Object 406

The Holder of Data

Go to any computer that has access to the internet. Make sure the connection is secure for if the connection breaks, even for a moment, your soul shall know the horror of being fractured into thousands of bytes of information and deleted.

Open the browser of your choice and go to whatever search engine you prefer. Type "The Holder of Data" into the search bar and pray. If you are lucky, nothing will happen, and a normal search page will come up. The Holder has decided to ignore you. I would recommend that you shut down the computer and walk away. Walk away from being a Seeker, and walk away from the Objects. Forget it all.

If, however, the Holder has decided to acknowledge your search, a black page will open and there will be two links. Click one. If you've selected the correct link, you will find that you now sit in an empty room that you've never seen before. Do not look around, keep your eyes on the screen in front of you. If you've clicked the wrong one and a pair of glowing eyes appear on the screen, turn the computer off and flee. Do not stop, not to rest nor sleep. Do not stop until you have no choice but to collapse. If you are lucky, you will get away before you are sucked into an eternity of agony so terrible that even the foulest of demons would weep for you.

If you made it to the room, minimize, but do not close, the screen that came up from your search, it should still look the same. Sit there quietly. Count the seconds if you must, but do not look away from the screen and make no sound but your own breathing and heartbeat. If you look away, or you make some sound, don't worry, your deletion will be far too quick for you to feel anything.

When the time passed has become so long that you can no longer count the seconds, you will hear a door open. Do not look. Open the page you minimized. If you see a well-dressed man on the screen, you are safe for now. If you see anything else, pray for insanity, it will make the suffering easier to bear.

A chat window will pop up, click on it but type nothing, and ignore the putrid breath on the nape of your neck. After a time, text will appear in the chat window. Don't try to read it, it is the language of the Objects and none yet live who can decipher it. Instead, type in "What do they know?"

If you get no response, or if you mistyped, the beast behind you will devour you, leaving nothing but your hands resting at the keyboard where you sat.

However, if an answer appears, it will be in the same language as before. Type your question again. The text will warp and swim across the screen, but you must not look away and you must not misspell anything. Eventually, it will pass, and if you are still sane, the text before you will be in your mother tongue and it will describe in horrifyingly clear detail every atrocity that every Seeker has ever committed in the name of the Objects and in finding their Holders. You must keep reading, though your eyes will burn with the strain of seeing such horrors even as a text and your mind will feel like it might splinter from the sheer evil of the actions. Do not scream, even as the fear seems to be clawing at your throat, even as you might claw at yourself in an attempt to end the torment.

If your every essence is not destroyed by these horrors, feel free to stand up and turn around. Don't worry, the monster is gone for now, and the door is open. No, no. You must leave the computer behind. Simply walk out the door. You'll find yourself waking up in the bed you last slept in on the morning you last woke in it. Beside you will be a black laptop.

The laptop is Object 406 of 2538. Knowledge is your greatest ally against Him.