Everything started three weeks ago when I received an email from a man named Thomas. I had a portfolio website set up with my contact information, so getting cold emails was not entirely unusual. The subject line simply read "Private Animation Commission." I opened the email while I was drinking my morning coffee. Thomas wrote that he needed a very specific, photorealistic walking loop of a human character. He did not want a stylized cartoon, and clearly demanded absolute realism. He wanted the skin textures, the clothing folds, and the walking gait to look exactly like a real human being. The email stated that he would provide extensive reference photos. I replied and asked for his budget. My jaw dropped when his response came through a few minutes later. Thomas offered an upfront payment of five thousand dollars to build the character model and the animation rig. After the animation was completed, he offered to pay me a daily retainer of five hundred dollars. There was a very strange condition attached to this retainer. Thomas insisted that the completed animation must run on an endless loop on my primary laptop. The screen could never go to sleep, and the laptop could never be turned off. He warned me that catastrophic consequences would occur if the loop ever stopped playing. I thought it was some kind of elaborate prank. I decided to call the phone number he provided in the email signature to figure out what was actually going on. A man answered after the second ring. His voice sounded exhausted. "Hello?" he asked. "Hi, is this Thomas? This is Leo, the animator you just emailed," I said. "Yes, Leo. Thank you for calling me back so quickly," Thomas replied. "I wanted to discuss your proposal because the terms are a bit unusual," I explained. "I can definitely build a photorealistic model for you. Five thousand dollars is a very generous budget for a walk cycle. But I do not understand the daily retainer part. Why do you need the video to play continuously on my computer?" "That is the most important part of the job," Thomas said. "The loop must remain active on your machine. You built the model, so your hardware has to sustain it. I will wire the five hundred dollars to your account every single morning at eight o'clock. You just have to make sure your laptop never loses power, and to keep the screen bright. If you close the lid, the contract is over." "For how long?" I asked. "Forever," Thomas answered. "You want to pay me five hundred dollars a day forever?" I asked, feeling incredibly skeptical. "I have a considerable amount of savings," Thomas explained. "I do not care about the money. I only care about the animation running without interruption. Do you accept the job?" I hesitated because the situation sounded entirely absurd. But I was behind on my rent. My car needed new brakes. So it was clear that I needed the cash badly. "Okay, Thomas," I said. "Send me the reference photos. I will send you an invoice for the upfront fee." "The money is already being transferred," Thomas said. "I am sending the photos right now. Make him look exactly like the pictures." The phone call ended. A minute later, a folder with thirty high-resolution images arrived in my inbox. I opened the folder to see who I would be animating. The man in the photos was completely unremarkable. He looked to be in his late thirties. He had a receding hairline and a slight amount of stubble on his chin. He was wearing a dull gray jacket over a plain white t-shirt and loose denim jeans. He looked like a guy you would pass in the grocery store without giving a second glance. The photos showed his face from every possible angle. I spent the rest of the day setting up the character rig in my animation software. I used digital sculpting tools to recreate the exact shape of his nose and the subtle wrinkles around his eyes. That evening, I logged onto Discord to talk to my friend Felix. Felix is also a freelance digital artist. We usually chat while we work on our respective projects. "You will not believe the gig I just landed," I told Felix over the voice channel. "Did you finally get hired by that game studio?" Felix asked. "No, it is a private client," I said. "He paid me five grand upfront to animate a guy walking in a circle. Furthermore, he promised to pay me five hundred bucks a day just to leave the video playing on my laptop screen." Felix went silent for a few seconds. "That sounds like a scam, Leo." "The five thousand dollars already cleared in my bank account," I replied. "The money is real." "Why would anyone pay you just to leave your computer on?" Felix asked. "He has to be using your computer for crypto mining. Or maybe he wants to install malware to harvest your data." "I thought about that," I said. "But he didn't send me any software to install. He just sent me JPEGs of a guy's face. I am the one generating the MP4 video file, so I am just going to play a video file I created myself on a loop. There is no way for him to hack me through a video file I exported from my own software." "It still sounds shady," Felix warned. "Be careful. People do not just give away money like that." "I know it is weird," I admitted. "But I really need this cash. I am going to finish the walk cycle tonight." I stayed up until four in the morning perfecting the animation. I made sure the weight distribution looked realistic as the digital man stepped forward, added a slight slump to his shoulders to match the posture in the photos, then placed him against a completely blank background that was rendered in a neutral eighteen percent gray. I exported the file, uploaded it to a private link, and sent it to Thomas for approval. Thomas called me at eight in the morning. "It is perfect," Thomas said. He sounded breathless. "It looks exactly like him." "I am glad you like it," I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "Start the loop right now," Thomas ordered. "Do not stop it. I am sending your first daily payment." I opened the video file in my media player, then set it to repeat endlessly. The digital man in the gray jacket started walking forward across my screen. The blank gray background scrolled endlessly behind him. "The loop is running," I confirmed. "Keep it running," Thomas said before hanging up. A notification popped up on my phone. Thomas had transferred five hundred dollars to my account. I moved my laptop to the corner of my desk, plugged it directly into the wall outlet to ensure the battery would never die, then adjusted the power settings so the screen would never dim or go to sleep. I decided I would just use my older desktop computer for my regular daily tasks while the laptop functioned as an expensive digital picture frame. The first three days passed without any issues. The digital man kept walking. Thomas sent the payments every morning exactly at eight o'clock. My sister Maya came over to my apartment on the fourth day. She brought a pizza for us to share for lunch. She walked into my small office area and immediately noticed the laptop glowing in the corner. "Why is that guy just walking on your screen?" Maya asked, taking a slice of pepperoni pizza. "It is a weird freelance job," I explained. "The client pays me to keep that animation running constantly." Maya squinted at the screen. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Who is the guy in the video?" "I have no idea," I said. "The client provided the reference photos. I named the project file 'Simon' because he looks like a Simon to me, but the client's name is Thomas." Maya sat down on my office chair. "He looks miserable. You did a good job on the animation because his face looks incredibly sad." "I just copied the photos," I said. "The client is giving me five hundred dollars a day for this. I can finally pay off my credit cards." "Just do not let it catch fire," Maya joked, pointing at the laptop. "That thing is getting pretty hot." She was right. The laptop fans were spinning loudly. I placed a small desk fan next to the computer to help dissipate the heat, and Maya left an hour later, telling me to enjoy my bizarre windfall. The weird things started happening on the fifth day. I woke up and went to my desk to check on the laptop. The digital man was still walking forward. However, the background looked different. I originally rendered the video with a solid gray background. Now, the background had a slight gradient. The bottom half of the screen was noticeably darker than the top half, looking almost like an asphalt road stretching out into the distance. I rubbed my eyes, assuming I was just seeing things because I had just woken up. I opened the original project file on my desktop computer to double-check my work. The background in the source file was perfectly uniform. There was no gradient. I looked back at the laptop. The gradient was definitely there. I called Felix on Discord to ask for his opinion. "Hey Felix, do video files ever corrupt and change colors while they are playing?" I asked. "Not really," Felix answered. "Usually, if a file corrupts, you get green artifacting or the video just crashes. Why?" "The background on that walking loop I made is changing," I explained. "It was supposed to be solid gray. Now it looks like a road. It is really creeping me out." "You probably just exported it with a transparent alpha channel," Felix suggested. "Maybe your media player is pulling a background from your desktop wallpaper." "I rendered it as a solid MP4," I argued. "There is no alpha channel." "Then your monitor is suffering from screen burn-in," Felix said dismissively. "You left a static color playing for five days straight. The LCD panel is probably getting damaged." I accepted that explanation because it was the only logical answer. I thanked Felix and hung up. But the situation escalated that evening. I was eating dinner in my living room when I heard a loud crack of thunder outside. A massive rainstorm had rolled into Seattle. Rain began lashing against my apartment windows. I walked into my office to grab a napkin from my desk, then glanced at the laptop screen. The digital man was still walking. But he was no longer walking against a gray background. Raindrops were falling across the screen. The animation showed water streaming down the man's face. His gray jacket was visibly soaked, clinging tightly to his digital frame. The background clearly depicted a dark, wet highway illuminated by faint streetlights. I froze in place I reached out and touched the laptop screen. It was burning hot. I knew for a fact that I did not animate rain, or even build a particle simulation for water. I did not design a wet texture for his clothing. The video file was altering itself in real-time to match the weather outside my window. I grabbed my phone and dialed Thomas's number. It rang five times before going to voicemail, but I did not leave a message. I was too terrified to speak. I sat in my office chair for hours, watching the impossible animation. When the rain stopped outside my window around midnight, the rain on the screen stopped as well. The digital man's clothes slowly began to dry as he continued his endless march forward. I should have closed the laptop right then. I should have deleted the file and blocked Thomas's number. But the fear was overshadowed by my financial desperation. Thomas sent another five hundred dollars the next morning, so I convinced myself I was experiencing some kind of elaborate technical glitch. The horrifying truth finally revealed itself on the seventh day. I was browsing a local news website on my desktop computer while the laptop hummed loudly beside me. I saw a breaking news banner at the top of the homepage. It announced a live helicopter broadcast of a bizarre situation unfolding on Interstate 90. I clicked the link to watch the live video feed. The news anchor was speaking rapidly over the footage. "We are currently tracking a man walking eastbound on the shoulder of Interstate 90," the anchor explained. "State patrol officers have been following him for over seventy-two hours. He has not stopped walking. He refuses to acknowledge police commands, and has not stopped for food, water, or sleep. Medical professionals believe he is experiencing a severe psychological break." The helicopter camera zoomed in on the man walking along the highway. My breath caught in my throat. The man was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a dull gray jacket. He had a receding hairline. He was slumped forward, walking with a steady, shuffling gait. It was the man from my animation. Simon! I looked at my laptop screen. The character took a step with his left foot. On the live news broadcast, the real man took a step with his left foot. They were perfectly synchronized. The real man looked horrific. His shoes were completely destroyed. His feet were bleeding, leaving small red marks on the asphalt. His face was gaunt, sunburned, and twisted in an expression of absolute agony, and he looked like his body was being forced to move against his will. I paused the news video, looked back at the laptop. The digital character's face was also twisted in agony now. I opened a new tab on my browser. I needed to know who this man was and why Thomas wanted him walking. I typed Thomas's email address into the search bar, hoping to find a social media profile or a personal website. The search engine returned a link to a local newspaper article published exactly one year ago. I clicked the link. The headline read: "Bellevue Father Demands Justice After Hit-And-Run Driver Acquitted." I read the article quickly. It detailed a horrific accident where a drunk driver swerved onto a sidewalk, striking and killing a seven-year-old girl named Hazel. The driver fled the scene but was later apprehended by police. However, due to a massive procedural error involving the mishandling of evidence, the driver's defense attorney got the charges dismissed, and he walked completely free. The article included an interview with the grieving father. The father's name was Thomas. At the bottom of the page, the newspaper published the mugshot of the acquitted driver. The face in the mugshot belonged to Simon. The puzzle pieces snapped together in my mind, forming a picture that made me feel physically sick. Thomas used my animation skills to create a voodoo doll, so as long as the animation kept looping on my computer, Simon was forced to walk in the real world. I looked at the live helicopter feed again. The real Simon stumbled, almost falling into the traffic lane, before his legs jerked unnaturally to keep him moving forward. I could not be a part of this. Regardless of what Simon did, I could not be the executioner pulling the lever. I reached out and slammed the laptop lid shut. The screen went black, and the fan immediately spun down into silence. The moment the laptop closed, the temperature inside my apartment plummeted. The air grew so freezing cold that I could see my own breath. The overhead lights flickered wildly before shattering in their sockets, plunging the room into darkness. I stood up from my chair, my entire body shaking with terror. A soft, wet sound echoed from the dark corner of my office. It sounded like someone crying. Small, quiet sobs filled the freezing air. I grabbed my cell phone from the desk and turned on the flashlight application. I shined the beam into the corner of the room. A little girl was standing there. She was wearing a pink dress that was completely soaked in dark blood. Her body was bent at impossible angles because her bones were completely shattered. Deep, black tire marks were permanently pressed across the fabric of her dress and into the pale skin of her arms. I backed away slowly, my hands trembling violently. "I am sorry," I whispered. "I stopped it. I did not know what he was doing." she stopped crying, then slowly lifted her head to look at me. Her eyes were completely black voids. She shrieked in anger. The sound was deafening, rattling the windows in their frames. It was the sound of rage. Suddenly, a massive crash echoed from my front hallway. Someone had just kicked down my apartment door. I spun around, aiming my phone flashlight toward the hallway. Thomas marched into the apartment. He looked deranged. His clothes were messy, his face was pale, and he was holding a black handgun. He aimed the weapon directly at my chest. "You stopped it!" Thomas screamed, tears streaming down his face. "I knew something was off when you called and didn’t leave a message. Why did you close it? I told you never to close it!" "You were killing him!" I yelled back, raising my hands in surrender. "You were using my computer to torture that man!" "He deserved it!" Thomas roared, stepping closer to me. "He killed my baby girl! and walked away free! He was supposed to walk forever! The spell required the loop to never end!" "I am not a murderer, Thomas," I pleaded. "Please put the gun down." "He just collapsed on the highway!" Thomas cried, his hands shaking around the grip of the gun. "The moment you closed the laptop; he finally dropped dead! He got off too easy! you ended his suffering far too early! You ruined everything!" Thomas raised the gun higher, preparing to pull the trigger. "Daddy?" a small, distorted voice echoed from the dark office behind me. Thomas froze. His eyes widened in shock as he looked past my shoulder. I stepped aside, keeping my hands raised. The girl walked slowly out of the shadows. Her broken legs dragged unnaturally across the hardwood floor. Thomas dropped to his knees, lowering the gun. Tears poured freely from his eyes. "Hazel? Oh my god, Hazel. I am so sorry, baby. I tried to make him pay. I tried to hurt him for you." He reached his arms out, expecting to embrace his deceased daughter. But Hazel did not want a hug. She shrieked again and launched herself forward with terrifying speed. She slammed into Thomas, her shattered body hitting him like a freight train. Thomas screamed as they tumbled backward out of my apartment doorway. My unit is located at the top of a steep flight of wooden stairs leading to the ground floor. Thomas fell backward over the threshold, then crashed down the stairs, tumbling over himself in the darkness. I heard his head strike the wooden banister with a sickening crack. He landed in a crumpled heap at the bottom of the stairwell. I ran to the doorway and shined my flashlight down the stairs. Thomas was not moving. His neck was bent at a completely unnatural angle. The gun was lying on the floor a few feet away from his hand. Hazel was gone. The freezing temperature in the air vanished instantly, replaced by the normal warmth of the apartment building. I retreated back into my apartment, locked the broken door as best as I could, and called the police. I sat on my sofa until the officers arrived. Two patrolmen came up the stairs. An investigator named Officer Gabriel interviewed me in my kitchen. I did not tell Officer Gabriel about the animation, or even mention the spell, the laptop, or the ghost of the little girl. I knew he would never believe me I simply told Officer Gabriel that Thomas was an unsatisfied client who broke into my apartment to demand a refund. I claimed he was yelling at me when he accidentally lost his balance and fell backward down the stairs. Officer Gabriel took notes on his pad, and went downstairs to examine the scene. When he returned, he told me that Thomas smelled heavily of alcohol. The police concluded that Thomas was drunk, became belligerent over a business dispute, and suffered a fatal accidental fall. They took my statement, bagged Thomas's gun as evidence, and left me alone in my apartment. I am typing this out on my desktop computer because I refuse to open that laptop ever again. I wrapped the laptop in a thick garbage bag and threw it into the dumpster behind my building. I checked the news one final time before starting this post. The authorities confirmed that the man walking on Interstate 90 suffered a heart attack and died instantly on the shoulder of the road. I am terrified. Terrified that the magic Thomas used is not completely gone, that the grieving parent will return to seek revenge against me for breaking the loop and ruining his vengeance. I hear every single creak in my apartment walls, wondering if it is Thomas climbing back up the stairs. submitted by /u/gamalfrank [link] [comments]
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