They say the dead speaks when you listen.
I wish i hadn't listened.
It all started two months ago, a strange app appeared on my phone when i woke up.
Its called ' I VAE LIVE '
no installation, no permission requested , no development name, nothing.
I don't remember downloading it, i never install anything without looking at the reveiws.
I tried deleting it but it wouldn't go, i restarted my phone, nothing.
Curiosity took the better of me and i tapped it.
The screen went black for a second, then it flickered, turning on the phone camera.
At first, everything looked normal, my apartment bathed in morning gray, dusty corners and the opened window beside my bed.
My reflection faint in the darkned screen.
And then, i saw it.
A woman in a black dress stood in the corner of the wardrobe behind me, pale messy long hair hung over her face , her mouth wide open in a silent scream.
Her eyes were milky and wet.
I dropped my phone and looked back with my eyes, there was nothing.
What was that?
I looked at my phone for a moment before picking it up,
She was there, now smiling.
I should've run, but i didn't, not because of fear, no.
I knew her.
She had gone missing from our apartment building a year ago, until now, she has never been found.
****
The internet explored within days.
Everyone had "I VAE " now.
Everyone saw them, ghost-like beings hovering just out of reach.
People thought it was a virtual reality game, a new form of AR .
They laughed, took videos , shared TikToks of ghost dancing, weeping, crawling.
One guy even made a dating game out of it,
" flirting with my ghost "
Crazy bastard.
People thought it was fun and safe, until they started following them.
The first victim was a seventeen year old girl in New York.
Her phone was found shattered beside her body, her eyes were missing, there was no sign of torture everything was intact except for her eyes.
But there was something on the wall,
Written with blood was just one word,
"LOOK"
Her parents said she has been obsessed with a particular ghost, she said it looked like her deceased sister who was found drowning in a lake last year.
Every day, she will talk to it, cry and beg her to come back.
Then, one night, it did.
The second one was a guy named Lain, a YouTuber from Switzerland.
He had over 2 million subscribers by posting videos of himself exploring abandoned places.
He decided to make a live streaming of himself exploring an abandoned hospital with " I VAE "
The last thirty seconds of that video is still vivid in my mind.
He was laughing as he sees dozens of ghosts lined up in the hallway.
He waved at them, they waved back.
Then he turns to a dark corner, and the camera suddenly jerks violently.
We heard him scream, the screen glitches for a second before the app interface disappears and the feed show what his real camera was recording.
Nothing.....just an empty hallway.
Then the video cuts.
Lain was never found.
After that, the app changed, not the interface, not the name , but the behaviour of the ghosts.
They started following people out of the app, even when their phones were off.
People reported seeing shadows in their mirrors, hearing voices , some even said they started seeing them in dreams.
One woman slit her wrist, claiming that her mother was waiting for her.
People began disappearing, phones found on kitchen tables, still open to I VAE, some were live-streaming when it happened.
The camera would shake, the person would look confuse, lost, then terrified, they would scream , clutch at the air and just vanish.
Gone.
And then the worst part, they returned.
Not to life, but to the app.
The ghosts weren't random, they were "us".
People we knew . People we have lost.
One of my friend, Jonas disappeared last winter, no one knew were he is .
But last week, i saw him on a little boy's tablet.
A translucent form in the backseat of the car, screaming silently , eyes wide, mouth torn open.
He was staring directly at me.....pleading.
But, what can i do..?
*******
People grew obsessed, no. It was madness.
They didn't care if the ghosts were real people, if anything, that would make it worse.
People started playing deadly games, performing rituals, some even believe they could resurrect them by " feeding " them.
Cuttimg themselves in front of the screen, calling their names, offering pieces of their bodies.
It only led to more people disappearing .
Only the I VAE icon blinking on the screen they last saw.
No one could trace where the app came from, no servers, no creators, no updates.
Every cyber security tried to crack it , but nothing, the app had no code they could read, no source, it didn't connect to anything.
It simply existed.
Like it was older than technology.
Alice, my fiancèe became addicted, she said she saw her mother again , who passed away from cancer years ago.
She spent hours curled up with her phone, talking to the screen, tears rolling down her cheeks.
" she wants to come back", she told me.
" Alice, its not real- "
" she knows thing !!" she hissed, " things i forgot, things i never told anyone not even you"
I saw her slicing her wrist open, letting the blood drip on the phone.
" Alice- what the hell are you doing?!!
" she said she wants it" she said with a spine chilling smile.
That night, i woke up to her laughing in the dark, mumbling mother over and over.
i turned the lights on to talk her out of it but,
she was.....gone, her phone was on the cold bed, screen open to I VAE.
I see..... she's part of it now.
I see her sometimes, hovering about the ceiling of my bedroom, her mouth stitched shut, her eyes filled with tears and something aching.
Regret...and hunger.
******
I haven't used a phone in months , i smashed everything, mirrors, my phone, laptop even my tv.
But they still come, my mother, Alice, my friends, Jonas.
They all say one thing " look".
They always stand beside my bed when am asleep, i tried to find answers, from books, from anonymous sources, one person claimed it was a curse, a digital Ouija board feeding on human grief, another said it was an ancient echo of a god long forgotten by humanity.
But the scariest answer?
No one created I VAE LIVE
not in the way we understand, it manifested from our loss, from our obsession with the dead, from our hunger to see them one more time.
We feed it with our longing for reunion, we gave it form, we gave it a purpose and now its everywhere.
Phones, tvs, everything. Sometimes i see people stop for a moment and took out their phones like they have seen a god.
No the devil.
Then they disappear and the next day, they show upon someone else's screen.
Am writing this, because i don't know how much time i have left.
So here's the truth, the app grows stronger every time someone uses it.
Now, I VAE doesn't need you to open it anymore, it only needs you to know, and now you do.
It will fine you soon, you will feel that itch, that pull, that need to see someone one last time.
Your parents, sister, brother, your lover, even the cute child you have seen once.
And when you opened it.
They will be smiling, broken, forever waiting.
Just don't smile at them.
Don't wave.
Don't speak.
Don't look
And for the love of God, never tell them to come back, because they will.
And you wouldn't scream.
You will smile, because you will forget who you are.
Then, you will blink.
And the next thing, you are in the other side of the screen.
Waiting for someone else to open it.
[ Kia's voice returns ]
* chuckled*.
" you downloaded it didn't you?"
"Didn't even read the terms and conditions?
" well, who does that anyway? "
" free to install, connect with the dead?
Sounds fun to me"
But..... i want you to remember these three,
Not everything that offers you comfort is good for you.
Not all doors should be allow to open, some must remained shut.
And lastly, face your grief, do not feed it.
"So... how well do you know the apps on you phone?
" go on, check".
"Anyway, if you did downloaded it, just delete it".
"Oh wait" *laughs*
" you can't "