Déjà Vu

This text was published on a blog on 05/06/2010.

Hello. My name is Mark and I'm 16 years old. What I'm going to tell you today is kinda unbelievable and nonetheless shocking but it really happened. I liked A LOT to hang out with my friends. On Fridays we used to come to my house, where my mom would be making us some snacks and they'd stay there for the weekend. We were 4 people. Me, Jack, Amanda and Julie. We would watch some movies and sometimes, when the girls were more into sticking their eyes into their phones for about 1 hour, me and Jack would play some games. I always beat him up in EVERY game. In one of these weekends that we were heading to my house, Jack pulled a weird talk:
-yo Mark! Yesterday I was watching a video on YouTube about the Deep Web.
-And...? -I replied, a bit confused
-I think we should go there this weekend
-Definitely not!!!
-Mark, quit being such a pussy dude, I'll install everything you need to protect yourself when we get to your house, don't worry.
And I still wasn't convinced to go there... All the creepy stuff I heard. All the slaves, murder videos, and Satanism cults. But Jack convinced me to go there. The girls were laughing at me the whole time because I was so scared to go there, but I don't think they knew what was ahead of them. I don't have that much to talk about Julie, she was that typical crazy party girl who was always packed with some weed, nothing that interested me. But Amanda... I had a huge crush on Amanda, and tried several times to kiss her but she always rejected me. She was a cheerleader, but not those dumb, slutty cheerleaders from the movies. She was smart but adventurous at the same time. She liked radical sports a lot. And to a girl like this I had to show that I was strong and not afraid. So I just rolled with Jack's plan. He was so obsessed with the idea of going to the deep web that he kept telling us stories from it. Something about some red rooms, hiring hitmen, buying guns, fake us passports. He was really curious to see if all that was real. I, personally, was more afraid than curious. When we got home, he didn't even stop to greet my mother, he just went straight to the room and started going around my pc installing everything we needed to "browse safely on the deep web" like Jack said... Pfft, yeah right, safely...
My mom called him to go grab some snacks but he just ignored her and when me and the girls arrived to my room, he already had installed everything. I don't know how he managed to install everything so quickly but he did. In all honesty I wasn't ready to face something so big like the deep web but I had no choice then. And there it all started. All the crazy things... If I could go back in time I would smack Jack when he gave the idea. We opened up TOR (a browser designed for the deep web with the minimum recommended tools for anonymity and security) and went to a directory with a lot of links, all separated by categories. We looked around and bashed to A LOT of FUCKED UP shit. Pedophilia, slavery, all the fucked up shit you can imagine. But one thing I definitely didn't expect to see was a video of my friends being hung by ropes followed by them being decapitated. But there it was, just playing on loop while we sat there, stupidly scared. We had so many questions, but no words came out of our mouths. How did that video ended up on there? When did they record that? Why would they record that? And while those thoughts scrolled through my head I just talked in fear:
-wh-when did you record this?
-WE DIDN'T! -Jack yelled
-HOW THE FUCK COULD WE RECORD US BEING DECAPITATED?
-I DON'T KNOW, FOR A FUCKIN SCHOOL PROJECT, FOR A MOVIE, BRO I DON'T FUCKIN KNOW.
-WHAT FUCKIN SCHOOL PROJECT IS THAT?
And while we argued, the pc turned off by himself and it wouldn't turn on again. We were so scared of what just happened that we didn't even say a word to each other. The day ended and the night arrived. We just went to sleep, trying to forget what happened that day. The next day they asked me to go to their houses earlier. And so they went. I took them to my entrance door where my mom was, confused by seeing them leave, but I just told her that they were leaving earlier because they had school projects they forgot about.
And by the end of the weekend, I was still traumatized by what happened. Why would my friends be on that video? Why am I not in it? What the fuck is happening?
I just wanted to go to school and forget about it. Pfft, first time I ever say something like this. "I wanna go to school". But the truth is, that day I truly wanted to leave the house and just go to school. And so the week started and I finally could go to school and see them again. I was hoping that they wouldn't be mad at me for doubting Jack about recording that video. I arrived late at school, as always. Everybody knew about our "sleepovers" at my house so when I opened my class door my teacher said:
-Well well, your little party this weekend must have been productive.
-Wh-what do you mean?... -I asked, stuttering.
-Well you're the first one to arrive. And you're already late, imagine the rest of the group that still hasn't arrived.
At that moment my heart stopped beating. I started looking around the classroom trying to find them but they really weren't there. I just went to my seat, scared, and didn't even pay attention to the class. I couldn't take it anymore. When the bell rang I called them but no one answered. I then called my mom asking if I could go home because "I was ill". She came to pick me up. When we arrived home I had no second thoughts. I called them again, but they didn't answer. I, then, called Jack's parents.
-Hello? Is this Jack's dad?
-Umm, yeah, who is this?
-This is Mark. Is Jack there?
-What do you mean? Wasn't he supposed to be with you at school?
-He was, but he didn't come to school and I'm worried!
-He didn't... He didn't what? Why didn't he go to school with you since he stayed at your house the whole weekend and was supposed to only come home today??
-Wh... What? He went home Saturday...
-No, he didn't!
And there, my heart stopped again.
-I need to do something, I'll call back... -I said nervously
-DON'T HANG UP ON ME AND TELL ME-
I didn't even listen what he was about to say, I just hung up on him. I called each girls' parents and the answers were always the same. "Wasn't she supposed to be with you?"
I was shocked. What the hell happened to them? Did that video had something to do with this? I just ran nervous to my room and tried to turn on the pc again, but it didn't turn on. I just layed in bed trying to forget all this but the thoughts of them being dead and that being related to the video wouldn't stop scrolling through my head. Suddenly, I see a bright light on my side and I turn there. It was my pc. It turned on by itself. And when it turned on, a video started playing. It was the same ambience as the other but... This time it was my mother that was in that video. A tear fell of my eye as the video kept playing. In the video, my mom was making dinner when a masked man opened our kitchen window, entered our house and stabbed her 3 times in the chest while she yelled for help. He then ran away from my house. And with that, the video stopped playing and my pc just turned off again. No loop this time. I froze, just staring at the black screen of the computer, not being able to move. When I managed to move I just ran straight downstairs to check on my mom and while I was going down the stairs I heard a scream. I ran faster. When I came to the kitchen I saw my mom laying on the ground, dead, with 3 knife marks on her chest, bleeding. All I wanted was to scream as loud as I could and cry the amount of tears that could fill up a river but I couldn't even say a single word. I saw the opened window and went to it and from a far distance I saw a masked man running away. I burst in tears and called the police. When they arrived I explained how the man was by the things I saw in the video because I couldn't identify him from what I saw from the window, due to the fact that he was too far away, but I didn't tell em about the video. They could think I was a liar or even arrest me for browsing illegal activities. The investigation led nowhere around the identity of the murderer. They didn't find the man who killed her. But they did find, going through the forest that I saw the man running to, 3 decapitated bodies. And yes, it was them. Jack, Julie and Amanda. They all had written on their bodies "Déjà vu" which is a popular French expression for "already seen". I was in the edge of sanity feeling like my feet were being grabbed to insanity. My friends were dead, and most importantly... My mom was dead. I'm now in my room alone, writing this, trying to warn you all to not go to the deep web! And... Hold on... My PC just turned on again... Oh no... This can't be good. A video popped up. It's my room and... Oh no. It's the masked man again... He's climbing to my window! I'm gonna run away, I'll just publish this text and just run away from home! When I'm in a safe place I'll keep you updated, I promise. Remember, don't go to the deep web!

9 years have gone by and the author never wrote back. Nobody knows what happened to him. More victims were made in this period, with "déjà vu" written in all their bodies and all of them killed in different ways. Some victims could not be identified since they were either burned or skinned. Mark's case became so famous that rumors were created. Some say that his body was never found, others say that one of those unidentified bodies was his, but few say he's alive. Other blogs were made in the last years by people who have experienced a similar situation as Mark's but none of them are still alive as they were murdered by the now known "Déjà Vu Killer".