Yandere Stream

Kai stared at the glowing screen beneath the hallway table.

Welcome to 7B.

The words refused to make sense.

His apartment wasn’t 7B.

He remembered signing the lease himself. He’d sat in the management office pretending to read thirty pages of legal jargon while secretly wondering if anyone had ever read an apartment lease from beginning to end. His unit number had been printed on every page.

It wasn’t 7B.

So why did everything tonight keep leading back there?

His grip tightened around his phone.

"Derek."

"I’m here."

"What exactly do you mean nobody knows who lived there?"

The other end of the call fell quiet for a moment. Kai could hear keyboards clicking, muffled voices, and what sounded like a police radio in the background.

Derek wasn’t sitting at his streaming setup anymore.

He was somewhere else.

Somewhere busy.

Somewhere moving.

"I’ve been trying to verify a few things," Derek finally said. "I wasn’t going to tell you until I knew I wasn’t chasing internet nonsense."

Kai let out a hollow laugh.

"I think we passed internet nonsense about six hours ago."

"...Fair."

Derek exhaled.

"When your stream started blowing up tonight, people started digging."

"People?"

"My community. Yours. Reddit. Forums. Amateur investigators." He sounded almost impressed despite himself. "The internet is terrifying when it decides to cooperate."

Kai couldn’t argue with that.

Somewhere out there, thousands of strangers were probably digging through property records, archived blueprints, and decade-old building photos because one exhausted streamer had received a series of impossible text messages.

The internet had never been good at moderation.

"They found something."

Kai’s pulse quickened.

"What?"

"The building you’re in wasn’t always laid out like it is now."

Kai frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"The seventh floor used to have a different floor plan."

His eyes drifted toward the maintenance shaft hidden behind the bookshelf.

Derek continued before Kai could interrupt.

"The apartments were renovated years ago. Walls were moved. Storage spaces were converted. Some units were merged together. Others were split apart."

Kai slowly looked around his apartment.

The narrow hallway.

The oddly shaped living room.

The bookshelf that had always felt strangely out of place.

The hidden maintenance shaft concealed behind it.

A thought crept into his mind.

Quiet.

Unwelcome.

"What if..."

His voice came out softer than he’d intended.

"What if my apartment used to be part of 7B?"

No one answered.

Not Derek.

Not Luna.

Even the chat seemed to hesitate.

The silence lingered just long enough to feel like confirmation.

Then the stream exploded.

MidnightPasta:

WAIT...

SleepyCrow:

BRO DON’T SAY THAT

404CoffeeMissing:

THE SECRET WALL

PixelPizza:

THAT WOULD EXPLAIN EVERYTHING

Kai rubbed both hands over his face.

"I hate when chat starts making sense."

"You and me both."

Derek sounded exhausted.

"I’ve already requested the original building plans."

Kai blinked.

"You can just... do that?"

"I know people."

He raised an eyebrow.

"I suddenly have a lot of questions."

"You can ask them after you survive the night."

"...Fair enough."

The hidden phone beneath the hallway table slowly dimmed.

The screen faded to black.

Its job, apparently, was finished.

Kai barely reacted.

That realization disturbed him.

Twelve hours ago, a phone turning itself on would’ve been enough to send him into a full-blown panic.

Now it barely cracked the top five strangest things that had happened tonight.

His definition of normal had shifted far too quickly.

Luna spoke for the first time in nearly a minute.

"Kai."

"Yeah?"

"I need you to answer something honestly."

"When have I not?"

She ignored the joke.

"When was the last time you left your apartment?"

He frowned.

"...What?"

"The last time."

He thought about it.

"I streamed yesterday."

"I know."

"I ordered food."

"I know."

"I..."

His thoughts slowed.

"...I don’t actually remember."

She didn’t respond immediately.

Instead, she asked another question.

"When was the last time you slept properly?"

Kai blinked.

"...You’re changing the subject."

"No."

Her voice remained calm.

"I’m trying to understand something."

He looked toward the rain-speckled window.

The darkness outside had begun giving way to the dull gray of early morning.

Had that much time really passed?

"I don’t know."

The admission came quietly.

"I think..."

A tired laugh escaped him.

"...Maybe three days?"

The chat immediately erupted.

ActuallyConcerned:

THREE DAYS???

BeanPoweredHuman:

GO TO BED BRO

ToastAttorney:

HE’S HALLUCINATING AT THIS POINT

Kai sighed.

"They’re judging me."

"They’re worried."

Luna’s answer was soft.

"So am I."

His chest tightened.

He wanted to make another joke.

Pretend the concern didn’t affect him.

Instead, he simply nodded.

"I know."

Another notification appeared.

This one came from one of his moderators.

MiloMod:

Kai...

Please don’t freak out.

Kai stared at the message.

"...That’s a horrible way to start a sentence."

Another one appeared almost immediately.

MiloMod:

We were reviewing your VOD.

"The VOD?"

MiloMod:

The beginning of tonight’s stream.

Kai frowned.

"What about it?"

The typing indicator appeared.

Stopped.

Started again.

Finally—

MiloMod:

You weren’t alone when the stream started.

Kai felt the room tilt.

"...What?"

A timestamp appeared.

00:03:17

Pause the VOD. Look at the hallway.

His hand moved almost automatically toward the mouse.

He opened the recording.

The beginning of the stream.

Before the first text message.

Before Luna joined the call.

Before everything fell apart.

The VOD loaded.

Kai dragged the timeline to the timestamp.

Three minutes.

Seventeen seconds.

He pressed pause.

The frame froze.

There he was, sitting at his desk, adjusting his microphone before greeting chat.

Everything looked completely ordinary.

His cluttered desk.

The glowing monitors.

The hallway behind him disappearing into darkness.

He almost closed the recording.

Then he saw it.

A figure.

Standing perfectly still in the hallway.

Half-hidden in shadow.

Watching him.

No movement.

No attempt to hide.

Just... watching.

Kai’s blood turned to ice.

Slowly, he zoomed in.

The image became grainy.

Blurry.

The stream camera wasn’t good enough to capture details from that far away.

But one thing became unmistakably clear.

The figure wasn’t facing the camera.

It was facing him.

Watching him adjust his headset.

Watching him prepare to go live.

Watching him... before the first strange text.

Before the first phone call.

Before any of it had begun.

A cold realization settled over the apartment.

Tonight hadn’t started when his phone buzzed.

It hadn’t started when Luna joined the call.

It hadn’t even started when he pressed Start Streaming.

It had already begun.

Because according to the timestamp...

Someone had been inside his apartment before the stream ever went live.