The year was 1995, and the streets were filled with loud car horns, echoing through the apartment entrance. Cars cramped the roads and each driver tried to fight against the people in front. The glass walls of the city’s bank cracked as crooks and other people backed against the wall, waiting to enter the bank. The stairs were crowded with men in shark suits and polished shoes and women with ponytails, buns, and braids. Their loud hollering drowned out the city noises, clearly expressing their annoyance.

A young girl named Lauren, with brunette hair tucked into her black coat, rushed to the elevator. Annoyed to find it not yet full, she let out a sigh.

“Maybe I’ll take the stairs.” Lauren decided “I’ll get back to the room faster.” She tugged her bag back on her shoulders and walked to the crowded stairs. 

Lauren walked through the nearly empty first floor and to the second, where children played and laughed. She then climbed the stairs to a quiet floor with just a few people waiting outside their rooms. She held her keys and headed to the end of the hallway. Then, she inserted the keys into the lock and opened the door, revealing a badge-walled room with a gray sofa and tan carpets following it. 

Lauren’s partner, Dane, rested his arms on a white computer desk near the window. Her younger brother, Brook, played on his counsel on his PlayStation. 

“Hey Brook,” Lauren greeted, resting on the sofa. “How’s your game been?”

“Pretty good,” he replied, pausing the game. “I finally beat my high score on Dig Dug. I got to level eleven!”

“Impressive,” she said. “I only got to level five last time I played.”

“Ha!” Dane laughed, “You never even got to the first level the first time.”

“Shut up! It was my second time playing.” 

“Just saying.” Dane stepped away from the chair and headed to the cabinet with glass cups. 

“Can I use the computer for a minute?” Lauren asked. 

“No,” Dane answered with sarcastic eyes. Lauren grew an amused smile and began to laugh. “I’m kidding, knock yourself out.”

Lauren clicked the mouse, glancing at Dane on the sofa and Brook engrossed in his game. As she opened his homepage, another tab unexpectedly appeared. “‘Computer Man.’ What?” she whispered.  Lauren’s curiosity surged like a wave, compelling her to click the mouse and open the folder. As it unfolded before her eyes, a series of tabs emerged, each one tantalizingly linked to a mysterious title that read, “Help me.” Lauren squinted her eyes, puzzling over the title.  

“Brook,” Lauren called out from the desk. “Did you look something up this morning?” 

“No, why?”

“There’s a tab here that says, ‘Computer Man,’ with a few links in the folder that have a link that leads to something called, ‘Help me.’”

“What?” Brook paused his game and walked to the computer as Dane followed. “Where is it?”

Lauren pressed the mouse that opened the link once again. “Here,” she pointed to the link. “Should I click it?” 

“Ju-Hell no!” Dane exclaimed in a worried tone. “That link could manipulate the computer or send it into a virus or something.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?! I can’t leave it there forever!” Lauren panicked. 

“Try trashing it.”

Lauren moved the mouse and pressed it down, causing the link on the homepage to shift. She hit backspace, and it vanished. “There,” she sighed, but then it clicked again. 

“What the?!” Brook exclaimed.

Dane’s eyes widened.“I thought you trashed it!” He panicked.

“I did!” Lauren cried, “I swear but it just popped back up!”

“What? So a ghost clicked it? Did you click the link while you took it to the trash?”

“No! I didn’t do anything.”

Brook glanced at the computer screen as they continued to argue. “Guys!” he exclaimed. The two turned to him. “There’s a message on one of the links.”  Then the two turned to the screen. 

“Click it,” Dane spoke. 

A small message appeared on the screen. 

Lauren began to read aloud: “If someone is out there, please read this message and the next ones incoming.” Suddenly, another message appeared from the link below it. She clicked and read again: “This is not a trick. My brother was the one who put me inside. Thanks to a website, he believed people could live inside your computer. ”

“Dumbass,” Brook whispered. 

“Brook….” Dane said with a glare. 

“What? You swore a few seconds ago.”

Dane sighed and shook his head. “Click the next message.”

Lauren clicked again. “Days later, he wanted to test the theory. Though, I didn’t think he would test it on me.” 

“What does that mean?” Brook questioned. 

“I don’t know….” Lauren suddenly paused. Her eyes focused on the next link. 

“Laura?” Dane snapped his finger. “You okay?”

“Yeah, sorry.” Then she clicked the next link, but instead of a message, it revealed a photo. A man’s corpse, his head bashed against the computer screen, and the man’s face covered in shattered glass with ink dripping down its points. 

“Oh my god…” Lauren whispered. She clicked the next link and read, “I can’t breathe. I can’t see. I can’t feel anything anymore…” Lauren clicked on the final link that revealed his name. “Henry Fitzgerald,” she read, “Born on November fifth, 1953. Died on January sixth, 1994.” Then the folder vanished. 

“Wait…that happened a year ago…?” Brook questioned with tears in her eyes. 

Lauren covered her mouth with her hand. Dane unplugged the computer. “Maybe that’s enough of the computer for today.” His face grew dense as Brook and Lauren squeezed each other in their arms, quivering in horror.