Beat Saber: The Shadow Dancer

It was a warm spring night just last year, the pandemic had just started and I managed to snag a VR headset early (HTC Vive) so that even though I may not see my friends I could at least play in VR with them. We'd play the usual stuff, VR Chat, Rec Room, and of course, Beat Saber. We all had Beat Saber and enjoyed how we could rock out to music with each other even if we weren't in the same room. I had downloaded a bunch of mods for the game, things that could let you play custom songs together, mods that would make the game look nicer, and there was even a secret mod that was in unreadable text. I decided to turn this on before starting the game, my friends were waiting for me to make a room and I figured this would be fun to see what they thought of it, if the mod did anything cool. I never should have installed that thing...

It started off as any regular day would for me, I woke up and had my regular breakfast of toast with unsalted butter and a large cup of orange pekoe tea, black. I read the news and texted my good friend Howard to ask him if he'd like to play Beat Saber tonight. I had told him about the new mysterious mod I downloaded and it intrigued him. He set out to tell my other friends that we should all play it tonight and find out what it did together. I went to school and had class with Mrs. Goodall, who I hated and she hated me. She always gave the worst homework, and seemed to dislike me the most. It could have been from the time I replaced her asthma inhaler with a pez dispenser, or it could've been the time I ran over her dog on my bike on the way from class. Regardless, she was mean, and my day would drag until I could get home and play Beat Saber with my wonderful friends. The bell finally rang and I shot out the door, it was almost time to dance my cares away.

I kicked down the door to my house and bolted up the stairs. My computer was already on, which was strange as I always shut it off every night so my father doesn't beat me for wasting electricity. I love my father and how much he cares for the environment, I understand why I need to be beat for leaving the computer on, so I don't blame him. I guess my mother or father had turned it on for me as they knew how badly I wanted to engage in dancing in virtual reality with my friends. I opened up discord, which is a really neat program you can use to talk to your friends online even though they're not in the same room as you.

I started up the lobby with a maximum of 4 people, it was meant for me, my friend Todd, my other friend Jay, and my other other friend Howard. I told them the room code and there they all were, loading in one by one. Their silly little avatars showing up on the pedestals around me, they smiled and waved at me as we started to look for songs to play. We noticed a small platform in the middle of all of our other player platforms, I guess this was something the mod added? There was an option that we could turn on called "[SHADOW]" mode, I asked Jay if we should. He laughed and told me to turn it on, so I did.

In the middle platform a shadowy avatar emerged, it seemed to look at all of us and then mimic our movements as it looked at us. We laughed at it, this was such a fun mod! I loved making the shadow dab and floss as it looked towards me, we all had great fun. But the amusement ended quickly when we decided to start playing a song. We had chosen an easy one to start with, "I Just Can't Wait to be King" from the Lion King movie (original not the horrible new live action one which I hate). This was a fun song to start with as it wasn't too hard and we could get our stretches in.

3...

2...

1...

The song began! It sounded louder than usual, but I guess that was just because I had the volume up higher than usual. I didn't mind though, this song was a bop!

It was right around then that I heard it, a sickening sound that startled me and sent shivers down my spine. A gunshot rang out. I panicked, and started to take cover when I remembered that I lived in a bad area and this sort of thing was common. I shrugged it off and continued dancing.

I hadn't noticed that Jay was no longer around, the shadow instead was in his spot. I had figured that he must've gone to get a drink or perhaps talk to his parents about his failing grades in school. He'd be back soon I supposed.

During the next song, "Gangnam Style" by "Psy", my friend Howard had never done this song before as he didn't have as much experience as the rest of us did. Todd had managed to complete this before, and it was a sinch for me since I'm an expert at this game. I have been playing Beat Saber for hours daily for almost a year now, everyone always compliments me on how cool I am and how good I am at this video game. The song started, it was easy for me, as usual. I heard both Howard and Todd struggling to keep up, but something strange happened at that point. They both started to scream and yelp when they missed notes, I guess they were having so much fun and wanted to prove they were good too that they felt so ashamed of themselves when they missed a note. They both lost and dropped out of the song during the middle of the song where you have to cross your arms rapidly and if you move your right hand up too high you'll hit the red block with the blue saber and that will break your combo or worse, make you lose the game. When they went out of the match, they screamed though... It sounded like they were in agony...

When the song finished and we returned to the menu, my friends were no longer around on their pedestals. It was just me and the shadowy creature, except, instead of a platform under him it was the hyper-realistic and bloodied bodies of my dear friends Todd, Jay, and Howard. I screamed in horror as I ran over to look at their dead corpses only to hit my wall, not realizing how close I was to it. "What did you do to them demon?!" I screamed at the shadow dancer, which started to take a different shape now, it got shorter, rounder, its head got larger with long protrusions out the back of it. The sickening creature just laughed at me in a low, distorted rumble.

"Can I still save my friends?" I screamed out loud to the shadow, which nodded back at me politely.

"How can I do this shadow creature in my game?!" I questioned it.

It pointed towards a song. I assumed it wanted me to dance for my friend's lives. "Do you want me to dance for my friend's lives?" I shouted towards my wall which echoed loudly in my ear, but it was also towards the shadowy demon which had almost fully formed in front of me. It nodded menacingly this time, bright red eyes piercing through the shadowy creature's freakishly large head.

I picked the song and started it. The beat started and I recognized the song and my heart sank... The lyrics came in...

"they call me Sonic

'cause I am faster than sound, I keep on jumping around

Blue Hedgehog Sonic

with incredible speed, I'm moving my feet".

The shadow creature had now fully formed, it was none other than the infamous creepy-pasta being known as . How foolish I was. I had downloaded many years ago as a joke because I didn't believe in such nonsense, however I had never actually played it. Eventually I had deleted it, but... did I remember to empty the recycle bin? I had guessed not based by what I saw before me.

The song was intense, and the blocks coming towards me were no longer blocks, they were knives, and every time I missed a block it cut me. I was an expert, but this was too fast for me, I think he had applied the "super fast" song modifier to it, this seemed impossible. I was hanging on, but just barely, I was bleeding out fast due to the missed notes leaving large cuts upon my body.

So close to the end of the song, so close to saving my friends. I can do this, I will beat , save the lives of my friends Howard, Jay, and of course Todd. The end was in sight, but my controller ran out of battery! My right hand disappeared before me and I closed my eyes to accept my fate.

I waited to die.

It seems I had survived? How?

I opened my eyes and the screen was black. I lifted my large virtual reality headset off of my bloodied, sweaty head. I saw my mother in front of me, she said it was time for dinner and to go get cleaned up. She had unplugged the computer. She asked me how I managed to get so beat up and to stop getting in fights at school, as she left my room.

I managed to avoid dying thanks to the love of my dear sweet mother bringing me sustenance. My friends may still be dead forever and still haunts my virtual reality headset, but none of that mattered now because it was chicken casserole night and my mother makes the best chicken casserole in the world. As I went to go shower, I looked up at the sky with a smile, knowing that I would be eating some very good food shortly.

The end.