.

As the realization hit him, he felt himself loosen and his movements eased up a little, the realization that he was finally going to be done with the whole thing. This was it and then maybe he’ll be free, having paid his debt. He closed his eyes, breathed in and out deep and heavy, and opened his door. He walked to the front door of his home, noticing only now how unreasonably big it was. The whole house was unreasonably big. Why did he need this much space anyway? Now it seemed like such a waste.

He slowly made his way to his home office, reached for the desk chair, pulled it out, and sat down. Each movement carefully made and savored, his hands still shaky, his breaths still calculated. As he turned on the computer, he could feel the room fill up with a heavy presence. He suddenly was aware he was not alone in this room anymore. Something he figured would happen.

It felt as if it stood up from a crouching position as if it had been waiting there for him all this time. He could hear breathing, but it wasn’t a normal breath. It sounded animalistic, and it clicked as it did. It was almost a growl. The monitor lit up and the words came across the screen again. “Reset your password”. He clicked the link again, went through the prompts, and pressed enter.

Once again, video footage of him popped up on the screen. It was the back of him, and he was definitely not in the room alone. There was something tall and hideous standing behind him. He was frozen in fear, not wanting to move or make a sound. He just sat watching the screen unable to look away. The screen changed now, flashing to the faces of all the pictures his father had brought to him to find for him.

There were so many of them. And the breathing behind him got closer to him now, right up to his ear. He took in one final long breath, closed his eyes, and waited for it.

Tara made it into work half an hour late that morning. She was carrying two cups of coffee, one was for her, the other for her boss, of course. She hated her job, but she hated him most. She knew he was going to blow up on her, degrade her for being late. She would probably quit this morning, she decided to herself as she made it through the elevators and onto her office floor.

Everyone in the office seemed to be moving around more this morning than they usually did. Aaron Galloway liked a quiet and orderly office. She was making her way to his office when she noticed some officers and other law enforcement looking around, taking things, and taking pictures. She stopped short.

“Did you hear what happened?” Misha asked her, popping up beside her from seemingly nowhere. “No, what happened?” Tara asked. “Mr. Galloway was found dead this morning at his desk in his home. Apparently ‘under mysterious circumstances’,” Misha air quoted.

“They’re not really telling anyone what happened, yet. But I can’t say I’m surprised. That man was an asshole,” Misha shook her head and stalked off to her desk. Tara just stood there, holding her two cups of coffee in her hands watching the chaos behind his glass doors.

She sat at her desk in disbelief, wondering what she should do next. She also wondered to herself if they would ever turn up the money she had been taking from his account these past six months. Money she was rightfully owed for all of the overtime he would make her work and the abuse she had to endure. Her stomach churned at the thought of that trouble.

She turned on her computer to check for any emails. The monitor brought up the sign-in screen and she typed in her password and waited for the account to come up. Instead, she was told her password was incorrect...