The 4:44 AM Carpool Group Chat
Found-Phone Folk Horror · Rules of the Ride
Synopsis
On Ghost Festival night, your late-night rideshare enters a mountain tunnel. At 04:44 AM, your phone is auto-added to “Tunnel 444 Carpool Group” with three blood-red rules: (1) Only 3 living humans are in the car, but 5 accounts are typing; (2) Never play a voice note titled “We’ve arrived”; (3) Reject any digital red packet from the driver within 10 seconds—and when you open the front passenger’s social feed, his post from three days ago is his own black-and-white funeral portrait!
Characters
- Lin Xiaoyu — Back-Seat Student in Red Sweater
Sister, save me... Why does my front selfie camera show a pair of pale hands around the back of my neck?!
- Shen Yanzhou — Next-Seat Occultist · Maoshan Heir
Don't look out the rear window. Grip your grandmother's Five-Emperor coins—I'll teach you in DM how to spot the dead using reflections.
- Zhou Mingyuan — Front-Seat Passenger · Chief Tunnel Engineer
Why haven't we exited this tunnel after twenty minutes? Wait—why are you all staring at my social feed?!
- Driver Old Chen — Late-Night Rideshare Driver · Plate #788
Miss, the fog is thick and GPS keeps saying 'U-turn in 444m'... I swear I didn't send that red packet in the group!
- 04:44 Soul Ferryman — The 5th Unknown Account · Black Raincoat Wraith
[Voice 44"] We've arrived at Tunnel 444... For the two extra dead aboard, which of you will stay behind to take their shift?