"Alright, chat, settle in, because things are about to get weird," Dennis announced, his voice echoing slightly through his signature mask in his otherwise silent studio. The room was bathed in the cool glow of his streaming setup: triple-monitor array, professional lighting, and a camera that followed his every move with unsettling precision. He was perched on a high-backed, ornate chair that looked more like a throne than gaming furniture.
Tonight's stream was a departure from his usual content. No gaming, no reaction videos, no Q&A. Tonight, it was magic. Or, at least, the internet's version of it. Once Dennis finished getting into his online persona, "HD", he continued,
"So, earlier today I found an old book in this creepy store." He said as he held up the leather-bound tome, its pages filled with strange symbols and diagrams. The chat exploded with a mix of excitement and skepticism.
"This looks like a cool spell book, so I thought I would try it with you guys since this is a special stream"
"Is that thing even safe?" - ultimatelark4810
"Dude, don't do it, you'll summon a demon!" - MagicMan6
"Bro, that book is obviously fake, dumb***" - $$$Rankedboss
"Well obviously i know it's fake," Dennis said, rolling his eyes, though a flicker of genuine excitement danced in his amber eyes. 'Tonight we become gods!' was trending in the chat, Dennis grinned. "But, you know me, always willing to push the boundaries of content. So, for your entertainment, and possibly mine, we're gonna give this a shot, besides, there's always a chance that the book is real."
"When are you doing your face reveal?" - HDfangirl1
"Hey there fangirl, you're late! Usually you're the first one to get here, if you're not careful, you might lose the number one fan award", he cheekily replied to the comment before answering, "Face reveal comes at the end of the stream".
"I know I'm late but I wouldn't miss this for the world" - HDfangirl1
"You better not", Dennis replied again.
"Are you ever gonna come back to the community shelter?" - HDfangirl1
"Of course I will, the people there are so nice, how could I not go back!" He once again replied to the comment.
"Anyway, let's get our 10 million subscriber special started!" Dennis shouted as if he wasn't the only person in his room.
He placed the book on a pedestal in the center of the room, the camera focusing on the intricate diagram on the open page. He'd spent the last few hours reading through the books and trying to see what each spell was about, and after a while, found a ritual he found interesting. It involved drawing a weird symbol on a piece of paper, then burning it at the center of the symbol.
Dennis took a deep breath. Although he suspected that this was just a joke or a fake, a thrill still shot through him, a heady mix of anticipation and nervousness. He felt that this was either going to be his greatest stream ever, or his last one. "Here we go. Don't say I didn't warn you."
He took a blank piece of paper, drew the symbol on it, then grabbed the lighter on his desk.
The chat was going wild. Emojis flew across the screen, donations poured in, and the viewer count climbed. Ten million people were watching, their digital faces a mix of awe, disbelief, and morbid curiosity. Dennis felt a surge of adrenaline, a performer's high amplified by the sheer scale of his audience. This was it, the moment he'd been building towards.
"Alright, here we go" He said, trying to hype up his audience even more. He lit the lighter, then slowly brought the paper closer to it, trying to build anticipation.
Once the lighter and paper made contact, it didn't take long for the lighter to burn through the paper. Once the lighter had fully burnt through the paper, leaving only its edges and corners, Dennis paused for a while before saying
"And nothing happened. Man I knew it was fake but I kinda hoped that just maybe it would be real" he complained, looking through the hole in the paper. But then, something did happen.
All the lights and electronics in the room immediately shut down, leaving only a faint darkness to the once colorful studio.
"No way!" Dennis shouted, now a bit frightened. He immediately got up and tried to switch the electronics back on, but none of them worked, not even his phone. "What the hell! Was that book actually real?" He asked himself, still unsure of what was going on, but he wouldn't have time to even think of an answer because once again something happened, although this time, it was a lot worse.
He dropped his phone as he was still trying to make sense of things, but as he tried to reach for it, his fingers slowly turned to dust, making him unable to grab his phone. And after his fingers came the rest of his body Dennis was now screaming and shouting, throwing his body around in a panic, until his feet and arms disintegrated and he could no longer move.
He screamed louder than he ever had before. He screamed so loud that it wouldn't be a surprise if he broke every piece of glass in his room. But that didn't last long, as the rest of his upper body turned to dust as well, leaving him unable to move or produce a sound. Soon, his whole body was just a pile of dust on the ground, which quickly disappeared into thin air. And for Dennis, everything went black.
***
A few moments of complete silence passed before Dennis felt a light breeze flow past his face. He opened his eyes and found himself somewhere... different. "Where the hell am I?" He thought as he was trying to survey his surroundings. He was in what looked like a forest, with tall green trees that looked way bigger than any tree he had seen before. It was quite warm in this forest, despite it being quite dark, perhaps late into the night. But what grabbed Dennis's attention the most was, "Is that a red moon?!"
Yes, the moon was a striking red, providing a creepy, murderous light to the dark forest. The moon stood at the center of the dark sky, completely taking it over, and it looked to be so close that you could almost touch it.
After marveling at the moon, Dennis quickly snapped back to reality and went back to analyzing both himself and this crazy looking forest. He looked over his entire body from head to toe, then breathed a sigh of relief once he confirmed that all his body parts were still on him.
"Whew, at least my body is okay"
"Wait, am I dead?!" He quickly placed his palm on his chest, looking for the feeling of his heartbeat, luckily for him, with how fast it was beating, it didn't take too long to find it. 'Okay, my heart's fine so I must be alive. But still, what the hell happened, didn't I like... turn to dust?' Dennis thought internally as he played back everything that happened in his mind.
'Okay, so I started my stream, brought out that weird book, tried the ritual, faded into dust, and ended up here.
'I can't believe that ritual actually worked, it was supposed to be a fake but it wasn't. Ooh wait till my subscribers hear about this.' He thought as a slight grin appeared on his face.
'But still, how the hell am I gonna get back? I still have a stream to finish'
After a bit more thinking, Dennis decided to explore the strange forest. He walked as slowly and as quietly as he could, afraid that there might be something lurking around in the forest. He soon reached the edge of a hill and decided to climb down, unaware that this would be the biggest mistake he had ever made up until that point.
He stumbled down the hill, trying his best not to slip and fall down. Once he reached the bottom, he continued his walk.
After a few minutes of walking in the dark, unsettling silence, he saw something out of the corner of his eye.
'What was that?!' He thought as he quickly hid behind a tree, staying completely still, a cold sweat running down his face. Not wanting to even try to answer his own question, he quickly ran in the other direction, trying his best to escape whatever it is that he saw. However, he ran a little bit too loudly and the thing that he saw ended up catching up to him. And when Dennis saw just what exactly that "thing" was, his entire body shut down completely for a few moments.
It was huge, standing upright, it looked to be at least 8 feet tall... or maybe long? It's long worm like body looked as if it was covered by a hard exoskeleton or even armor. It had rows of legs stabbing and scratching the ground, and its face was no better. It had two eyes which each glowed a dark, menacing red, with thick antennae which pointed in opposite directions. And to top it all off, it had two claws which looked both thick and sharp. Overall, this creature looked like a grotesque parody of a centipede.
It stared straight at Dennis, as if sizing him up. Dennis stared right back, although not voluntarily. His body was still shut down, he couldn't think, he couldn't speak, he couldn't even breathe, no matter how badly he wanted to.
After staring each other down for a few seconds, the centipede ended up being the one to make the first move as it rushed forward, straight at Dennis.