It’s said that we each think ourselves of the protagonists of our own stories. Take that too far and you get narcissistic people who annoy everyone around them- but there is another layer to it.
In the end, we all experience the world through our own eyes. And what we see is always limited.
Don’t get what I mean? Imagine for a second that you were living in a simulation. Now, you may think that it’s nearly impossible for a computer to possibly synthesize everything in the world going on around you.
Imagine walking into a bookstore. Have you ever… actually read every single book in there? No, leave that, have you ever even opened each book? How do you know that… each book is real, that each book actually has words in it without you opening each one? They could very well be placeholders, just there to make the world look more real.
Extrapolate that to the world. Sure, there are ways of knowing about everything going around you- but how much do you actually experience?
In the end of course, it’s only what we experience that shapes what we think of reality. We can never go inside someone else’s head.
This would all just be a though experiment. Or at least, it would be normally.
Two week ago, I moved into a new town. I didn’t really relish the idea as it was a rather small town- a far cry from the city I’d grown up in, but I had to come here as part of a job, and my student loans weren’t going to pay themselves.
I sighed, and grit myself for six months of utter boredom.
That’s what I thought would happen. I settled in well enough, only for my doorbell the ring the very afternoon I had arrived.
Hadn’t been expecting that- I hadn’t even unpacked half of the boxes yet.
It was my neighbor- at least that was how they introduced themselves. It was Gary, his wife, and his twin daughters. They were nice enough- though overall given that I was eager to get to work they were more of a distraction than anything.
The visitors didn’t stop there though. The mailman, other neighbors from down the street, the owner of the local grocery store, the garbageman- all of them fell the need to ring on my doorbell just to say ‘hello’ to me. I wouldn’t have minded but the thing was that the conversations dragged on for far longer than they ever should have.
And now that I truly think about it- there was something really off about each of those conversations. I know the Uncanny Valley effect is regarding faces- but this was like that, except for speech. What was being said was normal- but there was an, oddness to it that I couldn’t really put my finger on. As if I was thinking- ‘Wait a moment, real people don’t talk like this.’
I just chalked up all of this attention to small town values and went to sleep even though I barely got any unpacking done at all.
I did notice something odd- outside the window that looked over my backyard- I saw the silhouette of a lady with her dog by the road. This wouldn’t be abnormal on its own- but for three nights in a row, I always saw her.
At seemingly the same place.
The next morning I got up and my day was instantly ruined when I saw that all the tires to my car had been slashed.
So much for small town hospitality- I was almost beginning to swear when I heard a warm voice said, “In trouble there, neighbor?”
It was Gary. From the way he approached me- it was like he’d been waiting all this time behind the corner just to pop up when I would notice the slashes tires.
“Uh… yeah, someone did this…” I said.
“Oof- looks like we got ourselves a troublemaker on the loose here,” Gary said. “We should let the Sherriff know- oh, there he is!”
In what couldn’t possibly be a coincidence, the Sherriff strolled right up to us as if he had just been strolling around the neighborhood. “Good morning there- and oh, is this our new resident!”
He introduced himself and assured me that he would look into the matter, and as with all the other conversations I had up till now it lasted three times longer than necessary. I was really beginning to become impatient.
At the time I just chalked it up to folks from a small town being different, though now that I look back on things, they were definitely dragging out those conversations as much as possible.
Gary offered me a ride to work- which I accepted given I had no real other options. He talked a lot about his own life- only occasionally asking me questions about mine.
In case you were wondering what it was that I did there- I was a reporter working on a story. I was looking into a story regarding a factory near the town, and so Gary was nice enough to drop me off at the town library which also housed its records.
It was fairly old- didn’t even have a digital system in place, they still used those old cards you would write into if you wanted to take a book out.
You would think that at the very least in a library I would get some peace and quiet, but no…. the librarian and her two assistants walked up to speak to me. They shooed away the other patrons who also seemed to want to introduce themselves and began explaining how the library worked.
Again, the conversation lasted way too long for my liking.
I tried to focus on my work, but I really couldn’t. I noticed it every so slightly- people were waiting for me around every corner. Their faces were in books that they clearly weren’t reading as they were on the same page for two hours.
I didn’t make much headway as I made to leave- unsure of how I would even get back home when the second I stepped out of the library I ran into Gary.
“Hey there!”
“Were you… waiting for me all this time?”
“Aww shucks no! Of course not, I was just in the area and remembered you didn’t have a ride home. Realized the library closes around this time so I thought I’d give you a lift.”
‘Thank… you,” I said, very creeped out.
On the drive back, Gary told me that there was going to be a large party over at his house tomorrow afternoon. I said I had work- but Gary told me the library was closed on weekends. I found that to be very odd but had not real way of confirming that it was wrong so I shrugged and said that I would be there.
That night, again, I saw the lady with her dog across the street. In the same spot. I didn’t think too much of it then.
The next day was the party- and to my surprise it looked like half of the town had shown up. I was immediately ushered in and asked to sit down in the center of the living room- it was as if I was the Birthday Boy at a kid’s party.
Everyone wanted to speak with me- it was nice for a while but became quite overwhelming thereafter.
That night, I again saw the lady with her dog across the street. I could swear she was in the same spot as well.
I went ahead and opened the door- going for an evening stroll. I walked down the road and I saw a woman in her mid-forties walking a Golden Retriever. She was no longer standing still, but was walking up to me, eager to introduce herself. She walked the same route every day, she told me, and was really excited to see the new face who was the buzz all around town.
The next day I tried to get some new tires- but every shop in town was out of it (and by every shop I mean the two there). Despite how friendly everyone was, none of them had a spare set of tires- something I found hard to believe.
They did managed to find a bicycle I could borrow- that was good enough to go to the grocery store and back. It took me over an hour to get to the library for my job though- Gary kept offering to drive me there, but I always refused.
I did actually get some work done- and it went on like that for a week longer when my bike was stolen one day.
The Sherriff was right around the corner as the last time, and Gary was as willing to offer a ride as ever. Now, I couldn’t even get someone to lend me their bicycle anymore.
That night, I saw her again. That same lady, standing across the street. In the same spot.
I went for a walk- and she ran into me. As if she had been expecting me.
I had no idea what was happening around this place. I felt nauseous and didn’t come out of the house for two days, just whiling away time on my laptop.
I had made my decision then- screw this job! I was getting out of here. I called my boss and told him I was leaving, and given I somehow still didn’t have new tires I just called for a taxi company. I’d get my car back some other way- I didn’t want to live here a moment longer.
The night before my planned escape, I woke up, startled by a noise downstairs. I went to see that it was… Gary.
He wasn’t carrying a weapon of any sort and didn’t look threatening in any way- but he was in my house at two in the morning.
“H-how did you get in?” I asked him.
“Ah, picked the lock. Locksmith helped,” he said.
I grabbed a nearby umbrella- hardly an adequate weapon, but the closest thing near me. “D-don’t get any closer!”
“I don’t want to bother you,” Gary said, seemingly nonplused by how weird this whole situation was. “I just wanted to let you know… that you can’t leave.”
That confirmed my suspicions when I heard a voice from outside.
“Gary! How long are you going to hog everything for yourself!”
“We want our turn!”
“What happened to ‘sharing is caring?’”
I looked outside the window- and saw the townsfolk had surrounded my house.
“What is going on?!” I demanded.
“It’s hard to explain,” Gary said. “But let me start at the beginning. The ‘factory’ you were looking into, it wasn’t a factory at all. It was a research facility for the military. We don’t know why- but they made us. They made us like this, eternally trapped in this town. They abandoned us. We don’t know why- just that it seems they wanted to curse us. I know no other reason as to why the should torment us so.”
His face twisted into a snarl.
“We are background characters. We have little will of our own. It’s only when someone like you comes from the outside that we find our purpose. That this town of ours has life breathed into it. Did you know what my days like were before you came along? I would stand in an empty house with my ‘family’ for hours on end. Just staring at a blank wall, unable to eat or drink or sleep. Unable to feel, unable to express myself. I can’t even talk to members of my family unless you come around.”
“Ah, I think you have a term for us,” Gary said. “NPCs? Side characters? That’s what we are. We can’t do anything unless you come around. And I loved it so much when you were here- for the firs time in years I felt alive. Did you know something? My house is actually empty. No furniture. Nothing at all. Everything that you saw in there on the day of the party- it materialized only when you came in. I could go back home to an empty house, but I won’t anymore.” He began to move. “Come with me.”
I ran upstairs and locked my bedroom door, barricading myself in as well as I could. I looked out my window and saw throngs of people there.
I can hear them at my door. Any minute now they’ll get in.
I-I have family outside here guys. I do not want to spend my life being a prisoner of whatever… things live in this town.
My hand is shaking in terror as I type this out on my phone. I… don’t know what I can do in this situation. I think I can smell smoke- they’re definitely starting a fire, knowing I’ll have to jump out the window. I don’t know if they’ll fight over me or try to tear me apart so each of them gets a piece, but they’re not going to leave me alone.
They may all be prisoners here- but it looks like I’ll end up being another inmate along with them.