✔️ | offline, unfriended

★ | 008. the video

Book: Offline, Unfriended
Chapter 8: The Video
Word Count: 1103

When Billie re-joined the call, he had a camera on but Aria couldn't tell what the video image was. It was like the camera was in a box or something.

"Hey, genius, we can see you!" Ken yelled. Only silence came back. "Hey! Hey, buddy! Uh - you know what - " Ken cut himself off with a huff. "What is that?" Jess asked, leaning closer to her camera. "Is it behind a lattice? A crate or something?"

"It's not letting me hang up." Ken said just before he stood up, planning on walking away from his computer. Aria's eyes widened. The top of Ken's head had just appeared in Billie's video. "Ken!" She called out for him.

"What?" He called back. "Come back!" Aria yelled again. He came back over to his computer and leaned down. She could see his face in his screen but not Billie's. "What?" He asked again. "Uh, back up a little bit." Jess said, it seemed she had caught on as well.

"Jut do it, dude." Adam said. Ken backed up and once again appeared in Billie's camera. Aria put her hand up and covered her mouth in shock. Ken noticed as well and began to lift his hand up in a wave, seeing the action was appearing in Billie's camera.

A loud clash was heard as Ken rushed over and began to move boxes that seemed to be hiding the camera. He lifted a crate off it, his face staring right at the camera. His whole body froze and his eyes held terror. "K - Ken? Are you okay?" Aria asked but he didn't respond.

"Ken, what the fuck's going on?" Mitch asked. No response. Aria jumped back as she was disconnected from the call. "G - Guys?" She asked as if they would respond. She was back to staring at her Skype screen. The silence was over whelming and she felt her heart beating like crazy. "What the fuck?"

She tried to call back but it kept saying she was offline, even though she could see the bars on her laptop. She took her hands away from the keyboard and stared at the screen. Maybe it was time to -

Her laptop was suddenly reconnected to the call and Ken was the first person her eyes drew to. He was screaming. His video coming in and out. "Ken?!" She screamed herself. The others were yelling, trying to get Ken's attention. Ken just continued to yell before his face smashed against the camera and it went black.

"Is he okay?" Blaire cried out. "Ken!" Jess yelled. His camera came back on. Ken had stuck his hand in his blender. The power on. All Aria could hear were the screams of her and her friends as blood splashed all around Ken. His hand being obliterated right in front of her.

"What the fuck is that?!" Adam yelled. Ken's camera went black again. When it came back on, he was seen smashing the glass around the blende. He removed his torn hand and replaced it with his neck. Aria gagged, seeing his throat being sliced to pieces. He disconnected the call.

Aria didn't cry often. The last time she did was when Laura died. Now, she sat with tears streaming down her face as she watched someone she called friend kill himself in such a gruesome way. "What the fuck just happened!?" She screamed, digging her hands into her hair. This was all just some sick joke. It had to be. This couldn't be real. She was living a nightmare.

"Aria just shut up!" Mitch yelled at her. "Don't tell me to shut up! He just killed himself!" She yelled back. "This isn't funny anymore." Blaire cried out.

"Fuck this shit! Okay? I'm fucking out of here. You hear me?" Adam said. He stood up from his desk before a loud banging was heard. "Fuck." He whimpered. He picked up his laptop and began to walk around the room, looking like he was about to shit himself.

"Baby, go lock your door." Mitch said to Blair. "I did - I did." She responded quietly. "I think it is locked."

"Hello?" Adam called out before panting. "Oh, fuck."

"What do you see?" Mitch asked. "Adam. Adam, what do you see?"

"Guys..." He trailed off. "There's fucking no on here. I'm gonna go check it out."

Usually, Aria could give less of a shit what Adam did but right now, she didn't want him to get hurt, not like Ken. "No! No, no, no. Adam, don't."

Only an hour earlier he would have responded with some teasing remark about how she cared about him. The only thing she got now was silence. He walked over to his front door and tried to open it. "Is it locked?" Blaire asked.

"Lock the door!" Jess said. He did as told before he was yelling again. "Who's here? Hey! Who's here? I have a fucking gun, you hear me?" His lights shut off, leaving him in darkness. "Fuck! What the fuck?"

billie227: adam sit down and shut up.

"What do you want?" Adam tried to keep the fear out of his voice.

billie227: i want to take out the trash.

billie227: do you remember the video?

"What video?" Blaire asked.

A YouTube video popped up on Aria's screen. A video she had seen many times before. She felt her mouth go dry. This was the video that started it all. The video that made Laura kill herself. It was called LAURA BARNS KILL URSELF. She didn't know who filmed it or uploaded.

The video showed Laura and Val having an argument. Aria was in the background, cheering it on.

"She's gonna beat my ass, everybody!" Laura yelled, the centre of attention as usual.

The video was suddenly cut. This was the worse part of it. Some unknown person was filming as they walked through the dark, no one else around. They walked behind a caravan. Laura was spotted past out on the ground. As the camera got closer, Laura became more clearer. What she had done had become more clearer.

She had shit herself and the person filming was letting the whole world know. Leaky Laura.. kill yourself.

Aria put her hands on her face. She should have been there with her. She should have protected her, kept her from that humiliation. No, instead Aria was inside the party, having fallen asleep after she had just fucked Laura's best friend.

★ ★ ★

Authors Note: See below!

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