Wake Up

Roblox. I still remember everything. From the first impressions, to the horror, trauma and quite possible death, if I had not been helped by wonderful people in such a terrible state. But let's take it one step at a time...

Chapter 1: Beginning
My name is Mark. I'm 17 years old, and I recently moved into a small house. I was very bored with this family life, and then I didn't care about the quality of the room, the kitchen and so on. I'm in 11th grade, but I never made any friends in those 11 years. Except for one. the only friend was James, an avid gamer. He was always recommending all kinds of games like tanks, planes, fps shooters and so on. I personally never liked playing games, I just couldn't sit and control pixel men for 6-7 hours. I was more into watching movies, reading books, drawing, walking and so on.

One day James came up to me with another "Great Recommendation".

"Listen, have you heard about the game Roblox?"

"Dude, let's not talk about games. You made me play Call of Duty all day yesterday, can we take a little break from that?"

"Well I kinda didn't force you anyway, you could have just said. Anyway, let's play Roblox after school today, shall we? I promise you, you'll love it!"

"Just don't do the 8 hour rounds with rank 99 players, I remember how that ended up last time."

"There won't be any of that, I swear to you."

"Let's do it at 5:00 then."

Honestly, I didn't want to play this Roblox thing at all. But it can't be that bad, can it?

After school, I came home and started watching a new action movie. For god's sake, I just didn't want to get off the couch. I just wanted to pretend I'd forgotten about the pact with my friend and keep watching. But my sweet hopes were interrupted by a loud sound that announced that my best friend hadn't forgotten after all. The sound of the discord call was, for me, the beginning of another part of the endless loop. As much as I didn't want to, my conscience wouldn't let me reject the call.

"Well, are you ready?"

"Ready. Come on, pick a game."

"Just a second..."

James chose the "Brookhaven RP" game. When I joined, I was surprised it wasn't another bloody German tank shooter about World War II. It was just a typical game about ordinary people's lives in an ordinary town.

"Look, change your avatar to one like mine."

Oh yeah, you could change your appearance in that game too, no matter how many "Robux" you had, or whatever they were called.

"Good for you, now take this."

He threw me something like a machine gun. Naturally, James was always James.

"How the hell is there a machine gun in this game?"

"If there wasn't, I wouldn't be playing this with you right now."

"Yeah, that makes sense."

After that, we ran around the streets robbing other players and shooting in all directions. I'm not going to lie, I kind of liked it, as weird as that sounds. It wasn't anything like the other games, because here we could literally do anything we wanted. I was finally able to enjoy the games, and now I realize that it wasn't all bad.

"Look, this game is awesome!"

"I told you, you're gonna love it! There's a lot of other games out there besides this one, we'll get to play it someday. See you tomorrow, then! Sorry we finished so early."

"That's okay, good luck!"

Chapter 2: A New Friend
I decided to play some more without James. But just as I wanted to run towards the houses, some player with brown hair came up to me. I remember my friend used to call them "Bacon Hair."

"Hi."

"Hey, what do you want?"

"I saw you and your friend, you're very funny! I'd like to be friends with you!"

"Oh, really? My friend just left now, but I don't mind!"

Then I added him as a friend and he became my first friend in this game, not including James. I was very happy, because now I could spend time together with other people.

"Thank you! Do you want to come over to my game? I made it myself."

"Really? I'd love to!"

Then he exited and joined another game. Pretty sure it was called "worldaven's place", just like his name. Once I joined him, I saw that it was  completely different. It was just an island with grass, caves, mountains and 2 houses. The first one was the "spawner". I couldn't even call it a "house". It was some kind of hut, in which there was only one small room with a fireplace. My new friend was waiting for me at the door.

"Come on, follow me!"

He walked in the direction of another house that looked much larger. When I walked in, I saw two people laying on the floor, and one child in the bed. The two people were a man and a woman, so I'm pretty sure they were the parents.

"Hey, what are those people?"

"They are my daddy and mommy. They are sleeping"

"Uh, okay but why are they laying on the floor instead of sleeping with... Is that you?"

"Yes, but I am not sleeping. Daddy and mommy are sleeping"

To be honest, I was absolutely confused. But on the other hand, he is most likely still a child and cannot properly formulate a speech. I had the same problem as well, and that's alright.

"Okay, I see. So what do you wanna play now?"

"Sorry, but I have to go now"

Then, he suddenly left the game. "What a weird dude" I thought.

Chapter 3: The Nightmare Begins
Looking at the clock, I couldn't believe it was 11:00 p.m. I made my bed, read my favorite book for a while, and drifted off into the wonderful world of dreams. But my sweet dreams didn't last for too long...

I woke up to a strange sound. It was like someone was screaming and banging on the wall. The sound was coming from the kitchen, of that I was sure. I wanted to blame it on the neighbors, but it was too close. Especially since my neighbors live in a separate house, not like a dorm or an apartment. I waited, but the sounds didn't stop. I couldn't make out a single word, and that stressed me out even more. I decided to get up and see what was going on.

When I walked into the kitchen, my jaw dropped. There was a man and a woman in shabby clothes. I immediately remembered the two people lying on the floor. They looked the same, I swear! But it was just a game, how was it even related?! I also noticed a boy sitting on a chair, crying. I just couldn't find the words, WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

"Hey, what the hell are you fighting about? What are you even doing here!? Get the fuck out of here!!!"

After I said that, they all turned their heads and looked directly into my eyes. Everything abruptly went quiet, and after a few seconds they literally vanished. I collapsed to the floor in surprise, and still kept looking in the direction I had seen them.

What was that?

Сhapter 4: Investigating
The next day I decided to walk around the neighborhood and ask everyone if they had seen anything like this. I knew that it could not be left so simply, because it was clearly not a dream. It was complete bullshit. I never in my life would have thought that this would ever happen to me. But even after asking every person I've ever seen, I didn't hear anything good. Everyone said that it was a dream, which seemed to me, and some even looked at me with suspicion, I suppose they thought that I was some kind of drug addict.

Then I called my friend and told him everything, from beginning to end. He said that, of course, he heard about damned games and accounts, but all that is not real. In general, he said the same thing as everyone else. "Maybe I really slept? Maybe I just imagined?" I still couldn't find the answer to my question.

Then, I saw a message from "worldaven" on roblox.

"Hey, come join me please"

I didn't want to go into his game, but he probably knows something about them. Maybe I'll understand what happened then?

I joined him and entered the house.

"Mom and Dad are still not waking up"

"Listen, I saw your mom and dad yesterday at my house. Do you know what they were doing there?"

"Please don't lie. Mom and dad lie on the floor at my house all the time."

"Listen, did they yell at you? Or at each other?"

"No, they were just a little nervous. They'll wake up soon and we'll be walking together again!"

After that, he left the game. I was wrong, now it's even worse. I tried to find the answer, but found even more questions. I began to doubt that boy, even a little worried about him. But first of all, I was worried about myself.

Chapter 5: The Second Nightmare
When night came, I decided to stay in the kitchen. I hoped that if I could see them, they would not appear. I sat on the couch with a smartbox connected to the TV and watched documentaries about ingenious robberies. I endured and did everything not to fall asleep, but the brain still did its job. After 3 hours, I fell asleep.

I woke up again at night, because of the screams. Now I saw them right away. The screams were much louder than last time. The man stood near the door to the bathroom, and the woman stood near her son. Meanwhile, the son was sitting on a chair and shouting - "Mom, dad, let's go for a walk! Stop screaming, please, let's go for a walk!"

My heart was breaking from all this, as if I were part of their family. Then, the father went into the bathroom and slammed the door with all his might, and the wife began to sob. The boy looked at me again, as if I was to blame for all this. After a couple of seconds, everything disappeared again.

Chapter 6: What now?
Now I've decided to just not think about it all. I just wanted to take my mind off this paranoia and play Roblox with James like always.

"Well, Mark, are you asking me to play roblox with you now?))"

"Well, yes, I want at least something positive"

"Listen, I would have called the police if I were you. This is not a good sign, what if something happens ..."

"Let's just not talk about it, join the game!"

This time we played Murder Mystery 2. In general, not a bad game, but I liked Brookhaven more. At least there you could fool around freely, but here you had to wait 1000 rounds to finally get shot by the sheriff.

"Listen Mark, I've got to go, I'm sorry"

"All good bro, we'll play some more next time)"

"Mark, let's be honest here. Do you need any help? I can help you if you need it, don't worry!"

"Yes, I do not need anything, everything is fine, thank you"

"Thank you. I'm very glad that now we have common interests. Well, come on then, good luck!"

After this conversation, I felt much better, and now I felt safe. I noticed only one oddity - worldaven was offline. Usually he was online every time I went on roblox, but now he suddenly disappeared. I decided to write to him.

"Listen, I know you need help. Are your parents alright? Please tell me the truth, I'll do everything possible to help you, trust me! I am really worried about you, you're my friend after all! Please, don't be shy"

In the evening, anxiety returned to me, and I nevertheless decided to heed James's advice and called the police.

When they arrived, I told them everything they needed to know, except the fact that they keep disappearing. Well, you know, what if they think that I'm on something? After all, many people in my neighbourgood thought so as well...

They said they would give me security for the night, which immediately made me feel better.

Chapter 7: The Last Nightmare
I went into the bedroom and tried to sleep. I could hear the police walking quietly around the house, which distracted me a little. At least I knew I was safe now, right? How naive I was.

I woke up again because of strange sounds that I had never heard before. And when I fully came to my senses, I froze in horror. It was the muffled but loud sound of gunshots. One by one, I heard loud screams. After a couple of minutes, everything was quiet. I lay there and didn't know what to do. But I still decided that it was better to die than to live in eternal fear and danger. I took my will into a fist and slowly went into the kitchen.

There, I saw dozens of dead policemen lay everywhere, and in the middle there were two corpses - A man and a woman. A boy was sitting next to them, with a pistol in his hands and a huge deep wound on his head. He looked at me, and the last thing I heard were his words:

"You saw me crying, you saw me screaming. Why didn't you help me?"

Chapter 8: Is it over?
I woke up in the hospital. There were two doctors and one policeman sitting next to me. I looked at them not understanding how I even got here. Then, I decided to break the dead silence.

"What happened there? Why?"

"Shhh... Everything is fine" said the doctor. "You were diagnosed with a congenital tumor, but we were able to remove it."

"But what about the police??! They died! What haappened to them, how did this happen??"

"Nothing happened. The cops are fine," the officer replied. "They heard you screaming in your room, they tried to wake you up, but you didn't wake up. And they already found a tumor there."

"And how long did I sleep like that?"

"About 2 weeks."

I just didn't have words. I couldn't understand why I'm still alive. I thanked everyone for their service, and I was left alone in the room.

A couple of days later I was discharged. I called all my relatives and told them what had happened. They couldn't believe what had happened either. Now the whole city knows about me. I started playing games with James again, and now I already have a desire to do it.

One day I finally decided to check the profile of my old friend. It said that he had not been online for 3 years, although I was no longer surprised by this. I've seen so much paranormal stuff that it didn't even bother me. When I went into the very game where he constantly met me, I noticed one simple change...

Now, the boy was sleeping with his parents, on the cold, wooden floor.