Chapter 21: Chain Letter by Stephen Simpson
Lisa starts laughing hysterically.
E’lisa leans forward from the back and puts her arms around
the seat and around Lisa's shoulders.
Lisa turns slightly towards her and smiles. She whispers, “I love you. I am glad you are safe now and I think we should create ‘forward mail folders’ so that when we receive any of these emails with the three letters FWD in the subject line, we just move them into there, without ever opening them.”
E’lisa asks softly, “How could that happen though? She is
reportedly hundreds of years old, so how could she still be here, sacrificing
people?”
“Maybe, being a god to ancient people gave her special power
and then drinking their blood, or more recently, the sudden stopping of a heart
increased her ability to live longer. I know it seems far-fetched, but after
tonight I might believe anything.”
E’lisa replies, a distant look in her eyes, “Yeah, a vampire
with a prolonged chronic way of thinking. They say that if you visualize
something continuously, you will make it a reality so then this would mean that
she thought of ways in a new modern world where she could still achieve her
goal. She could still go out and collect her hearts, which in return extended
her life.”
Lisa turns in her chair to look at E’lisa. She says
pensively, “With internet and the way people forward e-mails to each other
continuously, it was just a matter of time. People who receive these emails
believe so strongly that if they forward the mail to however many people,
whatever the email promises will happen to them. Likewise, when a person
believes something evil or bad will happen to them when they delete the mail,
that belief anchors itself into their sub-conscious – turning it into a
reality.”
Lisa looks at Adèle as she suddenly opens the window on her
side and throws her phone out into the night.
“Why did you do that?” Lisa asks her troubled.
Adèle says nothing and stares fixedly at the road ahead.
“Adèle, speak to me, why did you throw your phone out of the
window?”
“My uncle just died!” She screams, pushing her foot hard
onto the brakes. The safety belt digs into Lisa's shoulder and E’lisa bumps
into her seat from behind. Once the car stops skidding across the road, Lisa
asks softly, “How?” She does not want to sound callous or cold-hearted, but she
needs to know if it has anything to do with the emails, if it happened before
or after they killed the woman.
“He had a heart attack,” she replies through her sobs. She
hits her hands on the steering wheel and whimpers, “Why, why?”
Too worried not to ask Lisa takes a deep breath and then
softly she says, “When?”
Adèle puts her head onto her arms, which she has folded over
the steering wheel and she weeps – her sobs miserable and despondent.
A while later, a while that feels to Lisa like an eternity, Adèle
lifts her head. “It hasn't stopped. My aunt said he died about an hour ago and
he had the most awful expression on his face.” Softly she repeats, “It hasn't
stopped.”
She starts the car and then slowly makes a U-turn, driving
back slowly.
“No Mom, please. I don't want to go back there,” E’lisa begs
from the back seat.
Nevertheless, Lisa and Adèle say nothing, while E’lisa moans
softly in the back seat.
Adèle stops the car again, abruptly.
“You have to stop doing that,” Lisa says as the safety belt
bites into her shoulder again.
Silently Adèle opens her door and gets out. She walks to the
side of the road and picks up a black square.
Lisa hears her say, “Please God, let it still work,” and
then Lisa sees the glow from Adèle’s cell phone.
Adèle gets back into the car and then turning in her seat,
facing E’lisa, while looking at her cell phone, she says, “I am going to
forward that mail to you and this time instead of deleting it you are going to
forward it to as many people as you possibly can - but not family. I hope
forwarding the email this time will cancel out the previous deletion. We can
only try.”
E’lisa's phone makes a beeping noise, indicating that she
had received an email.
“Open it,” Lisa demands.
E’lisa opens it. She selects everybody in her contact list.
She then goes back to un-check her family members and closest friends.
Staring at the screen for the longest time, she cannot
choose? How can she send this to all her friends knowing they could be dead
within the next twenty-four hours?
Adèle grabs the phone from her hand and presses the send
button. Almost instantaneously, a message flashes across the screen – message
sent.
E’lisa slumps back into her seat and then she stares out of
the window vacantly, while Adèle starts the car and slowly pulls off.
A deep sadness fills E’lisa as she looks out into the black night and up at the big, crevice filled moon hanging in the black night sky. The man in the moon smirks down at her as tears run down her cheeks.
This is the end and we hope you enjoyed reading this story!
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