Road safety

I remember the time. It was actually all set to be a happy day. We had finished our exams, and were pretty proud of ourselves, as we thought we did well. By "we" I mean Jared and I. We had been best friends for years.

It was a few years back. Jared and I were stuck sitting beside each other on a bus, ignoring each other because neither of us wanted to be there. Then I saw a bee stuck on the ground. Jared moved his foot over to stamp on it, but just in time, I scooped it up in my hands. "Are you insane?" He whispered to me. "You have to be gentle. What's the point in killing if you don't welcome death?" I was joking around, but that made him shudder. "I know death," he said in a quiet, low voice. I dismissed it as a joke, and I brought up Bee Swarm Simulator. He got excited and told me he played ROBLOX too, about his favourite games, his avatar...

Of course, that was years ago. Much changed, but we still played Roblox and were friends. He had his groups; I had mine, but we never really drifted further apart. I remember one time when there was a food fight in the cafeteria, me and Jared ducking for cover, screaming and laughing, the hilarious reactions of the teachers...

That was before it happened. We were on a Skype call with Mia and Tom (two people from his group), when an "Unknown User" joined our call. His screen was completely black. We said "Who are you?" multiple times, but he wouldn't respond. He didn't say anything. Jared put on 10 hours Nyan Cat and we all cracked up laughing. That was when he actually spoke.

"Sounds of laughter. Would you like to play a funny game?"

His voice was so cold and icy, yet thick. We all stopped laughing, and Jared stopped playing the Nyan Cat as well. "Is that meant to be creepy?" Tom said. "I can't control what you consider creepy, my child. Let's play Truth or Dare." We eventually decided in private messaging to end the call. Sighing with relief, I told Jared to join a ROBLOX game.

When we did, it was abandoned, just as I had expected. It was one of those old ROBLOX games, with so much potential, but it sits there. I waited for Jared to join, and at last he did. "Sorry." "Slow internet connection". We started talking about trolls nowadays and how some people have nothing better to do. The game seemed to lag for a few seconds. The entire screen just froze up. When it went back to normal, there was 'Unknown User'. For a single moment, I thought that I was safe, that it was a Roblox test account, but then I realized that it must be something more sinister.

"We're playing our game. Play or die." The fact that he was stalking us was creepy enough, so I took him for his words and said "Ok. We'll play." He seemed happy, even though I couldn't find him anywhere on the small map. "I'll go first. Jared." We freaked out at th￼is that he knew his real name, and I thought I'd have a panic attack. "I dare you to go outside and stand on the road for 2 minutes. I'm watching you. If you don't do it, you both die." Jared stepped outside (I assume). While he was gone, I was talking to Unknown User. "Who are you?" "Lef over. Wanted by no one, I seek friendship and pleasure." "Why are you doing this then? Why can't we all just be happy?"

"We can't all be happy."

"Some of us are dead."

So that's it! Hope you enjoyed, and leave your thoughts down below!