Jasper Generated Story #1: Letterhead Nightmare
As he flicked through the letters, a small, handwritten envelope caught his attention and his heart began to thump…
As he flicked through the letters, a small, handwritten envelope caught his attention and his heart began to thump. It was quite an old-fashioned envelope, rather yellowed with age. He didn’t recognise the handwriting on the front but his eyes scanned eagerly across it to see if there was a name or an address on the back. There wasn’t. Taking a deep breath he slowly opened it and slid out the contents inside, unfolding them carefully so as not to damage them.
He was well aware that it wasn’t like him to want to receive letters, but the last thing he’d ever expected was for this one day someone did send him something. He just couldn’t help being curious! He read quickly then re-read it carefully, but no matter how many times he looked at it he simply couldn’t figure out the meaning of it.
‘To follow me you must give me something, if not I’ll disappear forever.’
That was all that was written on the piece of paper inside. He was completely bewildered! All kinds of thoughts passed through his mind but he couldn’t seem to bring himself to believe that this note contained anything other than a rather strange joke. And yet for some reason he just couldn’t bring himself to believe that, and there was something about this letter that made him want to follow it. He picked up the small envelope again and looked at it carefully but as expected there was not address or name on it so he would be unable to return it back to its owner. He kept looking back and forth at the note and the envelope for several minutes but no matter how many times he looked at them, they still meant nothing to him.
He felt a little irritated at being unable to understand the contents of this letter as well as a bit nervous about what might happen if he couldn’t figure it out. In fact, he began to feel quite anxious as time passed. He sat there for a while, feeling bad about himself for being so worked up over something that might not even be real. Then he noticed how difficult it was to breathe and realised that his heart was racing rather quickly. It must have been all this thinking about the note that made him feel so uneasy.
He decided to just ignore the whole thing and tried to focus on some other things at hand. However, his thoughts kept coming back to that letter no matter how hard he tried not to think about it. ‘I should just return it,’ he thought, but then hesitated for a while before changing his mind again. Finally getting himself worked up once more, he threw the letter and envelope into a drawer and slammed it shut. This made him feel a little bit better but that only lasted for a short while, quickly replaced by even greater anxiety as he decided to check on the contents of the drawer again. It was like an obsession now; his heart pounding and his hands trembling as he took it out once more, then read it over and over all while muttering the words to himself. He was so absorbed in this that he didn’t seem to notice how loud he was speaking.
‘Just give me something, just give me something,’ he repeated over and over again until his voice began to shake. At last, unable to stand the persistent pounding of his heart, he pulled out a pen and began to write something on the letter. Once that was done he quickly put it back in its place before falling back into his chair.
He took a moment to calm himself down then left the room, saying that he needed a bit of fresh air. He walked aimlessly around until he found himself at the park. He stayed there for a while until he started to feel better but then began to get restless again so he quickly headed back home.
On his way back, the thought of what might happen if he managed to follow this note did cross his mind once or twice but it didn’t bother him too much. He’d come this far already so he may as well read it again to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. He pulled out the envelope and took out the letter then began to read it over again, not making any sound this time. It was like time had stopped; nothing else moved or even seemed real around him, leaving only himself and the note in existence.
Little by little he started to feel a familiar sense of unease creep up on him until finally it began to sting at his heart, making an odd sound echo throughout the room. His whole body shook from this and just as he was about to stand up from his chair, something fell from between the pages of the letter…
He moved to pick up the object but hesitated for a moment, thinking about what might happen if he wasn’t able to handle it. When he reached out again, his hand was shaking; not just his hand but his whole body trembled as if wanting to look away. His fingers slowly closed around the object until finally he had hold of it and with a quick pull, he took it out. He looked at the object for a moment then put it away into his pocket and left the room.
‘This can’t be real,’ he thought to himself as he walked outside. ‘I must have imagined it all.’
He spent the rest of his day thinking about this but no matter how much time passed, he couldn’t shake that feeling that something was coming for him. It was quite late now so he went into his bedroom then locked the door and closed the windows and curtains. He didn’t want anything to distract him from what he had to do now…
He turned on his TV as usual, but the screen only showed static so he unplugged it and switched it with a radio instead. As if this was some kind of signal, the radio began emitting strange sounds as though it wasn’t able to pick up a proper signal. In the background all he could hear was some kind of rhythmic, metallic droning but as he tried to listen more carefully, other sounds began to stand out. He heard a human voice moaning and whimpering in pain, unable to hold back tears as it cried out again and again. There was another voice repeating the same phrase over and over again until finally there were just random sounds like people screaming or growling.
Topping it all off was the sound of static; white noise that seemed to come from every direction, almost as if his room had become some kind of bizarre cocoon. He desperately searched for anything else to listen to but no matter what he did, it was all the same. He put on his headphones and tried listening to some music instead but that didn’t help either. There were even more layers of noise coming from them now, making him want nothing more than to rip them off of his ears and break them into pieces.
He threw himself onto his bed and tried to calm himself down but it was all for nothing. All he could hear now were the sounds of people being tortured or worse yet, forced to kill each other. He covered his ears with his hands again and again, hoping that this would somehow make things better but it wasn’t long before he felt something else creeping up on him. As if it had been building up inside of him the entire time, he finally began to feel a familiar sense of dread overtake his body until finally there was nothing left. He felt a sharp pain in his chest and thought that someone or something was stabbing him but then he realized it wasn’t just one thing…
“Come on, get up.” he heard a voice say.
He opened his eyes and took out his earplugs then sat up to see that there was no one in the room with him; it was empty except for the bed he was lying on. He thought about what would happen if someone had broken into his house but even though he had locked the door and closed the windows and curtains, there was no sign of a break-in. It was as if he had imagined this but he knew that wasn’t possible; somehow the letter had done something to him and now all his worst nightmares were coming true.
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