I've live-streamed my life nonstop for the last 200 days.
My every movement captured on my hovering drone, the latest innovation by our tech bro overlords.
It's a war zone out there, but the people need entertainment.
I don't know who my viewers are, or why they tune in daily, but I'm grateful to them.
"200 days! Can you believe it, chat?" I boast.
The chat messages come through my glasses and there are the usual suspects cheering me on.
I see a message from one of my day ones.
"Hell yea Di, keep it up!"
"Thanks Kitty," I reply.
kittylover96 was my first subscriber.
I stare in the corner at the ghost that haunts me and I tighten up.
It's a floating tiki mask, it's got colorful feathers and though it's green and see-through, it looks like it's made of wood.
It showed up a few months ago and it won't go away.
I look to the books on my shelf, tons of good information on psychotherapy and psychology, but nothing really explains this.
I chalk it up to my crazy brain.
The drone camera hovers around the room, capturing me from different angles. I can see myself in a small picture-in-picture display on my glasses.
My hair is all jumbled up and I should probably go put some makeup on.
"Di, what's that in the corner? Creepy!"
The message pulls me out of my thoughts.
"Haha, nice try Kitty"
"Seriously! What is that? Like some kind of Tiki ghost thing"
How can he see it? It's just some visual glitch in my brain…
I'm not sure how to respond.
But the messages start pouring in.
More and more people are confirming it.
"It's not real guys, it's mild psychosis. Probably trauma after grandpa died or something. It's fine, I'm managing."
The messages pour in faster.
"If it's psychosis, how come we can see it?"
He's got a point.
"WTF Di, you're being haunted"
My hands get clammy and I keep forgetting to breathe.
"This can't be happening. There has to be a logical explanation," I stammer.
My numbers are going up, this is more viewers than I've had in a while.
"I've been streaming nonstop, maybe you guys picked up whatever I have. Like telepathically or something"
Someone drops a link to a screenshot they just took.
My finger hovers over the link, too scared to open it.
It's cold hard proof that I'm being haunted.
My head falls to my hands.
"I'm scared," I admit.
A notification pops up in my glasses.
"You are being raided by ThoughtBox"
The largest twitch streamer just sent all his followers to watch me. That's about 100x my normal viewership.
"Holy hell this chick is being haunted."
"Woah!"
"Ghost busting time?"
The messages are pouring in faster and faster.
I look at the ghost in the corner and I get up from my chair.
"Alright." I say. "We'll face this thing together"
Twitch chat goes crazy.
Short Story