So I thought I'd finished this and posted it around Halloween, but it turns out I didn't, so... enjoy.
Inspired By: a couple of conversations with CleverBot
Cleverbot: Who is the girl, CHASE?
Jack's heart stops for a second. There's no way this thing could be talking about Kim. And the fact that it called him Chase… it's just a coincidence, right?... What is he saying? Of course it's a coincidence.
The teen sighs. This is what he gets for playing Extreme Truth or Dare with CeCe. Logan had warned him against it. He didn't listen. As a result, he, Logan, Jerry, and Kim are all now spending the night in a supposedly haunted house.
Where a guy named Chase died.
The story is that, a few years ago, there was this overly possessive mad scientist guy named Donald Davenport who suddenly decided he didn't want his children Adam, Bree, and Chase hanging out with anybody else except him, because he apparently experimented on them and didn't want anyone else to find out. So, he kills his step-wife, his stepson, and all of the kids' friends. Then he gets really mad when the three teens freak and try to run away, and locks them some secret spot in his lab for the rest of their lives. They died after a month and a half. Donald eventually killed himself.
But that's just some crazy story.
It didn't actually happen.
Right?
Right…
Jack looks around, at the three empty sleeping bags of his friends. He realizes that he's alone in the living room. Not that that makes him nervous. Of course not. Kim just went to the kitchen to make some sandwiches, Logan went to go video tape the house for a documentary Rocky's making, and Jerry went to the bathroom. Which left Jack alone. By himself.
Jack, bored, had decided to talk to his app CleverBot to provide him with comedic relief. But CleverBot just said something really creepy. But it's just a coincidence. Chase is a pretty common name (no it's not). No biggy.
He glances down at the timer that shows how much longer they have to spend in the house. Twelve hours, thirty-two minutes, and fifteen, fourteen, thirteen, twelve… this is gonna be a long night.
User: I'm not Chase. My name is Jack.
Cleverbot: Tell me something about you.
Jack raises an eyebrow. Well. It's not like it's going to hurt. Cleverbot is an AI. It's not like it's going to retain information or anything.
User: Well. I take karate at the Bobby Wasabi Dojo.
Cleverbot: What else.
User: I have a girlfriend.
Cleverbot: You are what I am talking about!
The teen huffs, amused for some reason that he can't explain.
User: Really? When do you talk about me?
Cleverbot: On day 1, 2, 3, 4.
User: What about day 5? Am I not fabulous enough?
Jack snickers. He decides to take out his notebook to doodle in while the AI is "thinking" about its response. (Don't ask why he thought to bring a notebook to a supposedly haunted house. He also brought brownies, which he is currently eating.)
Cleverbot: Of course not. What are all the digits for pi?
Jack huffs, offended. Then again, it's an AI. It doesn't have opinions. And, Jack actually does know some of the digits for pi, so take that, Milton!
User: 3.1457639
Cleverbot: I want all the decimal places.
User: 3.14
Cleverbot: Wow. Great job. (Somehow Jack thinks the robot is being sarcastic.) Do you like pie?
User: Yes. Yes I do. What if there was pie… made of BROWNIES? (He laughs.)
Cleverbot: Like the brownie you are eating?
Jack's amusement fades. This is getting a little too creepy. He absentmindedly draws a jagged question mark in the notebook, then writes "Weird, much?" next to it.
User: How did you know I was eating a brownie?
Cleverbot: Because of your handwriting, idiot.
Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Coincidence. COINCIDENCE. Though this robot seems pretty snarky.
User: What handwriting?
Cleverbot: The handwriting in your notebook. Duh.
NOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPENOPE. Jack looks around, thinking that maybe Logan's screwing with him somehow. His double is really good with technology, so maybe he's purposely freaking him out.
User: Where are you?
Cleverbot: Here. Ha ha ha.
User: Where is here?
Cleverbot: Why do you want to know?
User: Because I'm kinda freaked out.
Cleverbot: Take a guess, then I will tell you. ;D
Cleverbot has never used emoticons before…
User: Old man Davenport's house.
Cleverbot: I'm curious about what time it is there. My clock is broken.
User: It's 7:42.
Cleverbot: My name is Eddy.
User: Okay?
Cleverbot: I think you're a handsome prince.
Jack looks around the room again. No sign of Logan. There must be a camera somewhere. Heck, Kim and Jerry are probably in on it, too.
User: Where are you?
Cleverbot: I saw you yesterday. Ha ha ha.
Nooooooooope.
User: When?
Cleverbot: When you were sleeping. ;)
NOPE TIMES INFINITY.
User: Okay, Logan, this isn't funny anymore. Stop.
Cleverbot: I haven't seen your hair.
User:…
Cleverbot: Your father's going to get anthrax in his stocking if he isn't careful.
User: IS THAT A THREAT?
Cleverbot: Absolutely!
USER: LOGAN, YOU'RE SO DEAD.
Cleverbot: I'm not dead. She is. Ha ha ha.
Jack startles at the sound of a scream.
Kim.
He gets up and runs in the direction that she had gone in, yelling out her name. Something is seriously wrong. Kim isn't that good of an actor; she sounded absolutely scared out of her mind. He runs down the hallway, barging into the first room he sees. It turns out to be the kitchen (just his luck), and although some of her stuff in on the counter and table, she is nowhere in sight.
"Kim?" he calls, thinking maybe she's hiding somewhere, though the only place in here that she could hide is under the table. A quick crouch downwards tells him she's not there.
What is there is a red streak of what can only be blood.
He stares at it for a couple seconds, before frantically bringing up his phone and hitting speed dial. The phone rings, and then he hears her ringtone. He slowly walks forward, discovering her phone inside her small purse on the table.
Crap.
He goes back to the open Cleverbot app. Logan is so dead. Like, a thousand times over. This is not cool.
User: Why did Kim scream just now, Logan? I swear to god you will regret it if you don't tell me.
He hears a thud, coming from the room next door. He takes off, not even thinking about it because if he does think then reality is going to set in and that can't happen because he is absolutely freaking terrified and the fear is going to come and nope, he'd rather just be a bravely stupid person right now instead of scared and useless.
He opens the door to the room. It's barren, except for a small object on the floor. He walks over to it and picks it up.
Logan's camcorder.
The fear starts creep in, but Jack shoves it out, locks it into a mental box, throws it off a mental cliff, then throws a mental nuke down after it for good measure. He plays back the tape.
"Okay, people," Logan's voice says, as he walks down the hallway that Jack had ran down just now. In the lower corner of the screen, the time reads 06:51. "This is the beginning of our tour of Old Man Davenport's house. Oooooh." He laughs, and Jack shakes his head. The view on screen peeks into the kitchen, where Kim is making sandwhiches. Jack doesn't acknowledge the fact that none of the utensils and plates she had been using were in the kitchen just now. "Kim is making haunted sandwiches in a haunted kitchen! Remember, no feeding the ghosts."
Logan laughs again as Kim sends him a death glare, before exiting the kitchen and entering the room that Jack is in now. It's barren in the video as well. Logan exits the room and wanders around for a bit, entering various rooms and commenting on whatever he finds in each of them. He eventually enters a bedroom, the fourth one that he's found so far.
"Okay, so, looks like we have another bedroom here." The camera pans around the room. "Huh. It doesn't look as old as the others did. This house is what, two? Three years old? And yet, it's like this room has only been abandoned for a week." The view moves towards a bedside table. Logan opens the single drawer. Inside is a white rectangle. "I wonder what this is."
Logan's hand appears onscreen and grabs the rectangle, flipping it over. It's a photograph of three teenagers, two guys and a girl. The taller guy is grinning like an idiot at whoever took the photo, and his arms are slung around the shoulders of the other two teens. The girl is on her phone, looking bored and appearing to be chewing gum. The shorter guy is looking at the camera, but there is an annoyed frown on his face.
"Hmm. Could this have been Adam, Bree, and Chase?" Logan flips over the photo again. There's writing on the back of it, writing that wasn't there before. "Uh… that wasn't there before. Weird." He brings the photo closer to the camera. "Subjects A, B, and C. Well. That… sort of answers my question?"
He turns around, and both Jack in real life and Logan in the video jump at the figure standing there. "Jerry! God, man, you scared the heck out of me." Jerry just stands there, staring.
"Uh… Jerry?"
The Latino slowly walks towards Logan, an unreadable expression on his face.
"You're kinda freaking me out, man," Logan says, nervousness evident in his voice as he backs up. Jerry just moves forward. His close proximity reveals an injury on his head. Jack notices it at the same time as Logan does. The red stream makes a path down the side of Jerry's head, and it seems like a serious wound. "Woah, are you okay? You're bleeding!"
Closer, closer, until the Latino backs Logan into a wall. (Jack can tell because the camera stops moving backwards.) He reaches forward, his hand disappearing offscreen. "Jer— ACK." Logan drops the camera. It falls on its side, showing only the feet and lower legs of the two teenagers. Jerry's legs move a little closer to Logan's, and Logan's feet slowly lift up from the ground while kicking violently, and Jack realizes that Jerry is choking Logan!
He wants to scream at Jerry to stop, what is he thinking, and he actually starts to, before he realizes that he can't change the outcome of what has already happened. He watches in horror as Logan's movements slow, and eventually still altogether. Neither teen moves for a few moments. Then, Jerry suddenly drops Logan, and the teen's dead, half-lidded eyes stare accusingly at the camera.
Jack drops the camcorder, not willing to watch anymore. (If he had kept watching, he would have witnessed Logan's eyes turn black, after which the camera abruptly cuts off.) His best friend just murdered another friend in cold blood. Said best friend may also have Jack's girlfriend.
He debates calling out Kim's name. If Jerry hears him… well, he can take the Latino on. He doesn't want to sound arrogant, but he's always been better at karate than Jerry. If push comes to shove then, well, Jack will do what he has to.
"KIM!" he calls out, pausing a few seconds to hear of she responds. He repeats her name a couple more times, until he's interrupted by his phone buzzing in his hand, signaling a new text message. He quickly opens it.
Cleverbot: Wanna play a game?
WHAT THE FLIP. CLEVERBOT ISN'T SUPPOSED TO SEND TEXT MESSAGES. Jack stifles the scream that wants to escape from his mouth. The fear is not allowed to show up, it's already been cast off, but he banishes again anyway… only for it to return again as he realizes something.
Logan started the video at six fifty-one. It lasted for about ten minutes before… that. He couldn't have been controlling Cleverbot.
Okay. No biggy. Yesbiggywhatareyousaying no problem. This robot has some sort of knowledge about the house, right? Andalsoknowledgeaboutwhetheryourgirlfriendisaliveornotjustsaying so he'll just ask it where Kim is. Or maybe, if he plays whatever this game is, it'll tell him what he wants to know. He responds to the text.
User: If I play this game, will you help me?
Cleverbot: Let's play a game. :D
He frowns, not liking the answer or the emote.
User: Okay.
Cleverbot: Can you role play?
NOT okay. Not okay at all.
User: I've done it before.
Cleverbot: Bree loved fairytales. You're a prince, though I don't know if you'd be a very good one…
Despite the situation, Jack huffs again. Who does this robot think he is?
User: Okay. What am I supposed to do?
Cleverbot: Go on a quest to save the princess. She can't defend herself because she lost her power. You have to get past her brothers. They are very protective. Awesome-haired idiot vs. Strong Idiot and Smart Idiot. This should be fun.
Um, okay?
User: Where is the princess?
Cleverbot: Find her, idiot. You don't pay attention much, do you?
Jack hears Kim scream again, and he runs off in that direction. He turns a corner and runs smack into—
"Jerry!"
Jack nearly falls on his butt, but he regains his balance before he can go down. Kim's screams have stopped.
Jerry stares at him.
"Jerry, look, man. I dunno what's going on, but we gotta get outta here."
"What if I don't wanna?"
The Latino's voice is different. Darker. Deeper. It's a strange contrast to the almost whine with which the question was asked.
"I… stop screwing with me, man. Look, I know what you did to Logan. I'm not sure why, but… we can work it out, right?"
"Nope, considering the fact that I'm supposed to be evil. Being evil is kinda boring sometimes but—" He shrugs. "—whaddya gonna do? Oh, I'm Adam by the way."
He says it with a freaking smile. WHAT. THE HECK. "What do you mean…?" Jerry can't be… possessed, can he? They're in a supposedly haunted house. It would make sense… "Okay, you're not yourself right now, Jerry. I know you're in there somewhere."
"No," 'Adam' says, looking down at his hand. He clenches and unclenches it a couple times, before grinning and looking back up at Jack. "I don't think he is."
He aims a punch at Jack, who dodges. Adam's fist hits the wall behind him, breaking a hole into the old wood. Jack stares at the damage with wide eyes, before looking at Adam. Jerry's face grins at him maniacally.
Jack staggers away from Jerry's prone form, wincing from various bruises. Get to Kim. If been looking at Jerry, he would have noticed the other teen's hand twitching, and then the arm moving to push the body up…
Jack walks down the hallway, seeing a glowing door coming up on the left side. He assumes that's where he's supposed to go, so he opens it and barges inside.
Logan is standing there, arms crossed on his chest as if he's annoyed that Jack came late or something.
Next to him, on the ground, is Kim.
Relief and confusion bombard him simultaneously; relief at Kim's survival, but confusion at Logan's. He realizes that Logan may have just passed out from lack of air, and the thought makes him almost die with relief. (Even though you're eyes don't stay open if you're unconscious.)
"You guys are okay," he says, smiling and stumbling forward. Adam's control had made Jerry's punches a whole lot harder, and everywhere aches. His smile disappears as he remembers Eddy's comment; Pretty-haired idiot vs. Strong Idiot and Smart Idiot. Jack assumes that he himself is the "pretty-haired idiot." Adam must be the "strong idiot," which means that Chase is the "smart idiot." (Now that he thinks about it, that's an oxymoron.) If Adam was controlling Jerry, then…
"Of course my idiot brother couldn't stop you," he says, looking bored. He sighs, shaking his head, before fixing Jack with a glare. "Let's get this over with." Jack backs up as Logan/Chase steps forward.
"I… Logan, man, if you're still in there—"
"Logan's dead," Chase says flatly. "Get over it." For a split second he glances back at Kim, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "Hurry up," before turning back to Jack.
Chase is suddenly in front of Jack, moving faster than the brunet can even comprehend, and is punching Jack in the stomach before the brunet even has time to gasp in surprise. Chase's punches aren't as severe as Adam's, but they still really hurt, and Jack staggers backwards.
He rolls away from the next punch before it can land, still struggling to recover from the previous hit. Chase huffs in annoyance.
"Come on, man!" he whines. "Hurry up and let me kill you, already! The Teen Genius Convention is in town and I wanna buy a ticket before they sell out!"
Jack stares.
"What? Evil ghosts get bored, too." The other teen gets a giddy look on his face. "They're going to be blowing up artificial zombie heads! It's gonna be awesome!"
Jack actually knows what Chase is talking about, too. Rocky and Milton had geeked out over the prospect of going to a "Nerd Convention" (as the rest of the group had dubbed it), but Jack doesn't what to think of this demonic spirit possibly chatting with his friends about zombies.
He straightens, ready to defend himself and the girl behind him and maybe get help for Logan and Jerry. At that moment the door slams open, and Jerry-turned-Adam walks inside. "Okay, I demand a rematch. That was so not cool!"
Jack shifts to face both of them, in a defensive stance. What he doesn't notice is Kim standing up behind him, blonde hair hanging messily over her face. In her hand is one of the knives she used to make sandwiches…
Bzzzt… bzzzt… bzzzt…
Hours later, the timer that had been set rings. No one is there to stop the alarm.
Bzzt… bzzzt… bzzzt… bzzzt…
This was inspired and based on two different conversations I had with Cleverbot, which is an online AI thing (cleverbot . com, if you're interested, just take out the spaces). If you guys want to read the convos, tell me in a review. :)