At 5pm precisely Mr Gerard walked in. He was a tall nervous man with a shock of red hair, who spoke with a lisp and was extremely conscious of it. He set his briefcase down and quickly told the class what they were going to do for the lesson.
An embarrassed latecomer made her way to an empty terminal
“Ever so sorry, bus was running late.” She panted, and hurriedly sat down and started her computer up. She had problems working the mouse so had to make more noise by asking if there were any spare mice around, which of course there wasn’t, and so had to share with the person next to her who wasn’t much pleased with the arrangement.
Irritated, Abby went to the head of the class and approached Mr Gerard
“ I was wondering if you could help me with a few problems I have at home on my PC” she asked quietly. He tapped a few things into the computer and then turned his attention to her.
“Yes of course Abby, what’s the problem?” He was surprisingly coherent today and Abby was surprised that he knew her name. Mr Gerard explained her troubles with ease noting down on some paper where she had gone wrong, and even some instructions on some things to do if the problems happened again.
Satisfied, and somewhat confused at the teachers' confidence today Abby returned to her computer, and realised something was wrong. On the screen was a message, and as she read it an uneasy feeling tightened in her stomach. The message was not a good one. Cold fear washed all around her and the colour drained from her normally flushed cheeks.
EENIE MEENIE MINIE MOE
CATCH THE VICTIM BY ITS THROAT
SHOULD I LET THE VICTIM GO?
OR WATCH IT SQUIRM AND KILL IT SLOW?
YOUR SECRET ADMIRER
Abby’s eyes grew wide and her senses grew sharper. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up, but not in a good way this time. Slowly out of the corners of her eyes she looked beside her to see if anyone was looking. Smiling perhaps. Maybe this was just a sick joke, she almost pleaded with herself. No one was paying any particular attention to her. All absorbed in their work.
Slowly Abby stood and walked out of the room. She hurried to the toilets, her shoes clicking loudly on the linoleum flooring bouncing off the walls and seeming louder than they really were. She didn’t stop running until she reached the safety of the toilets. Thoughts were racing through her petrified mind. Was the sick message for me? If so, why me? Why send it here? There are lots of people using the computer room after the class had finished maybe it was sent to the wrong person? Abby splashed her hot face with water in an attempt to calm down. Then another thought struck her and she stopped dead. If the message were for me, it would be someone in the class. Someone who knew her.
I can’t go back, she thought. Then changed her mind, starting to feel angry with herself for being so stupid. It was probably a practical joke, someone winding her up just to get a reaction. And they got one, she thought irritably.
So calmly Abby walked back through the long corridors and slipped back into the classroom, smiling slightly at Mr Gerard, to prove to anyone that was watching that she wasn’t scared of the message, maybe even found the funny side of it. She approached her terminal again. The screen saver had come on because the computer was idle so she rolled the mouse over the pad to remove it. Except the screen saver didn’t go, and the mouse didn’t roll. So she tapped a key and saw that the message had disappeared. Weird, she thought, I remember that I didn’t erase the message because I walked out straight after I found it. Sighing she got up and was about to ask Mr Gerard about her mouse when the teacher rose from his seat and started talking. Abby sat down again and vaguely listened to the homework assignment that was given to her for the next week.
Abby got up, logged off her computer and started packing the notes and her textbook into her bag. She noticed that Mr Gerard was making his way toward her. She didn’t want to talk to him; he was acting really bizarre today. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was that made her so uncomfortable around him, but it troubled her.
“Have you got to grips with the system yet?” he asked eagerly “I admit when I first used it I was slightly confused by it too, the commands are slightly different to the old systems that we had and it threw me off guard all the time.” He threw his head back and started laughing, his adams apple wobbling as he did so. Abby realised that he quite repulsed her. She half-smiled and looked at her watch pointedly,
“Uh, I have to go, and, start dinner for my sister,” she fumbled. Even though she didn’t have to start dinner. Didn’t have a sister actually. She didn’t know why she was lying but she didn’t really care as she walked out the doors of the building.
It was five days until Abby got a chance to work on the computer at home. After much deliberation she came to the conclusion that if she didn’t do so she would have to ask Mr Gerard for help the next lesson.
It was getting late, and the streetlights were on, streaming an orange glow into her room. Besides the computer that was the only light in her room. Abby liked it in the dark. She could concentrate better if she didn’t have distractions and her room was a distraction attractor, so it being dark was the only way she could work. She hadn’t bothered to shut the curtains and the window was ajar letting a slight sweet-smelling breeze into the room.
After logging on, and connecting to the Internet she decided to check her mail. It was her default mail, she hadn’t had time to set one up herself so she didn’t like the name much it was just her name and her birth date: Abby2807. She clicked on the mail icon in the corner of her screen. Two messages said the little window that popped up. She clicked on the first message. It was Just Mail from the ISP welcoming her to the Internet. The second message had no subject at the top of the message so she clicked on it. This time she knew the familiar font. Her blood ran cold.
SING A SONG OF SIXPENCE A POCKETFUL OF KNIVES
FOUR AND TWENTY BUTCHERS KNIVES KNAWING AT YOUR LIFE
WHEN IVE NEARLY FINISHED YOU’LL BEGIN TO SCREAM
NOW WASN’T THAT A SILLY PLOY TO PLAY WITH MY SILLY TOY?
YOUR SECRET ADMIRER
Abby sat still, her body rigid with fear. She strained to hear if there was anything unusual going on but she couldn’t hear anything. Relaxing slightly she looked at when the message had been send and who by. The message was from SecretAdmirer2807 and had been sent at 22:43. She looked at her digital clock on her bedside table. The numbers read 22:45. She looked back at the screen in disbelief when she had an instant message pop up on the screen in a different window. There was a command asking her if she wanted to accept the instant message from SecretAdmirer2807. She clicked YES. Suddenly the whole screen went black. The curser was at the top of the screen. Abby tapped the escape button frantically, but nothing happened. Suddenly some text appeared at the top of the screen.
HI ABBY. I’VE BEEN WATCHING YOU. I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT EVERYTIME YOU GET A MESSAGE FROM ME, YOUR ARE ONE MESSAGE CLOSER TO DYING.I THINK THAT YOU’RE DEATH WILL BE THE BEST ONE YET. I’M WATCHING YOU.
I’M WATCHING YOU. I’M WATCHING YOU. I’M WATCHING YOU...
Abby could only watch in horror as the words ‘I’m watching you’ filled the entire screen. She sat there for a second as if hypnotised. Then reality hit her and she ran out of her room and downstairs to where her father was watching the local news.
“DAD!” screamed Abby “Dad, there’s someone playing with my computer and he’s inside it and can control the words and messages, oh he’s been sending me messages and I don’t want to die,” Abby was hysterical now, tears streaming down her red blotchy face. She didn’t care that she was crying at 16 she just wanted to get rid of the person that was stalking her.
“Honey, calm down a second. There’s something wrong with your computer?” Mr Hardy asked in alarm.
Abby nodded and took him up the stairs to where the computer was waiting. When she got to her room she cried out in disbelief. “No! It was here I promise. The words, they were all in the screen.” But of course the computer just sat there. Blank.
“Abby, the computer is switched off.” Sighed her father “if you didn’t want the computer you could just tell me, instead of playing stupid pranks on me.” Her Dad grinned and walking back out the room laughing to himself. “Oh and by the way Abby, you’re a really great actress, I was really fooled!”
Abby was left shaking in her bedroom. Looking out of the window she shivered. All of a sudden the breeze had turned cruel, chilling her. Creeping up her spine, like a snake, slithering to catch its prey then attacking, giving her Goosebumps.
Two days later Abby was at her class again. The usual drone of chatter and tapping was in the air, and she had almost forgot about the incident before.
Again at her usual terminal Abby was working. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened this lesson and she was feeling a lot better. It must have been a practical joker. Thought Abby.
When the class was over, Mr Gerard called to her. “I was wondering if you could help me Abby” he asked struggling under a heap of paperwork, “could you help me with that box there?” He looked quite uncomfortable and he was in a rush so she reluctantly agreed. She turned and followed the teacher out of the room and into the corridor. He was quite a way ahead of her and the box was really heavy, so she set it down for a second. Something on the top caught her attention. It was highlighted. She took it out from underneath the other papers and started to read it.
For not the first time in the last couple of weeks, shock struck her dumb. She was reading computer printouts of weird poems. Nursery rhymes. But sick and twisted. She read the bottom poem. “Eenie meenie minie moe, catch the victim by its throat…” she whispered so quietly it was as if she were mouthing them. Suddenly she realised. All the little things slot into place. The way the hacker knew how to get into her computer, how he knew it was her. That day when he was so confident was because he had just finished a poem to her!
“I was hoping you’d find them,”
Startled Abby looked up, dread clutching her body. In the message on her computer, he had said something about her death being the best. Does this mean he’d killed before? Does this mean…and then it struck her. Does this mean that he’s the murderer in the city?
“You? Your th-” Abby stumbled over her words
“Yes.” A strange smile spread through his evil face. His red hair was matted to his forehead, his eyes wild, gleaming with what Abby could only describe as hate.
“But-But why?” asked Abby, trying to stall for time.
“You think I haven’t heard you all? You think that I haven’t heard the sniggers when I talk? The stares and the smug looks you all give me because you all think you’re better than me?” He stopped and looked at Abby, almost affectionately. “I’m sorry it has to be you. I really am. But when you were so rude to me the other day… I only wanted to talk to you Abby. I know you don’t even have a sister. I’m sorry, it’s the way it has to be Abby.”
Oh my god, she thought, he’s crazy, he’s actually got a problem and I’m here alone with him. She looked around for an exit but the halls were long and dark.
“It’s no use Abby,” Said Mr Gerard, noticing her expression, “there’s no exit. I sealed them right after everyone went home. It’s just you and me now. Make this easier for us both. Let me get it over and done with. Then it will all be over. After I kill you, I’m killing myself. I’ve done my good deeds for this world. Onto the next.” He came closer. From the inside of his parker jacket he produced a mouse. He unscrewed the ball from inside and placed it on the table that was next to him. Then he straightened the length of wire attached and came at her.
“Mr Gerard?” asked Abby stalling for time, “there’s one thing I don’t understand. Why did you kill random people in the city? I mean for no reason?”
“They weren’t random. I searched for them. They were drug dealers. Prostitutes. I’m just cleaning up for God. Who would want to live in a world with those sorts of people? Most of the people I disposed of were wealthy because of their crooked ways. I talked to them. It’s so easy to get a contact address. When I knew how to contact them I would send them messages. Just like I sent to you Abby. Then I would get them to come and meet me in an isolated place where none of the good people on this earth would see. I strangled them with the thing that let me contact them. Ironic if you like that sort of thing. You see Abby; I’m just doing Gods’ work. When I’ve finished with you I’m going too. My work is done.” A calm serenity was in his voice. He truly believed he was doing the world some good. And that was terrifying.
Mr Gerard had Abby cornered by some lockers. He was coming closer to her. Abby knew if he tried to kill her he would be able to. When you’re angry you have as much strength as you want. She could feel his breath on her cheek. Hot and nauseating.
Suddenly there was a bang at the main entrance. The doors flung open and feet pounded the floor, echoing towards Abby and the deranged killer. Mr Gerard looked towards the people and screamed in anger.
“NO! NO! I’m too close to perfection to let it all end now!” Mr Gerard leapt at Abby. Scrambling on her hands and knees, ignoring the floor tear her skin, she dodged him and ran towards the people that were coming towards her.
Her father embraced her and three police officers pinned Mr Gerard down. Thrashing his arms and legs wildly Mr Gerard was still shouting things at Abby as her father lead her away from the scene. He told her that when she didn’t return home from class he realised something was wrong. HE had been following the news and realised that maybe there was something in what she had said the other night about her computer. He had heard a commotion inside the community centre and called the police. That’s when he came inside to the horrible scene.
Abby was taken to hospital for shock and some stitches for her knees.
“That happened about a month ago. I’m fine now, though I can’t go near a computer any more without panicking a bit. Sometimes I have nightmares but they’re slowly getting better. Mr James Gerard was taken to a secure psychiatric ward in the city where he is being treated for a mental illness. He’s been sectioned and is on 24-hour suicide watch. When he’s finished the treatment people say that he’ll probably be let out, but that’s not going to be for a long time yet. I’m getting back to normality and have finished my GCSE’s. I got an A* grade in ICT.”
