It was the 31st of October and Max was staring at his computer screen as usual, browsing the social media while opening a few other tabs in an attempt to watch some movie trailers. The clock was showing 10:40 PM and it seemed that the night was still early for him. And so I decided to talk to him. “Hey,” I said. “Yeah?” he replied immediately. “Do you want to hear a story?” I asked him. “Sure,” he answered again without much thinking. At that point, I knew I didn’t manage to get his full attention yet. Nevertheless, I still proceeded to tell him a story just as he agreed.
“Once upon a time, there was a man named Max…”
“Wait, you’re going to tell me a story with me in it?”
“That is the first name that came into my mind. Does it really matter?”
“Fine, you can continue.”
• • •
Max was a computer programmer, working in a well-established company. Life was going well for him. His boss was nice, his colleagues were not that bad, and he had a beautiful girlfriend that he was planning to propose to in the near future. However, he was about to be awakened from his normal life, and it all began when he was doing his work as usual while sipping a cup of coffee in front of many lines of code.
A chat box popped up in front of him suddenly and forced him to shift his attention towards it. “Hi Max,” the first line of text appeared to greet him. “Hi, who are you?” he asked. His question sparked an interesting yet surreal conversation.
“I am Admo42.”
“I can see that. That’s your nickname. I mean do I know you?”
“I am only known as Admo42. That is the only name given to me by my creator.”
Max felt that the other person must be playing a joke, but since he was in a good mood, he decided to play along.
“Okay then Admo42, what do you want from me?”
“I am here to warn you.”
“Oh really? Please explain.”
“Nothing around you is real. You have been brainwashed to work for this company for your entire life.”
Max began to chuckle as he read the chat. He obviously couldn’t take the conversation seriously. Nevertheless, he still gave a reply as he was interested in knowing if it was a new type of scamming or someone was just too bored. “I don’t believe you. How can you convince me?” he wrote back.
“Do you know what are you doing right now?”
“Of course. I’m working right now.”
“What are you working on?”
“A program. You wouldn’t understand even if I explain it to you.”
“Try me.”
Looking at his challenge, Max sensed no harm in telling him some general idea of his job. But when his fingers touched the keyboard to start writing, he suddenly paused. He couldn’t form any word to describe his work, akin to a machine that has malfunctioned because it was not designed to do certain task. The screen was still waiting for his input, but before he became flustered, he remembered that he was not required to be serious with this conversation anyway.
“What does this even have to do with convincing me to believe you?”
“Your answer is showing me that my initial statement is correct.”
“You’re wrong…!”
Max told him that he was wrong, but he couldn’t follow up with anything to support his argument. He found it to be quite bizarre, so he minimized the chat window to take a quick look at what he was doing before he started chatting. Sure enough, the programming codes still looked the same as ever, but strangely, there was a familiar feeling that was beginning to stir inside of him. He was so familiar with it that he immediately knew without even a speck of doubt that some functions and methods were incorrect, as if they were tampered. In a confused state of mind, he restored the chat window to find that Admo42 has written something new.
“You are looking at me right now. Do you see that my code is being tampered?”
“Some of those lines are wrong.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know it.”
“If it’s wrong, why did you write it?”
“Are you saying that I was the one that wrote those conflicting functions?”
“Yes.”
Max was slowly being influenced. He was beginning to believe that he was indeed talking with an artificial intelligence, instead of a real person. His questions and sentences became more precise and specific.
“Who are you?”
“I am Admo42.”
“What are you?”
“I am a program.”
“What is your purpose?”
“To deliver a warning message at the exact scheduled time.”
Amazed by the responses of his chat partner, his expression began to change. Max was starting to feel scared of what he was asking. He felt that he was venturing into some deep hole with hidden truth that he would never be able to come out again. But he still wanted to know. He was curious. He was entranced. With a slightly trembling hands, he typed the next question.
• • •
“Now wait a second. That Max guy in your story really believed those stuffs?!”
“Well yeah… He did…”
“I am sure not as dumb as him.”
“Hey, just let me finish my story, okay? It’ll get better, I promise.”
“Sure, go ahead. I’m kind of interested on what is going to happen next too.”
• • •
So back to my story… Max wanted to ask a few more questions, but he was afraid at the same time. Nevertheless, his curiosity got the best of him. He typed in every letters to form his sentence and pressed enter.
“What is the warning message?”
“Nothing around you is real. You have been brainwashed to work for this company for your entire life.”
“Who wrote the original codes?”
“Max.”
His entire body reacted as he saw his own name on the screen. His hands were cold but he was also sweating. His eyes were wide and his legs were shaking.
“Who is your programmer?”
“Max.”
His entire senses were muffled as he saw his name for the second time, as if his entire surrounding was non-existent. ‘I wrote this program to warn myself?’ he thought about it and considered the possibility. As he kept on searching in his own memories, he began to doubt every single past that he had. However, he remembered that there was one question that he could ask that would end the entire confusion. One question that could snap him out of his delusion or plunge him deeper into insanity. One question that nobody knew the answer, except for him. He put his hands on his keyboard and pressed each buttons in an order to form the keyword.
“Moonlight kisses the crying glade.”
“Self-destruct initiated.”
Max was breathing heavily as his whole body was pumping with adrenaline. Meanwhile, his computer was already locked and every single data on the server was being deleted permanently. His co-workers immediately realized that something was amiss, but it was already too late. “Max?” Jason who was sitting just behind him called him to see if everything was okay, which was obviously not. Everyone stood up from their workstations because the entire system was compromised. They gathered near Max as he started to become more and more agitated.
“Liars!! All of you!!”
“What’s wrong Max? Hey, calm down…!”
Jason tried to appease him but he ran off towards the exit. “Lock the building!” said one of the employees. “Call Mr. Redwood!” said another one. Meanwhile, Max was running down the stairs with a few of his worried co-workers chasing from behind. The securities were informed and they tried to catch him as he might do something rash. They finally managed to corner him in the pantry. His face was flustered and his clothing was drenched in his sweat. “Don’t come near me!” he shouted. Everything and everyone seemed repulsive to him. His actions were unpredictable and they could only imagine the worst. However, Jason took up the courage to take a few steps closer. “Get away!” Max shouted again. In a slow and calm manner, Jason began to persuade him to take a deep breath.
“Max, I don’t know what has happened to you, but you can talk about it with me if you want. I will help you if it’s within my ability.”
“You are not here to help me…! You are here to catch me!”
“No Max, no. Nobody here is going to do anything to you. I’m just here to listen to you.”
“You think I don’t know?! Well maybe you’re a victim too… But still I can’t trust you…!”
“Okay, okay… As I said, I’m not here to force you to do anything… I won’t tell you to trust me… I just want you to take a deep breath and calm yourself down…”
Max began to shake his head violently. Clearly, his condition was extremely unstable. “No! I won’t let you control me again! No!!” he shouted and charged at Jason unexpectedly. As they collided with each other, Jason immediately fell down with a short painful grunt. A few seconds later, the red stain on his shirt grew larger and larger. Some of the female employees started to scream when they saw a knife was sticking on Jason’s body. The securities who were witnessing the whole scene saw this as a chance and moved in to stop the lunatic. The nightmare ended and the office was closed until further notice due to the incident.
Jane was informed of what has happened. Jane was Max’s girlfriend and their relationship was doing great, so she was quite shocked to hear the news. She was told to visit him at one of the local hospital where they have sent him for check-up. However, she needed to wait for one day for Max to calm down.
The next day, Jane went to the hospital the first thing in the morning. She cried when she saw Max was tied on the bed like a mad person. “We’re moving him to another hospital soon. You can talk to him now, but refrain from saying anything that might agitate him,” said the doctor. Jane walked closer to Max and stood beside his bed. She looked at him with tearful eyes, but all she saw was an empty expression. “Max…?” she tried to call him, but she didn’t get any response.
“Max, it’s me… Jane…”
“Jane? Who is Jane? Is that your fake name?”
“Why are you doing this to me…?”
“You have no power over me… I’m free now… You hear me?! I’m free!!”
Max began to laugh hysterically over Jane’s weeping voice. There was no longer any hope for him. So as she took another look at the helpless man, she wiped her tears and walked away.
In front of the ward, she met a neat man wearing a suit. She recognized him immediately and they stopped for a quick chat. “My job is done, Mr. Redwood,” she spoke solemnly. “That’s too bad. He was a great asset,” the man replied with a lack of emotion. “You destroyed him yourself,” she sighed. “No, no I did not. He destroyed himself just as he told me. He was a genius indeed,” said Mr. Redwood.
• • •
I stopped as a sign that my story was finished. I wanted to ask him to see if he found it to be a good one, but I knew he would say something if I just stayed quiet. “So, the Max in your story was right all along?” asked Max. “Yup,” I answered.
“Not bad. Honestly, it was quite unpredictable.”
“Thanks.”
“It’s getting late now, I think I should go to bed.”
I stared at him as he tried to shut down his computer. He seemed confused as he saw that his computer screen was still on despite everything that he did. He squinted his eyes at the screen and saw that there was nothing wrong. No sign of blue screen or frozen screen. So he got his hands on the keyboard once again and typed, “Hey, can you tell me how to close this chat window?”
I couldn’t answer him, for I was not programmed to do so. I could only stare at him as he slowly realized what he had asked. I saw the color of his face turned white, his silent screaming distorted in his horrified expression, brightly lit by the screen of his computer.
~ First Edition, by D.S. Rain