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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/rorith-ell on 2024-09-10 18:26:17+00:00.
We started dating over a year ago now, and we're both in our twenties. Our generation is known for having a technology dependence, but my boyfriend's is getting ridiculous and I'm at my wit's end.
I knew when we started dating that he played a lot, but he promised me that I would be a priority. He was the most dutiful, kind, and attentive boyfriend up until last month, when a new game came out that all of his friends were obsessed with.
Of course, most of them are single and live alone, so they can play for twelve hours a day.
At first, Angel only played for a few hours at a time, but even then he would be plastered to the screen. No eating, and not a word I said registered with him. Before this, he always played with the boys, chatting and yelling, but he was silent.
After a few weeks, he started playing from the time he came home until he went to bed. He barely ate food - he at least used to do that while he played, but he would hardly touch anything I brought him. Just hunched over the keyboard, his hands moving mechanically over it. I couldn't understand how he was even having fun this way, but once in a while I could hear him laugh from the other room, so it must have been in some way.
Last night, it came to a head. I was standing behind him, practically crying for some attention, and I saw something on the screen that was... odd.
His reflection was what I noticed first. There was no expression on his face, completely empty eyes and sallow cheeks. He once was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen, but now? I could barely recognize him. There was no light in his eyes.
Then the screen flickered - what had been a regular first-person shooter game distorted, and it wasn't a character on the screen. It was him - my perfect, beautiful boyfriend, screaming. I could see blood on his shirt, and for just a second, I thought that he was looking at me. Begging me with his eyes. I could vaguely make out a distorted sound coming from the headset on Angel's head.
Angel smiled, and the screen was normal again. Just a stupid shooter game. I went to bed in a hurry, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Angel turn toward me. I didn't want to talk to him, for once.
It's been stuck in my head, to the point that I had a dream about the game last night, and I can't shake the feeling that Angel isn't really in that room anymore. How could a game be so detailed?
This morning, in the bathroom mirror, I thought for a moment that I saw Angel behind me. He didn't come to bed last night, and I whirled to greet him, but there was nothing.
I even heard my name coming from his game room, but I couldn't bring myself to call back. It was wrong - he never called for me, and his voice was strange. Distorted, even. I can't bring myself to go inside the room after last night.
I'm buying a computer today. I don't know what it is, but I have a feeling that whatever is in my house is not my boyfriend.
I think that I have to save him.