Showing Alex the Video

“So sorry for being late...my Mom didn’t know what to get her own son for Christmas, so I had to help her find something to buy on Amazon. I swear to God she is the most indecisive shopper on planet Earth... anyway... what’s up with you?”

After getting all that out, Alex appeared to take her first breath in the last 15 minutes. Being late makes her nervous so she’s been breathing pretty shallow for a while, as anyone could tell by her fast paced excuse.

“It’s so weird...I got this text last night with a link to a YouTube video, but I don’t understand what it’s for or who sent it to me?”

Alex, of course, demanded to see the odd video. I stood up, knelt beside her chair, and pulled up the video. He didn’t put it into full screen, as he wanted to show her all the oddities.

5.

“So like, this is a completely untouched and unseen video...”

4.

“...there’s no likes, comments, or anything...”

3.

“...there isn’t even a channel attached to the video...”

2.

“...just an error page that says...”

1.

“...that the channel doesn’t exist”.

Locked in.

I didn’t know it yet, but Alex now found the video impossible to look away from. She took hold of my phone and held it horizontally so the screen would rotate into full-screen mode.

“Wow....you’re right .....this is so....weird”.

10.

“...I’ve never seen....a video....like this.... before...”

15.

“Okay dude...funny bit, but I’m serious right now. I don’t know who sent this to me, and it’s kinda freakin’ me out”.

20.

“...”

“Dude. Cut out the fake hypnotism bit. I’m creeped out by this random guy texting me from an unknown number, who apparently knows my name”.

25.

Alex’s grip on the cellphone tightened. It would take a good amount of **** to rip it away. Regardless of Alex’s normal strength, every fiber of her being needed to keep watching the spiral spin around and around: that willpower alone doubled her muscular strength.

26.

Alex’s jaw began to lower, allowing her lips to slowly separate at the middle until her entire mouth was gently open. Her drool, while not enough to start dripping out of her mouth, started to form a sizable puddle under her tongue.

27.

Alex’s breath, contrasted with her breath when she had entered the coffee shop just a moment ago, began to slow. With every breath, she got slower and slower. Her breathing became deeper, filling her lungs to maximum capacity. As though she was asleep, she breathed in fully, paused, and then breathed out a few moments later.

28.

Alex’s eyes began to glaze over. Her eyelids got closer and closer together, as though she had poor vision and was trying to read something from far away. Her eyebrows tightened, becoming more furrowed with every passing moment.

29.

At this point, my frustration was built up enough to reach out and snatch the phone away. However, when I did so, Alex’s grip was more powerful than I anticipated, and I made no headway.

30.

Click! I pressed the side button on the phone, turning the screen to black. Alex’s grip immediately loosened, now matching her sleep-like breath, her dead and soulless eyes, and open mouth.

“Alex! What the fuck!”

Alex did not flinch, nor did she motion to make eye-contact.

“Dude listen to me. I know you think you’re really funny, but I’m being like, cyberstalked”!

No response. I stood up and suddenly clapped in front of Alex’s face, expecting my friend to jump or at least blink. I was right to think so, as anxiety-ridden Alex would normally yelp loudly when startled. However, no such luck.

I paused. There was no way, right? Like, of course not. She was just taking a joke too far. I was sure of it. And I knew exactly how to end it. I walked out of the coffee shop and grabbed some freshly fallen snow off the ground, and walked back inside, proceeding to dump it down the back of her shirt. Alex was usually such a baby about cold weather, and she hated snow. There was no way this wouldn’t get her to break character and hit me with a slap.

But that moment never came.