Tinder Terror

A young Irishman attempts to get lucky on Tinder, but gets much more than he had signed up for. This story has themes of violence, sex and the occult. Read at your own discretion.

Michael Sherry was a Biotechnology student at Dublin City University who had just became newly single. He and his long-term girlfriend Suzie had broken up once they both went off to college. Suzie had been accepted into the University of Manchester and moved to England, which had put a strain on their relationship. So, the two school sweethearts had decided to call it quits, they had been dating since Secondary School and had spent six great years together, but people grow apart and all good things come to an end. The breakup had affected Michael pretty badly, he had locked himself in his dorm room and missed two whole days of lectures deciding to instead stay in bed and binge-watch Bob Ross’s The Joy of Painting, in an ill-fated attempt to cheer himself up. However, it would not be the master of the canvas to cheer him up, instead it would be the great friends he had made in college as they helped him cheer up and start to enjoy life again. For two weeks straight they did something every day, they would hang out, go to the gym, smoke weed, drink some beer and go to the cinema. Even though the group had gone clubbing time and time again, Michael still had not attempted to hit on a girl, hell he straight up had not talked to any girls that were not friendly with his group of friends, he had cheered up from the breakup but he was still too hurt to try and get lucky with anyone. 

One weekend (Michael rarely travelled home from college) however, Michael decided to download the popular dating app, Tinder. Michael had never used the app but was aware of it due to its immense popularity and the fact his friends often spoke about the app and people they matched with. His friend Eddy had even claimed to have slept with four girls he met through the app - though Eddy was known to bullshit, which didn’t surprise Michael since he was from Donegal. Michael still decided to download the app no matter if Eddy was being truthful or not, why not? He thought, it was a boring Saturday and all his friends had gone back home for the weekend. The app installed and Michael got to setting up his account, he picked some of his best pictures and put them on his profile. He was not tall, only 5’10, but he was stocky and well-built as he enjoyed going to the gym almost daily. Michael did not consider himself good looking however he had been told by many people that he was handsome, mostly due to his strong jawline and crystal blue eyes. He always kept himself clean-shaven and his brown hair was always short in a low fade.  
Michael decided to set a humorous bio in hopes of standing out from the flock, he pondered on it for some time before settling on “4/5 Dentists Recommend a daily Sherry, listen to the professionals!” he smiled and commented on how stupid it was.

 

Michael lay on his single-person bed and began to swipe right on every few people he came across on Tinder. He swiped right on some girls he only found slightly attractive because he wanted to see how many matches he could get. After about ten minutes he stopped and decided to get a cup of tea and a sandwich, he put his phone into his pocket and headed to the kitchen, he turned on the kettle and began to butter two slices of bread, he put ham, turkey and cheese in the sandwich. Once the kettle had boiled, he threw a teabag into his mug and poured in the boiling hot water being extra careful not to spill some on himself, then he poured a little milk into his cup, deciding against sugar.

 

Once Michael returned to his room, he finished eating his sandwich and drank some of his tea. The liquid warming the walls of his throat as he slurped it down. He placed the cup down beside his keyboard and decided to boot up his PC and start playing Fallout 4, a game he had become quite fond of and sunk many hours into during the early days of his breakup. After about thirty minutes of uninterrupted gaming his phone vibrated in his pocket, it initially caught him off guard but then he remembered it could be a match on Tinder. He reached into his pocket and checked his phone and as he had theorized, it was in fact a match on Tinder. Michael opened the app and saw the attractive redhead he had just matched with, Holly was her name and she lived only a fifteen-minute cycle from Michael. All of her pictures were beautiful even the one of her playing football (he thought a sporty girl was extra hot); Michael decided to shoot her a message.

 

“Hi, where do you play in football?” he asked. 

He had decided to ask her something personal instead of just a generic greeting. After 30 seconds, he received a response.

”Hi there :) I play as a striker!” she replied. 

”Cool, do you score much?” he inquired.

 

“Not as often as I’d like to. That’s why I’m on Tinder ;)” she joked.

 

Straight to the point, Michael liked that. He wasn’t sure if Tinder was always this easy or if he was better looking than he originally gave himself credit. After another twenty minutes of back-and-forth flirting that had quickly gotten dirtier than a rugby players kit on a raining evening, Michael decided to ask her if she wanted to meet-up.

 

“I thought you were never going to ask” she exclaimed.

 

“Meet me at my house at 10.30 p.m.”

 

Holly messaged him on her address and mobile number and Michael smiled uncontrollably, back on the horse he thought to himself. He still had some time to wait however so he decided to roll himself a joint and get back to Fallout. Once it got to 10 p.m., Michael jumped onto his bike and began to cycle towards the address he had received from Holly. It took him around fifteen minutes to get there, the house was a detached two-storey home that was painted purple with a charcoal black door, it was away from the rest of the houses in the estate and was designed much different from the rest leading Michael to believe it may have been built before the rest. He was early so he decided to text her and ask if it was okay that he was early, after a minute she responded saying that it was no problem and that he should come into the house. Michael began to walk with his bike up to the house but as he walked up he seen one of the blinds moving in one of the upstairs rooms, he began to stare and was sure he could see the shadowy outline of a large person standing at the window staring out at him. This instantly rang alarm bells in Michael’s head and he pulled out his phone and began to text Holly.

”Is that you by the window?” he texted.

When he looked up from the phone the shadowy figure was gone, this made Michael freak out even more and he decided to walk away from the house, but just as he turned around he heard the voice of a girl calling out to him. 

”Michael! Where are you going?” the voice asked.

When he turned back, he saw Holly standing at her front door, seeing her instantly calmed his nerves and he walked back up towards the house, the blinds moved again but he could see nobody by the window. When he arrived at the door he noticed that Holly’s hair was dyed black, this didn’t bother him though as she still looked sexy.

 

“Where you going to leave?” she asked disappointingly.

 

“Sorry, I thought I seen someone in an upstairs room staring at me and you weren’t texting back so I got nervous, I don’t usually do things like this so I’m just a little anxious I guess” Michael explained.

 

Anxious and stoned he thought to himself, weed had played tricks on him before so he wouldn’t have been surprised if that was what made him think he saw someone.

 

“Well let’s get you inside and I’ll calm those nerves for you.” she whispered into his ear before playfully biting his earlobe.

 

This turned on Michael to an almost uncontrollable level; he grabbed Holly and begin to passionately kiss her. She reciprocated before pulling away. 

”Not here, inside” she ordered.

 

The two of them headed into her house, on the way in Michael thought he heard the sound of a gate being slammed shut, this instantaneously left his mind when they restarted their passionate kissing, they began to take each other’s clothes off as they headed towards Holly’s bedroom, her bedroom was dimly lit by a red lightbulb and 5 candles, 4 red and one solitary white candle. Once they got onto the bed, they began to have wild sex, wilder sex than Michael had ever had with Suzie, he loved Suzie but if this were what the single-life was like he would have broken up with her long ago. After around forty minutes of rough, intense sex, they finished. Both of them laid back in the bed and laid silent for about two minutes, only their heavy gasps for air making any noise. Holly asked if Michael would get her a glass of water, he agreed as he too wanted a glass and headed down to the kitchen.

 

The lights weren’t on and Michael struggled to find the light, once he did the bright lights from the bulb burned his eyes as they tried to adjust to the light. He began to walk deliriously to the sink to get a drink of water, every gulp of the water slowly helping him get his breathing back to normal. Once he had quenched his own thirst he began to fill the glass up again, however he dropped the glass into the sink when he looked out into the garden and saw three people standing in the centre of the garden wearing hoodies and masks. The masks were white with black dripping paint around the eyes and lips, the lips had a design on them like they had been stitched closed and in the middle of the forehead was an upside down cross. Michael almost screamed as they all pointed towards him in tandem, he turned to run back to Holly but as he turned around, he bumped into a large shadowy figure wearing the same style of mask, the man hit Michael over the head with a blunt object and everything faded to black.

 

When Michael came to, he was in complete darkness with what felt like rope wrapped around his mouth, hands and feet. From the noises outside and the compact size of the place he was in, it was obvious to him that he was in the boot of a car. He began to shove himself side-to-side in the boot while screaming, he was not sure what he hoped to achieve by these actions, his shoving wasn’t going to cause the car to flip over and his screaming would only be helpful if the car was stopped and people where around to hear him. However, he continued as in times of survival logic goes out the proverbial window. Eventually, the car came to a halt; Michael saw this as his best and possibly only chance of getting out of this alive. He began to scream as loud as he possibly could, he screamed so hard his vocal chords began to hurt. The rope tied around his mouth muffled his screams but he continued to scream and scream. The boot door opened and Michael turned to look outwards, looking back to him was two large figures in cloaks wearing the same masks as the people in the garden, Michael lunged forward but was quickly sat back down from a powerful punch by one of the figures, this left Michael disorientated and dazed. The figures picked him out of the boot and began to carry him into a forest by his arms and legs. Michael looked around and could see candles lighting a path into the forest he was still disorientated and immensely confused. After two minutes of walking, the figures carried Michael into a large area in the forest with a large, tilted slab of rock in the middle, black candles burned atop the rock with wax melting down and staining the rock. The figures put Michael on the rock; they cut the ropes around his hands and feet and began to tie his arms and legs to each corner of the rock. As this was happening Michael regained a proper use of his consciousness. He started to look around and saw multiple figures in a circle around the perimeter of the open area, all in black cloaks or hoodies, all wearing the white and black mask. Suddenly, the gravity of the situation hit the now fully conscious Michael and he began to scream once more.

“HELP! HELP ME PLEASE.” He pleaded. 

“THESE F*****G LUNATICS ARE GOING TO KILL ME HELP!”            

 

As he screamed, he wriggled and kicked out in an attempt to free himself from being tied up. One of the figures let go of his arm and punched him five hard times in the face, each punch ricocheting Michael’s head into the rock beneath him. This time he was not disorientated, this time he was knocked out cold. He was awoken by a splash of water thrown on his face, when he came to he was confused and unsure of where he was, after five seconds he already remembered and began to scream and wriggle once more. This time it was no use, tape was across his mouth and his limbs where tied up tight. He may as well have been glued to the rock, he could not move. 

He saw two figures talk to a smaller, slimmer figure. This figure was wearing a crown made of thorns and their mask was slightly different, the normally black dripping eyes, lips and upside down crucifix were coloured red on this mask. Michael assumed they must be the leader or some sort of important figure of this group. One of the figures stood in front of Michael and began to speak to the crowd. 

“The impurification has been complete and our Queen-to-be has partook in powerful sin.” he proclaimed.

 

“Now, she must consume that sin and complete her ascension to the throne.”

 

The figure then handed the woman, a stone dagger. The sight of this set Michael off and he began to try to free himself while screaming - still muffled by the tape - it was to of no avail but Michael had to keep trying or his death was no longer a question more than an inevitability. His screams and wriggles stopped abruptly though, when the so-called Queen-to-be removed her mask and revealed herself to be Holly, smiling menacingly. Michael’s eyes opened as wide as they could when he saw her, he had completely forgotten about her in his panic. He would have assumed that the group had taken her too, but worse they had taken him for her. Michael closed his eyes and wondered why he didn’t download a different app, like Candy Crush. He grimaced as his former lover drove the stone dagger into his chest and cut him open from his chest down to his lower abdomen. He began to scream so hard that the tape around his mouth broke, he screamed at the top of his lungs as the woman he had slept with only an hour ago was now shoving her hand into his chest. After some rooting around, she pulled out the heart of the Biotech student and without hesitation bit into it. Michael’s head slumped downwards as his now dead body went limp, his blood dripping down Holly’s face as the group chanted and cheered for their new Queen, the coronation completed and the cult members left the forest one-by-one.

 

Two days later a jogger came across Michael’s dead and rotten body. After throwing up, the jogger promptly rang the police and informed them of what they found. The police investigated the brutal murder as much as they could, but with no leads and little to no evidence the case went cold and the cult, who partook in it, continue to operate and instigate human sacrifices to this day.

Author's Note

Constructive criticism is encouraged. Please share this wherever and whenever you please, once proper credit is given.

Reviews

[T.C Matthews]

This story's hilarious. That Bob Ross line put a smile to my face but the Candy Crush comment made me crackle. You should definitely try to write some comedy sometime. Those sentences are gold to my eyes. Overall, the story's alright. Instead of explaining Micheal's past to us, maybe you can subtly show this through his interactions with his friends. I felt that certain "scary" parts in the story were a little rushed. I think you can spend a little more time building tension in those scenes. Really flex yourself during those sequences. However, well done. =)

[augustus]

Very descriptive and easy to read. I was disappointed with the ending which appeared to be hurried and incomplete. However, not bad. Thank you.

[Andy Leavy]

Thank you Augustus. The story was written in one night so that may explain the hurried finish.

[augustus]

Did you get any sleep?