This dude I live by, real nerdy kind of cat, chats me up sometimes about new tech and science articles he was reading and stuff. They were always interesting conversations, so I didn’t mind him hanging out. We ended up playing tabletop role playing games together with a couple of other people. It was pretty chill. Nothing too weird about it. Just dudes being guys being dudes, right? 

So, when he texted me earlier tonight saying, “I’ve got a really cool idea, can you come help me out real quick?” I didn’t think much of it. I told him sure, what’s up? “You’ll see man, it’s pretty exciting!” This mother f**ker man, exciting my a**. I don’t know what the f**k happend, but dude isn’t right anymore. I get here, and my guy is visibly excited. I’m feeling the energy, you know? So, I’m like cool. Dude starts talking way too fast about some sh*t he figured out. It’s like real specific a** information too, like I don’t know what those numbers mean, bro. 

He’s like, “oh, okay, so pretty much, I figured it out.” 

I’m like “bro, what did you figure out?”

He says mother f**kin “interdimensional travel.” Like bro, shut the f**k up. No you didn’t. 

He says he’s for real and just needs me to help him set up and be “a witness to history.” He takes me into his basement, this dude’s got a pretty nice house, until here. This sh*t looks straight up like you took six or seven different basements and mashed them up to make this real frankenstein looking sh*t. On top of that, he’s got all sorts of sigils, a bunch of weirdly formatted numbers on the wall, hebrew words, and other things that look like words on. all of the walls. It's some straight up high level magick sh*t. There are weird computers and equipment on a fold out table. My mind immediately goes to f**k, dude’s about to try to sacrifice my a** in some red room type ish.

“Hey man, what’s up with this sh*t?” Bro says, “which sh*t?” Like dog, “fu**in all of it?” Dude says he needs the different materials at each of those angles so that’s why the basement is patchwork, the sigils are for directing the flow of energies and  preventing certain frequencies from getting in, and all of the electronic shit is for generating the specific change the energy needs to be manipulated. At this point, I’m f**kin in. This is some digital wizardry sh*t and I’m about it. Cool a** aesthetic, and I might see some wild sh*t. Bet. 

If I knew the kind of Lovecraftian sh*t we were about to mess with, I never would have come through. He asks me to help him put together this machine. It kind of looked like the frame of an old projector tv with a weird metal funnel going in it. And in the back, that funnel fed into some weird looking device with wires and tubes. He’s hype the whole time and it’s a good vibe, for real it is. It’s the kind of energy that makes you feel like you’re doing something bigger than yourself. 

“What’s this thing do specifically?” Dude looks at me with the joy of a child in his face, eyes lit up and just beaming, with a big ole smile, “We’re about to find out!” I’m telling you, this dude knew he was onto something big. He made me feel like I knew it too. 

We finish assembling it. He’s walking to go plug it in to the power and everything else, and I can’t help but stare into this funnel thing. Looking closely, there is a lot of little writing on each layer of the funnel. Some of it also looks hebrew, but some of it is nothing I’ve ever seen before. The funnel is about three feet deep, but when I looked at it, it just felt like it went on forever, like some strange optical illusion. An optical illusion never twisted my mind up quite like that, though. It only made this feel bigger and made me more curious. 

So he finishes hooking everything up. Tells me, “okay, it’s all ready.” He looks at me with the most serious face, like it messed the whole vibe up in a second. 

“Look, I don’t know what’s going to happen,” bro said, “I need you to stand over by the bathroom door. If at all you feel unsafe or nervous go into the bathroom, shut the door, and lock it. I promise I will let you out when I’m certain it is safe.” ummm, “what the f**k does that mean?” Bro looks at me now with that face again, he said, “if anything is off, go into that bathroom. If you look at anything and it just doesn’t look right, go in there. If the air gets heavy or your ears start to ring, go in there. If you suddenly find you cannot maintain focus at all, go in there. If you forget your name, go in there.” 

“My guy, what the f**k? Are you serious?” The look on his face told me he was, but bro come on. 

“The bathroom is protected from the energies released by this machine, much like lead prevents xrays from passing through. If any of the energy gets loose and starts affecting you, it is important for your survival to go into that bathroom. When I clear the excess energies away, I will let you out.” 

My heart was pumping adrenaline to every dark corner of my body. I needed a few deep breaths. “You said ‘important for my survival?’ Are you implying I might die right now?” 

“Maybe not die necessarily.” 

“What the f**k does that mean?!”

“If you just go in the bathroom, you’ll be okay.”

“What if you ‘not die necessarily’? What do I do then?”

“There is a panic button in the bathroom. The directions are with it.” That’s not reassuring.

F**k it, though, okay, let’s go. I’m ready as I’ll ever be. I go stand by the bathroom like I’m supposed to. He finishes typing the command into his computer. I was expecting something more dramatic with the last click of his keyboard, but when the device powered on, there was only a slight ringing sound. 

He looked at me with the most sorrowful expression. He looked like he was about to emotionally break down right there. I was going to say something, but then he just quickly froze in place. Like every atom in his body seized up. Then his face looked like it was moving, but not at the same time. It hurt my head to look at. “Hey man, are you alright?” No change, no expression, no response. “Bro!” Still nothing man. His eye started to twitch soon followed by his mouth and the rest of his face. I can’t say why, but the sh*t didn’t sit right with me. 

I got into the bathroom and shut the door. Locked that b***h immediately. I figured I’d listen to his advice and just wait it out, but I hadn’t heard sh*t from the dude for like twenty minutes. That’s when the texts started. I was reading the panic button instructions when I felt my phone vibrate. It was f**kin him, man. 

“Can you help me?”

“I’ve got a good idea.”

“Can you come help me?”

Life is full of awful things. I’ve been afraid before, but this is not that fear. Everything in my body is telling me I need to get tf out of here. Move, do something, anything, but I can’t. There is something going on outside this room. It’s like he’s looking for something. Every footstep brings me closer to tears. Whatever it is, it’s not my dude anymore. My mind finally landed on, “dude, there’s a button for this.”

There are three simple directions for the panic button on a notecard. 

1. Push once to turn of the machine, this will disrupt the flow of energy.
2. Push two times to drain room of energy.
3. Push three times to activate emergency mode.

There is a little sidenote paragraph, which I can barely read, but the general gist makes it sound like it’ll burn down his entire house. I’m terrified, but I’m not trying to do that. 

So, here is the biggest problem, when I pressed that button the first time, nothing seemed to happen, but dude made a whole interdimensional device, I’m sure he knows how to set this sh*t up. I just tried to push it twice, but when I did, I accidentally knocked it down from it’s perch. There is a hole in the wall where cables should be, but no cable. There is a port in the back where an ethernet cable should go, but there is none there. I don’t think this guy actually finished setting this up. There’s nothing on this that tells me it’s transmitting wirelessly either. 

I don’t want to feel like a child hiding in the bathtub anymore. I want to get the f**k out of here and go home. Calling the police doesn’t feel like an option, this panic button is bummed out, and it’s gotten incredibly quiet out there. He’s not sending texts anymore. No one else is responding to my calls or texts. It’s been about three hours now. I just want to go home. I think I’m going to give it like another half hour before I’m dashing. Maybe I can run faster than him, or maybe over power him if I have to. 

Honestly, I think he left the house, or at least the basement. I’m not hearing anything anymore. I was originally going to ask for advice, but I’m calm and brave enough now to leave this room. I’m going to try to get out after I post this. If I don’t make it, hopefully people will find this and know somewhat what happened here. 

To anyone who might investigate this, I know how this scene will look. I saw the basement too. He is a scientist, not a criminal, or lunatic. Please don’t try to paint him out to be a creep. He isn’t or wasn’t. I don’t believe he is himself anymore. 

If I do make it, I’ll follow up on another post. 

Okay, I’m ready. Wish me luck, Reddit.