Red Room

The young male sat back in his chair, running a hand through his hair as his other hand clicked slowly through his computer’s browser. He let out a soft sigh, extending his hand to pick up his can of soda, thinking back to how he had been put in this position. It had all begun earlier that day at school; he and his friend had been talking about a crazy rumor going around the Internet about a pop-up ad that could kill.

Masaru snorted at the thought, taking a long drink from the can. A pop-up ad that could kill, what a stupid thought. But Masaru’s friend hadn’t believed him; he insisted the ad was real. His friend was just gullible. Masaru had challenged his friend, claiming that he could find proof the ad wasn’t real. He just wanted to put an end to his friend’s seemingly endless string of worries about the ad. So here he was, in the middle of the night, searching for something he knew didn’t exist just so he could have some proof to rub in his friend’s face.

But so far, Masaru was having no luck. Everything that came up in his searches was just forums where people fought about how real the rumored ad was. No proof of its existence or non-existence. Just useless fighting from people who probably had nothing better to do with their time. Masaru let out a long groan, slamming the soda can down onto his desk before swiveling his chair around and hopping out of it.

“These people are all stupid,” he grumbled, walking away from his laptop. Who believes in this sort of stuff? That’s what Masaru wanted to know. What Masaru wanted to know more was how he had become friends with someone who believed this stuff. The young student shook his head as he sauntered into the bathroom; he flipped on the tab, running the soon to be hot water into the pearl white sink. He looked at his reflection in the mirror, blowing out a puff of hot air towards it. Tonight was just another one of his infamous bouts with insomniac.

“It’s not like I have anything better to do,” he murmured to his reflection. Splashing some water on his face, Masaru dried his face off before walking back out into his room. As he turned towards his computer, he noticed something peculiar on the screen. As he walked closer, he noticed the new box that had popped up had a red background color. Bright red, almost resembling the color of blood. On the page were some simple words scrawled out in Hiragana.

“Do you like--?”

Masaru squinted at the box, what a weird pop-up to get. Shaking his head and laughing a little, he moves to close the box out. Must have come from one of those sites. As he clicks the box, his eyes glance at the clock on his small desk to check the time.

“Do you like--?”

Masaru jumps back slightly as the child-like voice rings through his ears. As his eyes settle on the screen, he notices the pop-up is back. That glaring red box with those horribly written words scrawled on top of it. The male closes out the box again, only to have it pop-up once more.

“Fuck.” It’s all Masaru can utter. He must have picked up a virus from one of those stupid sites. That’s what he gets for listening to his bonehead friend. That’s what he gets for being too prideful and wanting to prove his friend wrong. “Just great,” he breathes out, continuing to battle with the pop-up box.

Every time he closed out the box, it would pop right back up, that child-like voice tearing at his ear drums. Saying it was a child’s voice didn’t fit right with Masaru. No, it was a child’s voice, but it sounded possessed. Demonic even. It wasn’t coming from a normal child. Masaru didn’t know how to really describe the voice he heard from the ad, it was just so foreign. It must be just some computer software, but it was unsettling to the student.

Gritting his teeth and growling softly at the screen, he clicked furiously at the box. After a few seconds, Masaru grunted in frustration, stopping his furious clicking to slam a fist down onto his computer desk. What was up with this virus? He’d never experienced one quite like it before. Panting softly, he glanced at the ad, his eyes widening a bit when he read the writing once more. It had changed somewhere among his rapid clicking. He hadn’t even noticed it had changed, he was too busy wishing it would just go away already. Taking a deep breath and moving slowly, he closed out the box again, waiting for it to pop up again.

“Do you like red?”

Do you like red? Just what kind of virus ad was this? What had those stupid sites done to his computer? Masaru let out another frustrated grunt, leaning back in his chair as he moved his mouse to hover over the red X button once more. What was he supposed to do? He didn’t have any virus protection and he didn’t know if shutting down his computer was the best option. He was hesitant to click out of the box. What if closing it was making the virus spread farther? But he didn’t know what else could be done anymore.

“Who cares,” he huffed out. It’s not like things could get much worse at this point. He pushed down on the mouse, closing out the box once more. As expected, the box popped up once again.

“Do you like the red room?”

Masaru swirled around in his chair, his heart beating rapidly in his chest. He swore that he had heard the voice come from behind him this time, no longer bleating out from his computer speakers. But this time, the voice wasn’t so distorted and demonic. It sounded… Normal almost.

“I’m losing it,” Masaru huffed out, hanging his head as he leaned against the desk for support. “All of this stress.” Masaru breathed out a long breath shakily, his head beginning to ache from all that had been happening.

“Do you like the red room?”

Masaru cringed, a chill going up his spine as he heard the voice again. He hadn’t closed out the ad that time; he wasn’t even touching his computer anymore. What was going on? The boy wanted to look up, but his body stayed frozen in place, the chills and fear running through him and keeping him paralyzed.

“Do you like the red room?”

The voice sounded like it was inching closer and closer to him with each and every time it asked its weird question. What was a red room? Where did this ad come from? Where did the virus even come from?

“Do you like the red room?”

The voice was beginning to get distorted again, an air of frustration in the voice now as well. Masaru balled his hands into fists, digging his nails into his palms. What was going on? His eyes glanced up, looking at the computer screen. He jumped back, noticing that his entire screen was that bright red color, the eerie question written over and over again in the childish looking writing.

“Do you like the red room?”

The voice sounded demanding now, almost like it was trying to command Masaru’s attention. Masaru took a deep breath, anchoring his feet on the floor as he slowly begun to turn his chair around. Something was behind him; he didn’t have a doubt about that anymore. But what was behind him was another story entirely. Masaru closed his eyes as he completed the full circle, his body now facing what was once behind him.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, allowing them to adjust to the darkness.

Masaru’s breath hitched in his throat as he looked at the child behind him. A small brunette child stood there, grasping a teddy bear tightly to their chest. They wore a simple outfit of a red jacket with red pants, their red wool hat covering most of their brunette locks. Masaru’s eyes rolled down the child’s body, widening when they saw the contents of the child’s hand.

There in the hand laid a knife, painted with a red color. The child looked up at Masaru, a red coloring to their eyes and a devilish smirk taking over their features. The world began spinning as the child launched itself at Masaru, driving the knife deeply into his stomach. Masaru and the child were thrown off the computer chair as the child continued stabbing.

In and out. In and out. In and out.

The rapid hand movements from the child continued as blood sprayed from Masaru’s body, dripping to the carpet and painting the walls a glistening red color. Panting from the effort, the child raised their arm one last time, bringing the knife down across Masaru’s throat, a spray of blood hitting the wall. The child stood up, smiling at their work. They wiped a bloody hand across their face, looking around the room before opening their mouth.

“Do you like the red room?”

A sickening laughter followed the question as the child slunk back into the darkness, the ad finally disappearing from the computer screen for good as it shut down for the final time.