Talk to Strangers

Talk to Strangers is a scary story about a boy who chats with anonymous people over the internet. One day, he has a very odd conversation.

There are many websites on the internet that allow you to talk to strangers. You randomly connect with an anonymous person and, without knowing anything about him or her, you start a conversation.

One day, I was chatting with a stranger and the conversation went like this:

Stranger: Hello (3)

Me: Hi

Stranger: How are you? (3)

Me: Do you always put a (3) at the end of your questions?

Stranger: How are you? (2)

Me: Aren’t you going to answer me?

Stranger: How are you? (1)

Me: I’m fine.

The conversation progressed normally, but there was something very odd about it. The stranger always put a “(3)” after every question and if I didn’t answer, he would repeat the question with a “(2)” and a “(1)”. It was as if it was some sort of countdown.

After talking for a while, I told the stranger I had to go.

His answer struck me as odd:

Stranger: Have a nice day. You are safe now.

Then, he disconnected.

The next day at school, I told a friend about the strange conversation. He was always fascinated with weird stuff, and he was very interested to hear about it. He got all excited and wanted to know what would happen if you didn’t answer his questions and the countdown ran out.

When school finished that evening, my friend insisted on coming to my house to try and find the same person online.

In my bedroom, my friend sat in front of the laptop. We opened the chat and started talking to random people. If it wasn’t the same person I had encountered, we simply clicked to the next person. I was starting to get bored when, suddenly, to my surprise, I saw a familiar greeting.

Stranger: Hello (3)

My friend was overjoyed and started talking to him for a while.

Stranger: What do you do to pass the time? (3)

My friend did not answer and just waited patiently.

Stranger: What do you do to pass the time? (2)

My friend still didn’t answer. I was beginning to get nervous. I had no idea what would happen if the countdown reached zero, but I had a bad feeling about it.

Stranger: What do you do to pass the time? (1)

I couldn’t take it anymore. I tried to type an answer on the keyboard, but my friend pushed me away. Although it didn’t make any sense, I had a gut feeling that something horrible was about to happen.

Stranger: Have a good day… Do not look behind you…

Then, he disconnected.

My friend took one look at the frightened expression on my face and laughed out loud.

“What are you so scared about?” he asked.

I felt very queasy. Something wasn’t right. I felt really hot and I had a pain in my head. It felt like something was pressing on my head.

All of a sudden, everything went black.

The next thing I knew, I was lying in a hospital bed. My mother was standing over me, calling my name over and over. I asked her what had happened. She told me she had come home to find my friend and I unconscious in my bedroom…

At least, I was unconscious… She wouldn’t tell me what happened to my friend.

I asked the nurse and she wouldn’t tell me either. All she would say was that I could not go to see him.

I was too tired and confused to care.

My mother brought my laptop and I discovered the hospital had wireless internet.

I wanted to go to sleep, but for some reason, I went online and connected to the chatroom again. I don’t know why.

Stranger: Hello.

I wanted to shut down the laptop, but my fingers started typing.

Me: Hello (3)