We’re not first. By that, I mean we’re not the first attempt at human life, at least that’s what I’m putting together. If you’re going to listen to my crackpot theory though, you’re going to have to hear the backstory.
My name is Helen, I’m thirty, unhoused, and scraping by on the streets of NYC. Despite what you might think of this, I’m in a sane mind and have others to corroborate what happened, or at least some of it. A few of the others I was living around and I were going to a nearby soup kitchen, hoping for at least a warm meal. I don’t think I’ve actually eaten real food and not just scraps in three days at this point, but that’s the least of my concerns after this morning. We were on our way, getting ready to cross the street when a car came speeding through, whipping around another at the stop light.
I’m not really sure why I reacted how I did. There was a girl in front of me that I’d just met, Phoebe. She was younger, down on her luck, but a really talented artist. She just needed to find some sense of stability, you know? That’s hard these days. The car was heading straight for her on the crosswalk, no way it was going to slow down or even try to. I just jumped forward, pushing her out of the way and taking the full force of the sedan barreling toward me.
At least, I should have felt the full force. Instead it just kind of knocked me back into the pavement. It still hurts, but more like when you run into a pole or something when you’re not paying attention. Here I thought it must have stopped or slammed on the breaks, except when I finally opened my eyes and overcame the daze of the hit, the street was suddenly empty.
I mean totally empty. Not a goddamn person, vehicle, or even animal in sight. There are five pigeons for every square foot of this damn city yet at this moment, everything was silent and still. Then the humming started. It was low, reminding me of the old, giant TV that my grandma kept in her living room. That sound of low, static humming when a channel was on with nothing to watch.
Eventually, I picked myself up, not quite sure how long I was laying there though. Opening my eyes made me think I was officially dead though, or had some major, major brain damage. I’m going to describe it as best I can, but bear with me if it sounds a little odd. Everything was the same, geography-wise, with the familiar layout of the city I grew up in. Except it was… I don’t know, low-res?
It reminded me of when I fucked up a Grand Theft Auto game and glitched everything else out. The empty world was more angled than real life, with fewer curves and more edges on everything. It wasn’t until trying to actually get up that I started to really feel the ground under me. It was smooth, a slight static just breaths away from the surface. The asphalt looked as if it was painted on, giving the appearance of poured concrete. In reality, it just felt like a smooth, marble surface. Cool to the touch, too.
As I stood the rest of the world came into focus, and I could see the buildings looked much the same. Windows and doors as if they were crudely textured over. Everything reminded me of an old Playstation 1 game, looking around, but how the hell I was inside it, I don’t know. The sky above looked fake too, with clouds painted on with angled powers. Just looking up started to make my vertigo go crazy though.
After a few minutes of gathering myself, I started moving down the street, trying to figure out what this place was. The streets were empty still, with not even a breeze moving the still air. When I walked up to one of the windows, a blurred display with a sign that said SLICE with pictures of pizza that made jpeg compression look like Da Vinci, there was nothing I could see through the windows. Hell, it was like just solid color, painted like glass to give the appearance of a front. Might as well have been a cardboard cutout.
”Hello!” a voice shouted from around the corner. It froze me at first, realizing I wasn’t as alone as I believed. I had to find a way out of here though. Maybe they knew something? I don’t know, it’s not the least rational thing about today. Because when I finally reached the intersection and got a clear view around me, unobstructed by the tall buildings around, I almost lost my fucking mind.
The World Trade Center was standing tall against the sky. Not with much detail on it, but the Twin Towers were punching into the sky for the first time since I was a kid. The world grew louder, my mind racing trying to just find some comprehension of what I was seeing. God I just wanted to get a hot meal and now I’m in pre-Y2K hell. With no fucking idea how to get the hell out of this place.
I almost resigned myself to death at this point because everything was so fucking overwhelming. Then the voice came again, a small “Hello?” this time from behind me. Everything in my body screamed not to turn. Don’t look, don’t face whatever nightmare was probably right behind me. Despite it all, I still looked.
A kid was walking toward me, maybe a couple blocks down, this time though they gave a much louder “Hello?”.
This is on me, not going to lie. I grew up homeless for a lot of my childhood, so I’ve got a soft spot for kids who need help. That was almost the end of me.
“Hey, are you okay?” I shouted down the street. The child only gave another “Hello” in return, nothing else. They were moving toward me still, but the light didn’t let me make out any features. Cautiously, I started walking to meet them. They repeated hello again, this time louder. It wasn’t until I got closer that I noticed the humming growing louder, static cutting through the silence.
”H-h-h-h-ello?” It said again, this time stuttering it out, resetting to the beginning every time. When it came into view I took a step back, realizing I made a huge mistake.
The smiling, cheery face looked pasted onto the angular head. Their shoulders and arms were oddly sharp, just floating at the side without movement. Legs were moving, but not actually touching the ground. This thing was gliding like a ghost, closer and closer to me.
Features grew more clear as it got closer. The smile was too wide for the face, stretching ear to ear showing far too many teeth. Empty eyes stared forward, crudely drawn onto the skull. I honestly don’t know if it could see me, but it felt like it *wanted* me.
“H-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h” It started glitching harder, the words stacking on top of each other without getting out the first word. In only a few feet it became one long sound, a scream of binary technology missing a one or zero. It got overwhelming, causing me to fall to my knees in the middle of the street. Gliding ever closer, the figure was now bending, contorting, and stretching itself in every direction. There was a singularity in the middle, with every fiber of the thing screaming trying to escape it. I could see the ground around it beginning to pixelate, popping in and out of existence.
Once the stretching got to its face everything went to hell. The sound grew even louder, more static and loud, mechanical errors deafening me. Static charge filled the air, crackling around as the hair on my arms raised. I was being electrified, growing more intense as the glitch grew closer. It wasn’t similar to being tased yet, but god I could feel it ramping up.
Pretty sure I started screaming, which may have been what saved me. Whatever god there was in this fucked up digital prison must have taken pity on me. I felt something grab me by my shirt collar, stretching the fabric as it did. That was it, I thought I was going to die. This thing was trying to eat me and I would die here, forgotten on the streets just like in the real world.
“You can stop screaming now.” A voice said, pulling me along the road toward one of the storefronts. The contorted glitch of a person was still following behind us, but at a much slower pace now. Looking up, there was a person in a sloth mask pulling me by my shirt collar. “Anyway, bye. Try not to come back.”
Without a second thought, he threw me into one of the painted doorways with ridiculous strength. Bracing myself for the impact of a wall, I instead stumbled out, the heat of the city streets hitting me like an inferno. People were bustling around, bumping into me and going about their day. I was back in the real world, just down the street from where I was when everything started.
Cop cars were down the road near where I got hit, as well as an ambulance. When I walked up, I couldn’t even say anything. Phoebe was standing there crying by the ambulance, a large scrape going down her forearm. Seeing me must have made her think she was being haunted, because she started to point at me, crying too much to get anything out.
Talking to the others that were with me, I’m still not sure what the hell happened. Everyone says they saw me push Phoebe, the car make contact, then I was just… gone. An hour passed and everyone thought I was still on the grill of that truck, being taken along on a high-speed chase. They still haven’t even caught the driver, apparently.
I’m tired. Everything is still blurry. I feel like I saw something I wasn’t supposed to, like something taboo and ancient. Even though the look of it was relatively recent, it just felt… old. There was something there that wasn’t right. Not to mention whoever the fuck rescued me. God, I have a lot of fucking questions but right now I’m just glad to be alive.
Maybe someone in the homeless camps knows something. I’ll reach out to a few of my shelter buddies too, to see if they’ve experienced anything similar. To be honest, surviving on the streets in the real world seems a little trivial now after seeing all that. I don’t feel like I’m real anymore. I keep hearing scientists talking about living in a simulation, but I think I just saw the demo. God, I hope I don’t have to go there again, though.
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I’m still really unsure about the things I’ve seen, but I do know there are others who have seen it now. Did a little digging and found some random message boards suggesting a ‘Demo” like a first attempt at humanity. Except now I’m finding out that visitors to the Demo don’t end up sticking around long after they return.
From the few threads I’ve seen, and bear with me- I’m fucking homeless and using library computers- the few of us who went in and made it back all had somewhat similar experiences. Emptier, more low-res version of their surroundings at the time, and a voice luring them closer before glitching out on them. Most ran, and everyone assumes there were plenty more people who didn’t get away, but everyone who found a way out says it was by complete accident. No mention of anyone in a mask, Sloth or otherwise. I appeared to be an isolated incident.
There wasn’t even a common theme in how they got there in the first place. Things were seemingly at random, whether it was just a random doorway while urban exploring or just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. One person described their experience just falling through the floor one day, emerging in the Demo version of their school. I couldn’t find any correlation, even among the small handful of people who had shared their stories.
I just found out one thing that’s consistent between all of us though, and I’m not sure how much time I’m going to have left. The glitch followed me. Others mentioned some strange happenings, seeing glitches in real life, technology acting strange, and a feeling that there was something watching them, waiting. I’ve felt that since the first encounter, just a few days ago but I feel like my heart is still racing. Mechanical, constant screams echo in my head, static building on my skin like wearing a fleece coat fresh from a dryer. Except not comforting at all, leaving me with cold sweats.
I stayed in the library overnight to avoid the rain and damp outside. I hadn’t been myself the past couple of days, pushing everyone away who tried to check on me. EMS told me I was a damn hero for pushing Phoebe out of the way, so why do I feel like I’m being hunted? I did a good deed, right? That deserves some sort of reward, you would think, not a fucking curse.
Everything settled in the library around midnight or so, with workers librarians, and janitors finishing up their duties. Years of experience taught me where to hide and avoid anyone checking around, though the janitor was extra thorough tonight for some reason. Must be an event or something tomorrow.
I curled up on one of the couches set aside for reading, nestled in one of the back corners where a small light cast shadows. It was comforting, one of the only places I’ve ever known that felt like home. Guess that’s why I finally ended up drifting off to sleep, but it was only minutes before things got weird.
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A loud series of thumps from a few aisles down, books hitting the floor in quick succession. Pages were turning like a hurricane was blowing right through, threatening to tear them apart. In the shadows I could see the shelf wavering, ready to topple over at the force before a figure emerged, gliding from the aisle like a damn ghost. It turned, looking toward me. The same, small child I saw in the Demo was standing there, a faint glow coming from it as the sneering, plastered on face focused in on me. Then that loud, mechanical scream again, like voices sounding out briefly before being silenced, becoming a chorus of glitching, digital hell.
My reaction time was much better, maybe because I knew where I was or because I didn’t have the initial shock at whatever this damned thing was. When the Glitch started moving toward me, bending and stretching like gravity was tearing it apart at the seams, I took off down another aisle.
Well, that pissed it off apparently, because it started getting even louder, the storm of gravity around it pulling everywhere. Where to go or what to do were secondary in my mind to just get the fuck out of here. I ran the maze of aisles, judging where the Glitch was by the tornado it was whipping up. Whoever came in there to clean in the morning was probably pissed, but when I came back this afternoon everything was in place. Whether it was the work of all the employees or another bit of the Demo’s fuckery, I have no idea.
I’m ahead of things again, sorry. At some point it occurred to me that this thing wasn’t just going to go away. It meant I was going to be out on the streets in the rain, but it was better than what the Glitch might do to me. I still don’t know what the hell it would do, and tbh I’m not keen on finding out. Took me a second to look around, figure out where I was, and make a break for the doors.
The adrenaline is what I’m blaming for this one, because it totally escaped my mind that the damn doors are locked. Not my smartest moment, I know, but something worked out for me anyway. I dashed through the detectors that kept the doors separate from the rest of the library, hitting the doors themselves HARD. I was still bruised from that truck hitting me, so hitting the metal push bars was incredibly unpleasant to put it lightly.
I was scrambling once I realized they were locked, and the Glitch was screaming like a dial-up modem in a fucking blender behind me. It was almost on me and I still wasn’t able to get the top deadbolt undone, my hands slippery with sweat while trying to pull the old, rusting lockout.
The Glitch charged at me then, mouth wide in a smile that looked like it was going to chomp down on me. It hit the detectors set up to prevent weapons from being brought in, suddenly compressing down to a small singularity as the parts of it stretching in every direction were absorbed, infinitely folding itself into oblivion before it could pass through the other side. Wasn’t stopping me from getting the hell out of here though. I finally fumbled the deadbolt open and burst through the doors faster than the devil running from a church. I ran maybe four blocks before I finally stopped to catch my breath, a few other pedestrians on the street giving me an odd look.
Found an alley to curl up in that was somewhat dry. It wasn’t easy to fall asleep, though, with me on constant high alert thinking it could appear again at any point. Not to mention my mind fucking running marathons trying to figure out what made it disappear. I’m hoping I can figure it out to keep myself alive, at least. God, I’ve been just surviving for so long that I kind of forgot what it feels like to actually be relieved to be alive.
Thinking about it, writing it all out now, when it hit the metal detectors it was almost instantly done for. Whether it killed it or just sent it back to the Demo is a whole other thing entirely, but there’s something there…
Oh fuck. Magnets. Holy shit why didn’t that click earlier? They’re digital, everything looked like it was from old, digital media discs. I still remember when my dad got mad at me as a kid and decided a “punishment” was taking my copy of Final Fantasy VII to a refrigerator magnet. Still never got to the final disc after all this time, but I guess he got karma since he fucking died a few weeks later. Maybe you shouldn’t have drunk and driven, Robert.
Sorry, little trauma dumping. I ended up falling asleep in the alley until about noon when it became too uncomfortable. The sun was hitting the trash back there just right to really bake some old dairy. Made my way back to the library instead to scour the internet more, maybe find some answers, and write all this up.
I think I need to find the Sloth. He definitely wasn’t a part of that world, with much more clearly human features even just by his build. Until then I’m going to see if I can swipe a few magnets from the library desk. If anything I might be able to find the stuff to make a small electromagnet. Maybe I can find something lying around the trash. Until then, I’m definitely not sleeping here, so guess it’s back out on the street along with all the other strays.
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It’s been a rough day. I mean ROUGH. Let’s dive in.
I found Sloth. It wasn’t how I would have wanted to do it, though. Instead, things went a little rough. I found my way back to the Demo. or at least the Demo found its way back to me.
Let’s see… so things were pretty chill the rest of the day after I made the last update. I swiped some magnets from the desk at the library and tied them around a small bar I found in an alley. That way, if the glitch managed to come back for me I had it ready to go, giving it a good whack and taking it out. If only the plans went right.
I don’t know where it came from or how it just found me, but I was trying to sleep in an alleyway last night. Figured I would be safe there, not much tech around to worry about anything. I have a stupid theory it came out of the computers at the library but I have no idea if that’s how it works.
Feels like I had just drifted off, sleep finally overtaking me despite trying to stay alert. The sounds of the city around me were loud but I’ve been able to tune them out for years. Maybe that’s why I didn’t notice it at first. The sudden static, a hum beginning quietly before roaring to a constant, crashing crescendo of chaos. That was around when I woke up, seeing the Glitch standing at the end of the alleyway as I sprung up from the makeshift bed of garbage I was sleeping on.
I barely had time to grab the magnet pipe before it was on me, faster than it had moved before. Closing my eyes, I gave the hardest swing I could toward it, hoping it was enough. The magnets stopped it momentarily, the singularity coming to a complete standstill. The parts bending out from it began to shrink in again, once more folding in on itself.
If it managed to grab me or if it was just the force of it disappearing, somehow it took me along, screaming for my damn life. My eyes weren’t closed but all I could see for a moment was darkness, before dropping into a blinding, white light. When it finally faded, I could see I was in the alleyway, stripped of any of the clutter. Walls looked painted on, with fire escapes were simply drawn on top of them without structure. For a minute I was losing my mind, wondering how in the hell I got back here again. Then the Glitch started screaming again. Louder this time.
Glitch was obviously feeling some hurt from the magnet, but at this point, it was starting to become something different. The painted-on face stayed the same, grinning malevolently with empty white eyes, wide open to see everything. The body was bending and morphing more though. I was barely able to catch myself before the magnet pipe was torn from my hands, hitting a wall. When it impacted, the magnets left pixelation briefly before it was covered by the texture again, briefly popping out of existence first.
The only option I had was to make a break for it and hope for the best. Ducking around the Glitch, heart pounding, I ran out of the alleyway into the street, hoping to whatever god made this fucking place that the layout was still the same as the city I knew.
Made the classic mistake while I was running and looked behind me to see if it was following. Yeah, stupid me. It wasn’t the same Glitch that had been hunting me. This fucking thing had evolved, the bending limbs stretching out into dozens of legs as it crawled toward me on all of them. Arms were long, propping the torso up like some fucked up centaur, face now glitching in and out, changing faces and voices as the “Hello?” grew louder and more frantic. Thankfully, despite the appearance of it just gliding along, it must not have been used to the new movement style. Either that or it just got a major downgrade on speed in return for becoming a nightmare
By the time I got a few blocks down I was out of breath. I could hear the Glitch far behind me, but wasn’t sure where the hell it was. The one thing I was sure of was I knew this part of town much better. Wall Street. Where all the rich people live and we on the street pick up the scraps. I’ve done a lot of pickpocketing here, even more time just begging for scraps, hoping people would take pity on a woman. Except the people here didn’t have any pity, only greed. I got spit on and propositioned more times than I ever got a cent.
While I was catching my breath I took in my surroundings, seeing everything familiar as if it hadn’t quite loaded in yet. Most of the buildings were still the same, though many had different, more outdated signs. A banner on one of the bank doors caught my eye, huge letters with fireworks all around in celebration.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! SEE YOU NEXT CENTURY!
Memories snapped back into place for me, suddenly, clearly, with a force that would put that truck the other day to shame. I still remember begging out here that night. Dad kicked me out again, not for the first time. A seven-year-old out on the streets alone, I did what I could to try and eat. Always heard that Wall Street was where anyone could make money, so I made my way there thinking I could earn a few dollars for a Happy Meal or something.
I was seven, cut me some slack. I learned how things worked pretty fast after that.
It was raining. New Year's Eve 1999. I was huddled under a little awning, one right across the street from me right then actually. I remember a man walking up, showing the first hint of kindness I had seen in the seven hours I had been there. That same banner that was blurry and pasted on in the Demo was right there.
“Are you alone, son?” Those were the first words he asked me. When I nodded, all he said was, “Well, I could buy you some food, if you’d like to play.”
I was hungry but even seven-year-old me had alarm bells. I ran as fast as I could, though I don’t think he even tried to follow me. He was older, balding, and wearing a freshly pressed suit. Considering the cigar stink radiating off of him, I’m assuming he wasn’t much of a runner.
Sorry, still dealing with a lot of these memories coming back. I… I’ve been running from shit for a long time, y’know? My mom died when I was still a baby, dad apparently realized pretty early on that I wasn’t going to be the pro-athlete son he always wanted. Don’t think I’ve even spoken to him since I was twelve, so god knows how he would react seeing I’m not his son anymore. Hell, as far as he’s concerned I probably never was anyway.
The Glitch roaring jerked me back to my senses, getting closer at a much faster rate than when I had left it. I looked back and realized why- it was growing larger. The number of legs filled the entire street now, with faces changing even faster on its head. The same, terrifying smile was always there, but the teeth and inside kept changing, taking on different textures and colors, from sharp teeth to just a blue void. The eyes remained solid white, while the entire skull kept stretching and growing, enlarging the pasted-on face so it looked even more grotesque.
It was close. Closer than I wanted it to be. I don’t know when I started screaming, but at least I was trying to find somewhere to get away. The doorway of a bank nearby caught my eye, appearing different than the others, almost completely white. I swear it wasn’t that way a few minutes before, but I was also having a pretty bad flashback so my mind is pretty messy.
I swear I ran faster than I ever had, going for the door with every fiber of energy I had left in me. When I tell you I was nowhere near prepared for what was next, I mean it. I thought my life was about to end here, forgotten. Nobody in the real world would give a shit, anyway. I was a stray, one of millions of Americans living on the bottom just scraping by. Not a single person would go looking for me.
I hit the doorway with all my might, hoping to bust the door open. Instead, it busted me. I was knocked back hard, thrown across the street right on my ass. A little luck had my back, though, sort of. At least the pavement wasn’t actually pavement, just a slick sheet of hard static with the look of a paved street painted on. I slid across, over the painted curb, and into the wall.
I was a little dazed after that. It. hurt, I think I may have hit my head at one point. When I opened my eyes though, the Glitch was screaming closer, ready to bear down on me. Everything hurt, and I tried to force myself up to run, but the strength just wasn’t there. I was so dizzy I could barely tell up from down. I don’t know what bounced me but it hit me hard enough to completely kick my brain for a good minute.
Over the screaming I heard another voice, this time a little familiar.
“What in the hell are you doing here? Didn’t I throw you back on like… Monday? Wasn’t it Monday?” The Sloth was walking up, quickly slipping the mask down over his head while looking at another figure standing alongside him. This one was tall, lean but muscled, dressed in all black with a Raven mask over his face.
”How the fuck should I know? Who is this?” The Raven asked Sloth, gesticulating a hand toward me. “I thought living people couldn’t get in here? Did you let her in?”
The screaming of the Glitch grew louder, only a couple of blocks down the street now. Its growth seemed slowed down, with fewer legs growing from the torso. The face was still changing, more rapidly while sometimes blinking completely out of existence, leaving an empty black void where it was. All I could do was point to it and scream for help as it got closer.
”Oh shit. I’ve never seen one like that. Have you? That looks mean.” Sloth remarked, turning to look at the Glitch as it moved closer. Raven stepped forward, raising a hand in front of him and centering it on the creature.
”We don’t have time for this shit.” Raven briefly raised his hand above his head before slicing it downward through the air, a chopping motion in the direction of the Glitch. A wave of solid light extended from his hand as he made the movement, extending far enough to slice the Glitch directly in half down the middle.
I’ll be totally honest here if you’re looking for answers- I don’t know. All I could really say at the time was that the Glitch was what brought me here, that it had been after me since the other day. Sloth and Raven just stood there and listened, never taking off their masks.
“Can we finish up? Only three days until we do this.” Raven said, crossing arms in front of him. I was still in shock after seeing the thing that’s been chasing me for days just get sliced in half like paper. Now I was finally able to ask questions to the one that saved me the first time and I could barely fucking speak. Raven gestured to a nearby doorway. “You gonna open it for her?”
”Hold up, hold up, hold up! The Glitch was in the real world? Like our world?” Sloth asked me. My heart was still racing, but I was getting the feeling they knew about as much as I did about that thing. “You’re not even supposed to be here.”
”How are you here, then?” That was all I could get out. Sloth actually started laughing at that question.
”I fucking died.” He laughed even harder. “You mean you didn’t have some near-death experience or anything? Meet anyone who gave you a talk? None of that?”
”I pushed my friend out of the way of a truck and it hit me. I ended up in here.” Things were making less sense than before. “They told me I disappeared until you threw me back like twenty minutes later.”
”I’m sorry, you’ve spoken to her before? In here? What does she know?” Raven was asking as Sloth still laughed, starting to cough now from not being able to catch his breath.
”Oh my god, chill. I literally just threw her through a door. Holy shit, this changes a lot of stuff. We had no idea you could just get knocked in here. Hell, you might’ve had the least terrible experience out of all of us. God, wait until we tell Tam, they’re going to be so pissed.” He was laughing again, clapping Raven on the shoulder. “Sorry, a friend of ours, his trip here was SUPER unpleasant, even compared to all of us. Don’t know if the universe just likes fucking with him or what but… woo, too long of a story. Anyway.”
Sloth turned toward the door nearby, raising a hand and flipping his palm from face down to upright in its direction. A black void overtook the doorway, blotting out any of the markings on it.
”Look, this isn’t a good place to be. You’re gonna want to stay out of here if you can help it.” Sloth offered.
”Please go, we’re on a time crunch.” Raven said. Even through the mask, I could feel his eyes rolling as he spoke.
I was pretty hesitant to walk toward the door, trying to gauge if it was okay to go through or not. Sloth waved me along, telling me to get out of there before more Glitches showed up. I closed my eyes, stepping through the doorway and out into the dark street, the sun barely starting to break over the horizon.
Weird as it sounds, I haven’t had any of those dread feelings since I got back. Maybe they really were able to get rid of the Glitch, at least I hope they were. Things are still shitty, hard not to be that way when you’re living on the streets. I still don’t know who they were, but I’m keeping my eyes out for anything that seems out of the ordinary. Might be back on the street, but we’ll make it through. I can feel a change in the air, and I’ve learned to trust my gut after living so long as a stray.