OFFLINE- Chapter 6
After Midnight
The voice echoed softly through the apartment hallway.
“The viewers can enter after midnight.”
The vibrating phone near the bathroom finally stopped.
Silence followed immediately afterward.
Kai Mercer stood motionless beside his desk while the monitor glow painted pale blue shadows across the apartment walls. Every instinct screamed at him not to look toward the hallway again.
But he did anyway.
The real hallway looked empty.
The livestream hallway did not.
The tall figure still stood near the bathroom entrance on stream, unnaturally thin beneath the darkness while thousands of numbered viewers continued flooding the chat.
84,000 watching live.
Kai’s pulse hammered painfully.
None of this felt possible anymore.
Then another message appeared from User-0.
User-0:
Do not answer any phones after midnight.
Too late.
The hallway phone suddenly began vibrating again.
Bzzzz.
Bzzzz.
Bzzzz.
Kai stared toward the darkness.
A faint glow now illuminated the floor near the bathroom.
The phone screen.
Someone had placed it there.
Inside his apartment.
The realization made his chest tighten instantly.
No way.
Nobody entered.
Nobody could’ve entered.
Right?
The stream chat exploded again.
DONT TOUCH IT
HE LEFT IT FOR YOU
BRO GET OUT OF THERE
Kai immediately grabbed his apartment keys from the desk.
“Yes. Exactly. I’m leaving.”
The moment he stood—
another donation alert flashed violently.
$75,000.
User-0
If you leave the apartment before 3:17, they follow you home forever.
Kai stopped moving.
His breathing slowed involuntarily.
The wording bothered him immediately.
Follow you home.
As if the apartment wasn’t home anymore.
Thunder suddenly cracked outside again after the strange silence, and rain resumed hammering against the windows harder than before.
Then the hallway phone stopped vibrating.
A new sound replaced it.
Footsteps.
Slow footsteps crossing the apartment floor near the bathroom.
Kai froze completely.
The real hallway still looked empty.
But the livestream showed movement now.
The tall figure slowly pacing back and forth behind him.
The viewers noticed instantly.
ITS WALKING NOW
DONT LET IT REACH YOUR ROOM
HE LOOKED AT THE CHAT
Kai physically backed toward his desk again.
This had to be some kind of hallucination.
Stress.
Panic attack.
Anything logical.
Then the apartment bathroom light turned on by itself.
A weak yellow glow spilled into the hallway.
And the stream glitched violently.
The figure disappeared.
But something else appeared instead.
A person standing inside the bathroom doorway.
Kai’s blood ran cold.
It looked exactly like him.
Same hoodie.
Same face.
Same terrified expression.
The duplicate Kai on stream slowly raised one finger toward the camera.
Then pointed directly at the apartment front door.
Three loud knocks immediately echoed from outside again.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Mrs. Delaney’s voice whispered softly through the door:
“Kai… he’s inside with you now.”