Reset Your Password

The door slowly and quietly opens against a dark room. The young man enters cautiously. He is holding a knife in his left hand while he is using his right hand to push open the door. The light coming into the room from the window provides only a small amount of illumination, but enough that he can see that no one is in there. Taking a breath and relaxing, he closes the door behind him and locks it. He secures his knife in its pouch that is hooked to his belt loop and begins to work his way across the room. He sees the picture he’s looking for hanging on the far wall behind the desk that sits to the right side of the back of the room. As he passes the couch, he trips and, losing his balance, falls to the floor hitting his head on the area rug encompassing a small gathering area.

He picks himself up off the floor and turns, now facing the door that leads back out of the room. He takes his flashlight out of his back pocket and turns it on. As he begins to shine the light in front of him, he sees a couch that is situated to the right and stretches across half of the room, with a coffee table in front of it. To the left he sees a recliner that is situated at an inward slant completing a conversation area, but is suddenly startled by the presence of an old man sitting in the recliner. He quickly realizes that the old man is deceased and moves closer to get a better look at him. The man is sitting upright with his head leaning on the back of the recliner and both arms and hands lining the armrests.

“Poor old geezer,” the young man says to himself, “he probably died in his sleep.” He notices that the man’s left leg is not positioned next to the right leg, but rather off to the side placing his foot in the pathway between the recliner and the couch. He realizes that the man’s foot is what he tripped over. He shines the light back onto the old man’s face and for just a brief moment almost feels sorry for the man. “Well, I guess you won’t be needing your stuff anymore, ay old man?”

He turns away and quickens his pace to the painting on the wall. He carefully examines it and, grabbing onto the left side of the painting, pulls the picture away from the wall like a door, revealing the safe behind it. “Okay Roger, this had better be the right code or I will be choking you out when I get back.” He enters each number of the code into the keypad on the safe exactly how he memorized it, but to not avail.

"What?!"

He thinks for a moment, recalling the number he had previously memorized; the number Roger told him was the code to the safe. He’s sure he remembers correctly and tries the code again thinking that he probably just messed up entering it. He carefully enters each number of the code in the keypad, paying attention to each one as he enters them. Again, the code does not work.

He retrieves his cell phone out of the pocket of his jacket and calls Roger but there is no answer and it goes to voicemail. Hanging up and redialing, he tries to call Roger again but the call goes straight to voicemail. Upset over the inconvenience, he hits the wall with his fist. The vibration causes the screen of the laptop on the desk behind him to light up.

He sees the laptop and figures the code might be somewhere in a file. Hitting the space bar he brings up the Login screen providing a space for the password. Not knowing the password, he hits the arrow off to the side in the “Password” box which only tells him to “Please enter your sign-in information and try again.” He hits “OK” which takes him back to the Login screen. There he sees nothing saying “I forgot my password” so he types in a few keystrokes thinking it will come up onto the screen for him. He hits the “enter” key. The message that comes up says,

He clicks on it which triggers a screen to come up.

Trying to be quick, he uses a password that he has used in the past since he plans on taking the laptop with him when he leaves. He types in a password and then confirms the password. When he hits "enter" a line comes up that requires him to check a box affirming that he is not a robot. After he clicks the box, he clicks submit, which takes him back to the Login screen. He enters his password, hits enter, but receives the same message.

Thinking he may have typed it incorrectly, he retypes the password into the box. Again, the message reads,

He clicks on "HERE" once again to redo the password, which triggers a screen to come up.

He sticks with the password he wanted, entering the password and then confirming it. When he hits the “enter” key a line once again comes up that requires him to check a box affirming that he is not a robot. He clicks the box again and hits submit which takes him back to the Login page.

Suddenly, a noise across the room catches his attention. It sounds like something has broken. He quickly grabs his flashlight and shines it around the room but doesn’t see that anything has fallen. He takes a moment just to listen, but doesn’t hear anything else. He lays the flashlight down on the desk where it had been previously. Just before the flashlight hits the surface of the desk, the light shines on the recliner and he is startled to see that the old man is no longer there. His heart begins to race as he frantically walks around the desk and begins to search the room. As he reaches the space between the recliner and the couch, he can see that the old man is lying on the floor behind the couch. “How did you get here? Crazy!” He looks around the room. “Okay Roger, you can come out now!”

Hearing nothing, he begins to look around the room again. He covers the entire room but sees no one. He checks the window, which is locked. He checks the closet, opening the door fast with a sudden blast of light into the space. He sees no one. The front door is still locked.

“I’m not going to let someone scare me away before I get what I came here for!” he says loudly so that anyone listening will hear him. He quickly walks back to the laptop. He is on the password change screen. “Didn’t I already do this?” he thinks to himself. He proceeds to re-enter his password, confirms it and then hits enter. Once again the line comes up requiring him to confirm that he is not a robot. He clicks the box and hits submit. Another box comes up requiring him to confirm that, "I am not an idiot?" he says puzzled. "What?" He clicks the box and then submits.

The computer switches screens revealing a large box in the center of the screen that says,

Getting frustrated, he clicks HERE and proceeds to re-enter a new password, and then confirms that he is not a robot or an idiot. When he goes to hit the submit button, a new line quickly comes up,

"LOOK BEHIND YOU"

"What?" He quickly turns his head to see behind him and turns back. "Oh, no way! Someone is messing with me. Roger! I’m going to kill you when I see you again."

He hits the submit button, but instead of taking him back to the login page the screen clears completely except for a light blue color that covers the entirety of the screen of the laptop.

"What now!"

Jerking back with a sudden tightening of his throat, he grabs his neck. He feels that his neck is now swollen to about three times its normal circumference. He doesn’t understand why it’s suddenly so swollen. The tightening intensifies and he starts to struggle for air. Fear begins to fill his mind as he sees the manifestation of an arm coming out of the computer screen and realizes that the swelling and tightening of his throat is a hand choking him. “How can this be?” he thinks to himself. He fights but he can’t get free and the hand pushes him back into the chair. As he begins to scream out, the manifestation disappears and the screen returns to the login page. He jumps up and runs for the door. He tries to open it, but it will not open. Remembering that he locked it, he unlocks the door and runs out of the house and down the porch steps. At the road, he sees two parked police cars and two officers standing on the sidewalk in front of the house.

Startled by the sudden unexpected exit of the robber, the officers draw their weapons. “Get down on the ground!” one of the officers yells.

“Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.” he yells as he throws up his hands and drops to his knees in the front yard.

“Marcus Benns?” asks one of the officers as he walks over to him, gun still drawn.

“Yes.”

The officer directs Marcus forward and he lays face down on the grass. “You are under arrest for breaking and entering, and grand larceny.” he says as he puts Marcus’s arms back behind him.

“I didn’t steal anything, I swear.”

The officer handcuffs him and stands him up as he reads him his rights. As they walk to the vehicle, the officer sees that Marcus looks terrified. Once at the vehicle, the officer pushes Marcus forward against the car and checks him for weapons, finding the knife. He puts him in the back of the police car and, as he shuts the door, he notices that Marcus’s skin is sheet white. He turns and walks over to the second officer who is calling in the arrest.

“Yes, we apprehended him. He matched the description perfectly. Well, as far as clothes and such. You guys were a little off on his race, though.”

“I just relay messages; I don’t create them. Is that the same house?” says the voice on the other line.

“Yes, it’s the same house where the coroner picked up old man Jenkins earlier today.”

“Poor Mr. Jenkins. I’ll see you guys when you get here.”

“10-4.” He looks back at his partner, "Did you find anything on him?"

"Just a knife. Apparently he wasn't able to get the diamonds out of the safe before running out here like a crazy person.”

"Did you tell him that his good friend Roger called in a tip on him?"

"Not yet. He seems pretty shaken up. That dude is whiter than white. I figured I'd give him a breather before telling him that he got set-up for jail time. Well, I'll see you at the precinct." He turns and begins to walk back to his vehicle not seeing Marcus standing there as he walks through him.