Free Web NovelChapter 16: Reflection
The static screamed from the television.
Not loud enough to hurt, but loud enough to invade every corner of the apartment. It washed over the room in waves of white noise while the screen flickered between gray snow and warped flashes of color. The shifting light painted the walls in pale, restless shadows.
Kai sat frozen in his chair.
His pulse hammered so hard he could feel it in his throat.
The reflection he’d glimpsed was gone.
When he looked toward the hallway again, it appeared completely empty. Dark. Still. Ordinary.
That should have made him feel better.
Instead, it made everything worse.
If someone had actually been standing there, at least he’d know what he was dealing with. Fear was manageable when it had a shape. What terrified him was uncertainty.
And uncertainty was infinitely more creative than reality.
"Kai."
Luna’s voice cut through the static.
Sharp. Focused.
"Don’t look at the hallway."
"What?"
"Look at me."
A laugh almost escaped him.
The sentence would’ve been comforting if she had actually been in the room. Instead, it came through a headset while he potentially had a home intruder hiding somewhere in his apartment.
The romance was becoming increasingly difficult to explain to future therapists.
"I don’t think that’s how that works."
"Humor later."
That got his attention immediately.
Luna almost never sounded impatient.
"Check your apartment map."
"My what?"
"The floor plan."
Kai stared at the monitor.
"I don’t have my apartment floor plan memorized, Luna."
There was a brief pause.
Then, somehow, she sounded disappointed.
"Really?"
Kai slowly rubbed a hand down his face.
"Luna."
"Right. Sorry."
The chat immediately pounced.
Peepee_666: SHE SOUNDED GENUINELY SURPRISED
Boobykiller_051: WHY WOULD HE KNOW HIS FLOOR PLAN???
WetHamster_420: WAIT WHY DOES SHE
Kai pointed accusingly at the screen.
"Exactly."
"I found it online."
The answer came instantly.
Too instantly.
Kai closed his eyes.
"That somehow wasn’t reassuring."
A quiet sigh crackled through the headset.
"I know."
The television continued hissing.
Static reflected across the apartment walls like shifting moonlight.
His smart TV wasn’t connected to cable.
It wasn’t connected to anything. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Which was a completely different problem his brain had decided not to acknowledge.
A donation alert flashed across his monitor.
RealDerekVoss donated $50,000
Police. Now.
Kai stared at it.
Another alert immediately followed.
RealDerekVoss donated $50,000
I’m serious.
The chat exploded.
TaxFraudEnjoyer: THIS MAN IS FUNDING LAW ENFORCEMENT HIMSELF
Jacksonvill3_89: DEREK WENT FROM HATER TO EMERGENCY CONTACT
For once, nobody laughed very hard.
Because Derek wasn’t joking.
Neither was Kai.
His hand drifted toward his phone.
He still hadn’t called.
Every minute that passed made that decision harder to justify.
And he knew it.
The worst part was that some small, irrational piece of him kept expecting Luna to solve everything.
The realization hit him like a bucket of ice water.
Not because it was unreasonable.
Because it felt natural.
Something scary happened.
Tell Luna.
Luna would figure it out.
Luna would handle it.
The thought settled heavily in his chest.
That wasn’t normal.
Right?
A Discord notification interrupted his spiraling thoughts.
Another private message.
Not Luna.
Not the account that had sent the earlier screenshots.
A completely different account.
Created one minute ago.
No profile picture.
No friends.
No mutual servers. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
Nothing.
The message contained only four words.
look under your desk
Kai’s blood turned to ice.
The chat noticed his expression immediately.
Of course they did.
One hundred twenty-seven thousand people had become professional Kai-watchers.
"What?"
His voice sounded thin.
Weak.
The message remained on the screen.
look under your desk
Nothing else.
No image.
No explanation.
The apartment suddenly felt much smaller.
His desk looked different.
The empty space beneath it looked different.
Every shadow in the room looked different.
"Kai."
Luna sounded calm.
Too calm.
"Don’t."
"What if—"
"Don’t."
The firmness surprised him.
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then another Discord notification appeared.
Same account.
This time it contained a photo.
Against every survival instinct he possessed, Kai opened it.
The image loaded.
And the room seemed to tilt.
It was a photograph of his desk.
Not the top.
The underside.
The support beams.
The tangled cables.
The exact place where his feet rested while he streamed.
The timestamp sat in the corner.
Three minutes ago.
His chair rolled backward before he even realized he was moving.
"No."
The word escaped him automatically.
The photograph was real.
There was no mistake.
No misunderstanding.
Someone had been close enough to take that picture.
Close enough to crouch beneath his setup.
Close enough to touch him if they wanted.
The chat erupted into pure panic.
Peepee_666: NOPE
Boobykiller_051: NOPE
WetHamster_420: ABSOLUTELY NOT
Even the comedy accounts had abandoned comedy.
Kai’s hands shook violently.
Not from fear anymore.
Adrenaline.
Pure, overwhelming adrenaline.
"Kai."
Luna’s voice had gone very quiet.
"I need you to answer something honestly."
His throat felt dry.
"What?"
"Is your bedroom door open?"
The question hit him like a gunshot.
Because he didn’t know.
He genuinely didn’t know.
His apartment rearranged itself in his mind.
Desk.
Kitchen.
Living room.
Hallway.
Bedroom.
The bedroom.
His eyes slowly drifted toward the dark corridor leading deeper into the apartment.
Toward the section hidden from view.
The section the monitor light couldn’t reach.
The section he hadn’t looked at in over an hour.
The static hissed from the television.
The chat scrolled endlessly.
Outside, city lights shimmered through rain-streaked glass.
And for the first time all night, Kai realized there were entire sections of his own home that might as well have belonged to someone else.
His phone buzzed.
One final text appeared.
Unknown number.
No image.
No smiley face.
No joke.
Just six words.
check the bedroom before he moves
Kai stared at the screen.
Then, from somewhere down the dark hallway, a floorboard creaked.
Not from the building.
Not from outside.
From inside the apartment.
