The Online Friend

I made a lot of friends here on ROBLOX, and I always loved accepting friend requests. Even though we had the 200 friends limit implemented, that didn't stop me for just following them. I've always loved coming across a player I've met in a game, and I loved spending time with them. However, people said to me not to trust strangers online. I have learned my lesson the hard way.

It all started with a player named jreyes2344. We've met in a game called Natural Disaster Survival. For some reason, it was always fun playing with him that day. It was like the fun I used to have on ROBLOX was amplified. We always had the same interests, the same dislikes, and the same love for games. It was like I was playing with a copy of myself. I enjoyed his company, and he enjoyed mines. I distinctly remember him saying:

"You seem cool. Want to hang out sometime?"

I happily agreed to this. He sent me a friend request, and I immediately accepted it. We frequently played together, even when it was the afternoon of a weekday or up night on the weekends. We played all the games that appealed to us: Murder Mystery 2, Ripull Minigames, Survive the Disasters, you name it.

We played together on ROBLOX for weeks. I enjoyed every single day when he was around. However, he stopped playing ROBLOX for a few days. I waited for a response to send me a party invitation. I waited for a private message about what happening. I waited for a sign that he was playing on ROBLOX again. Nothing.

I stopped playing ROBLOX for a few days, knowing it wouldn't be fun without him. In that few days, I constantly recollected about why ROBLOX was fun to me only when jreyes2344 was around. Why do I only have fun on ROBLOX when that one specific player is present? Why not play with your other friends you have made?

Questioning my reasoning of not playing ROBLOX, I decided to play ROBLOX again. I didn't need jreyes2344 to have fun on ROBLOX.

I logged onto ROBLOX. It felt brand new, like going to play ROBLOX for the first time. However, jreyes2344 had sent me a party invitation almost immediately after he logged on. I also noticed that my inbox had multiple new messages. Those messages belonged to jreyes2344. They were pleas, begging me to play ROBLOX again.

"PLAY ROBLOX AGAIN, PLEASE."

"WHERE ARE YOU?"

"I WANT TO PLAY ROBLOX WITH YOU."

"PLEASE IT ISN'T FUN WITHOUT YOU."

Something was off. It felt like I was dealing with a different person on the account of jreyes2344. Regardless, I put the flood of messages into the Archive and accepted jreyes2344's party request.

On the party chat, jreyes2344 made a comment.

"Finally, you came!"

"Sorry, I had a lot of stuff going on." I replied.

The owner of the party had access to which game the party was going to. Knowing this, jreyes2344 was the owner of the party. It took an awful amount of time before I was automatically forwarded to a game. However, the game wasn't a popular place we would both enjoy this time. It was his place.

We spawned on the front of a house he made. It was the first time I visited his place. It was a well built house, but it felt so familiar.

"I made this house just for you," he typed.

Then, that was when it was my house. An exact replica of the house I was living in. However, I didn't knew jreyes2344 in real life, and he didn't knew my address. Or did he?

"See, it's your house. It's good, isn't it?" he typed again.

Maybe this was all a coincidence. I tried to stay calm.

"How do you build like that?" I replied. I tried to ignore the fact that the house was exactly like mine.

"Oh, I just took a picture of your house and replicated it onto ROBLOX!" he replied.

I froze. My hands were shaking, not knowing what to type next.

"Come inside," he typed. During that time, I dread to see what was inside the house. I didn't even move my character inside the house.

Unfortunately, jreyes2344 teleported me inside there. I was in an exact replica of my living room.

"See? I got every detail right." jreyes2344 typed. I didn't know what to say to him. If I say anything bad about it, he might go rogue on me. Instead, I exited the ROBLOX browser.

Immediately, jreyes2344 commented on the party chat. "Why did you leave?"

"I didn't leave," I replied, "I just lost connection."

"No, you didn't. I saw you close ROBLOX." he replied. "How could you?"

I immediately left the party and unfriended jreyes2344. Thoughts rushed into my head. Why would someone do this?

After I unfriended him, I noticed a message was sent to me. It was from jreyes2344. It read:

"LOOK BEHIND YOU."

From the reflection of my screen, I saw a grinning face behind me. I didn't dare to look back. After a few minutes, the face disappeared. I was still petrified, still staring at my screen and stuck on my chair.

After that day, I unfriended everyone else that I don't know in real life. I always decline friend requests from players who I don't know. I'm always paranoid that jreyes2344 will contact me, even though I blocked off every communication method on ROBLOX. I hope you take consideration into the phrase "Don't trust people on the internet" soon before creeps like jreyes2344 come after you.