Chapter 14: Chain Letter by Stephen Simpson
While Adèle and Stephen are on the porch and he is trying to
get her to stop crying, Lisa calls E’lisa in from outside.
E’lisa walks with Lisa to the study. Holding her hand, Lisa
sits down on the sofa along the one wall, pulling E’lisa down next to her.
Lisa turns to her. “E’lisa, did you receive one of these
forward emails and then delete it?”
“Yes, this morning. Why?”
Because there are so many of these emails, Lisa decides to
make sure it is the same email and asks seriously, “What did this email say?”
“Well, it was about a boy who went hiking in this heritage
site and then someone had a heart attack. I cannot really remember all of it, I
remember the photo was spooky, though, and there was this scary warning at the
end, so I wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible and I deleted it.”
Fear folds its hand around Lisa's throat and grips it
tightly, making it hard for Lisa to breathe, hard to swallow.
Adèle walks into the room, calmer than a short while ago.
“Okay, first we see who forwarded that mail to me,” she says as she hands a cup
of steaming hot coffee to Lisa.
She sits down in front of her computer. She clicks on her
in-box and opens the mail. The photo pops up and Lisa feels a chill.
E’lisa exhales loudly and then she walks out of the room
hurriedly, while Lisa stares after her, concerned.
“E’lisa deleted the mail, Adèle. We have to find out where
this came from and how we can stop it as soon as possible,” Lisa insists
anxiously.
They soon find the email address of the guilty party who
forwarded it to Adèle. Adèle sends him a mail asking him who forwarded the mail
to him and explains that odd things are happening.
Adèle then explains to Lisa that the culprit was one of her
agencies’ catering suppliers. She knew this person, so it was not a random spam
sent out. People are forwarding it to their friends and family.
They did not have much hope of ever receiving a reply, so Adèle
opens a second page, searching for any news on a person who died of a heart
attack after going on a hike in a historical location.
If the information in the email was prefabricated, there
would be no hits, but their hopes fade when there are five links on the page
related to the topic.
The icon at the bottom of Adèle’s screen indicates she has a
mail. She switches immediately to her in-box.
Unbelievably the person who forwarded the mail to Adèle had
replied and he informs them that strange things were happening in his area as
well. People were dying everywhere, and he inserted the email address of the
person who sent it to him, he also apologizes to Adèle for forwarding the mail
to her.
Adèle mumbles softly, something about the person sending the
first-ever chain letter and that they should stand in front of a firing squad.
They repeat the process and then hope this person will reply
to them just as fast. Adèle switches again to the other page and then clicks on
the first link.
They read: Boy dies from massive coronary heart attack two
days after hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountain Heritage Site. Tony Lee was only
eighteen years old and leaves behind his grieving parents and two brothers.
“Is that all?” Lisa asks softly.
Adèle opens the other links and they all have the same
similar, minimal information.
“I always thought these mails were just a lot of hog-wash
and nonsense people thought up to get email addresses?” Lisa wonders
sceptically.
“Apparently not in this case.”
“Well, let's search the Blue Ridge Mountain Heritage Site.”
Adèle types it into her search engine and this time there
are pages and pages of links.
She clicks into the first one.
They read that the site is famous for its sacred tribal
site, recently opened to the public. Supposedly, the ancient tribe that used to
live on this site, decades ago, performed human sacrifices on a regular
basis—sacrifices for immortality, for longevity, for endurance, and even for
rain. They used to sacrifice only young girls between the ages of fourteen and
sixteen. They became so bloodthirsty that the tribe eventually became
non-existent, because there were no longer any young women to bear children.
“Could it be that the spirit of a sacrificed girl somehow
went into the digital camera this photo was taken with and now she is somehow
transmitting herself?” Adèle asks incredulous.
Lisa does not reply because it seems too far-fetched to
contemplate.
“Let's look at that photo again and then we search images on
the Blue Ridge Mountain Heritage Site.” Adèle switches to her in-box and the
photo pops up again. They both lean closer to the screen to have a good look at
the ghostly figure in the image.
“Well, it definitely is a young woman,” Lisa says.
“Yes,” Adèle confirms as she switches screens again and
starts to search images.
They find pages and pages of scenery, pictures of trees, of
a beautiful lake, of grass huts and backpackers’ accommodation. Just when they
are about to give up, there is an old, sepia toned photo of a woman who looks
just like the one in the email photo. Adèle clicks on the photo and the page
starts loading.
When the page eventually opens, they read that many hikers
reported seeing this ghostly girl through the trees. It could be that she was
in fact more than a hundred years old and reports of her date back to the
1800’s. Lisa and Adèle look at each other, while Adèle switches back to the
photo.
“Impossible,” Lisa whispers.
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