Writetober 2025, Coven of the Quill, Day 3: Go Dark

The update slid in with a whisper of sleek blue,

 InstaGhost's new face - shiny and new. 

A prompt: "Go Dark? See what others can't." 

And with a careless tap, the bright world was scant.

The screen bled to obsidian, text a spectral white, 

The familiar feed twisted into endless night. 

But the photos... oh, those photos! They just weren't right. 

No sun-drenched selfies, no vacation flair, 

Just muted gray portraits, people with a thousand-yard stare?

No likes, no comments, no casual scroll— 

Every profile was marked, death dates in whole.

A digital graveyard, a chilling yet still stream:

 Last Post: 4 hours ago.

 Cause of Death: Unknown dream.

He saw his old friend, killed last fall,

 His last meme now trending, the joke mocking all. 

The popular girl who vanished at sea, 

Her "Stories" still playing, on here exclusively!

A knot in his stomach, a cold, empty ache,

 He searched for the toggle, for God's holy sake.

 But the button was missing, the light had been banned,

 He was trapped in the feed of the newly dead land.

Then a shimmer, a flicker, a banner of dread, 

A notification, a profile he knew: His head. His own page, vibrant green where it should be black, A feature he didn't, or couldn't, take back.

Under his name, not a bio or witty line, But a stark, digital clock, a cruel, ticking sign. It read, without mercy, in chilling display:

T-Minus: 03:00:00:00

Three days. Three days till his feed would go gray. Three days till his friends would see his last post, And he'd join the silent, InstaGhost host. He smashed the phone, but the image remained, burnt on his retina, deeply ingrained. The clock in his mind, it never would cease, Counting him down to his final release.

written by Zoe