Dark_crawler
You and Steve went to bed. You lay down on your stomach and Steve lay down on his back. He seemed nervous, not completely able to relax. You closed your eyes and let yourself to slip into sleep. Steve fell asleep after a moment. You had disturbing dreams about the case you had been working on. You had finally, after a long search and hours of chatting with countless of people gotten information about a site that hosted a red room. The site was functioning as "invitation only" and without reference from current a member it was basically impossible to even find because the onion-address was a combination of random numbers and letters.
You had managed to expose some smaller drug-dealer-sites or illegal gun stores that operated in deep web, heck you had managed to bust a couple of child porn databases but it all felt small and unimportant compared to the case that you had been working on the last. You had finally felt that you were onto something and were doing your part in the "world-saving" -field.
How had it all started? Well, you had been browsing the Intel Exchange -site and there had been someone asking about a rumor he had heard. The rumor was that there were people disappearing in the east coast of the States and apparently there was a criminal organization that was running a red room -site called "the White Room". The victims had been selected randomly from all races and ages... but one thing was in common; the missing people had been found after a week or two from the disappearance from various wastelands or dumpsters.
The rumor sounded too "creepypasta" to be true but you had decided to check out the police database of missing people. You did not find anything that could be considered being linked to the rumor the guy was talking about, however you found that there had been many people found from the dumpsters, all stripped to their underwear and faces and fingerprints destroyed with acid. Most likely those people were illegal aliens or homeless people who no one missed or could report as missing person. The police had tried to identify the victims from dental records but there was no info to be found. That meant that the investigators had only been able to identify the race, sex and age.
You had made a couple of phone calls to your source at the New York police, the woman was a big fan of the Avengers and when you had proposed her to be your inside-person, she had not been able to refuse. It was in the gray area in the scale of illegal and legal when she helped you with the cases, but you had thought that as long as you fought on the same side and got results it wasn't that bad... right? You knew that she could get into trouble for leaking police-files to you but had never met her and the info was shared via onion-email that was impossible to trace to either one of you. You just knew that she worked for the NYC Police department and was a fan. That's it. You called her "Gummybear" and she called you "Dark_crawler" which was your alias in the deep web.
So after finding this information you had gone to the most uncensored chat that you had found and started to ask around, pretending to be interested in snuff and sick things like that. You started the conversations by discussing about sick horror movies, "the Serbian Film" for example and then led the conversation into that point where you had stated how lame even the most disturbing movies were because you knew that they're not real. You had been given some links to snuff films that were considered as "real" but after talking with the guys at the video-tech-department, it was obvious that either the videos were just fake or clips from indie films.
It was frustrating. You knew that you were onto something! Then one day, a week before getting fired you had managed to contact someone who knew someone... a member of that red room. You had told the boss of the data-analysis-department that you had finally found something and presented all the evidence to him. He had been a bit weird about it and then just said that "I don't think you have nothing here". You had not stopped. You had managed to confirm that a red room existed and it was linked to the bodies found by the police.
Then you had gotten fired. When you had taken your stuff, you had copied all the files and links related to the case, uploaded every bit of information to the company-cloud so Jarvis or anyone who took over had an access to it. Then you had taken the memory stick that had your operating system "Tales" with you in order to continue the research at home. You wanted to show everyone that Jarvis was not able to do what you did and your professional pride -thing needed you to finish the case and be successful. If only you had known...
You woke up almost screaming, covered in cold sweat, panting terrified. Steve had woken up and tried to calm you down, however it had not helped so he had no other option than to wake you up. You were fully awake, staring at him as he told you that everything was alright.
- Just a nightmare. you said and focused on your breathing.
- What was it about? he asked.
- Nothing... you said and turned your face away.
- You're lying. he stated and did not sound very happy about it.
- Really... it's not-
- You're still lying and I do not appreciate it. he said and his tone was assertive, almost cold.
- It's just the case I was working on...
- But you're not working on it anymore... You should not worry about it.
- You have no idea...
- How can I when you don't tell me? he stated. You got out from the bed and walked to your living room. He got out from the bed and followed you.
- The case... it's huge and I am going to keep working on that. you said.
- Why?
- Because I am finally onto something... This could be the thing that defines who I am in a professional sense. The red rooms are real and there are people that... you said and tried to explain it to Steve who looked at you like he did not understand anything.
- Oh... you do not believe, do you? You think that I am just browsing the Internet and chatting with people because it's fun?
- No... I am sure you think it is important what you do... but...
- I think? I think! You do not even understand what I was doing! I managed to shut down various sites that were dealing illegal materials such as weapons, drugs and child porn! you said and then calmed down. There was clearly no point of trying to explain Steve what you were doing so you just returned to your bed with him and acted like everything was cool.