An Upvote in a Dark Place

Old man Jenkins, he’s a legendary figure in our town. In the 60’s, he told the press that a black man couldn’t swim in our public pool. In the 70’s, he didn’t want women in the workplace. In the 80’s, he was adamant that the AIDS epidemic was caused by God’s wrath. In the 90’s, he didn’t want our schools to teach evolution. In the 2000’s, he was against gay marriage. In the 2010’s, he was against trans people using public restrooms.<br><br>As a kid, I remember being told to stay away from him and his candy van. I think it was just a legend, but I never ponied up the guts to test it.<br><br>So imagine my surprise when I saw him right next to me, at the nursing home, where I was currently volunteering my time.<br><br>“I’m sure glad we got that Trump in there. Maybe now your kind will be sent back where you belong.” Old man Jenkins said.<br><br>That’s when I noticed him, a young kid who couldn’t have been more than 14, pushing a cart of food into the dining room. He had olive-colored skin and a head of dark, black hair.<br><br>“Shut your stupid hole, you racist piece of shit!” I said. I couldn’t help it, racism and bigotry infuriated me to no end, and here I was face to face with the poster boy. He glared over at me and scoffed.<br><br>“Listen here you -” <br><br>“I’m going to ask you nicely old man; shut the fuck up!”<br><br>I stood up from my seat, and walked over to the kid. He started to say something, but I cut him off.<br><br>“You know, I think you and I would be better off eating elsewhere, don’t you?” I asked, as I helped him push the cart out of the dining room.<br><br>Once outside, I sat down next to him on some stone bench beneath a tree. There was no one else around us, and I realized just how quiet it had gotten. Maybe it was the sudden realization that we were outside right after I screamed at a very old man. Whatever it was, it was unnerving.<br><br>“Why did you help me? Why would you stand up for me?” He asked, looking down at the ground.<br><br>“Because I’m not an asshole, and I think everyone deserves respect. So, what’s your name?”<br><br>“Faraj.” He replied, looking up at me. “And you?”<br><br>“Nathan.”<br><br>“What were you doing in there?”<br><br>“I was a volunteer. How about you?”<br><br>“My grandpa owns the catering company. I help out once in awhile.”<br><br>“That’s cool.”<br><br>“I guess,” Faraj replied. Something about the way he said it made me uncomfortable.<br><br>“Hey Faraj, did you hear that old man Jenkins was a candy man?”<br><br>“Candy man?”<br><br>“Yeah, back in the day he would pick up kids and drive them out into the middle of nowhere and shoot them. Or at least, that’s the legend.”<br><br>Faraj looked over at me, and for a second I saw a facial expression that I couldn’t place, but it was gone quickly.<br><br>I stood up and walked back over to the cart, Faraj followed me. We wheeled the cart back through the dining room and into the kitchen. There was a small elevator on the other side of the kitchen, and we put the cart in it, along with ourselves.<br><br>“Hey, Faraj, you haven’t come across any other legends, have you?”<br><br>“No, why?”<br><br>“I heard that if you went to the bottom floor, there was a door hidden behind a cardboard box. They say that if you go through that door, you find yourself in an expanse of total darkness, with no ceiling or walls, just an endless void of nothingness, no light, no sound, no anything.”<br><br>“I haven’t heard that one.”<br><br>“Did you know that there’s a monster down there? A creature with no face, and no body, just a mouth. It’s said that if you’re down there, and you give the void an upvote, you’ll be safe from the monster. But if you’re in the void, and you don’t give it an upvote, the monster will find you and never stop chasing you until it catches you.”<br><br>“Is that why you brought me down here?” Faraj asked as the doors opened.<br><br>The doors to the elevator opened into a long corridor, with a few doors here and there that probably lead to empty rooms. We got out, and walked down to the last door on the right.<br><br>It was a small room, no windows, and a single panel of buttons on the wall. There was a small table in the center of the room, where a single, old computer sat, with a small CRT monitor on top of it.<br><br>I walked over to the table and opened the browser on the computer. It took a few minutes to connect to the Wi-Fi, but eventually, we got onto a website called /r/slash. Of course, this was a little puzzling to me, and I assumed it was some sort of treasure trove for porn. After a few clicks, we found ourselves on a page called /r/nosleep.<br><br>Faraj looked at me, then back at the screen. It seemed as though he had figured it out, but I still had no idea. I clicked on a random link on the page and gave it an upvote. The page reloaded, and we did it again.<br><br>Faraj looked over at me.<br><br>“What are we doing?”<br><br>“We’re giving the void it’s daily dose of karma,” I replied, grinning as I continued to upvote. But when I clicked on the next link, I hesitated. It wasn’t an /r/nosleep link. It was something else entirely. Faraj noticed as well.<br><br>“What is this?” He asked, looking at the screen. I shook my head, before clicking on the link.<br><br>It took a moment to load, and when it did, I saw that it was a website called /r/rslash. “This is it,” I said, as I clicked on the link. Faraj tilted his head to the side, but didn’t say anything.<br><br>The page that loaded next was blank, except for a few options on the panel to the right side of the page. Faraj pointed at them, and I shrugged.<br><br>“Try it.” He said.<br><br>I reached out and clicked on the first button. The page went white, and then a picture loaded.<br><br>Faraj let out a gasp as I leaned in closer to the monitor. It was a picture of me, standing next to a young girl with dark hair, and a beautiful smile. She looked familiar to me. I couldn’t place her, but as I reached out to touch her face, Faraj spoke up.<br><br>“Look at your shirt, Nathan.”<br><br>On my shirt, there was a logo. A logo I had never seen before. It was a catchers mitt, yea, you know what, you’ll figure it out.<br><br>“My name is Faraj Khabib Nurudinov.” The voice wasn’t Faraj’s. I turned over to see old man Jenkins standing in the doorway. “And I am the monster right behind you.”<br><br>Faraj’s eyes widened as I turned around, but nothing was there. I turned back to see old man Jenkins gone, and Faraj gone as well.<br><br>“Faraj?” I called out, but there was no response. I continued to call out for him, but it was no use, I was alone.<br><br>I turned back to the monitor, and reached out to touch the girl’s face. She was beautiful.<br><br>As I reached out, the page reloaded. The picture was gone, and I was back at the /r/rslash page. I reached out to click on the same button, but it was gone. Instead, there was only one button. A submission button.<br><br>There was already a title typed in. “An Upvote in a Dark Place.”<br><br>The body of the submission was blank, but I started to type.<br><br>“Old man Jenkins, he’s a legendary figure in our town. In the 60’s, he told the press that a black man couldn’t swim in our public pool. In the 70’s, he didn’t want women in the workplace. In the 80’s, he was adamant that the AIDS epidemic was caused by God’s wrath. In the 90’s, he didn’t want our schools to teach evolution. In the 2000’s, he was against gay marriage. In the 2010’s, he was against trans people using public restrooms.”<br><br>I continued to type as my heart pounded, and sweat built up on my forehead, until I came to what I had already written.<br><br>“Faraj’s eyes widened as I turned around, but nothing was there. I turned back to see old man Jenkins gone, and Faraj gone as well.”<br><br>I stopped, and looked at the screen. I noticed a button below the body of the submission. It was an upvote button.<br><br>I reached out, and I clicked.