The text first popped up around 11:30, by a number I did not know, right as I was closing out of Reddit to go to sleep.

“Who is this”

“A FRIEND”

I noticed that their name in my contacts changed to “friend” as soon as they said that.

“What do you want”

“TO HELP”

“HE IS COMING, AND HE IS HUNGRY”

“Who?”

“DOES NOT MATTER.”

“THERE IS A SET OF RULES YOU MUST FOLLOW IN ORDER TO SURVIVE AND ESCAPE HIS TRAP”

“Leave me alone, I want to go to sleep”

“WHEN HE ARRIVES HE WILL TURN YOUR HOUSE INTO A TRAP SO HE CAN HUNT YOU”

I decided that “friend” wasn’t going to give up, so I just listened any way

“WHEN HE ARRIVES, YOU MUST EXIT YOUR ROOM, THE ROOM YOU ENTER WILL LOOK LIKE YOUR ROOM,EXCEPT IT WILL BE EMPTY AND THERE WILL BE NO PAINT ON THE WALLS”

“THERE WILL BE A DIFFERENT NUMBER OF DOORS IN THE ROOM THAT LEAD TO OTHER ROOMS.”

“IF A ROOM HAS NO EXIT DOORS DO NOT ENTER THE ROOM OR YOU WILL BE TRAPED AND HE WILL FIND YOU, LOOK AWAY FROM THE DOOR AND THEN LOOK BACK TO RESET THE ROOM”

“LOOK FOR ROOMS THAT LOOK MORE LIKE YOUR ROOM, THE CHANGES CAN BE DOWN TO THE SMALLEST DETAIL. THE MORE THE ROOMS LOOK LIKE YOUR ROOM, THE CLOSER TO REALITY YOU ARE”

“IF YOU HEAR SCREAMING, THEN HE IS NEAR. YOU MUST RUN AWAY UNTILL YOU CANT HEAR IT ANYMORE, BE CAREFUL OF ROOMS WITHOUT EXITS”

“IF YOU GO TOO LONG IN ROOMS SIMILAR TO THE BASE ROOM, YOUR CHANCES OF EVER GOING BACK TO REALITY ARE LOW.”

“IF YOU SEE A ROOM THAT IS IDENTICAL TO YOURS EXCEPT FOR A KEY DETAIL DO NOT ENTER THAT ROOM, HE IS IN THERE”

“THIS KEY DETAIL WILL BE BIG, SUCH AS A DIFFERENT COLOR PAINT, YOUR BED IN A SPOT THAT IT IS NOT, OR EVEN A POSTER THAT YOU DON’T OWN OR HAVE UP.”

“IF YOU MANGE TO ESCAPE BACK TO REALITY THEN YOU WILL LOSE HIM, AND WILL BE ABLE RESUME LIFE AS NORMAL”

“IF DOES, HOWEVER UNLIKELY, COME FOR YOU AGAIN, YOU CAN FOLLOW THE SAME RULES TO ESCAPE”

Then the texts stoped I waited for I while, and right as I was shutting my phone off I got one last message:

“HE HAS ARRIVED, AND HE IS HUNGRY