The Man in the Machine

ROBLOX has always been quite a fun game for me. The endless games, the endless people to meet, and all of the details in between. I remember back in the day I had this one friend, who I'll call Jim to prevent witch-hunting.

Jim was a pretty normal player. He was a bit odd, and had sent me a handful of wacky messages, but we were very great friends. One day, I logged on, and Jim shot me a message.

"Hello, [my username]! I just found a really good game!" He told me.

"Sweet, Jim! What is it?" I asked.

"It's a game made by my friend (we'll call him Jim2 in the rest of the story). It's really fun!" He replied.

It was an uneventful day, so I was excited for this game, and I happily followed Jim into it. It was called "Jim2's xtra special game" (of course, it didn't actually have Jim2 in the title). We spawned in on the lawn of some giant mansion.

"Come inside! I bet Jim2's in here!" Jim told me. We both went inside, and the house was very inviting. It was full of beautiful furniture and was painted soothing colors. We walked around for a while, Jim leading me this way and that, and we eventually came across a door much darker than the rest.

"Weird. I don't remember Jim2 telling me about this room," Jim said. Despite that, he went inside. I hesitantly went in as well. The room was in complete contrast to the rest of the house. It was painted greyscale, and was full of randomly placed furniture. I could also hear faint music in the background, though it was hard to tell what it was like.

We traversed this new room until we realized it was a dead end.

"I have to leave real quick. I'll brb," Jim said. He left afterwards, and I was left alone in this unusual room. I tried to exit the same way I had entered, but the door was barricaded. As I made contact with the door, the music slowly became louder. I was getting slightly unsettled until Jim returned. Instantly, everything went back to normal as he joined. The music returned to its quite volume and the door's barricades disappeared. I tried to leave, but Jim stopped me.

"I'm not sure if Jim2 would like it if you left," Jim said.

I was a little confused by what Jim said, but I tried to leave once more.

"Don't! Jim2 will be upset," Jim said, running towards me. I disregarded his warning and passed through the door. At first, nothing was different at all, but a few moments later I heard the music from outside the room. Not only that, but it was louder, and I spotted something outside a window. Jim raced after me, and after looking out the same window, he turned to me.

"Oh no," Jim said.

"What is that?" I asked him. I got no response.

I looked closer through the window, and it looked like some strange machine, like a mix between a refrigerator and a safe. To get a closer look, I went to the floor below and looked out through a window there. I noticed some more details about it, like a large door on the front of it.

I went down to the entrance of the house so I could go outside and get a closer look. I thought I walked outside, and it seemed as if I was walking towards it. I noticed the door on the front was transparent, and I could see someone inside. It looked like a black and white version of Jim's skin. It got pretty close to me when I realized - I was in an invisible box the entire time.

It was walking towards me.
As I realized this, the machine seemed as if it was reading my mind, and its door opened up. For a few moments, the man inside was still. But soon enough, it stumbled towards me like a zombie. It stopped in front of my face, and said this:

"I am the man inside the machine. God help me."

The music became louder, painfully loud, and I actually had to mute my computer. My vision became blurry, but I managed to see Jim running towards me. His character model had gone from having the default facial expression to a more concerned one, but as he looked at the new person in front of him, his facial expression went back.

"Oh, phew! I was scared for a second! Don't worry, that's just Jim2!" Jim said.

My vision became less blurry, and "Jim2" disappeared. I was about to log off, to call it a day, but then I was teleported into Jim2's machine. I was stuck inside, and I didn't even have the option to leave the game anymore. The music stopped, and dialogue replaced it. It went as follows:

"I am lost. I've never been the same after the accident. [unintelligible speaking] Nobody can save me now. I've lost my savior. God is on vacation."

This dialogue was at normal volume. However, as my nerves were finally calming down, a new piece of audio chimed in, nearly deafeningly loud.

"I am the man inside the machine."
This audio seemed to repeat endlessly, and somehow it disoriented me, like it was playing binaural tricks on my brain. I panned my camera around, and I noticed I was hooked up to the machine with large coils. Some of my body was bruised, and my feet seemed oddly shaped. The audio became louder, my vision became distorted, and before ROBLOX crashed, I was greeted with this final message…

Epilogue
Despite the strangness of this event, Jim never remembered it. I'd always ask him about it, but he'd always say he didn't know anything of it. Also, I could never find Jim2's account again or the game. It seemed as if it had been wiped off the Earth entirely, or didn't happen, but I have such a vivid memory of every moment I had in the game. I just hope nobody finds it again.