I stood frozen in horror. Panic swept over my body and thoughts flooded my mind. What happened to my mother? Is she OK? What is this son of a bitch doing with her phone? I knew I had to calm down, something didn't seem right. I picked up the phone and looked at the caller ID. It just said mum, no number. Fuck, how could I be so stupid, he was just masking his caller ID, must be to throw me off balance. I'll play along, there must be something I'm missing.
"Wh.. What are you doing with my mum's phone? Where is she? Is she OK?"
A laugh came from the other end, a deep, disgusting laugh. I decided to record the call, maybe I can play around with the recording and find this caller’s real voice. It may not be much, but this asshole knows where I live and probably who my parents are. He starts talking.
"Danni, Danni, Danni. The safety of your mother depends on the outcome of our little game. I told you one's life is on the line but, I should have elaborated and said it shouldn't necessarily be the player's life. So, are you ready to play?"
At this point I had a thought; How can James see me? I have no cameras connected to the WiFi, my desktop camera is disconnected and I ripped out my laptop camera when I got the damn thing. Another option would be he broke into my apartment and installed cameras when I was out. But why would he risk getting caught like that. I may have cameras at home and catch him doing it. No he must be using one of my devices.
“Doesn't seem like I have a choice James. Let's fucking play.”
I braced myself for what he would say. We’ve all watched those horror movies, these games weren’t exactly Mario Kart sort of level. Suddenly I knew, I wanted to throw myself from my apartment for how stupid I'd been. In my hand I held the single device that had a camera and was connected to my WiFi. My fucking phone. I didn't want to jump to the conclusion that that was the only camera that was being used, so I decided to test it. Before I do anything though, he begins to speak.
“Well well Danni, I must say, you’ve got balls. Most guys would have started to cry or beg me to stop. This will most certainly be fun.”
I've had enough of this shit. I start to test my theory. I started googling shit like “how to track a phone call”, and “how to find cameras in a house”. I wanted to see if he could see my screen and sure enough the confirmation came through.
“Oh Danni, it’s cute you’re still trying to fight back. But I can assure you, you will not be able to track this call and you will not find out how I can see you.”
Challenge accepted dickhead. I angle my phone away from my bag and take out a USB dongle. If this asshole is on my WiFi I'm gonna make him think he's controlling all of my devices. I look for my laptop whilst trying to make as little noise as possible and again, angling the phone away from what I am doing. I find my laptop, boot it up and plug my dongle into it.
“Yeah well, I'm one tough son of a bitch… so when we playing James? And do go over the rules properly yeah? I'd like to whoop your ass playing by your rules dipshit.”
My strategy was to show no fear. In truth, I was terrified. But I knew the instant he smelled fear, he would have total control over me, and I'd fuck up and forget basic stuff like I had when this shit show first started. My laptop finished booting up. Excellent. I knew this fucker was using my network somehow. So I decided to hack my own network and see how he got in. Maybe he left something behind.
