Hear Him

"I can Hear Him. He helped me. If you listen, you can Hear Him too..."

Ding!

cooldude921 has logged on.

cooldude921: hey man, u there?

darkrai31: yeah lol, just finishing my hw :(

cooldude921: haha, up for a game of somethin later?

My name is Kieran, and this here is my best friend Grant, or cooldude921. You probably guessed it, I'm darkrai31 - and this is the moment when everything in my life changed.

Ding!

nyanyan13 has logged on.

nyanyan13: hai guys :3

darkrai31: hi ashley :D

cooldude921: go home, ash.

nyanyan13: D:

cooldude921: me and k were about to play something, i don't wanna end up on my own while you two go squeal over some spooky kids stories ¬.¬

darkrai31: shut up...

nyanyan13: creepypasta is fun, we like being scared lol... you'd like it too ;)

cooldude921: whatever, we can do something later man. don't expect me to be around to hold your hand <3

darkrai31: cya babez ;)

nyanyan13: LMAO xDxD

cooldude921 has left the chat.

darkrai31: so, did you read "Jeff The Killer"?

nyanyan13: OMG, it was sooo good! that pic totally freaked me out though, those eyes >.<

darkrai31: haha, same - just started "Funnymouth," have you seen that yet?

So, nyanyan13, or Ashley - me, Ash and Grant all grew up on the same block, all of our parents were just as close as we were - the three amigos, we used to call ourselves. Since Grant moved last year to go to college, we barely got to see him - I didn't mind, though, because it meant I got to spend more time alone, with Ash... I guess I've always really liked her, but I never really thought about it until a few weeks back, when Grant brought it up that her and me, we've always been inseparable even when we were kids, and he felt that me and her had almost everything in common, completely in sync, and that we'd be together forever... I doubt she even notices, though.

nyanyan13: ...so then she looked in the mirror, and written in blood, it said "PEOPLE CAN LICK TOO"!! i was like :O:O:O

darkrai31: aaaaand there goes my sleep tonight -_-

nyanyan13: sorry!!~

darkrai31: lol, just kiddin... what else have you been reading? (:

nyanyan13: OH yeah, i was totally gonna say-!! there's this really OUTRAGEOUS one, i think it was posted this week

nyanyan13: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

darkrai31: huh? i clicked on it, but all that appeared was YouTube :L

nyanyan13: what? ...no way!

nyanyan13: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

darkrai31: ...still the same, i'll check it later :L

nyanyan13: well that sux... oh well, i gotta go. i'll be on 2moz, byee!!~

nyanyan13 has left the chat.

darkrai31: bye lol, i'll see y-

In hindsight, there was no way to tell what was coming. I just wish there was some way... something I could have done differently in order to stop it. To be free of it...

The next day, me and Grant skyped for a bit, playing on our usual minecraft server. We had a laugh messing around with mods, but eventually Grant had to leave, so it was just me, again...

I could tell you more about myself, but I'd just be extending the fact that I'm Kieran, and I play games, read stories, and I like this girl. My life is pretty boring, aside from my parents I have no family, no job... I guess the most interesting thing that's happened to me in months is getting into college, a "creative writing" course (which sparked my interest in short, horror stories), and eventually getting kicked out for being lazy and not handing in enough coursework. It's not that I found it too hard, more like I just didn't see the point... I've never found my stories good, and always ended up putting my pen down and reading others instead. The only thing that's pulled me out of my recent spiral into apathy and depression is the news that I might not be alone after all. Ashley has always been around, but once Grant left and she started paying attention to me, it gave me the spark of life - we started reading stories together, hanging out at night watching scary movies. Just being around her gives me a reason to smile and laugh. I owe her so much... That's me, though. Lazy, useless, and hopelessly in love.

Ding!

nyanyan13 has logged on.

darkrai31: hey ash :D

nyanyan13: hi.

darkrai31: wuu2? me and grant just finished playing on our minecraft server... you should try it, you'd be like 10x better at building stuff than the both of us :L

nyanyan13: yeah, i guess...

darkrai31: you ok? you've been tearing through creepypasta like there's no tomorrow xD

nyanyan13: did you read it yet? it's good

darkrai31: "Hear Him"? let me check if it's working yet...

darkrai31: ...okay, NOW it's redirecting me to some restaurant website... are you sure you aren't messing around? ;)

nyanyan13: WHY CAN'T YOU SEE IT

nyanyan13: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

nyanyan13: JUST READ IT

nyanyan13 has left the chat.

If I didn't already sense it, if I didn't feel any sort of thoughts poking around in the back of my mind, this was when I started to get worried. Not for myself, but for Ashley... Was she upset? It seems as though she's freaking out, like she's mad at me? I remember thinking about what I could have possibly done to annoy her, but it was much deeper than that. Why didn't I sense that something else was wrong...

One day passes, just as quickly as you'd expect it to if you have nothing to do, whole hours spent laying awake, my mind working on nothing else but Ashley, and whether or not I had kickstarted some sort of unhealthy addiction to horror for her by introducing her to creepypastas and the millions of stories designed to terrify her, circulating around the internet, the world. Anyone could have written something creepy enough to set her off, someone whispering to her, something so horrible that she snaps at her own best friends... It's crushing to even thinking about her hating me. I have to talk to her.

Sticking my shoes on, I run outside for probably the first time in three days and head directly for Ash's house. The air, although cool, feels musty and old, the leaves on the bare trees are slowly starting to come back to life after the wettest winter I can remember... you can still smell the dampness all around the place. Arriving at her doorstep, I chap on the door 3 times and wait for her or her mother to answer... her father isn't around anymore, and from what she tells me, it's better that way. "Ashley!" I shout after what seems like an hour before a small, frail figure creaks open the door, and seeing it's me, her mother relaxes a little and widens the gap - although I catch a glimpse of confusion hiding behind her eyes. Apparently Ashley went out early this morning, and hasn't been home since - she told her mother she was going to see me at my house. I sprinted away from that doorstep without saying goodbye, as I knew now in my gut, that Ashley was in trouble.

Ding!

nyanyan13 has logged on.

nyanyan13: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

nyanyan13: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

nyanyan13: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

nyanyan13: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

Ding!

darkrai31 has logged on.

darkrai31: ash, you there? your mum said you came here...?

darkrai31: ...ash, u there?

darkrai31: talk to me...

nyanyan31: https://www.dropbox.com/s/822440x12jwha2r/847f839f4

darkrai31: what's this?

darkrai31: ash...

nyanyan13 has left the chat.

That link was dropbox... Ash sent me something from her computer. Something from Ashley... I downloaded it, sure that it would give me some answer, but now I wish I had just... I don't know... This was just...

''Ding! Your Download is now available.''

Inside the folder, was a video, with the most familiar and painful name.

ashley.avi.

Just about a million thoughts raced through my mind at this point, thinking about what this video could possibly contain, what she wanted me to see... a vlog? Some kind of YouTube video she was going to post? Then the worst thought entered my mind... This is a video with a girl's name on it... No... Besides everything else, this hurt me the most, like a stab to the chest. Does she want me to see, to watch this? No way... It would explain why she has been acting so weird lately. I'm definitely not going to watch it... It's Ashley... My friend, it's just wrong.

Yeah, this is what I was thinking at the time, but days past me by as I stayed in my room, barely eating, barely sleeping - I didn't even check if Ash came online, if she went back home - I couldn't face her again, if this video was what I thought it could be. But time, it wore me down, and short of tying my hands behind my back, there was nothing that was going to stop me from satisfying my curiosity... the girl that I...

I waded through the heap of trash and clothes on my floor, back to my computer and clicked on the video. I didn't know what I expected to come from watching it, but it certainly wasn't all of this.

A dark, unfamiliar room takes the stage. The walls seem to have paintings on them, which seem old, but it's far too faint to see - the only light in the room comes from a darkened window. Looking closer, a door and a folding chair come into view from the right hand side... the camera is off-balance.

Observing the edges and the outlines of the paintings, which are now coming into better focus, the atmosphere seems extremely dense, heavy and shaking - either that, or there's a minor earthquake Still recovered from ashley.avi occurring within the room. About two minutes in, the door opens (not that you could tell by the brightness) and a girl comes through. She sits on the chair and looks at the ground. Every so often, she murmurs a couple of words, which begin inaudible, but she speaks up gradually - it would appear she is responding to questions, addressing someone in the same room that isn't visible from this angle. There is a hint of recognition in the girl's sad eyes. Eventually we can hear the girl talk, but the second participant is silent like a ghost.

"Yes. I did."

"He was... hurtful. He hurt me."

"I don't... I was fine. H-He protects me."

"...Ok."

A sudden, sharp change of scenery as the video cuts to a slightly lighter setting, although not bright enough to make out most of the shapes taking form on the screen. The girl is not being interviewed anymore, although it's hard to place her - she is standing in the middle of a dead street, at that spot just a couple of minutes before hazy dawn. As the picture adjusts, you can see the camera is behind bushes, peering out across to the girl. It rushes forward. The camera hungrily juts forward every so often, as if it swipes at her while giving chase. The girl, she is crying as she lifelessly and effortlessly drags herself along the open road. She is hurt, the camera comes closer and closer... It is still too dark to see, but the camera falls to the ground as the girl is brutally beaten by an unseen figure, stabbed dozens upon dozens of times... but she is no longer crying. The scene changes to Ashley's room, but it is obvious that is was taken before the previous events. She is being interviewed one last time... but only says the one thing...

"I can hear him. He helped me. If you listen, you can hear him too..."

Behind the tearing of the video, the static creating a wall between us, the last thing I saw was her smile, but it wasn't a look she wore. It wasn't happy, it was... fun. This was knowledge of what's to come... Ashley smiled through the camera, at me, tasting my blood... her evil, twisted grin wanting me dead.

Me and Grant walked the streets of our childhood. We would point and reminisce about the old days, the three amigos, all of those hidden, secret places only a child would know about. We went through the park, strolled along the burn that lead us home each evening all those years ago, the crystal-clear water so unchanged you could almost see the reflections of three carefree young people giggling and playing. Almost. It has been two weeks since Ashley went missing, and with a community as close as ours, panic began to spread. it was only 4 pm, and you could see blinds shut, children running home as if their lives depended on it, that look in the eyes of passers-by that shot distrust at anyone who dared walk the same road.

I haven't told anyone what I saw, or decided whether or not any of it actually happened. I like to pretend that it was Ashley all along, reading one too many scary stories, playing a joke on all of us, and she eventually comes home... and falls in love with me... We would get married, and have two kids, watch scary movies when they're old enough... Someone to protect, to care about. All of it was gone, now... No, I couldn't pretend she was still here if I tried. With Ash's father gone and now herself, Ashley's mother became a recluse, almost catatonic as she stares out towards the road through the safety of her dark, upstairs window... keeping a watchful eye. My mum keeps trying to visit her, bringing food, phoning every chance she gets, but it's as if her entire existence has faded to that of a ghost. Grant came back as soon as he heard, he's staying with his dad for the week while things settle down. Sometimes I think I could tell him, other times I believe he'll think I did it. I still have ashley.avi, but it stays safely away on my computer... I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. I went home at some point, just sat on my bed, staring at emptiness for an hour or so, when...

Ding!

cooldude921 has logged on.

cooldude921: hey man, how u holding up?

cooldude921: I miss ash as well, can't we talk about it?

cooldude921: I know you probably don't wanna play right now, so how about some of that creepypasta you and... ash like.

cooldude921: c'mon man, i feel bad too, we just need to take our minds off it for a while

cooldude921: dude...

cooldude921: ash sent me one, before she went... she knew i don't like it, but i think it would mean more to you

cooldude921: http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/Hear_Him

My head hit the ceiling. I don't know if I was angry, jealous, shocked, terrified, or all of the above. She sent him it too... HEAR HIM. HEAR HIM... that's what she said. Hear who? I don't know how I forgot about it, but the only thing that I could do was act... Find out what this had to do with... her, but before I could do anything...

cooldude921 has left the chat.

I tried calling Grant, texting him, trying to find out what exactly Ashley had said to him, but I never got an answer. Half crying over Ash, half terrified that this... guy, the animal-like cameraman, HIM, was still out there. I fell into a heap on my bed, and must have passed out - there's no way I could sleep at all after the things I saw.

I dreamt of that road, again. Ash crying. Me, the camera, eying her like a piece of meat... the rushing. Like a predator... like a monster. After she was... gone, I kept on going. Attacking her, it wouldn't stop... It wouldn't let me rest. His Voice would haunt me forever, which was silence to me, but not to Ash. She could Hear Him, and it destroyed her, but how... I woke up.

Strangely with a new energy, I rose up to my computer, determined to get to the bottom of this, to find out who He was. That cameraman... He was obviously the man interviewing Ash, which got her so unsettled. I tried clicking the link Grant left, but again, like before, it lead me to a random site - this time, a hotel in Germany. Next time, a Boat Club, then Wikipedia... Someone didn't want me to read this. I thought of ways to cancel out the redirect, when my eye brushes over to the folder containing ashley.avi and a stab of pain in my heart brings me back with a bolt of inspiration - Why send me the video? How did Ashley manage to open "Hear Him" in the first place? She must have received it from Dropbox directly, otherwise she wouldn't be able to open it... But why? And where would she get that link from originally... Unless someone wanted her to see. I still had access to her Dropbox from when we were sharing creepypastas, if she kept the password...

"threeamigos"

Ding!

Yes! There it is... Hear_Him.txt. I eyed the icon for the longest time, sizing it up... I was about to find out what drove Ash so wild about this creepypasta... and if its author is stupid enough to leave a name.

I should not have read Hear_Him.txt. I saw ashley.avi, I knew what this man... this monster was capable of. He drove Ash insane, had her praising him... And then he... Anyway, what I didn't know then, what I'm still not sure of now, but all that is keeping you safe, is that you do NOT read "Hear Him". No matter who sends it to you, if they use a false name or trick you somehow, if you find yourself coming across this through your best friend, if you care about ANYTHING, you will close it. Immediately. I'm sorry, but this is when the story changes. Whatever happens in Hear Him, I did not even get to finish it.

There was this boy, this lonely child, he grew up in the most gruesome way... His father beat him, his mother cheated with other men. The child, barely surviving his childhood, one day came home from school, found his father in a very bad way. He did not care about his son, like he was just a toy, to be broken. The child screamed, but nobody came. Passers-by saw the boy, but they pretended not to hear him. To not hear his screams, as he was crushed by the only people he loved, he cried for help, but no one came. When everything was over, the boy grew up. He married, started a family, tried to move on - but could he be normal after that? Of course not... He was wrong. So badly damaged that he drove his family to the brink of destruction. They left him standing in the driveway, pretending they couldn't hear him, hear his shouts, his pleads. The embarrassment, everyone knew... He hated everyone who knew his story. He wanted people to Hear Him... to understand, to become like Him.

There was more to the story, but I never finished it. I felt a sharp, heavy presence, not unlike the one felt in ashley.avi, and just then I knew what was in store for me. As I looked round, turning slowly, I became overwhelmed with guilt, as I realised exactly who this man was, why I should never have introduced Ash to this world... Awaiting her in a world of terror was her death, my death, and every ones until He is Heard. Rabid like a wolf, pale as a skeleton, cut and patched like a ragdoll, his face distorted into the most gruesome shape, from his grin to his ears stained with blood, but clearly not his own; this man, shrieking like a madman, was going to kill me... He still is. Because... really he is helping us. That Voice. We were horrible to not help him, and he is coming for us. The poor child, crying and crying, only getting cold silence in return... it isn't right... I can hear you... It's ok... I can Hear Him.

"I can Hear Him. He helped me. If you listen, you can Hear Him too..."