Monitor

I just got back from the electronics and hardware store to set up a new monitor for my gaming computer. My old monitor stopped working after months of using it on my up-to-date computer. My computer is capable of super fast performance even able to handle the most demanding games on the market, able to display a realistic first person game in the highest settings. So my old monitor breaking suddenly yesterday had me confused. What could be the cause? I could not come to the conclusion that it was caused by my computer, so I just sighed as I continue setting up the new monitor.

After plugging in the right cables into the monitor, I turned on my computer, ready to continue playing a realistic first person game I had just started a couple of days ago. The computer started its ordinary boot order, starting from the... wait... usually my computer would first show the manufacturer logo on the middle of a black screen, but all I could see is pitch dark. What just happened to the boot order?

I tried clicking with my mouse, and all I could hear is the click of my mouse along with a faint glimpse of a hand moving across the pitch black screen so rapidly fast all of a sudden that I jumped a bit from the desk. What the heck was that?

I got back into my seat and placed my hand on the mouse again. Before I instinctively moved the mouse in any direction, my eyes caught the subtle motion of air particles passing through the screen, being unable to distinguish the particles from the particles that the window light besides my desk shone upon, revealing the dusty particles, that looked exactly liked the particles I am seeing on the screen. Is this some sort of game I have never seen before?

Before I can ponder another thought, I heard an opening sound in the screen, as my nervousness reflexed to the sudden occurrence. The particles in front of me are now illuminated by a very bright light, indistinguishable from the light coming in by my window. The particles illuminated even looked identical to the same sight beside me. What is real and what is not real?

I thought about the question, being unable to come to a conclusion, as my gaze continued to focus on the screen, my hand still on the mouse. I decided to move, placing my other hand on the... my legs suddenly began to move one step forward, as I continue staring at the particles. I tried to move my mouse, but my hand in the screen instead moved at the same speed I remembered it moved before. I moved my head around, and I no longer see the outlines of my desk, my new monitor, even the walls of my room, as I instead took within a familiar sight, which is the same particles illuminated by the light of my window. Or is it my window? I could not tell whether the window was a real thing or object, as I curiously thought about touching it. The window shining the bright light upon the air particles stood in front of me as I slowly walk my strangely familiar body to it. I could sense a hidden wall with the same paint as my room as a little light shone on it, with the window attached to the wall firmly. I reached the base of the window and reached out my hand to touch it. The feeling of the base oddly and really felt like wood, unable to tell if the object I am touching was part of the game.

A realization hit me like a bullet. This dark space I am in right now is really part of the first person game I started a couple of days ago! Why is it then, that the graphics looked nothing other than actually being the reality? If graphics are rendered, then why is everything I am looking at not rendered, but naturally real? The game I remembered playing never looked like this, although it kind of looked realistic, like I could sense the developers were really trying to put details on the textures of the wall, but, compared to real life, could not match it entirely.

I also noticed one strange thing about how real this game turns out to be on my new monitor. I do not see my room. What my eyes are perceiving are the insides of the game itself. I am inside the game! This realization struck me so high I began jumping on the floor, for so long without realizing the floor was making creaking sounds. I looked down, saw that the floor was damaged slightly. Is this wooden house about to collapse?

I wondered why I was jumping up and down with excitement which caused damage to the floor underneath. All that happened just then seemed to be the unrealism of destruction in video games, where objects tend to break at just one attack. However, this house did seem to be at the edge of collapsing.

As I continued to stare at the damaged floorboards underneath my feet, my ears caught a faint sound of a foot step within a few meters from the north, with a faint glimpse of a faded outline from the north edge of my peripheral vision. I looked up, but saw nothing. My curiosity tingled as I began to walk towards the direction of the sound, cautious not to run or else the floor boards might break completely. I walked north for what seemed like mere seconds until I suddenly hit what felt like a pillar, as my feet came to contact with the bottom of the pillar, and, through the dark, noticed the outlines of the corners of the pillar. My eyes also caught the outlines of a small switch attached on the pillar.

With one motion of my hand, I flicked the switch up, to reveal a bright light coming from a light bulb attached to a string that stretched above into what seemed like endless darkness. All the light illuminated was the pillar and the floorboards underneath, which appeared to have little gaps as the floorboards were poorly constructed.

I begin examining the little gaps and saw something that tingled the far edges of my curious mind. Into the cracks I could trace the string attached to the light bulb that illuminated the same pillar towards the bottom and the same floorboards with the same exact cracks. I immediately looked above, and the sight of the endless darkness was no longer the same as before, as I could see the same image I see around me and below.

I begin to think I am in some kind of dream, without noticing the faint footsteps that begin to slowly creep towards my back. When I did realize it, I suddenly felt a kinetic energy on my shoulder. I stood there for what seemed like minutes, too afraid to turn around. Few minutes later, I no longer felt the feeling on my shoulder, and I turned around.

All I could see is endless darkness, as the window was strangely gone from my view. That confused me for a second, as I suddenly felt the kinetic energy on my shoulder again, this time scaring my mind all of a sudden, and I immediately turned around to no longer see the pillar I saw minutes ago, but a very ghastly image in the shape of a face piercing me with its soulless gaze. Suddenly thinking this thing was a ghost trapped in the game, I tried to scream, but I could not, as the kinetic energy wrapped around my mouth, rendering me unable to speak. Then, after a split second, the ghostly image mechanically opened its mouth and let out an extremely loud and high pitched, blood curdling scream that shook my head and ears violently as the scream reverberated the entire unending dark hell that had send me a migraine that did not seem to stop increasing in brain damage as my mind suddenly passed out with all in my eyes blacked out, with no sound to be heard.

Legends say once you see that image, hope is gone, and all is lost.

As I sit here in this black chair, I intently watched the screen across from me, as the monitor on the other side of the screen resembled the new monitor I bought this morning. I had also remembered I placed my old monitor on my bed besides my desk, so the screen I watched showed the desk with the new monitor above a wooden chair with a figure resembling me that sat on it. That person looked exactly like me, I drunkenly thought. Where am I then, watching myself stare at the new monitor?

The thought numbed me for a moment, before I had an eerie realization that will haunt my soul forever. This body I am in right now, is not the body I am seeing on the screen across from me. I am the soul that my original body had lost, trapped within the old monitor, so I shakily wondered whose soul occupied my original body.

As I shakily stared at the screen expecting what was to happen next, the head of my original self slowly turned itself clock wise, the neck becoming tighter as it might snap open. The head suddenly stopped, as I could now see the ghastly image that I could never forget staring at me from across the screen.

I felt the urge to retaliate against this apparition that stole my original body and trapped me in this eternal darkness. I tried to get out of the chair but I could not. I tried to scream but I could not either. All that was stopping me from fighting was the same kinetic energy I felt on my mouth during the encounter with this apparition. The intensity of the energy felt powerful, as I feel my strength and abilities fading away with every passing second. My eyes were beginning to move towards the closure of itself, as I watched my original self slowly shifting to my original face, controlled by the evil within.

During the few last moments of my consciousness alive as my eyes continued to move towards closing, my mind becoming sleepier, I could see my original self with an evil grin picking up the old monitor and heading towards the front door. As the old monitor showed the recycle bin on the side alley of the house, I begin to savor my most precious moments of my life with my friends. I imagined laughing with them and playing games with them. Then, as the recycle bin opened itself, I began to have dark visions of the foreseeable future of my original self, committing so many horrible crimes before suiciding. My eyes could still trace the monitor turning towards the front of my original self, who, with an evil grin, threw the monitor towards the bottom of the recycle bin. My ears could not pick up the sound of the old monitor crashing into the recycle bin, but my eyes did trace that evil smile smiling back at me as my consciousness finally faded into nothing.