Abandoned Servers

You know those eerie feelings you get when you're playing a multiplayer game and there's no one on the server apart from you?

For instance, boot up Minecraft right now and scope around for some deserted server that is running, but has no one on. Feels pretty weird, right? Well, this is what my hobby was: going around to these barely running games and seeing what people had left behind. Not just Minecraft, either: Counterstrike, Team Fortress 2, World of Warcraft. I used all of these games to explore the special servers nearly every day. I logged down what was on them: buildings, maps, announcements, and then my friend would come along and wipe/build on what I had documented. I would get paid about $50 for every server I cleared, depending on the size.

So anyway, I'm sitting there sipping on a Coke when my unnamed friend (due to security reasons) rings me up over Steam and says that there's this really big indie game map that was just abandoned, and he wants me to check it out. He also mentioned that the map was larger than normal, so he would pay me around $100. I accepted and went to download the client. It was an old website. The design was pretty poor and it didn't look very popular, so I speculated that he just wanted me to see if it was working.

I created an account and booted up the game. It looked normal enough, sort of like Second Life, that game where you play as yourself and run around and buy/build stuff. I started at the server maintenance screen, went over some of the hosting stats, and found that the server was being run from a single tower that had a proxy. I couldn't list the location to get a proper ping to report to my friend, but since he was probably going to delete it, I guessed I would just make it up. I scanned over the other servers; it seemed like this was the only active one. He was probably going to wipe it and demolish the company project, so I guessed that was why I was getting such a big bonus for it.

I logged into the server and the loading screen came up: hints, a bar, and some pictures of people playing. The usual. After the screen had completed, my avatar was dropped into a little forest, which I assumed would be outside of any main city or town. I walked forward hoping that some sort of tutorial would guide me around, but nothing happened. The graphics were quite advanced for a game its age. The forest spanned for ages and the trees were like that of Elwynn Forest of WoW. I told all of this to my friend as we kept the channel open for fast communication.

After walking around in the forest for about twenty minutes, I came to a bigger than normal tree. It had this large door on the front that looked as if it had been carved into the wood by hand, kind of like the ones from Nightmare Before Christmas. But anyway, the cursor came up with an interaction symbol. Then the screen went black and my voice channel cut out. There was no loading screen, only the sounds of the poorly looped 8 bit music that was on the last loading screen. I waited and waited until finally, the game came back along with my voice channel. The only thing in the entire tree was a big mirror, totally separating its middle from the other half. My character walked up to the tree, without my control, and put his hand toward the reflection. After this, I was suddenly brought to my desktop.

Along with the icon of the game, all the files were missing. The http had also vanished along with it. I asked my friend if he cut the server and he replied with an innocent "No." Anyway, he transferred the money to my PayPal and logged out, so I go to bed that night thinking about what I will spend my $100 on as I drift into sleep.

I wake up about six times that night, always seeing that damn tree. It's not even scary, just annoying. There's a vividly recreated mirror just like the one out of the game, and I keep touching it.

I get up at around 6am after being unable to sleep, deciding to hop on the computer for the weekend and rummage about on Steam for some good deals. I get about halfway through watching some Saint's Row trailer when I get invited to play some CS:S. The name was added to my friends list but I don't recognize him at all. The name, actually resembling mine, kept flashing, and after a couple of minutes, I decided to oblige.

The server was pretty normal, just a dust_2 with no announcements and him and myself on opposite teams. It must have been a peer-to-peer, because the server name was exactly the same as mine. I bet it was my friend pulling a prank. After I'd gone through the options and gotten my game all set, I decided to buy an AWP to shoot this guy up with. But whenever I pressed the key I'd assigned to bind, the game froze and went back to normal after about two seconds. I decided it was some buggy server coding and continued the game with the trusty old Glock. After I ran out of spawn, I heard a faint laugh/giggle from the other side of the map. I brushed it off as a plug-in script and kept running around. I looked for this guy for about ten minutes until I was about to leave, then I saw him in the corner of my eye running under the walkway. I followed him under, but when I re-emerged on the other side, I saw not the other side of the map, but the inside of a big tree and the large mirror stretched across my screen. The reflection was not of the terrorist I was playing as, but of me. Sitting there at my keyboard. I threw my headset off and checked my webcam. Nothing was turned on.

"What the hell is this?"

In the reflection, my hand extended from my mouse and began cutting into my arm with its nails, smiling and giggling the entire time. I screamed and turned off the computer. Before fading to black, my face flashed on the screen, all distorted and rotted.

I waited about four days before turning the computer back on.

I need to do this, I told myself, for work. I turned the computer back on and started Word. The program immediately shut down and began booting up Battlefield 3.

"What?" I said out loud. I wasn't even using battlelog. This was too suspicious. I was about to turn the computer off in fear of seeing my doppelgänger start going all cutty cutty again, but then I saw I was invited by my old friend.

The server was pretty normal; just a squad DM on Caspian Border. I spawned in and selected my weapons. After this, I alt-tabbed and opened a chat with my friend.

"Hello?" I said into the microphone.

Only static returned.

"Come on, dude. Don't do this now," I said in hopes of getting a response. "Whatever, let's just play."

I ran around the map, looking for my friend amidst all the bushes and trees lining the gas station. I saw a model run behind a building. It didn't look like the silhouette of a normal in-game model. I remembered Dust_2 and decided to turn the computer off, reaching up to the power button and pressing it once. I looked back down to my screen; all I could see was that all the trees now bore the same door.

"Oh shit," I said as I struggled to look away.

The power didn't turn off as my character walked unattended towards the largest of the trees. The door opened, and guess who was sitting against the mirror? Sitting exactly like me, my doppelgänger stared blankly into the screen. He'd changed since the last time I saw him; his eyes were sunken, his bones now clearly visible over the fleshy creases in his face and skin. He grimaced and started jabbing himself with a piece of wood.

"AHHAHahhaH," I screamed as his actions replicated on my body. I reached for the cord as pieces of splintered wood started cutting into my chest. I finally grasped the cord and pulled it out. The laughing and screaming died down on both ends of the voice channel.

I was rushed to the hospital and received around sixty stitches for my cuts and gashes. I sold my computer when I returned home.

A couple of days passed and things were looking down for me. I lost my job after having too many days off, still thinking about the tree and my doppelgänger. I began walking around the interior of my house, thinking about what I could do. I thought about mirrors, me, insanity, and how I could overcome this bastard.

Then it clicked. The mirrors and trees... I needed to get back to the game.

Knowing the http was downed, I realized I needed to host it. I bought a cheap Dell computer from my local store and set up a peer-to-peer host in the hopes I could get just me and this bastard in one room again. The server pinged online as I entered what I remembered to be the host. There were hashes and strings of code from any file residue I could find. After working for about three days, I finally got the server back online. The web address worked, and I braced myself as I clicked 'login'.

The page was different. It had pictures of me losing my job, as well as my loved ones, and crying people being killed. Beheadings, torture, cannibalism, and decapitation lined my screen as the game played the same howling noise as when I first met this doppelgänger.

I logged in, the loading pages going black once more as I was dropped into the forest again. It was different; gore and blood splattered the entire landscape and bodies hung from the branches. They followed me with their black, cold eyes as my character progressed through the environment. In real life, I was shaking. The barriers of the game and reality slowly drifted apart as I advanced deeper and deeper into the forest. I was walking on my own now, with no keyboard or mouse. Just me in real life.

I continued, falling over corpses as I kept going. I have to do this, I kept saying to myself, "I have to." Until I finally came to the tree.

I braced myself and walked toward the main door, screaming still ringing in my ears. It slowed to mere giggles as I approached the mirror. I saw myself covered in blood, elongated features with black eyes looking at me. It started rasping and crawling toward me, breaking the mirror. Now was the time. I pulled out a pocket mirror with all my strength and showed it to the doppelgänger. I heard a massive burst of screaming echoes, making my eardrums bleed as I held the mirror with all my willpower.

I suddenly awoke in my room, on the floor, covered in blood with the mirror laying to my left. I calmed down. It was over.

I got up and collected myself. After a quick shower and a glass of water, I got in my car and drove as fast as I could to the nearest bridge over water. I held the mirror, threw it down into the water, and began to walk home, safe and a hero after defeating the doppelgänger.

That's why I am writing this now, to save you the trouble of all of this. Be cautious whenever you join any type of empty or abandoned server. You might just start to hear laughs and giggles echo toward you. If you encounter your own doppelgänger, I fear for the worst. A couple of months ago, the police dredged lakes around the country and found mirrors exactly like the one I used to defeat him my first time. I have a hunch he won't make the same mistake again.