"The Box from the Dark Web"

It started as a dare.

College sophomore Kyle Jenkins wasn’t the kind of guy to say no to a challenge—especially not from his roommate, Zack, who always found the strangest corners of the internet to explore. One night, over cans of Red Bull and a glowing laptop screen, Zack leaned back and grinned.

“Ever heard of DarkCart?” he asked.

Kyle frowned. “Is that like… the Amazon of the dark web?”

Zack nodded, eyes gleaming. “Exactly. But sketchier. People say you can order literally anything—no rules, no limits.”

Kyle laughed, brushing it off. But Zack wasn’t kidding. He pulled up an Onion link through Tor, and soon they were scrolling through a marketplace filled with disturbing items: illegal weapons, untraceable poisons, even “cursed objects.” Kyle rolled his eyes at the supernatural section—until he saw it.

"The Watcher’s Package – $250. Guaranteed Real."

There was no description. Just a photo: a plain black box, slightly scratched, sitting on a dimly lit table. The reviews were even weirder:

“It stared back.”

“I didn’t sleep for a week.”

“It knows when you’re alone.”

It was probably fake. But Kyle, high on caffeine and ego, said, “I’ll do it.”

Zack laughed. “No way. You’ll actually drop $250 on a box that may just be a prank?”

Kyle pulled out his crypto wallet. “Only one way to find out.”

Day 1: The Arrival

Three days later, the package arrived at their dorm, hand-delivered by a man in a black hoodie. No shipping label. No return address. Just Kyle’s name scrawled in shaky handwriting.

The box was heavier than it looked. Cold, too.

“Open it,” Zack urged.

Inside was… nothing. Or so it seemed at first. Beneath a layer of dark velvet was a glass orb, about the size of a tennis ball, filled with swirling gray mist. Kyle picked it up.

The mist inside shifted—like it was aware of him.

“I think it's watching me,” Kyle joked. But something about the orb made him uneasy. He placed it on his desk and forgot about it.

That night, the dreams began.

Day 2: The Eyes

Kyle woke up at 3:12 AM, heart pounding. In the dream, he was being followed—something faceless and tall, always just outside his line of sight.

He blamed the orb.

When he told Zack, his roommate just laughed. “Dude, you’re letting it get in your head. It’s a toy.”

But Kyle wasn’t so sure. Everywhere he went, he felt watched. In the dining hall. In class. Even in the shower. It was like invisible eyes were burning into his skin.

He started sleeping with the orb under a towel in his drawer. But it didn’t help.

Day 4: The Movement

By Thursday, Zack started acting weird too.

“You still have it?” he asked, quieter than usual.

“Yeah. Why?”

Zack hesitated. “Last night… I heard whispering. Coming from your drawer.”

Kyle turned pale. “You heard it too?”

They both stared at the desk where the orb was hidden. Neither moved.

Later that evening, when Kyle finally checked the drawer, the orb was gone.

Day 5: The Warning

The dorm was freezing that night. Kyle woke to the sound of breathing—slow, raspy, and not his own. He looked up, and for a second, swore he saw a shape standing at the end of his bed. But when he flipped on the light, the room was empty.

Except for one thing.

The orb was back on his desk.

This time, it had changed. The mist inside was blood-red, and within it, a faint shape floated—almost like an eye.

Kyle lost it. He ran to the campus security office, demanding to file a report. But when they checked his room, the orb was gone. Again.

He started staying in the library overnight. Zack, now visibly paranoid, refused to even mention the orb. His eyes were sunken, and he was always glancing over his shoulder.

“I think… something’s attached to it,” Zack finally whispered. “And it doesn’t like being ignored.”

Day 7: The Breaking Point

Kyle returned to his room one last time, determined to destroy the thing. He brought a hammer and a trash bag.

But when he walked in, the smell of rot hit him like a wall. The room was ice cold, and the lights flickered.

The orb was waiting on his bed, pulsing with a soft red glow.

He raised the hammer—and the world shifted.

Suddenly, he was back in his dream. Only this time, it wasn’t a dream. The faceless figure was there, whispering in a language that sounded like insects crawling under skin.

He couldn’t move. Couldn’t scream. The figure leaned in close.

“You invited me,” it hissed.

With a flash, Kyle snapped back to reality, collapsing to the floor. The orb had cracked—but not broken. From inside, a black fluid oozed out onto his blanket. The whispers had stopped.

For now.

Epilogue: Aftermath

Kyle dropped out two weeks later. No one blamed him. After Zack was found in the campus pond—eyes wide open, pupils dilated—it became clear something had gone very wrong.

The orb was never found.

But the DarkCart page remained. The listing for “The Watcher’s Package” was gone, replaced by something new.

“The Listener’s Letter – $500. Guaranteed Real.”

And a single review:

“It comes after the one who heard… and then speaks through the next.”