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The original was posted on /r/nosleep by /u/0anonymousv on 2024-10-09 08:46:36+00:00.

This might seem rushed, I may end up leaving details out in the moment. I don’t know how much time I have to type this out.

In hindsight, spectacular as it always is, I should’ve known better than to apply for an internship under a man I’d never heard of. I’d kind of just started applying to them in a blind panic, though, after getting rejected too many times. This was the first I heard back positively from, so I went with it without waiting for more options.

Dr. Henry Dalton, completely unknown even in his own field of computer science. One single internship opening. I expected that to mean he already had other employees and interns, but when I showed up at his meager little office downtown, I very quickly discovered what it actually meant. I was going to be the only other person working with him.

His office is just a rented-out studio filled up with projects and technology. I thought I was at the wrong place at first, but when I knocked, the door swung open before I’d even stopped.

Dr. Dalton is a pretty tall, gangly guy, with sloppy brown hair and glasses with eyes that look like they’ve never torn away from a screen in his life. He looked down at me almost judgmentally before bothering to speak.

“You’re the intern I hired, right?” Deep and gravelly, the voice of a smoker.

I bit back my hesitation and nodded. “That’s me. -Priscilla Jennings?”

“Yeah, the… compsci major.” He waved dismissively and let me in. “I’ll let you know now, the empirical research I’m working on right now is pretty unheard of outside of science fiction. I don’t have anyone else lined up though so please stay.”

I gave him a look when his back was turned. “…okay?”

Stepping inside, I got a full view of his mess of a studio. It was midday, but the office was dark, blackout curtains pulled over the windows and the door. The whole space was only illuminated by the countless computer screens and devices, as well as something that looked like a prison’s electric chair more than anything. I caught myself staring at that in particular, wondering about it after what he just said, but Dr. Dalton cut right to the chase before I could get any questions out.

“Computers, whole different world. You know, you study them too. It’s an accessible world. What if it could be more accessible, though?” He began rambling. “VR is great and all, but nothing in there is real. It’s just line after line after line of code. How does one make it real? And how does it feel different from the code if we could make it real?”

I was already lost.

Dr. Dalton sat down in front of one of his computers, producing an apple from a basket beside it that I hadn’t noticed before. Pulling some more things out - wires, clips, etcetera - he strapped the apple up with them and spun around in his chair, placing it down into the execution chair over there.

I continued to watch in awe as Dr. Dalton fine tuned it like a radio, eventually rolling back to his computer and typing at it rapidly. He waved another vague little hand at me in the midst of things. “Step back.”

I did, of course, waiting behind him to watch. I couldn’t really get a grasp on what he was doing on the PC; whatever it was, it was flying by fast, too quick to comprehend. It didn’t really matter, though. My attention was seized by the throat when the apple started glowing.

In something straight out of a science fiction film, just like he had said, I watched as the apple turned pixelated, then seemingly phased out of existence. My jaw fell open.

“The thing is, you can’t hook up things like a room to this machine, so they just sort of go into the code,” Dr. Dalton mused, leaning back and gesturing to his screen. I brung myself to look down at it, seeing as new lines of code started showing up by themselves in the program he had opened. “Which isn’t the end of the world, but if there’s a “space” inside there that they exist, I can’t see or access it without something to view it in. Nothing’s worked with that so far. I’m hoping your assistance will get me there quicker, to be able to see inside the code. Between the lines, if you would.”

I found myself pretty speechless, all my thoughts still convoluted from what all I’d just seen. It took me a moment to gather my words.

“Well- I’ve, never seen anything like this in real life- I’m not exactly sure-”

Dr. Dalton cut me off with another wave. “I wasn’t expecting experience, so don’t put that on your own shoulders. Just another set of educated eyes. No graduates will look twice at what I have to offer, they don’t think it’s true or worth anything if it is. But you’ll get paid even if this doesn’t pan out. Win-win.”

I pulled myself a bit closer back to reality again. “-right. I’ll do my best.”

“You will. It only functions on this computer right now so I’ll show you.”

We spent most days huddled over the one computer that allowed for this, uploading objects in growing size and trying to figure out what exactly happened to them when they entered the world of code. It didn’t seem to ever make any more sense. Every new line added nothing. We could put things in, but never see them or take them back out.

I could tell Dr. Dalton was getting stressed. The office smelled more of smoke every time I came in, he always looked even more tired than the day before. I was fascinated - I still am - but I’m not as attached to the work as he is. I still don’t quite understand how he made it happen in the first place. This is his incredible invention, not mine.

I came in on a Friday after my classes were over, like usual. All the same, Dr. Dalton was sitting at the computer, carefully going through lines of code. He didn’t bother looking up. “We’re putting a rat in today.”

I halted a few yards away from the computer. “What?”

“I found a rat in the vent and we’re uploading it. I want to see what the code will look like, and it’ll be especially valuable once we figure out how to upload them back to reality.”

I looked past him to see there was indeed a rat already hooked up, writhing and biting at its bindings to free itself. I felt my heart sink into my stomach.

“Isn’t that a bit… cruel?” I asked him, glancing his way again.

“Science doesn’t progress without a little bit of risk,” He responded tiredly, beginning the uploading process like always.

I really should’ve walked out right then. But morbid curiosity had already taken ahold of me in her tight grip, strangling me with deep claws.

I stood there behind him watching the rat glitch itself out of reality, taking a bit longer than all the inanimate objects we’d put in already. Trying to put the thought of it squirming desperately out of my mind, I turned my attention to the computer screen, observing the lines of code it was now spewing out. They were clearly far more complicated - significantly longer, too, unsurprisingly. It reflected back on Dr. Dalton’s glasses as he stared at it with a blank expression, deep in thought.

“Okay. That should do it right now. We can put the focus onto removing things from the computer rather than uploading for now so a behavioral study can be performed…” He goes back to typing, moving over to give me the space to join him.

I paused, stepping over but not sitting down just yet.

“…are we going to be uploading more animals?”

He stopped for a second, finally taking the time to look my way.

“…no.”

The third red flag there should’ve been the clear hesitation in his voice, just in that one word alone.

Saturday came. I don’t usually come in then - but he asked me to. So there I was.

When I arrived, Dr. Dalton was pacing around. Not unusual, but it put me more on edge after yesterday.

“Did you need something specific today, doctor…?” I mustered up the courage to ask him after a moment.

He paused, turning to look at me with a hand to his chin. “I’m going to ask you something, Priscilla.”

I blinked at him.

I should’ve ran.

“What is it?”

“What do you think the inside of the computer is like?”

I glanced aside, giving it a few moments of thought. It’d been on the forefront of my mind on and off for weeks, so I had an answer. I just needed to word it.

“…vast. Probably pretty empty, aside from what we’ve uploaded, and what already exists inside of it… but I can’t really think of what files would look like in person.”

Dr. Dalton massaged his stubbled face, turning to pace again. “I agree.”

A disturbed silence fell between us. I slowly stepped over to the computer, glancing down at the code and not seeing anything new. He spoke again just as I sat down.

“You should see it.”

My shoulders tensed. Wordlessness fell over me again as I turned to look up at Dr. Dalton.

He was already looming over me with wires in hand.

I screamed, fought back, but he was so much stronger than I thought he would be. Or maybe I was weaker than I knew. Whatever the case was, it didn’t matter, because I was being strapped to that chair like the day of my execution had come. No matter how much I thrashed and kicked. He was prepared. I could do nothing as the process started again.

The other end of it feels like utter agony. My screams so quickly turned to nothing, even before reality was too glitched to make out anything. It hurt, god, it was the worst pain imaginable. My body wasn’t uploaded all at once. It may have looked that way outside; but each and every single cell loaded through individually. It felt like hours, years, a painstaking misery that I couldn’t possibly describe well enough.

And…

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