Scary Stories — "Invitation"

The email arrived from Stuart, an old friend the narrator hadn't spoken to in years. At first it looked like spam, but within a few sentences it was clearly Stuart himself — and the message was deeply disturbing. "I'm not joking or making up stories or any of that," Stuart wrote. "This is real. It's real. And it's happening to me."

The party that wasn't

Stuart and his new wife Danielle were in Prague on their honeymoon. After two quiet days, they wanted something more exciting. A guy at their hostel mentioned a party flyer tacked up in a nearby internet cafe. The flyer had no address — just a handwritten website on the back. The woman at the cafe warned them not to visit the site without a good VPN. For a hundred American dollars, she set them up on a computer in the back, away from prying eyes.

The website was strange: everything rendered in red letters, even the background. It displayed a story about a man who didn't trust his own reflection. Then a pop-up appeared: "Do you like fun? Yes or no?" Stuart typed yes. Another pop-up followed: a formal invitation to "the greatest party in all the world." He typed yes again. After a long pause, an address appeared, along with a reminder to bring dancing shoes.