OFFLINE- Chapter 2
User-0
The hallway creaked again.
Not loudly.
Just enough for Kai to hear it over the rain outside and the faint hum of his computer fan.
Kai Mercer stared toward the apartment entrance instinctively while the chat beside his stream exploded with messages.
BRO CHECK THE DOOR
nahhhh dont do it
someone there??
this stream suddenly got good
Kai forced a laugh toward the webcam, though the tension in his chest had already tightened.
“My apartment building is old,” he muttered. “Everything creaks.”
Then another donation alert interrupted him.
$250.
Same account.
User-0
Stay seated.
The message appeared across the stream overlay in bright red text before fading slowly away.
Kai stopped smiling.
Okay.
Now this was weird.
Not funny weird.
Personal weird.
The hallway outside his apartment creaked a third time.
Closer.
The stream chat instantly noticed his expression changing.
wait he actually scared
someone trolling irl?
BRO LOCK YOUR DOOR
Kai muted the game audio completely and listened carefully.
Silence.
Then—
three slow knocks echoed from outside the apartment.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Every hair along Kai’s arms rose instantly.
The chat exploded.
NOPE
HELL NAH
2AM KNOCKING IS CRAZY
Kai stared toward the front door while his livestream viewer count suddenly jumped from 12 viewers to 94 in less than ten seconds.
He frowned immediately.
That made no sense.
Then it climbed higher.
The numbers kept rising unnaturally fast.
“What the hell…”
His stream had never even crossed fifty viewers before.
Yet somehow hundreds of people were suddenly flooding into the broadcast all at once.
But something about the usernames felt wrong.
Most weren’t names anymore.
Only numbers.
User-14
User-102
User-883
User-9
Silent accounts joining rapidly without chatting.
Just watching.
The viewer count hit 1,000.
Kai’s pulse quickened.
This had to be some kind of bot attack.
Had to be.
Then User-0 donated again.
$1,000.
Don’t answer the door.
The knocking came again immediately after the message appeared.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Same rhythm.
Steady.
Patient.
Kai slowly stood from his chair despite the donation warning.
“Okay, enough.”
The chat exploded harder.
DONT OPEN IT
bro listen to the dono
this feels scripted
Kai grabbed his phone from the desk and checked the apartment security app connected to the hallway camera outside his door.
The screen loaded slowly.
Then froze.
No signal.
Of course.
Thunder cracked outside again while rain hammered against the windows harder now.
Another donation appeared instantly.
$2,000.
Sit down, Kai.
His stomach dropped.
The donor used his real name.
Not username.
Not stream name.
Kai.
The apartment suddenly felt much smaller.
The chat noticed too.
WAIT HOW HE KNOW HIS NAME
nah this weird now
is this fake?
Kai stared at the monitor carefully.
“How do you know my name?”
No response came in chat.
Only silence from User-0.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
Kai physically froze.
The stream chat exploded again.
ANSWER IT
NO DONT
BRO THIS IS INSANE
The phone continued vibrating loudly across the desk.
Unknown caller.
No caller ID.
Kai slowly answered it while keeping his eyes on the monitor.
“…Hello?”
Static answered first.
Soft breathing followed.
Then a distorted voice whispered quietly through the speaker:
“Your hallway is empty.”
The call disconnected instantly.
Kai’s blood ran cold.
Because he never mentioned the hallway camera failing out loud.
The stream viewer count jumped again.
4,800 watching.
Impossible.
The chat moved too fast to read now.
Thousands of numbered accounts flooding the stream silently while random messages appeared between them:
LOOK BEHIND YOU
HE’S EARLY TONIGHT
KEEP STREAMING
Kai slowly lowered the phone from his ear.
Another knock echoed from outside the apartment.
Only this time—
it came from inside the hallway behind his bedroom door.