Kaos.net

A psychological horror short story.

When I first saw the email from Dark Magus Ltd., I knew it was too good to be true. Two-hundred dollars to beta test their new social media platform, Kaos.net? It had to be a scam.

Still, two-hundred dollars was two-hundred dollars. Those parking fines weren’t going to pay themselves after all.

I should’ve been sleeping, but instead I lay in the darkness, staring into my phone's numbing glow, rereading the email. Something in my sleep deprived brain held me back. I wasn’t about to get scammed again.

I went to close the email, but my clumsy thumb hit accept and a download started in the background. I shrugged, tossed my phone aside, rolled over, and closed my eyes.

It wasn’t a big deal. Either I get two-hundred dollars, or it seems sketchy and I delete the app.

What was the worst that could happen?

***

My alarm went off at six-thirty the next morning. Every Saturday I told myself I was going to change my alarm from every day to just during the week. I never actually did it though. And sure enough, there I was again. Saturday morning, woken by a harsh buzzing beep just before dawn.

In one practiced motion, I rolled over, grabbed my phone, and swiped the alarm off. But before I put it back on my bedside table, something caught my eye. A new icon on my dashboard: a black serpent on a red background. Kaos.net.

I rolled my eyes. These tech companies and their attempts at being edgy were pathetic. And what about the company’s name? Dark Magus, Ltd. Yeah, real scary. I bet they were just a bunch of pasty nerds, grinding away on code in some air-conditioned office. A true coven of dark wizards.

Still, they paid well, supposedly.

I tapped the icon.

My phone screen went black, edged with a crimson border. White words popped up in its center:

Initializing…

Logging in…

David Fletcher…

So I already had an account, because of course I did. They probably already had all of my personal information. Nothing’s private on the internet.

After the automatic login, it immediately played a video:

A distant silhouette walking slowly down a long, dark corridor towards the camera.

To be honest, it was kind of boring.

I swiped.

Fire rained from the sky, immolating screaming children. A cityscape in ruins. Death and destruction reigned. The will of the strong at the expense of all else.

I swiped.

Riots. A car in flames. Shopfronts smashed. Violence on the streets, but why? A rebellion against tyranny or a revelry in destruction?

I swiped.

The silhouette walking down the corridor, closer this time.

I swiped.

Jamie, my roommate, in the kitchen… Weird. How did they get video footage from inside our house? Only… Wait…What was Jamie doing? Eating my Frosted Flakes and leaving me with the washing up. Dirty bowl in the sink. Milk splattered across the bench top.

I knew it.

I hammered the home button on my phone, flung it aside, and leapt out of bed.

I blinked. Phone discarded, I suddenly felt freed from a weight I hadn’t even realised I’d been carrying and yet…

And yet an itch tugged at the back of my mind. Kaos.net was waiting.

But first, Jamie. He’d been sneaking my Frosted flakes for months. This was my chance to catch him in the act.

In little more than my boxers, I stormed into the kitchen.

“Morning, David,” he called up from his seat at the dining table. On the plate before him… toast?

I glanced over at the sink. Empty. I stepped over to the pantry and swung it open. My brand new packet of Frosted Flakes was unopened.

“Hey, you okay?” Jamie asked. “You look a little… I don’t know–”

“I’m fine!” I snapped. “I…” I studied the Frosted Flakes packet. How could this be? Kaos.net had revealed the truth I’d long suspected. Had Jamie somehow covered up the evidence at the last minute or was I mistaken? Had Kaos.net misled me?

I looked at him, trying to work out what he was thinking. He looked back at me. Was there some sinister cunning hiding behind his guileless smile?

Past him, beyond the window, the street was shrouded in a deep overcast sky. In the distance, the silhouette drew closer.

I blinked and the silhouette was gone. The world outside was blue and bright. A perfect day to bask in life’s goodness. But how much of that goodness was a lie?

I was so confused.

I slunk back into my room, safe behind drawn curtains and a closed door. Kaos.net awaited, calling me. Only there would I find the truth.

And what truth I found.

For a day and a night and a day again, it consumed me.

Blood. Fire. Death.

Division. Violence. Bloodshed.

Forests burnt to ash.

Oceans purged of life.

The very earth reduced to dust.

Men fought.

Women screamed.

Children died.

Drone strikes and artillery tore cityscapes asunder, leaving people bereft of home and hope and life.

Animals in cages. People in cages. Their bones stacked higher and higher.

Tyrants praised as saviours, and saviours condemned to rot.

The silhouette, walking down his corridor.

The truth of humanity’s degeneracy was laid before me. Man against man. Man against nature. Man against being itself. He triumphed only by reason of his malice, sowing ruin and sorrow in his wake.

Kaos.net revealed to me the truth of all things, and in this revelation I judged all things as unworthy.

And always, the feed took me back to Jamie, the avatar of mankind's transgressions made manifest within my own life. He broke my favourite cup. He spilled beer on the couch. He spat into the kitchen sink and smoked inside and stole money from the wallet I’d so foolishly left on the coffee table. I’d known Jamie since highschool. I’d thought he was my friend, but now… How could I even tell what was real? Had I ever known him at all? Had I ever known anything?

I knew if I burst out, I wouldn’t find anything. Jamie was too clever for that. I was going to get him though. I just had to be patient. Justice would be served.

I swiped.

The darkened corridor was empty.

I looked away from my phone. The silhouette stood beside me, somehow grinning from the void of its face.

I looked back at my phone. The world I perceived with eye and ear was a lie. Only through Kaos.net was the truth revealed. Now the veil had been stripped away and for the first time in my life, I had true clarity. I’d been so blind before.

***

Eventually, hunger pulled me from my bed. I tried to leave my phone, but I could not. Without it, my hand felt empty and my mind hollow. Without Kaos.net’s guidance, even for a second, I felt the lie threatening to overwhelm me. In the ignorance of the lie was a certain bliss, but I knew too much to go back now.

With my phone clutched in my hand like some tenuous lifeline, I stepped into the kitchen, bracing myself to face the web of betrayal Jamie had woven there.

The kitchen was spotless. Jamie had covered his tracks well, but that just made the filth of his sins all the worse. Beyond the window was only stark, yearning darkness. What time was it? What day? How long had I dwelt in Kaos.net’s embrace?

The hollow cramping in my gut could wait. I began scouring the kitchen in search of some sign. The silhouette stepped past me and pointed into the sink. It was clean. Something wasn’t right, though. Almost on instinct I opened Kaos.net and switched it to the Kaosfilter, then through my phone’s camera, I looked again.

Sure enough, there it was. The phlegmy residue of Jamie’s spittle clung to the drain's edge. My roommate’s ferality laid bare.

The silhouette swung open the cupboard. I looked over with my phone held out in front of me. My favourite mug… was gone.

A sudden panic gripped me. My grandmother’s mug. Handmade. Passed down.

I flung myself at the rubbish bin and threw off the lid, revealing the shattered ceramic within. The systematic desecration of my lineage.

I looked up. The silhouette was holding my Frosted Flakes. It passed them over to me. The top was open. The plastic bag within was split haphazardly down the side. My precious Frosted Flakes were left to rattle loose in the box’s bottom, growing hard and stale. The destruction of my grandmother’s mug was one thing, but this? How could such sacrilege be anything other than deliberate and premeditated? Utter malevolence.

The silhouette beckoned to me, then stepped into the lounge.

I followed, sure I knew where such a path would lead.

We passed through the lounge. The subtle smell of beer wafted up from the couch, and on the coffee table my wallet sat open and empty. The door to Jaime’s room awaited at the lounge’s far side.

The silhouette stood beside it, beckoning like some twilight door man. I stepped forward and it silently swung Jamie’s door open. Inside, there he lay.

How could one so evil, sleep so soundly? Curled up on his bed, snoring lightly. There was almost a tranquillity to him. The sleep of innocence. But I knew that was only another lie. The Kaosfilter revealed his true, demonic aspect.

The silhouette handed me a knife.

I studied it for a moment. A cold length of sharpened steel. Was I really about to do this? Jamie was a vile man, but did he really deserve to die?

Seemingly in answer to my thoughts, the silhouette placed an icy hand on my shoulder and urged me forward.

I stepped over to Jamie’s bed, tightening my grip on the knife. All I needed was one clean thrust. Death would be quick. But was a quick death what Jamie deserved? Surely his death should be painful and humiliating.

Jamie gasped. He looked up at me, eyes wide, face white.

“David?” he squeaked.

I stabbed at him. He jerked away. My blade tore into the mattress. Jamie screamed.

“David? What are you doing?” His voice was shrill.

In answer, I stabbed again. He rolled, falling off the bed’s far side and slamming onto the floor. The silhouette’s grin widened.

I jumped onto the bed. Jamie scrambled for the door on hands and knees.

I snarled and leapt off the backboard. Jamie glanced back and cried out, then rolled with legs flailing upwards. He caught me in the gut, driving the wind from my lungs. I lashed out as he shunted me back, slicing deep into his calf. He screamed and threw himself to his feet and made for the door again. The silhouette slammed it shut. Jamie recoiled. Blood streamed down his leg in frantic pulses.

His eyes were full of tears and fear.

“Why?”

“You know why,” I growled.

He shook his head. I advanced.

Jamie dived through the closed window, screaming as the shattering glass shredded his skin.

I chuckled and stepped over to the window. Beyond, he lay writhing upon the grass amidst a ruin of blood and glass.

The glass shards still in the window frame cut into my flesh as I climbed out, but I hardly even noticed.

I knelt beside him. He whimpered.

A light came on in the neighbour’s house, bathing us in a yellow glow. I looked up and Mrs Heberdy, that degenerate hypocrite, looked back. With the light behind her, I could barely see her face, but I could see her shaking, and…was she holding a phone? Calling the police perhaps? The enforcers of mankind’s corruption come to lock me away. And why? Because I saw with clarity? Because I sought to punish those who they would punish if the world was truly just.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Heberdy,” I called, trying to mask the contempt in my voice. “Everything’s fine out here. No need to worry.”

She shuddered and shrunk back from the window. The light flicked off.

I growled and turned back. Jamie was half-risen, glaring at me. A desperate tremor flickered through his eyes.

I stepped towards him, phone out in front. He flailed at me. I drew back, brandishing my knife. He smacked my phone, sending it flying into some nearby shrubs.

“No!” I roared. My head swam and my knees went weak. The world spun. The lie closed in around me and the truth grew faint.

Jamie no longer looked like the monster he was, but the frightened innocent he pretended to be. His act was so convincing that for a moment I almost forgot the truth.

I scrambled to the shrubs, going to my knees, searching desperately in the darkness. I needed my phone. I needed the truth, lest the lie all but consume me. I searched through dirt and roots and spindly twigs. Then my hand closed around on my phone and overwhelming relief flooded through me. The truth returned.

I stood and turned. Jamie was gone. A trail of blood led from the ruined scattering of glass towards the front-yard. Police sirens wailed in the distance. I would not allow them to perturb me though. If I did not condemn the wicked of this world, no one would.

I found Jamie half-way across the front lawn. He’d collapsed, yet still dragged himself along the ground with his limp, bloody leg trailing behind.

I stopped beside him and rolled him onto his back with my foot. He groaned. Down the street, the flash of red and blue approached.

“What did I do to you?” Jamie wheezed.

“Even in the face of death, you’re still going to uphold the lie?” I shrieked. My calm evaporated. Only my rage remained. “You’re a worm! You carry within you the malignant rot of all the world and by my hand you will be made clean! The travesty of—”

“Put the knife down!”

I hadn’t even noticed the police cruiser pull up, but there it was, half over the curb, less than ten metres away. Two burly policemen, one with a bristling moustache, stood beside it with what? Pistols? Tasers? Some sort of weapons, although between the dark of night and the flashing of blue and red, I couldn’t quite tell what they were.

The silhouette stepped up beside me.

“Go about your business, enforcers of the lie,” I called to them. “This does not concern you.”

“I think you’ll find it does,” the clean-shaven officer called back.

“You’ve got until the count of three,” the other barked. “One!”

I turned to face them head on.

“Two!”

I glanced down at Jamie. His glazed eyes stared blindly up at me. He didn’t move.

Justice.

“Three!”

I roared, charging. Thunder exploded from the officer’s pistols, tearing through me, throwing me back, shattering my phone.

I hit the grass, gurgling blood, the broken frame of my phone still clutched in my hand.

My chest was agony, and yet I felt so much lighter. The silhouette flickered and faded into the night as the officers came to stand over me. Kaos.net was gone.

I was free.

Only… I’d killed Jamie. Why the fuck did I do that?

My mind faded, and I fell into oblivion.

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Want to read more? The rest of my short fiction can be found here.

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