Elijah.avi

This is a sequel to Barbie.avi

My name is Ezra. You may not know me too well, but I know you know my friend, Elijah. Not by his name, of course...But by his story.

Six weeks ago, Elijah just...vanished. Out of thin air. He was here one minute, and gone the next. I had no idea what happened to him at first. I remember a couple of months before he disappeared, he asked me to go with him down the train tracks not too far from our neighbourhood. He wanted to go exploring, I remember. He was very vague about what it was exactly we were to explore - but he told me it was big.

The night before he and I were supposed to go, a Friday, I had stayed up entirely too late. I also had a heavy night of drinking after work, and it left me with a killer hangover. When he came knocking on my door in the goddamn AM, I had no other choice but to tell him to fuck off.

But now I regret ever doing that.

When he came back later that day, he stopped by my place. He was traumatised. He was sweaty and anxious as hell, so I got him some water and tried to calm him down. He kept mumbling about this video and this house in the middle of the woods. I tried my hardest to hear him out, but he wasn't making any sense. He asked if he could crash the night at my place, and I agreed. It was the least I could do. After all, I did totally flake on him.

The next morning he was a lot calmer, but he decided that he didn't feel like talking about what happened. It sort of pissed me off, honestly. I wanted to help him, but I couldn't either because of his vagueness, or lack of will to tell me. Go figure.

After that Saturday, he was never exactly the same. He was always looking over his shoulder and was very suspicious of every stranger he saw. I felt awful for him.

The last time I saw Elijah was the night before he vanished without a trace. I was pretty fucking worried about him, and so I decided to go see him. It was late at night, but I didn't care too much. He lives a few blocks away from me, and I was genuinely concerned for him. When I got near his house, though, I watched as he was taking out this computer. No monitor. But this computer.

He looked over his shoulders the entire time as he did, and when I called out his name, he freaked and ran back across the street to his apartment.

I scared the hell out of him.

I thought about checking on him, but I figured that he wouldn't comply after I scared the shit out of him. I did, however, walk over to this garbage to see the computer. It was in pretty decent shape, so I had no clue as to why he was throwing it out. Whatever it was, though, was torturing my friend. So I owed it to him to see what had gotten to him so badly.

I took the computer home and managed to get it running. On it was nothing. After looking around on it, checking every inch of the hard drive; I found a sole file - "barbie.avi". The video was nothing too special. Just a woman talking on camera with badly distorted audio. She started to cry toward the end and it made me uneasy, to say the least. But in any case, I still saw nothing wrong with the video...Until the ending. It was what peaked my interest.

The goddamned train tracks.

I was fucking scared in the moment I saw them. Because now it had dawned on me what Elijah was trying to get me to help him with. I felt so bad about it, and so I decided I'd call him and try to figure out what he found when looking on the train tracks. I knew he'd be pissed at me for taking the computer, but I didn't care - I wanted to help him.

But he didn't answer.

I was depressed and angry when he didn't answer the phone. Because, in my mind, he was sitting there - staring at the phone, but he just would not answer it. I called him maybe six more times before giving up on him. I figured I would go see him in the morning and try talking to him then.

But then he was gone...

I had went to his apartment and tried to get him to come out. No answer. I got out my cell phone and tried to call him from outside his place. No answer. At that point, I got pretty frightened and did what I thought was the last option - I called the police. They arrived about ten minutes later and they got into his place. They had me come along with them since I was the one who made the call.

His apartment was so fucking horrible to see. The smell of piss and shit was overwhelming. Trash and dirty dishes were all over the place. It had turned into such a shithole. Keep in mind that I used to go over to his place all the time - it never got this bad out of shape. The cops searched the entire place for Elijah - but he was nowhere to be found. My heart dropped. I was so frightened and worried for my friend. I wanted to know what had happened to him.

Four days went by, and he still was missing. A manhunt was declared, but nothing did, or has since, came out of it. Elijah was still missing.

By the third week with him gone, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I figured, fuck it, if the cops weren't finding him - maybe I could. I packed a backpack full of supplies, and on an early Saturday morning I made my way to the train tracks that I was supposed to go weeks ago.

Hours had passed before any progress was made - and I was beginning to feel discouraged. Until I noticed a trail off the beaten path. My heart dropped when I saw it. I took several deep breaths and built up the courage to proceed down it. Slowly. I wanted to make as little noise as I possibly could. As it ended, I noticed an abandoned house in the middle of an open field.

I nearly shit myself.

I inched my way off the trail and to the house. Fearing for my life every minute. I looked around, scared as hell. The sun was beaming down on me and I was sweating more than usual (in part because it was hot, and in part because of how afraid I was). I was about halfway to the house when I swear to god I heard something...or...someone. I had no idea what it was, but I was such a chickenshit that I ran away as soon as I heard it.

I've never been a runner - but if I had been on the track team in that moment, I would've broken some fucking records.

When I made it back home, sweating and scared as hell - I stormed back into my apartment. I locked the front and back door, as well as all my windows. After I showered and tried to calm down, I went back to the computer I had taken from Elijah's garbage. When I turned on the monitor, I saw that a video file was already up and waiting to be played. My stomach sank when I saw the title at the top left-hand corner...

elijah.avi.

I almost wanted to cry when I saw it. Was this some sick fucking joke? I had hundreds of questions, but not a goddamn answer in sight - I reluctantly hit the play button to find an hour long video of Elijah, sitting in his trashed apartment - rocking back and forth with distorted audio. At times I could see him getting angry and yelling at whoever was on the other end of the camera. At this point my face was covering in tears, and near the end of it - so was Elijah's. After the similar black screen there was footage of the train tracks that ended when it got to the trail.

I get this feeling that this won't end with Elijah's death...I'm scared as hell that I'm next...