Image exposure: 24 hours

Anon woke up before his alarm and let out a yawn as he stretched his limbs to shake off the stiffness. This time he checked his phone as soon as the the veil of sleep was fully lifted from his mind. He had to admit that the images he had been getting yesterday were intriguing, prank or not.

He had received two more images during the night. The first was of the parking lot at his workplace. Anon could clearly see the same black furry ears that had been in the previous pictures poking out from behind a car in this one, and chuckled a little as he noticed them. At least the prankster was being consistent with the effort they were putting into this. At this point Anon would have been a bit disappointed if he hadn’t seen the ears.


Anon opened the next image, which was of the frozen meal aisle of the grocery store that had become part of Anon’s weekly routine. Like the other pictures it was of a familiar place that he associated with safety and the normalcy that accompanied his weekly grocery trips. The little furry ears in the past images had done little to disturb that feeling, and Anon hadn’t expected this image to be any different. Yet as he looked at the image and noticed the abnormality he felt the comforting feeling quickly evaporate. Peering into the aisle from around the corner was a canine looking skull topped with matted black fur or hair. Two large white circles, nearly the same color as the bone white skull, nearly filled each eye socket of the skull. There was no mistaking the fact that they were staring directly at the camera.

>>too much telling here

A shiver ran down Anon’s spine as he stared into the eyes of the skull. After a few moments he shook off the unease and chuckled nervously to himself. He really did have to admit that this was a good prank; it had succeeded in briefly unsettling him. Anon simply did his best to shake off the feeling as he got dressed and headed off to work.

About midway into the day, Anon finally got a break for lunch. He decided to use it to go get lunch with Wo and see if he had found out anything useful. The two of them met up at Anon’s favorite pizza place since it was close to their workplace. As Anon entered the shop he remembered the picture of this place he was sent - the one with the furry ears poking up from behind the counter - and couldn’t help but briefly entertain the thought of that being with the canine skull and matted black fur lurking behind the counter. He then had the thought that the whole point of the pictures was to make him have unnerving thoughts like that. He also noticed that Wo had already gotten a seat and was giving him a  funny look. Wo had already gotten a pizza large enough to share so Anon went ahead and took a seat next across from his friend.

“You doing all right, Anon? You looked a little spaced out when you got in here.”
Wo asked as he started on his half of the pizza.
“I’m fine.” Anon replied, grateful for his friend’s concern. “One of those pictures just got to me a little.”

“Let’s see it then.” Wo said between bites of pizza.

Anon got out his phone and brought up the most recent picture from the blank number. “Take a look at the end of the aisle there. Looks a lot creepier than a couple fuzzy ears.”

“That’s some REALLY fucking good photoshop there.” Wo said as he shook his head slowly. “Wish I could tell you who was sending you these, but all of the guys I asked swore up and down that they didn’t do it.”

Anon felt a mixture of disappointment and worry come over him. If no one he knew was in on this it meant that some weirdo had his phone number. “You managed to ask all the possible suspects?”

Wo shook his head again, quickly this time. “Not quite yet. I don’t have much hope that any of the last few people I’m going to ask will have done it though. None of them are the pranking type and I don’t think they have the photoshop skills for this.”


Anon finished the last bite of his burger before replying to his friend. “Thanks for trying anyway. I guess I’ll just have to ignore the messages or something.”

Wo likewise finished the last bit of his own meal before giving Anon a reply. “You should post those images on /x/, maybe claim you’re being haunted or something. Those images you’re getting are pretty much guaranteed replies.”

It was Anon’s turn to shake his head now. “I really don’t want to give this nonsense any more attention than I have to.”

Wo simply shrugged in response. “You do you. If I were you though, I wouldn’t want the prankster to be the only one having fun.”

“Posting this on a korean basket weaving forum would only give this dumb joke more attention. I’m going to keep up my strategy of ignoring it for the most part.” As much as Anon said he’d ignore the images, he still planned to open them up for a quick look when he got them. They were slightly intriguing after all.

That was the last they spoke of the issue for what little remained of their lunch hour. Anon got another picture before the working day was over. This one was of this pizza place again. The only difference was that the canid skull was peeking out from behind the counter at the same spot that the ears were protruding from in one of the earlier pictures. Anon again felt mildly unnerved looking at the picture. More from the fact that it was of a place he often visited than from the skull head. He again did his best to put thoughts of the pictures out of his mind and finish his daily routine.

As Anon drove home after finishing the day’s work he realized that there was a bright side to the pictures. The mystery of who was sending them and why was doing a very good job of distracting him from his recent breakup. As he arrived home he received another text from the unknown number. He tried his very best to just ignore the message. Curiosity won out, however, and Anon opened the message to view the image.


The picture was of the interior of the gym that anon went to whenever he had the time, although he hadn’t been particularly motivated to work out lately. He had to do a double take when he saw the skull again as this time it was attached to a tall body, covered in matted black fur. The creature seemed to be walking into an empty gym room, so Anon could only make out its right arm and a bit of its body. This brief glimpse of the body that the skull belonged to was more than enough to unnerve him, and he quickly closed the image.

Anon took some time before bed to relax by playing some video games for the first time in a few days, only going to bed after a few hours of this followed by a long shower. The next morning Anon was somewhat comforted to find that he had not received another picture from the blank number during the night. Hopefully this meant that the elaborate practical joke was finally over.
	This hope made the notification sound on his phone all the more chill inducing when he pulled into his work place’s parking lot. Once again he found that he couldn’t stop himself from opening the message from the blank number. This time Anon nearly jumped when he opened the image.The picture was of his front door, taken from inside his own house. Through the small window on the door Anon could make out that canid skull peering into the house with one of those pure white eyes.