Afraid of the Dark

Bonus Chapter: The Decent

Clearly, Seán Mcloughlin was not always a man with such a fractured mind. He once lived as normal as a life which he possibly could, happily going about his day, enjoying the opportunities which his job would give him and spending his free time in relaxation, surrounded by the people and the things who he loved and cared for. But nothing good can last forever, and his positive life quickly began crashing down around him, faster than he could comprehend. Have you ever wondered what started his decent into madness?

Here is how his life turned into a nightmare.

Here is how Seán's life slowly fell deeper and deeper into hell.

Enjoy the show.

Warning: This chapter contains themes which some readers may find disturbing that hasn't previously been warned (drug abuse). This story is 18,832 words (compared to the normal 3,500-6,000 word chapters which you have been reading), so you may want to read it in three parts, like three chapters.

I couldn't find any way to break it up into smaller parts without butchering the flow of this mini-story, so apologies about that.

- YTCP

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A knock at his office door pulled the Irish YouTuber from his focus. He had just finished setting up his screen capture and audio capture equipment, ready to record the first part of a new Let's Play series on a horror game that had recently been released. He pulled his headphones from his ears so that they rested around his neck, before pushing his rolling chair back slightly to angle himself towards the sound of the knock. As if on cue, the door itself began to gradually open, to reveal a pair of familiar heterochromatic brown eyes along with a small and happy smile.

"Guess what's just come?" the Dutch woman asked with cheer in her voice, holding up a rather large rectangular cardboard box in both of her hands, displaying the YouTube icon in bold black letters and symbols. The Irish man inside of the office grinned, fully taking off his headphones as he stood up to walk towards the door. As the pair stood a few feet apart, the woman handed him the box. "And to think that for the past few days you've been panicking, thinking that they weren't send a new one. I hate to say, "I told you so," but... well, that's a lie, I do like to say it." She laughed heartily, and her boyfriend laughed along with her.

"Thank you, Evelien!" the man said with relief, viewing the front of the box with a thankful smile.

"Try not to let BB knock this one off of the table again, alright?" Evelien joked, before planting a farewell kiss on the Irish man's cheek. "I'll let you get back to your recording, Seán, I just thought that you would want to know."

"Thank you, I'll be down in an hour or so!" the Irish man stated, as his girlfriend softly closed the door to his office. He turned back towards his desk and hurried over. He didn't have any box cutters or scissors in his room, but he did have a sharp pencil, so he used that to break through the tape seals on the box. He pushed away some wires and loose objects on his table, before gently placing the box down. With meticulous care, he lifted the lid, before removing a protective layer of dark grey foam which had been placed on top of his desired item. He smiled broadly as he saw it.

A YouTube Diamond Play Button.

The award was given whenever a YouTube channel would reach ten million subscribers. It was a slight silver-blue colour, made of a thick acrylic or glass infused with some sort of metal - Seán didn't know the details - that he had sadly learnt was very breakable. The house cat who belonged to Evelien, who was called Big Boss (or BB for short) tended to climb up on any surface he could find even if he couldn't fit. A misadventure upon Seán's office desk had resulted in the Irish man's original award being knocked to the floor, breaking with a resounding crack. Its triangular centrepiece fell out, while the main body of the award was left with a hairline fracture across its main face. Seán had been devastated, something which signified such an important mile stone in his life suddenly shattering before him. However, with the help of Evelien, they had contacted YouTube Support and they had sent him a new one.