My name is Tom and this is not what you’re used to reading on CYOC. This is not fiction! This is my story
and I need you to believe it, before we're all binge drinking and wearing snap backs. I’m a 20 something
college dorm guy. Average height just about, go to the gym when I can, short brown hair and green eyes.
Pretty normal, you could call it boring life of long nights studying to make average grades, working to stay
afloat and staying close to my friends. I’m probably just like a lot of you, or at least I was. I know most
people use this site to post fictional stories but something is happening here, something weird and I don’t
know where else to turn. I wish I could say I trusted my friends but I may not be able to soon. No one would
believe me if I started a regular blog. There’s no one else I can go to, so I pray you guys will read these
entries and believe me. I’m going to try to post here everyday, to learn as much as I can, to share
everything I can. I need to get this to people who will believe it, I need to warn people. I don’t want
what’s happening here to ever happen again to anyone.
This is Day One. I’ll start at the beginning, or at least the beginning of my involvement. I can’t tell you
my last name, or what school this is or even what state I’m in. I can’t let them know I’m on to them. You
see, a couple of weeks ago, a video went viral at my school. Happens all the time right? I bet everybody
knows Friday… Yeah, well this is a bit worse. This wasn’t an ordinary video, there’s nothing ordinary about
this any more. Its not on YouTube, not yet I hope, I haven’t dared search for it. Its being passed, student
to student. Its supposed to be an instructional video on how to be a real bro. You know the type, good with
ladies, hit at parties, tight bro packs. People like that are popular in college so its no wonder why people
jumped to watch it at first. It was supposed to just be a how to, give them some points on how to talk and
dress but it wasn’t. The first cases were just a handful of freshies, desperate to impress the upperclassmen
and make a good early impression. At first it was funny, they tried to imitate the video. They tried to
dress and talk like real bros but it was just really sad and fake. But as the days went on that changed.
They changed. The first few people started getting more built. They started getting really tan. It was
slight at first, it began with them developing a little more tone and over a matter of days the developed
months of muscle. Not all over, just their upper bodies mostly, they all got six packs and big pecs and arms.
Their bodies got darker as if they were spending every moment in the sun, or at least visiting a good tanning
salon. They started wearing tighter clothing and showing off whenever they got the chance. They’d take
pictures constantly and start pulling up their shirts in front of girls.
Still, no one really gave it much thought. They put in a little extra effort at the gym, we told ourselves.
They were getting more sun, its college, people want to change. They were proud of their accomplishments.
Everyone gets a little giddy when they first start to notice the results. But it didn’t stop there, they
started talking differently. Their voices were deeper, which shouldn’t happen at this age, they were smoother
and tinted with that alpha male confidence that girls drool over. Again, no big deal we thought. Even when
their grades started dropping we just passed it off as them spending too much time on themselves and not
enough studying. Freshies especially just can’t handle it. It just didn’t stop though, even the most
conservative of them made drastic wardrobe changes. Polos, short preppy shorts, snapck backs, expensive shoes
and sandals that they shouldn’t have been able to afford. Eventually even their hair changed, they all got
the same short cuts and their hair somehow, someway seemed… thicker, wavier, ranging from platinum to dirty
blond. And they weren’t just doing worse academically they actually seemed dumber, a lot dumber. They only
talked about their bodies, and picking up chicks. They partied and drank all the time seeing who could chug
the most, or the quickest. Soon they all started looking the same, all started acting the same and all only
hanging out with each other. A pack of good looking zombies. They were few at first but the video started
spreading slowly.
None of this mattered to me at first, until a few days ago. Robert, a kid my age, approached me. We weren’t
like great friends and all that, he was a little nerdy and antisocial but nice enough so we got along. He
seemed completely out of his mind with fear. He told me about how some of his friends had watched the video
and had started changing. He broke down a bit as he described how they began drifting away from him.
Robert’s friends were, like him, mostly nerds. It was hard to believe that they’d be lured into the bro life
but Robert insisted watching it had actually changed them. I felt like he was hiding something so I pressed
him for awhile. He admitted that his friends had come back and had forced him to watch the video earlier that
day. He told me he was already starting to have weird feelings. He wouldn’t elaborate he just shook his head
sadly. I noticed his arms looked a little bigger than usual but dismissed him as being overly dramatic. If
only I had listened.
I went back to see Robert today. I opened his door and was greeted by a loud and deep “aye bro!” There was a
crunch and I noticed I stepped on a beer can, even though Robert didn’t drink, or didn’t before. He was had
several cans on his desk next to him. He was dressed like the other bros and was definitely more muscular
than he had been, Hell he was muscular period. I asked if he was Robert, I wasn’t even sure. Only his
strange blue eyes held any trace of the nerd that had once come to me begging for help. He told me to call
him Robby now and eagerly showed off his abs to me with a big cheeky grin that seemed so alien on his face,
altered as it was. “You like bro?” He asked me. I shook my head and he just laughed. “Just checking you
aren’t a faggot bro.” It was so unreal, this, change that had happened. “Robert… Robby, whatever, what the
Hell happened to you man? You weren’t like this…” His eyes narrowed. “Don’t try me! I know you’re just
jealous.” He calmed down again and shrugged before going back to drinking. I let myself out without another
word. I didn’t know the person in that room, and I didn’t care to.
That was hours ago but it still feels like I just left that room. That’s what this video can do to people,
that’s what its doing. How many other people have seen it? How fast is it spreading around? Have my friends
watched it yet? God, I hoped not. I recalled Robert recounting the slow turn, the drift, and then forcing
him into… that thing. I couldn't bear it, if that ever started happening to my friends. But I know them
better, Robert was just a nerd. My friends are great, they're stronger than that, stronger than this stupid
video, I hope. I hope this all blows over, that it all just ends. Thanks everybody for listening. I should
go, I need to try to get some sleep. Signing off for tonight.
- Tom.