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Trigger Warning: ntion of self hrm and s*cide
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Upon hearing her classmates’ descriptions, Everly imdiately confird that this segnt of Seradiya’s video was related to the gan dical Group — that string of aningless symbols, she knew it all too well!
Although at the ti, when the tooth-related cases led to an investigation of the gan Clinic, the gan Corporation had flatly denied any connection between the two, who would believe that? In horror films, nine out of ten big corporations and financial conglorates are evil, and the remaining one is still pretty bad. Anyone who thinks gan Corporation is completely innocent would be a fool!
But knowing this didn’t really help.
For one, Everly had no evidence. Back when the dental clinic was already under suspicion, it still wasn’t enough to nail gan dical. Now, with only her premonition as a minor girl’s hunch, no one would take her seriously. Moreover, she had no channels; she had no idea whether anyone in the U.S. governnt was investigating this, and if there was, who the investigator might be.
So she let it be. After all, if this were a horror movie, as long as it wasn’t the end-of-the-world kind, there would always be a male and female protagonist who eventually solved everything. Until then, all she needed to do was protect herself.
While thinking this, Everly scanned the people around her.
Roughly estimating, about 80% of the students at the school had seen that video. However, based on Everly’s observation, once the video was taken down, most students returned to normal. Although they were sowhat saddened by the scide of their favorite singer, they still ate their als, continued gossiping as usual, and occasionally laughed at sothing funny, clutching their stomachs like little hens “clucking” with laughter — seemingly unaffected by the video.
Yet there were so students who, after the video was removed, fell into complete agitation and unrest.
These were basically Seradiya’s hardcore fans. Normally, whenever the topic of Seradiya ca up, they were the most enthusiastic. Therefore, when these students suddenly beca obsessed, constantly refreshing topics related to Seradiya on their phones and ignoring the people around them, their classmates didn’t find it too strange.
“They’re probably just too sad. Let them have so ti alone to calm down,” the students said.
Everly disagreed.
She found those despondent students very strange.
Her observation sample was a girl in her class nad Anusha, an Indian girl. She was quiet and well-behaved, respectful to teachers, knew how to conduct herself appropriately, and although she spoke little, everyone had a good impression of her.
Yet after Seradiya’s video was taken down, this gentle, shy girl beca unusually irritable. Her already large eyes bulged like glass balls, and no matter if it was class or break, her gaze never left her phone screen. Her fingers tapped back and forth, and she muttered to herself, looking deeply unwell.
What worried Everly even more happened during the afternoon art class. Anusha suddenly returned from her manic, obsessive state to a calm deanor. Tears welled in her eyes as she focused intensely on the screen in front of her, a strange, unhealthy flush coloring her cheeks.
Everly sat right behind Anusha. While observing, her eyes accidentally caught a glimpse of Anusha’s screen. Even though it was only a fleeting glance and her vision didn’t fully focus, the red-and-white shifting shapes, like butterflies, were seared into her retina, stirring an intense curiosity. At certain monts, Everly even felt a sudden urge to snatch the phone and see for herself.
Fortunately, since the teeth incident, Everly had been training her ntal focus through ditation. Coupled with the wailing warnings in her mind from the banshee, her rational mind quickly overpowered the irrational impulse, and she regained her composure.
She suspected that Anusha was watching that video.
Anything that exists online leaves traces. Seradiya’s scide video had existed for over ten minutes. In that ti, it was inevitable that soone had saved a copy.
And now, after the official ban on the videos, these copies began to circulate widely.
At first, the copied videos were publicly posted on platforms like Chatter and Facebook by individual accounts. Many people had missed the original thirteen-minute release in the morning and were extrely curious about the “terrifying, brainwashing video” that had gone viral online. Upon hearing about it, they flocked to these accounts to watch.
Without exception, these viewers fell into the sa obsessive state as the morning crowd, triggering a second wave of incidents across the nation.
Fortunately, the authorities reacted quickly, tightening their review process. Each similar video that was discovered was deleted, and even the accounts that uploaded them were banned.
Unable to be published publicly, the videos gradually moved “underground,” spreading on private forums or within niche circles. No matter how strong the U.S. authorities were, they could not monitor every corner of the internet. Coupled with a general rebellious mindset among the public, the more sothing was forbidden, the more people wanted to see it. As a result, the battle to remove the videos raged all day. By the ti Everly went to rest in the evening, Seradiya’s video still hadn’t been fully eradicated.
anwhile, in Rosan City, Janifly State, a grand mourning event was underway.
Upon receiving news of their idol’s death, countless fans ignored the long journey and rushed overnight to the building where Seradiya had committed scide. The actress’s body had already been taken away, but the police cordon remained. People held flowers and candles, forming layers upon layers around the barrier, crying over the bloodstains on the ground. So even pressed their palms and cheeks against the rough concrete or hit their foreheads against it, trying to feel the pain Seradiya had endured before her death.
The massive crowd caused traffic congestion. When the police and traffic officers spent the entire night dispersing people, they discovered a pair of siblings hugging each other, their bodies already cold.
According to the autopsy, both had died by scide.
The siblings were students from a neighboring city: the sister in twelfth grade, the brother in seventh. Both were fervent fans of Seradiya, owning every album and magazine poster she had released since her debut. After seeing Seradiya’s death video online, they quietly packed their belongings, took a sharp knife, and used their pocket money to travel by bus to the site.
“We love Seradiya. We should go be with her,” their neighbors heard them say as they left ho.
And true to their words, at the mourning scene, the siblings each carved a vivid butterfly pattern onto the other’s forehead with the knife. Then, they sl*t each other’s wrists, embracing with smiles on their faces as they closed their eyes amid the overwhelming scent of blood.
People were stunned by this tragedy. No one could understand how the siblings died so openly in front of everyone, or why the fans around them could watch such a grueso scene without intervening.
But soon, people realized.
The deaths of the siblings were rely the beginning of a scide wave that would sweep across the United States.
The night after Seradiya’s death, over a hundred fans who had attended the mourning ceremony in various cities jumped to their deaths from buildings. The next day, dozens more ended their lives in the sa manner. On the fourth day, the Scanda State police received a report and rushed to an abandoned building to stop thirteen teenagers who had gathered there for a planned mass scide.
It was an extraordinarily chaotic period. Almost every city saw scides, leading many skyscrapers to lock their rooftops and seal high windows. Even so, people continued to fall to their deaths daily. Without exception, each scene of death left a red butterfly pattern. People said the fans were using this thod to commorate their deceased idol. But strangely, over ti, even those who were not Seradiya fans were affected, leaving butterfly patterns before taking their own lives.
Later, as the sample size grew, people finally realized that the root of the scide wave was not Seradiya herself, but the video released after her death. No one knew who had fild or published it. The U.S. governnt dispatched its top technical experts, yet they could not trace a single piece of information about the video’s origin.
All that was known was that anyone who watched the video felt an irresistible pull, compelled to keep watching, over and over again… The more one watched, the more negative emotions accumulated; the more one watched, the more impossible it beca to break free from the video’s “addictive effect.” When those negative emotions reached their extre, crushing reason along with them, the viewer would climb to a rooftop and transform into a new “red butterfly.”
The reason the earliest victims were mostly fans was simply that their idol had died. The emotional impact was far stronger, making them more susceptible to obsession.
To prevent more unaware people from watching the video, the U.S. authorities imdiately held a press conference. The eting emphasized three main points:
The officials released the results of their investigation into the series of scides, clarifying the gravity of the events, and announced that the death video — “possessing hypnotic, brainwashing effects due to special filming techniques” — would henceforth be classified as absolutely forbidden to circulate or view.
The governnt required all major dia outlets to publish the press conference content on their front pages for at least a week. In addition, all major social platforms were instructed to cooperate with the federal governnt to completely remove the video from the internet.
The authorities called on anyone who had saved the video to delete it imdiately. Families whose mbers were affected and unable to disengage could attempt isolating them from the internet and electronic devices, allowing them to live quietly for a period of ti.
…
The mont the press conference was announced, the entire nation was thrown into uproar.
Everly wasn’t sure whether the death video could ever be completely eradicated, but one thing was certain: after the nationwide crackdown, her classmate Anusha could no longer find any new copies of the video. Everyone in the class knew how deeply the video had affected her, so they banded together, snatched her phone, broke the original mory card, and replaced it with a new one.
As a result, Anusha remained irritable for more than half a month and even fell seriously ill. Although the illness was painful, once she recovered, she finally erged from that soul-dead, trance-like state and returned to normal, a smile reappearing on her gaunt face.
Later, according to nationwide statistics published in January of the following year by The Yonah Tis, the U.S. scide rate had risen 66% compared to previous years. In the single month following Seradiya’s death, there were 437 scides, 398 of which were directly connected to Seradiya.
Because of the frequent appearance of red butterfly imagery at the scenes, the wave of scides ca to be called the “Butterfly Fall Incident,” and Seradiya earned the nickna “The Red Butterfly Lady.”
But all of that is hindsight.
At this mont, Everly was puzzled by the sudden visit of several unexpected “guests.”
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