‘Draft 13’ by Orchi T
It’s last period, maths. I’m bored and lost out of my mind. The new maths teacher is droning on about surds, whatever the hell those are. I draw in my book, half asleep, checking the clock every few moments. Five more minutes then I’m out of this treacherous class. The bell rings, and I rush to pack all my things, telling my best friend Naomi to hurry up. We walk down the busy hall, arms linked, talking about something we saw on youtube, when I notice this huge edgy looking poster. I stop and read it carefully.
“Hmm, the cursed pen. A creative horror writing story competition, that sounds so interesting!” I say, immediately perked up at the thought of writing something scary, and potentially winning. I glance at Naomi, her mouth slightly downturned.
“Oh,” she says simply. I raise an eyebrow at her. She always seemed slightly jealous when I mentioned writing. Maybe because I get higher marks than her in assessments.
“What? I’m going to enter. Are you?”
She taps her chin in thought, and shakes her head, her normal, playful mood returning.
“Nah, I know you’ll win anyway. No point of trying.” She grins. I beam at her compliment and swat her away.
“Now, don’t say that. You’re great at writing, you should definitely enter. I doubt I’ll win, there are hella good writers in this school.”
She links my arm again, and we start walking in the direction of the exit.
“Ehh…I’m too lazy anyway.”
I shrug my shoulders, and we walk out of school. I’m already writing stories in my head for this “Cursed Pen” thing. It'll be great, I’m sure!
I lay on my bed at home, laptop out in front of me, brainstorming and brainstorming until my brain can’t storm any more. All these ideas are too lame, too generic and basic and childish. I need something that really stands out, something scary. I glance at my clock. 3:13AM. Wow, I should be going to sleep. I get up, yawning, my empty word file still open on my laptop. It’s my 13th draft, for some odd reason, I’ve been counting. I brush my teeth and wash my face, then eventually come back to my room.
“One last try…I’m sure this time I’ll come up with something good...” I mutter to myself sleepily, eager to get at least something down onto the file. I stretch my fingers, then place them on the keyboard. But before I can press any keys, words start forming on my file themselves.
“HELLO.” The words flash at me in a neon red. I rub my eyes, but I know damn well this was no dream. I look around my room, as if there’ll be someone sitting there with a laptop and my file open on it. My head snaps back to my screen, as new words form.
“HELLO ORCHI.”
I blink. Then blink again a few times. I’m not sure how to feel. This is probably some silly prank. I write,
“ur not funny u loser. r u hacking? get lost.” Their response is immediate, and this time, the letters are bigger than before.
“MR MCGARVERY WILL BE DEAD BY TOMORROW. HE WILL CHOKE ON HIS COFFEE AT EXACTLY 11:09.”
I make a face at this strange message and shake my head.
“Flipping jobless loser.” I mutter to myself. I move my mouse to the corner of the screen to close the file, and the typing starts again.
“ARE YOU TRYING TO DELETE ME?”
My heart beats a little quicker at this. How can they possibly see my screen? I ignore it, and click on the big red X. It doesn’t close. I try a few more times, but it still doesn’t close.
“YOU CAN’T DELETE ME.” it types. I narrow my eyes, and shut my laptop, frustrated. Who is this moron trying to piss me off at this time of night? They’re probably harmless. They can’t possibly do anything, I reassure myself. My laptop must be bugging, I repeat in my head, tucking myself into bed. But as I fall asleep, the only thing I can see is those big bright neon red words. The words are too bright, it hurts my eyes. “YOU CAN’T DELETE ME.”
Second period, biology. Passing notes to Naomi who sits behind me. I haven’t seen her until this lesson, so I’m desperate to write what happened last night on the tiny scrap of paper she gave me. I glance up at Mr Wong, but luckily, he’s drawing some cells on the board. I continue furiously scribbling my odd encounter onto the paper, then fold it and pass it back to her. I turn around after a while, since I haven’t gotten a response, and she mouths “speak at breaktime” to me. I nod, and focus on the lesson. Biology isn’t too bad, I suppose…although all these cell functions don’t really stick in my head. The bell eventually rings, and we exit the class. Naomi looks the same. Lost and hungry. I raise an eyebrow at her,
“So, who do you think wrote that stuff?” I say, whipping my radnor splash out of my bag. She looks at me like she’s only just registered my presence, and shrugs.
“Gotta just be a prank. Wouldn’t worry about it,” she says, pointing at my radnor splash. I hand it to her, and she slurps it. “Thanks, biology makes me thirsty.” I get slightly agitated at her lack of response. She hands me back my radnor, and we start to walk to the canteen.
“You don’t think it’s weird? Or creepy? I mean, how come I couldn’t close the file? That’s so odd.” I say.
“You worry too much. It’s nothing, bro. Just move on.”
I grind my teeth. Why’s she being so dismissive? What the hell?
“LOOK! IT’S OUR EMO BOY!!!!” She whisper-yells, loud enough for him to hear us. I giggle and hide my face in shame, forgetting about the file incident. That’s when Arfa runs up to us, eyes wide, a look of disbelief and shock on her face.
“GUYS! GUYS! APPARENTLY MR MCGARVEY CHOKED ON HIS COFFEE IN THE ENGLISH OFFICE!!!! OH MY GOD OH MY GOD!!! I HEARD THE AMBULANCE ARE ON THEIR WAY RIGHT NOW!!!!!” She screams, and the entire canteen turns to look at her. A few people are nodding, saying they heard the same, while most are rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. I shake my head too, this can’t be true. Naomi looks unconvinced as well.
“And when did this happen Arfa?”
“JUST NOW!!!! THE TEACHERS ARE ALL TRYING TO HELP HIM!!!” She yells, jumping around. I sneak a look at the time on my phone. 11:09 AM. She seems like she’s telling the truth, but my mind refuses to believe it. But then we see the ambulances go past the windows. Everyone watches in dead silence. My jaw drops. So does everyone else’s. Arfa’s eyes fill with tears.
“I told you it was true. He might be a gonner.” She whispers, sniffing.
There’s an emergency assembly next period. All the teachers are crying, or trying not to, and I don’t want to think anything bad has happened. I tell myself he’s fine. We sit in the gym, Mr Carey standing with a tissue in his hands and tears in his eyes.
He's dead. And that’s when I remember the message on my laptop yesterday night. But how?
I’m in my room, sobbing. Mr McGarvey was one of my favourite teachers. I can’t believe it. He didn’t deserve to die, not like that. I’ll never see him again. He’ll never tell me off in English, or tell me to put my mirror away, or tell me I did good on an assessment. I wipe my eyes and walk to the bathroom to splash my face with cold water. I’m sure it won’t help, but it’s the effort that counts. As I close my eyes and feel the cold water, the same neon red words flash against the black. “MR MCGARVERY WILL BE DEAD BY TOMORROW. HE WILL CHOKE ON HIS COFFEE AT EXACTLY 11:09.” I jump, my eyes flying open, and the cold water stings my red eyes. I rush to dry my face, and log onto my laptop. The file from last night is still open. The same neon red words. How did they know? How did they know he would’ve died today? I look around my room again for some strange reason. Maybe paranoia. If I type now, will they respond?
“this isn’t funny. how the hell did u kno that mr mcgarvey was gunna die 2day? who r u? this is so messed up.” I type. I don’t have to wait for long, not even for five seconds, before they start rapidly typing back.
“DID YOU LIKE MY SURPRISE? IM SURE MR MCGARVEY WAS ONE OF YOUR FAVOURITE TEACHERS. ARE YOU READY FOR ANOTHER ONE TOMORROW?” it types back, in the same disgusting colour. My heart beats, fast, and I look around my room once again. God, this paranoia is really eating me up. What the hell do they mean by another one tomorrow? I start to type back, trying to calm myself down.
“??? what the hell do u mean another one tomorrow? this isn’t funny. what r u doing? is this some sort of black magic????”
I wait for a minute. Then two, then five, which turns into 15. No response. I sigh, and slam my laptop shut. Why are they torturing me out of all people? Is this enough evidence to show to the police? What if nobody believes me? I have to do something, before they strike again. They already have something planned for tomorrow. Hands shaking, I dial 999 into my lame iPhone 7. I’m still awaiting a new phone. They pick up immediately.
“H-hello? I’d, uh…like to report someone?” I explain myself to the police officer the best I can, hearing how pathetic I sound.
“Could you send us screenshots of this ‘mysterious entity’ typing on your laptop?” I can hear the mocking in his voice, and I feel like crying. Nobody will believe my crap. I open the laptop, trembling, but the file’s gone. Vanished into thin air. I accept defeat. Whoever the hell this is on the other side, they are smart as hell. And also scary. They’re tracking my every move.
“It’s gone. I don’t know how. I know I sound ridiculous, but I swear I’m telling the truth.” I sniff, pulling at the ends of my hair absent mindedly.
“Right. How about you ring us back when you’ve got some proper crap to show us, kid? Waste of time.” He mutters, and I can hear the acid in his voice. I feel so stupid. He hangs up on me, and I drop my phone to the ground, standing up. I couldn’t let this happen. But what could I do anyway? I was no smarty pants, or crime solver. I was a teenage girl, barely making it through life. I look at my laptop screen again, pressing some keys to get it out of sleep mode, and the file’s back. There’s also new words on it.
“TRY TO TELL ANYBODY AGAIN AND I’LL MAKE SURE YOUR SISTER’S GONE. BUT ANYWAY, HANG ON TIGHT FOR TOMORROW’S LITTLE GIFT!! HINT: MISS MILROY FOOD POISONING."
“Not Miss Milroy, not her, not her…God, what the hell do I do?” I plead out loud. I’m helpless. There’s nothing I can possibly do. I can’t risk ANYTHING happening to my baby sister. I can’t tell anyone. I’m too dumb to find the culprit. I don’t have a clue who could possibly be behind all of this. It feels like a movie, but I’m not the one watching with popcorn, on the edge of my seat, I’m the stupid protagonist, unable to do anything.
Fourth period, religious studies. Many people aren’t in because of Mr McGarvey’s death. Unfortunately, my parents said I can’t waste my days off, so I’ve been forced to come in. I barely respond to Amelia sitting next to me, and my stomach’s twisting with fear and dread. Luckily, so far nothing has happened today. But there’s still 45 minutes left, and I’m scared out of my mind. I take my mind off the situation by drawing anime girls onto a piece of paper, jabbing Amelia in the waist playfully when she tries to look. That’s when I hear the knock on the door. I feel like throwing up, and I stare at the door. I can’t see who it is, but I already sense it’s someone sobbing, here to tell us Miss Milroy is gone. As they push the door open, it reveals an adorable little year 7, their face scared and lost.
“S-sorry to disrupt your lesson, Miss…but d-do you know where B6 i-is?” She stammers, eying the class of year 9s in fear. The class collectively goes “awwww” and Miss Ryan rolls her eyes at us, telling the year 7 where B6 is. She scutters off, and I feel like I can breathe again. Maybe today everyone will be safe. Maybe today this mystery evil person is too tired to do anything. Maybe their Mr McGarvey prediction was just a lucky coincidence? Okay, no, they got the exact time. Let’s not be too delusional here. Eight minutes go by, and there’s two new drawings on my paper. Ten minutes go by, and there’s one new knock on the door. And I’m sure, this time, it can’t just be another innocent little year 7. Miss Ryan beckons them to come in, barely registering them, and my heart thumps a bit too loud for my liking. Tall sixth former, mascara running down her tanned face, tissues stuffing her hands. And I already know.
“MISS MILROY WAS ANNOUNCED DEAD ON THE SCENE BY THE SCHOOL NURSES. SHE’S BEEN POISONED.”
Home, my bedroom. I don’t know how to feel and I don’t know what to do. I open my diary, maybe writing something down will help me feel a little better. I flick to the newest page, but there’s already something written in red.
“SHHH, DON’T PANIC. AND DON’T TRY TO DO ANYTHING EITHER!!!!!” The red was too familiar. It was the exact same shade as the bright neon red words. My heart starts to rattle, and I stumble back, dropping the diary. I examine my room in alarm, opening my closet and checking behind my curtains. They’d been in my room. In my room. In my bedroom. I pick up my phone and call Naomi. She picks up immediately, as if she’d been waiting for me to call. I start to sob, and Naomi looks unfazed for a second, before her face breaks into concern.
“Orchi? What the heck? Are you okay, why are you crying? What happened?” she asks. I break down, explaining everything to her, about how I couldn’t call the police, how they’d been in my room, how I didn’t feel safe anymore. How I didn’t know what to do. Once I finish, I look at her on the screen. There’s this sort of empty look in her eye. “Oh Orchi, not this again. I’m sure the message in your diary was something you wrote ages ago. Or your cousin or something being silly. I’m sorry you feel so sad, but it really isn’t that deep. This is clearly some silly prank.” I let her words sink in, and I start to doubt myself. Was I really doing too much? But then I remember everything that’s happened, and I know it can’t just be a prank. I know the culprit is truly evil and out to ruin my life.
“Naomi, do you hear yourself? You can’t keep dismissing me like this. This is so serious. It can’t just be a prank.” I yell, the frustration catching up with me. I’ve had enough of her telling me that I’m overreacting.
“They’ve probably got some fortune teller thing. You know how advanced things are getting these days, some AI or black magic crap is telling them what’s going to happen, and this person is just fooling with you. Now if you don’t mind me, I’m off to eat some ramen. Catch you at school, twin.” She says casually, hanging up. I shake my head. Nobody believes me, not even my own best friend. If my bestest friend won’t believe me, who will? I log onto my laptop again, the file was still open. No new messages, thankfully. I drag my huge cursor to the corner of the screen, and press on the big red X again and again. It refuses to close. I restart my laptop, then log on again. It’s still open and refusing to close. The same red letters start to type themselves onto my file. An idea pops into my head. I look for my phone, then open my camera. I’ll record this, that’ll be some proper proof. Then my phone decides to die on me. I hurl it across the room, screaming in rage. Then another idea pops into my head. I can screenshot this! Goodness gracious I’M SO SMART!!! I AM SO SMART!!! As I look at my screen again, the typing finishes.
“DID YOU LIKE MY SURPRISE?” it says. In the dark of my room, the redness of the words really hurts my eyes. I try to take a screenshot, but it doesn’t work. I try again and again but it just refuses to work. I slam the laptop lid shut, and get up. Maybe if I just ignore them, they can’t do anything? I go downstairs to see my sister. She’s a lovely little kid, most of the time.
Last period, maths again. God, I hate maths. I promise you I am never going to need to use x, y OR z after I leave this school. And I am SURE I will never need algebra or simultaneous equations either. I sketch some emo dude in the corner of my page, forgetting my word draft. I do some roleplay out of pencils and rubbers with Bhavat, giggling, excited to go home and hopefully make a start on my horror story. That’s when I remember my file. Nothing’s happened today. And there’s only 6 minutes left, I’m sure that this evil mystery person won’t do anything today? I mean, come on, give me a break. I’m sure you have better things to be doing. The bell rings, and we pack up. I take my time, because it’s Friday! I catch Naomi’s eye across the classroom, and we scream “FRIYAY!!!”. Today is the day this file closes. I’m definitely traumatised, but I’m more gassed that this crap is over with. We skip out of the maths block, our other friend Bhavat walking with us. She’s rolling her eyes at us, shaking her head as if ashamed to be with us. Which is fair enough. But what she doesn’t see is the huge rock in front of her. She slips. And her head goes bang onto the floor. There is a lot of blood and screaming, and I don’t know what to do. A teacher comes and she’s sent away in an ambulance. And I’m telling myself she was just unlucky.
My bedroom, facetiming Naomi. Bhavat’s in hospital, she faced an extremely bad injury but fortunately survived. She won’t be back for a while, and I don’t want to open my laptop, but I know I have to. Because if I don’t, I doubt that this will ever stop. I hang up on Naomi, and open my laptop, trembling awfully. New words that I hadn’t read last night sit on the white word file.
“YOU AND BHAVAT SEEM VERY CLOSE. IT WOULD BE SO UPSETTING IF SHE INJURED HERSELF BADLY, WOULDN’T IT, ORCHI?”
They must’ve sent this last night while my laptop was closed. I burrow my face into my hands, tears streaming down my face. I wipe my face with the back of my hands, and try to close the file again.
“YOU’RE STILL TRYING TO DELETE ME?” it types. I start to type back,
“what do u want from me? just tell me and i’ll give it to u. pls just stop. i’ve had enough. i’m sorry if i’ve done anything in the past. pls stop torturing me.”
They start to type immediately, and their words are bigger.
“I DON’T WANT ANYTHING ORCHI. I’M JUST HAVING SOME FUN. IS IT SO BAD TO HAVE A LITTLE FUN?”
I sigh, and shut the laptop. At least there was no school tomorrow. That’s something, right? They can’t possibly do anything. I go downstairs to eat dinner, then fall asleep in my bed, praying to whoever the hell is up there that they don’t hurt anybody I know.
Naomi texts me if she wants to hangout today. I immediately reply with a yes, because I’m eager to distract myself from this horrible reality and have a good time with my best friend. She sends me an address I don’t know, and tells me not to look it up because it’s a surprise. I get ready, and tell my parents I’m going out and I won’t be back late. They do the usual check-up – phone charge full, ringer on, stay close to Naomi at all times, update them, blah blah blah. I hug them bye and put the address on my phone map. It won’t take too long, only half an hour by bus. I plug my earphones in and make my way.
When I get there, something already seems off. It’s an abandoned and dark playground, and it has this strange vibe to it. I tell myself it’s pretty cool, and that me and Nao will have this place to ourselves to mess around and yell. I see Naomi next to the swings, and I run up to her to hug her. She’s smiling slightly oddly, like it’s been painted on. My mind tells me she’s just being silly again. We link arms, and she leads us to this huge willow tree.
“Urghhhhh, won’t there be like, bugs?” I squirm, unsure. She rolls her eyes at me playfully and keeps walking.
“But look how pretty it is under here. We can sit and have a pretend picnic!” she grins eagerly. It is quite pretty and mysterious underneath here. I accept defeat and we sit down. I inspect my surroundings, taking in the beauty. When I look back at Naomi, she’s stood up, the smile on her face wiped clean off. I narrow my eyes at her curiously, and get on my feet as well.
“What’s up? Is there some scary insect?” I ask, looking around me in fear. I look back at her, and she’s smiling again, all uncanny and unnatural. What the hell was wrong with her?
“Nothing is up.” She says simply. She continues to stand their, staring at me, that odd smile still plastered on her face. I stare back.
“Ugh, what is up with all these pranks? Can we just sit down and play like, kiss, marry, kill? Stop being weird.” I say, frustrated. I’ve come to have some fun, not for even more nonsense. Can’t she just act normal for once? She reaches for her backpack, and pulls out her laptop.
“Wanna see something cool? Come sit next to me.” She says, moving her finger on the touchpad. I slowly sit down next to her, confused.
“O...kay…?” I say unsurely, resting my head on her shoulder to see her screen. I scrutinize the imagine displayed in front of me. The same red words. The flashing capital letters. My desperate and confused abbreviations. What the...?
“Look familiar?” She asks, her voice chirpy. My head jerks up so fast that I get whiplash. This can’t be real. It can’t be…
“I never liked you much. You’re so full of yourself. You’re nothing but an insecure loser. You don’t deserve anything, you know? It was real fun messing with you. Watching you sob helplessly to me, unable to comprehend who could’ve done all of this. When it was me the whole time!!! Wow, don’t I deserve an award!?” she giggles, standing up. She sets the laptop down onto the ground carefully, and jumps on it with pressure, again and again, until it’s only broken little pieces. I can’t move, I can only watch in horror and repeat her words in my mind.
“I don’t understand…how did you predict those horrible, horrible things? Or did you make them happen? How?” I stammer, confused and petrified out of my mind. She giggles once again, her back still to me, stamping on the already shattered laptop.
“Just some connections! The world isn’t real! There’s so much that people will never ever know!”
I stand up slowly, backing away. “Trying to escape, are you? Silly girl. It doesn’t work like that.” Naomi turns to me, a gun in her hand. “Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted? I’m just giving you what you want. Death!”
I shake my head and start to cry,
“What? No, no, no, I don’t want to die. Naomi, you don’t need to do this. We’ve been through so much together. You’re my bestest friend, this isn’t worth it. I’ll change, I’m so sorry.” I stammer. She comes closer, and I lean in to trip her over with my foot. She falls onto the ground, her hands out in front of her. I grab the gun from her loose hand, and point it at her. “Get away from me, now, or I shoot.” I say. She continues to beam at me.
“If you shoot me, all that happens is you go to jail. Because you have no evidence I tried doing anything to you! I deleted the file. It can’t be retrieved. Not even the police can find it. My laptop is shattered. Nobody will ever believe a thing you say. If you shoot me, people will just call you a murderer. You murdered your own best friend out of spite. Imagine the way all our friends will see you.”
I lower the gun. I don’t know what to do.
“And if I don’t shoot you?” I ask. She continues to beam at me.
“I keep having fun!” she says gleefully. I’m cornered, I’m over. I was so stupid. If only I’d never opened that draft, what’s wrong with me? I should’ve never tried entering that competition. I’m such a fool. I lift the gun again, but this time, it points to my head.
“You win, Naomi.”
And I pull the trigger.