The Last Thought

“Goodbye.” Those were the last words I heard before the New Year started.

It was supposed to be any other night but tonight was different. I looked at the clock at the bottom right of my computer screen. It was 9 pm and I had just finished editing a video compilation of the wonderful things that happened to me this year.

As a daily blogger with 150k subscribers, I had the pressure of uploading daily content no matter what the cost. I just couldn’t let my fans down. I hovered the mouse over to the upload button and my video started processing. A waiting time of “2 hours” popped up on the screen. Looks like I’m going to be staying in this New Years.

My stomach started growling so I opened an app to order some fresh takeaway pizza. I felt a bit adventurous so I ordered some buffalo wings, spicy anchovy pizza with mozzarella stuffed crusts and a banana pizza for dessert. After double-checking the cart, my finger was one click away from dinner. But as I pressed the button, the power suddenly went out at the same time. Luckily the order went through before the Wi-Fi was down.

It was 9:30 and the upload was on pause. I texted the apartment manager about the power outage. He responded that it was just a routine maintenance and that the power would be back within the hour. I texted “K” back to him but inside I wasn’t feeling “ok.” It was disrupting my uploading schedule and I started feeling anxious.

But this should be the least of Jason’s problems.

There standing behind him in the hallway was a 6 ft man staring at Jason. He hadn’t notice him so he continued creeping through the apartment. It was obvious that he was not a welcome guest but he had a good reason to intrude.

This man was a kleptomaniac and tonight was going to be his last raid before he would quit for good. Naturally, one would assume that no one was in the apartment given that the bedroom lights were turned off. But he was wrong and now had to deal with this obstacle.

At first, he thought of subduing Jason as it would’ve been a piece of cake for a man his size. But past experiences taught him that it was messy and if he was ever caught, he would serve a longer time in jail. Luckily the power went out and he could just as easily rob him blind without having the need to touch him.

Given that Jason was preoccupied with his phone, he quietly made his way into what seems to be the living room. The moon partially lit the room so he could only see a carpet and the outline of a television screen. The rest of the room was too dark to see.

He slowly felt his way around and stuffed any small light objects into his knapsack. Thunk! He suddenly stubbed his toe on a table as he turned around. He gave a quiet squeak of pain before he heard footsteps coming towards the room. Frantically feeling the things around him, he found what felt like a couch and hid behind it.

 Then Jason entered the room and opened the main door.

That’s strange. I could’ve sworn I heard a knock on the door. Could I be so hungry that I’m starting to hallucinate? I thought to myself. It was now 10 pm and the thought of food had occupied my mind. Feeling weak, I collapsed onto the couch. Despite the lights being out, I know my way around this house.

The room was colder than usual which made me feel sleepy. I set an alarm just in case and started watching my competitors on MeTube. I checked the trending page and a video caught my attention. It was a list of ten things on how to know if you are alive or dead.

I forgot my headset in the bedroom so I just played the video with the volume on high. After watching the whole thing, I felt a bit disappointed. To be honest, I expected some philosophical stuff but it only mentions some obvious things. A few of them were that nobody can interact with you or that you would have no reflection. “What a total clickbait,” I said to myself.

I reached out for the remote to watch some TV but then I realized that the power was still out. With a grunt, I looked at the time on my phone. It was almost 10:30. Then the doorbell rang. I jumped with joy and rushed to the front of the door but when I opened it there was nobody there.

Then the lights lit up. Realizing that the power was back on, I quickly closed the door and rushed to my bedroom to continue the upload.

Meanwhile, the thief who had to sat through the boring video peeked out of the couch like a cat peeking out of a box. Now that the room was brighter, he directed his attention towards the front door. He saw that there was a gap and that it would be his escape.

Grabbing the remote, he immediately rushed to the entranced and swung the door open. But then he met a shocked pizza delivery man. Before he could think of an excuse, the man shouted.

“Your Toni Piscatelli Pizza is here! Is anybody home?” he said in a loud yet shaky voice.

Perplexed, he heard Jason’s footsteps. He then turned around and saw Jason coming towards him. It was clear that he was caught red-handed but why were they ignoring him? He looked at the table where the remote was. His face grew cold when he saw that it was still lying there on the table.

It was then when he realized that he was dead. This was confirmed when Jason had his arms passed through his hollow body. He fell down on his knees, feeling empty. There were so many questions as to how and when he had died.

He was so sure that he was alive this morning as he had attended his last therapy session for the year. He looked around the room. Maybe the answer is here he thought.

He then stood up and started looking around whilst Jason was enjoying his dinner.

“Man that hit the spot!” I said to myself after gorging through my dinner. The alarm on my phone then rang. It was the latest Mariana Venti tune and I listened to most of the song before snoozing it. Seeing the time, it was now 11:15 pm. The upload was almost complete.

But now there was one more thing I needed to do. I packed up all the trash and separated my waste from the recyclables. One must walk the talk since I sometimes preach about the environment in my blogs. After that was done, I decided to wash up in the toilet.

As I entered the bathroom, I realized I had forgotten to close the shower curtain. Luckily the toilet door was closed otherwise it would’ve been awkward. It was starting to smell so I sprayed the room with some nice pine cone air freshener.

I washed my face so that I’m more awake. Now to begin my work.

Jason then started removing the man’s clothes and started hacking away at the stranger’s body to drain the blood. The man on the other hand had found his corpse since 11 pm. He saw that he had multiple stab wounds whereas Jason did not have a scratch on him.

Looking at the fatal wounds, he started to remember the pain. The last memory he had was that he busy grabbing a figurine when he felt something stab him at the back. Before he could react, Jason had already stabbed him a several more times.

Now it was all clear.

He looked away when Jason mutilated his body. Time passed by until his computer gave a ring to indicate that the upload was complete.

It was now 11:40 pm.

But Jason ignored it as he was still busy chopping up the body into smaller pieces. The now dead and restless man wanted revenge or more importantly justice.

He went to his bedroom and tried to interact with his computer. He figured that he could manipulate electronic devices just like the ghosts he saw on television. To his surprise, he was able to control the mouse and keyboard. So, he quickly made a comment on the video that said “I killed Terry Taylor White.” He could hear the murderer who is now having a hot shower.

He then went back to the bathroom. Multiple plastic bags were now stuffed with his body parts. The bathroom was spotless as he scrubbed every inch of it to remove any blood stains. Now wearing a new pair of clothes, the killer had finished cleaning up the minute before midnight.

“Goodbye.” Jason said.

As the clock struck midnight, he could hear his neighbors shouting "Happy New Year!" With all his goals completed, Jason turned off the computer and sleepily went to bed. Unbeknownst to him, his rogue comment had gone viral. His fans at first thought it was a joke but a few looked into it deeper. After realizing that Terry was an actual person, they called the police to investigate.

By the time morning came, the police busted down his door. They had found Terry’s corpse and started to arm themselves to arrest the murderer. Jason was a fighter though as he resisted the arrest. Two of the policemen were overwhelmed so they had to taze him. As he fell onto the ground, he felt the room getting colder.

He then heard someone whispering to his ear. 

“Goodbye Jason.”