One day, when i got hone from school, I found a note from my parents saying they had gone out for the night and would’t be back until late. I didn’t have a lot of homework to do, so I went up to my bedroom and opened my laptop. After browsing the Internet for a few minutes, I got bored and started looking for a video chat room.
Clicking through all the weirdos and time wasters, I tried to find someone I could have a decent conversation with. Just when I was about to give up, I clicked the button and a cute girl appeared on the screen.
She looked like she had been crying and she had her hand over her mouth, as if she was trying to keep herself from making any noise. Looking closer, I could see fear in her eyes.
She started typing….
Her: Please please help me!
Me: What’s happening?
Her: Call the police!
Me: What why?
Her: There’s someone in my house.
Me: Is this some kind of prank?
Her: NO! Please you’ve got to help me!
Me: OK OK I’ll help you.
Her: Call the police for me!
Me: Why can’t you call them yourself
Her: My phone is dead. Im all alone. Somebody broke into my house. I heard him coming up the stairs so I hid in the closet. I’m on my laptop. The first page I had open was this chat room. You’re the first person i connected to. Please, you’ve got to believe me.
Me: Are you sure this isn’t a prank?
Her: Im deadly serious.
I didn’t know what to do. It could all just be a sick joke, I thought, but what if this girl really needed my help? I couldn’t just ignore her. I decided that there was nothing else i could do. I had to call the police.
Me: Ok i’ll call the police for you. Just give me your name and address.
Her: My name is Linda. My address is….
While she was typing, I was already dialing emergency services on my call phone. When I saw the address she had typed, the phone slipped from my fingers and smashed into the floor.
It was my address.
I felt a chill run down my spine.
I just sat there, staring at her image in the webcam. Her eyes were pleading with me, begging me to help. Tears were flowing down her cheeks.
Slowly, I turned my head and stared at my bedroom closet.
My heart was beating fast. I broke out into a cold sweat.
With trembling hands, I picked up my laptop and cautiously approached the closet. The floorboards creaked under my feet. In the video chat, I could see the girl suddenly flinch as if she had heard something. She covered her mouth, shivering with fear.
Clutching the handle tightly, in one quick move, I pulled the closet door open.
From within, I heard a terrified scream.
The closet was empty.
When I looked back at the laptop screen the girl had disconnected from the video chat.
I kept hearing her scream over and over again in my head.
The whole incident unnerved me so much that I couldn’t stay in my bedroom. I went to sleep on the sofa downstairs.
The next morning, I told my parents what happened.My mother just laughed it off, but my father was curious. He said he would ask the neighbors about it.
What he found out was extremely disturbing.
Years before, there had been a family living in the house. A man, his wife and their teenage daughter. One night, when the parents were out , an intruder had broken into the house. When the parents got home, they found their daughter in her bedroom closet.
She had been stabbed to death.
Her killer was never found.
Her name was Linda…
