Channel 88 (Revised)

 Alex's nightly routine was to stay up late from 7:45 AM to midnight, munching on chips and watching TV. He got some chips and some soda, got settled into his bed, and started surfing through the channels, reading them out loud as he went on. "Channel 87, boring jewelry showcase, Channel 88, picture of 8 ball...". He stopped.

Channel 88 was always static. He and his friends often joked about it being a crude Indian news channel, or a defunct kids show, but no matter how many times he passed by it while surfing, the channel was always static. In fact, it was the only channel in Alex's local that never showed anything.

 "Channel 88 is actually showing something?" he thought to himself. He stared at the screen. He couldn't believe his eyes. He even checked the time to make sure it wasn't 2:00 AM and he wasn't hallucinating, but it was only 7:58. What's strange though, was instead of the number eight on the ball, it was a number one. It was peculiar, but he didn't think much of it. Alex was getting bored though. The screen wasn't changing, it was just a still frame of an eight ball. As he was about to change channels, the screen finally changed to what appeared to be a dark, sketchy alleyway shot by an old camera. There was a time stamp in the corner that read "AUGUST / 08 / 8:00 PM".

Alex stared, confused as to what he was looking at, when all of a sudden a young blonde girl was pulled into frame by a big man wearing a ski mask. The girl's mouth was taped shut and rope was tied tight around her arms and legs. Alex had a bad feeling in his gut, but he didn't move or change the channel. The big guy in the ski mask then proceeded to painfully cut through the girl's stomach with a big knife, slashing through her ribs and organs, until he reached her heart. He grasped the heart, and crushed it with a nasty squish. The girl had stopped squirming as soon as her heart was pulled out and crushed, literally. The big man walked away, and Channel 88 went back to static.

Alex was frozen in place. He couldn't believe what he had just seen. But the thing is, Alex enjoyed it. He enjoyed every last second of it. He wanted to see more. Alex remembered the time, 8:00, and went to sleep with intent to see it again tomorrow.

The next day went by fast, and Alex couldn't wait to see the next gruesome torture and murder. But when 8:00 rolled around and he turned on Channel 88, it was static. He was confused, but he waited, and waited, and waited, but nothing popped up but the annoying sight and sound of static. He didn't get any sleep that night, but he soon forgot about it in around a month. However, a year later, Alex got his satisfaction.

Alex was surfing channels while eating chips and drinking soda, just like he was doing last year, when he stumbled across Channel 88 again, this time the number on the eight ball was two. He remembered what had happened last year, and anticipated what would come next.

The screen changed to what looked like a sewers system, the familiar timestamp reading "AUGUST / 08 / 8:00 PM". Then, the same big man in a ski mask pulled a brown haired girl who looked like a teen into view. Like last time, the girls mouth was taped and her hands were tied.

The man cut through her stomach, ribs, and organs, pulled out her heart, and crushed it. She died early this time, dying as soon as the man cut through her ribs. "How unfortunate..." Alex thought. "She didn't get to see what was going to happen at the end." Like usual, the big man walked away, and Channel 88 changed to static. He realized it happened every year on August 8th, and from then on, he never missed a murder.

The picture of the eight ball always changed in numbers. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and eventually, the final one, the number 8. Alex stared at the screen intently. The light from it gleamed in his face. He waited, staring at the TV with malice. The screen changed, and it showed the front of Alex's house.