Deep Web

-Hey!
-Rick. Are you there?
«Rick… it’s been 5 minutes since your last message, please answer me» I typed, worrying sick at my smartphone while I tried to check his profile picture. It was a new image, no doubt, but, why his face was all blurry? Why his eyes were covered by a heavy darkness that invaded the screen?
I waited for an hour and still no answer, just the confirmation that those messages had been read.
«Morning Ms. Andrew, is Rick over there?» it was unavoidable to call his mom, but at times like this, she was the only one who could reach him.
«Oh boy, nobody told you?» she asked in clear distress, and after a short pause, she added «Rick had a brain aneurysm three days ago and now he’s in coma» I was obviously shocked. I tried to comfort her out of courtesy, and she answered apathetic, as she always spoke to the friends of her son, so I promised to visit him at the hospital. Even though, I found it hard to believe that my messages were read by him, or maybe by one of his pals, then, why no one ever answered?
That night it took me a long time to fall sleep, I woke startled in the middle of the night, I believed that my smartphone rang and as soon as I turned on the screen, I checked Rick’s message log, still unanswered, his status was permanently ‘on-line’.

Next day, after breakfast, I noticed that Rick didn’t appear in the messages neither in my contacts, and when I copied his number from a handwritten phone book my smartphone couldn’t save it. I became desperate, imagining Rick’s darkening eyes looking behind my neck. His hand was about to reach my shoulder, but it was thin and coarse. My phone rang and I picked up:
«Rick died an hour ago, you’ll read about it in the obits» his sister told me, she was a cold hard bitch as her mother, and she hanged up all of the sudden.
I checked my smartphone again and Rick appeared; only this time his picture was a gravestone in the cemetery. I couldn’t believe it. I felt a cold shiver coming down my spine, leaving my legs without any strength to keep me standing.

«Is this some kind of sick joke? Rick, ENOUGH! This is so absurd, I don’t know how you involve your family in this, but I don’t want to see you again» I typed without expecting an answer, then I read that he was typing and in the middle of confusion, I misjudged wrath for fear, and threw the smartphone against the wall. Once I could gather all the pieces together, battery and back cover, I read the following message:
«Now we can be together» next to a link that would take me to an unknown website.
Be together? What was the meaning of it? I wondered as I walked to a bus stop in my way to work. My thumb hesitated on top of the touch screen. I couldn’t resolve to open the link. I felt an invisible rope that would tighten as soon as my finger touches it. Then I got an e-mail notification. God-damn e-mail! Its announcements arrived always too late, letting the unread messages to pile up. I waited until I got home and checked them calmly from my PC. Between spam and my bosses’ messages, I found a message from Rick:

«Do NOT Open The Link. If you get a link in the following days, sent from my cell phone or e-mail, don’t open it. I also want you to tell my family that I’m sorry, I knew what was behind all this and I tried and took a chance, so I’ve felt small changes in these couple of days. Someone’s behind me, stretching its arm to reach my shoulder, I’ve discovered it in front of the mirror while I was looking by the corner of my eye, it was dressed in black rags and had a golden crown, its eyes drew a dark aura that stopped my heart as soon as I fixed mine in its. I didn’t sleep in days, I looked at the clock before going in a nightmare where the ghostly monster chases me, and no matter how hard I run, I woke up disturbed before it touches me, I looked at the clock again, it’s been only 6 minutes of sleep. Just six! Not less nor more. If the Deep Web gossip is true, during one of these nightmares it’ll pat my shoulder and I won’t wake up anymore. They asked me not to write or say its name out loud, though I can only assure you that it lives in the Internet»