In the end, as I type this, I realize it sounds insane. But, I need to get this off my mind, and maybe someone else has experienced this. I am a streamer on Twitch, fairly new and I don't really ever get any viewers. As such, when someone does happen upon my stream, it's really easy to have a conversation with them while I stream, so the set up for this was pretty much laid out on its own.
It was maybe two weeks ago when he happened into my stream. The username was TooSpooky, pretty stock, but I don't judge. I said hi to him, but got no response. I figured he was just lurking so I went back to my game, almost forgetting about him. After about fifteen minutes, a message popped up in my chat. I noticed it out of the corner of my eye, and after finishing what I was doing real quick I took a look. TooSpooky had sent a smiley face, again pretty stock but at least he wasn't lurking anymore. I thanked him, saying I was happy he was enjoying the stream. The response was eerie. He said it wasn't the stream he was enjoying, it was me, he really liked the way I looked.
Caught off guard, I thanked him a little awkwardly, figuring I was getting trolled or something to that nature. After another ten minutes or so, he sent another message, asking me to smile for the webcam. I did so, figuring a smile wasn't so bad, and was immediately greeted with something that made me shiver.
"Oh, yes. Perfect."
I turned off my camera. This guy was either a supreme troll or a huge perv, and I wasn't about to entertain either of those notions.
"Where'd you go? We're just getting started."
I was done at that point, banning him quickly and muttering to myself. I turned my camera back on and went back to what I was doing, brushing him off as just some creep. Soon, though, another viewer appeared, under the name 2Spooky. I knew it was the same guy, but he managed to send me one message before I banned him.
"Welcome to the Family."
Again, I figured he was trolling. After another swift ban, I turned off my stream. I figured I was about done for the night, having been thoroughly creeped out and put out of the mood. I got myself a soda and settled in for some Youtube, forgetting the ordeal entirely by the time I went to bed that night.
"Did you get it?"[]
It was only a couple of days later that I was sitting in my apartment, working on another stream when TwoSpooky popped into the chat. Persistent Bastard. I didn't notice him right away, being buried in a speedrun at the time, but caught the message popping up out of the corner of my eye. I took a look during a cutscene, hoping it was a new viewer.
"Did you get it?"
Get it? Had the guy thought what he did the other night was some stupid joke I was supposed to think about? Before I could voice a response, there was a knock on my door. I told him to hang on and went to get it. I opened my door to find the mailman, who usually delivered packages once he was done filling the mailboxes for the building. I didn't remember ordering anything, but it was addressed to me so I signed for it and brought it inside. I cut off the tape and pulled back the flaps, then quickly had to dodge as a clown head on a spring cut out, with a stock clown laugh playing. Someone sent me a god damn jack-in-the-box. I pulled it out of the box, inspected it, then set it down. When I went back to my computer, I had two new messages.
The Jack-In-The-Box from home.
"I heard you open my package. I hope you liked your welcoming gift."
Mother fucker. This guy had somehow phished my IP off of Twitch or something and gotten my information. I banned him instantly, then sent a report to Twitch about what had happened, along with a picture of the jack-in-the-box. At this point I was more pissed off than anything, but the worst was yet to come.
"Come home."[]
I stopped streaming for a week. I didn't want to deal with him again, but went back to streaming after I figured he would have received proper Twitch reprimands. I would have loved to press charges, but I knew there wouldn't be a way to really track him through Twitch, so the law was useless. I streamed for about two hours without issue before he showed up again, under the name TuSpooky.
"Are you enjoying your gift?"
I'm kind of ashamed to admit that I did play with the jack-in-the-box, mostly out of some curiosity as to why he would send something to odd. I had tinkered with it and checked out the insides, though nothing seemed wrong with it. At this point I was infuriated enough to respond, letting him know I had alerted Twitch to his actions at that I would get the law involved as my next step.
"I'm sorry, I just want you to feel welcome."
I lost it. This guy was clearly insane. I don't know if some delusional person had stumbled into my stream, but whoever this was was definitely not right in the head. He had broken the law, and still was trying to mess with my head. I banned him and turned off my stream. I made a new account, figuring I didn't have a fanbase to lose anyway, and opened Youtube again. After a couple of hours of random videos and playing some games offline, I got a message on Steam. TooSpooky had found my Steam, and was sending me messages despite not being on my friends list.
"I want you to meet the rest of the family."
I didn't know what to do. He was getting more aggressive and somehow now bypassing filters on my Steam. I decided this wasn't going away unless I played along, so I messaged him back.
"Fine, how do I look them up?"
"Don't bother, they will find you."
I started to sweat a little. This was really getting to me. Did he have a whole gang of people working on hacking my stuff and sending me cryptic messages? I knew it was inevitable, so I waited for something else to happen. I waited for close to three hours, before I finally received a gift on steam. An anonymous sender had gifted me a few games on my wishlist, with a message.
"Welcome to the Family."
Alright, well that was significantly less disturbing than a jack-in-the-box, so this I was at least more okay with. Soon I was getting messages from more users than I could keep up with, all saying the same thing.
"Welcome to the Family."
I finally messaged back TooSpooky, I was at this point more curious than anything, since none of this seemed malicious anymore.
"What is the family?"
"Our family, come home."
Come home? What the hell? I was home, I was in my apartment, in my chair, at my computer. I scratched my head and leaned back trying to decipher what that meant.
Two days ago, two people were arrested outside my apartment building. They were found armed, and when they were being taken away, they asked for me by name. The cops asked me about it and relayed everything that had happened to them. Now we have cops outside the building at almost all times, waiting for the others to show up. They haven't caught any more yet, but the surrounding area has seen three murders in two days. I'm scared, but the more I look at this jack-in-the-box, the more I think about home.
- meroth33