The Mystery of the Melting Ethernet Cable: A Short Horror Story

[Joshcore]

Well, I woke up this morning, booted my pc, and I couldn't connect to the internet. So what does one normally do when this occurs? The first thing is to check your physical connections. So I reached down and felt around the back of my pc to make sure it hadn't fallen out. It hadn't, so I picked up the cable and followed it out of my room, ran through the living room and into the main study where it was connected to an ordinary router. All the connections were fine; the internet was connected to the router, the office pc was connected to the router with full internet connectivity, and so was my own ethernet cable. The router showed traffic through the internet connection and through the office pc connection, but not through my own. Puzzled, I wandered back to my own computer and began troubleshooting what could possibly be wrong. The only hint I had was that my network connections showed that a network cable had become unplugged, yet this was not true because I had only just checked the connections and all were in fact intact...

I sat there looking stupid. Suddenly, I was up and tracing the cable again. I pulled it up and over from behind the tv cabinet, moved into the office, pulled it from running behind the linen cupboard (don't ask why we keep our linen in the office), pulled it from behind the filing cabinet and from under the office desk. I then unplugged it from the router and ran back to my dwelling and unplugged it from my computer. Starting with the end that was connected to my computer, I furiously started pulling the cable towards me. Feeling the cable's smooth surface as it moved beneath my fingers, I waited for any sign of damage.

Then I felt it. It started slowly at first; the surface was slightly uneven and rough. Pulling the cable at a slower pace, I noticed as it's surface steadily became rougher and rougher beneath my fingers. It felt as if the wires themselves were twisted and gnarled. Soon it became impossible for me to continue, the feeling alone was not enough. I took a fleeting glance downwards and immediately wished I hadn't. "Oh..." I moaned, pulling the cable against my beating heart. "Oh my Lola, what have they done to you?" I muttered, caressing the only smooth plastic available.

...

"So, what... Happened..?" I asked the mortician cautiously, as she emerged from the morgue.
"I'm sorry." She said, rather bluntly. "There was nothing you could have done. She's gone for good."
"Wha... What..?" I sobbed, falling to my knees.
"Your cable... She... She didn't make it, she couldn't have. I'm so sorry." The mortician replied with practiced compassion.

...

Several hours have passed since Lola passed away. I'm doing alright, I guess. I had the option to attend group counseling to help me overcome my grief, but I knew I was strong enough to do it on my own. I've already found a replacement cable; A beautiful, red, thirty meter Ethernet cable with plenty of suppleness. She doesn't mind if I bend her too far the wrong way. I've learned a lot about death these past few hours. I've learned you should take special care of the things you love, otherwise they might melt to death against a dangerously hot oil heater.

I've also learned that you shouldn't fall in love with an Ethernet cable.

[Brad the best]

im sorry for your loss .

[Kareeser]

You have a gift for storytelling. Or grieving, if in fact you were telling the truth

May your new ethernet cable bring you years of happiness.

[Joshcore]

Why thank you. Actually it turns out that my Mom flicked the old one into the pot belly (like a fire place, but in a closed cauldron type thing, real old school) when she was vacuuming the living room. At that point in time I hadn't run the cable behind all of the furniture, it was just going through the room in the middle of the floor.