I’m desperate.

You must read this and understand that my fate can be yours as well.

The last game I’ll ever play started tonight. A game I’ll lose.

The night started like every other. My friends and I had spent hours playing matches on Call of Duty. Time slipped by and before we knew it, our clocks showed midnight. Everyone besides me had classes in the morning, so I decided to stay on and play one more match with a group of random players.

I started out with a quick kill streak and felt that I was going to end the night on high note. That was before BagMan6066 join the match. BagMan6066 first appeared after I had died. Once I spawned back in, there their avatar stood right in front of me, completely blocking my view. At first, I thought they were a troll but it didn’t take long for things to feel off. Due to BagMan6066’s interference, an opponent killed me quickly. Anger flared in me. I decided to not let it get to me, but as soon as I spawned back into the map, there they were. BagMan6066, again, stood blocking my view. How? There’s no way they knew where I was going to spawn.

It wasn’t worth my time. I immediately logged out of the match and started to power off my Xbox. Then there it was. A notification popped up on the bottom of my screen. BagMan6066 sent you a friend request. I still don’t understand what came over me. I accepted. A message immediately popped up.

BagMan6066: Sorry.

I stared at my screen for what felt like hours before replying. I thought maybe it was just a kid that didn’t mean any harm. I replied.

SweatyJabawaki: It’s cool. Don’t worry about it. It’s just a game. I’m logging off. Have a good one.

BagMan6066: No. I’m sorry. Don’t get off. I have a better game.

SweatyJabawaki: Sorry. I’m beat. Cya.

I have no idea why I even said that much. It was just some random player, but I just felt compelled to reply. Then they crossed the line.

BagMan6066: I’m telling you. Don’t get off. Or I’ll come play at your house.

Welp. Enough of that. I quickly blocked BagMan6066 and turned off my Xbox. The encounter made my heart race. It wasn’t the first time someone had done something weird on the internet and before I knew it, I was in bed flipping through TikTok. Endless scrolling and my eyes began to falter. I fell asleep.

An hour later, I jerked awake. Panic coursed through me as I tried to breathe. No matter how hard I sucked in, air didn’t make it to my lungs. I coughed but the blockage wouldn’t budge. I reached into my mouth and at the back of my throat I could feel something. It was slick, but I was able to pinch it and pull it out.

A little square baggy sat in my hand. I couldn’t stop looking at it. I felt cold. Inside the baggy was a small piece of paper. After snapping out of my trance, I dumped the paper onto my bed and unfolded the note. It contained a nicely hand-written message.

I have a better game. Love, Baggy.

My first thought was to call someone. Mom, Dad, or 911. I shared a small house with a friend who was out of town. I was alone. Well, I hoped I was alone.

I ripped the covers off my bed as I searched for my phone. Nothing. It was gone.

My mind raced on what to do. Then I got an idea. I could contact a friend on my Xbox and have them call 911. Darkness enveloped my room, the only light shone from a street lamp through the window. I stumbled across the floor tripping over clothes and my backpack.

Sitting on the floor, I started up my TV and Xbox. Time felt as if it had slowed as my Xbox took a moment to start up. I quickly flipped to my friends list. No. Everyone was deleted. Only BagMan6066 was listed.

A notification popped up. BagMan6066 sent you a message.

BagMan6066: Sorry…….

A flutter of footsteps sounded outside my bedroom. I ran to make sure the door was locked. My heart felt like it was skipping beats at this point. I’m hyperventilating. Another group of footsteps rang out, stopping outside my door.

I looked back at my TV.

BagMan6066: That’s me. I’ll stay in the hallway if you will play a game with me.

“Okay, I’ll play,” I said. The words poured from mouth like syrup. My body tensed.

BagMan6066: Yay! This game is called Full of Baggies.

My mind went back to when I had pulled the baggie from my throat. I felt lightheaded.

BagMan6066: Good. You remember the first baggie. Look under your bed. You’ll need what’s under there. You have two minutes to find the next baggie. Once you find it, read out loud the message. Good luck.

The light from the TV illuminated my path back to the bed. I kneeled down and looked underneath. I prepared myself to be grabbed but all that laid there was a shiny grey box cutter. I took it and looked at it in my open palm. Why would I need this? Then I noticed it. About four inches up my right forearm was a raised section in my skin. The shape was rectangle. I ran my finger over it, the thing under my skin felt flimsy. Felt like plastic. A baggy.

My door started shaking before whatever was outside started banging on it. I dropped the box cutter. Damn. Had it been two minutes?

I grabbed the box cutter from the floor. My left hand shook as I held the razor blade an inch above my arm. I slid the blade across the raised area in my skin. Blood immediately made its warm presence known as it ran and poured onto the floor. I could see the plastic of the baggie. I dug my fingers into the incision and dug it out. Nausea won and I threw up onto my bed.

The baggie was slippery from my blood. I finally got the piece of paper out and read it.

What gets bigger the more you take away?

I said the message out loud. The banging at my door stopped. I looked at my TV.

BagMan6066: Beginners luck. You have another two minutes for round two.

I thought about the question on the note. I had heard the riddle before. Holes. Holes get bigger the more you take away.

I knew I had to hurry. I searched my arms. Nothing. I looked at my legs. Nothing there. I pulled my off my shirt and searched my stomach and chest. Still nothing. I began to run my hands on my sides and then I felt it. On my left side right above my hip, I could feel what felt like a group of tiny holes. Each hole felt like it had a sharp or pointy thing sticking out of it. I hurried over to my full-length mirror. The banging on the door started again.

I could make out a tight cluster of dark small holes. The grouping was the size of a soft ball. Each one had the corner of what I guessed was a baggy sticking out. I began to pull each one out. There had to be at least twenty. Each baggy slithered from its tiny hole leaving a larger hole in its absence. Every removal sent a jolt of pain through my body. Finally. The last baggy had the paper in it.

A weird slimy substance covered the baggy. The note read.

Pronounced as a letter, written with three, I have a twin whom I cannot see.

I had tried to stop the bleeding on arm with my shirt but I was beginning to feel faint. I pressed on, reading the note out loud.

I had no clue what this riddle meant. I looked at my TV for guidance.

BagMan6066: We are almost done. I’m getting lonely out here in the hallway.

I could hear a voice come from outside the door. It just repeated the same “tuh” sound over and over. The voice almost sounded distorted or digital. Then the banging started again.

BagMan6066 hadn’t given any time limit this time and I was at a loss on where the next baggy would be. Then my right eye twitched. I immediately got the burning sensation that you get when something is stuck on your eyeball. Instinct made me rub my eye, and I could feel something sharp poking the back of my eyelid. I looked into the mirror, peeling my wounded eye open. Redness and inflammation made my eye hurt even more. At the top, I could see the next baggy. The corner stuck out of my eye right above the iris.

I sat in the floor. I was ready to give up. I knew as I pulled the baggy out the incision in my eye would grow. The thought made my skin crawl.

I heard the click of my door unlocking and the doorknob beginning to turn.

“Please! Please! I’ll do it,” I yelled.

I used my left hand to pull my eyelids apart before pinching the baggy with my right. I began to pull. The baggy slowly slid out as its thin edges sliced through the white of my eyeball. Blood filled my eye making it hard to see. I tried to go as slow as I could. A bang on the door made me jump, jerking the baggy free from my eye which felt like it almost pulled from the socket.

Pain seared my eye. My whole body trembled. The next note read:

Cut me and that will be the end of thee.

Weak, I fell back against my mirror. The words barely came out as I read the note. I looked up at the TV, my vision impaired from the blood.

BagMan6066: Final Round! No rush.

My heart sank as the door slowly opened. In the door way, a tall lanky shadow filled the frame. No details could be made out as the silhouette watched. A painful groan came from the shadow.

As I lifted my head to look at the thing in the hallway, I could feel the skin around my throat stretch against something. My hand shot to my neck. Under the skin of my throat, I could feel what had to be three baggies. This was it. A dead end. I was either going to kill myself or that thing was coming in to get me.

I couldn’t do it. I left the boxcutter laying by my bed and crawled towards my Xbox controller. I figured the thing would stop me but it never moved as I typed this message to all of you. A warning to never accept a request from BagMan6066. Never.