Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25719813-20141119050932

I don't really play video games anymore, not unless the very occasional round of 'Candy Crush' to pass time at the DMV counts. But I don't actually sit down and play console games anymore, especially not any of the 'Legend of Zelda' games. By the time you're done reading this, you'll probably get why. By the way, real quick before I begin, I really don't care what any of you guys think of this story. I don't care if you find it "unbelievable" or "lame" or "not creepy". I'm the one who had to live with this in my head over the years, and the only reason I'm writing it down is to finally get it out. If you don't like it, for whatever reason, tough shit. Anyways, I used to play video games a lot when I was a kid. I had the luck of being born just in time to experience the wonder of the weekend arcade binge, and I was known for being what they called a "Pinball Wizard"  back then. My family wasn't super rich though, barely middle class. So my mom really bitched me out for blowing all my quarters, not to mention sitting on my ass all the time, and since I always beat my old-school gameboy games in record time, she refused to buy me the N64 or Ocarina of Time unless I saved up for them myself. At first I was bummed out because I knew it would take forever to save that much, but my rich asshole friends wouldn't shut up about how amazing the game was or how stunning the graphics were, so I stopped blowing my quarters every weekend and started doing odd-jobs for extra cash. Finally, after a generous birthday card from my grandmother arrived in the mail, I had enough to buy a lightly used copy from some flea market dirtbag who called himself Twiggy. I started playing the second I got home with it. It was a Thursday and I had a three day weekend ahead of me, so I stocked up some snacks in my room and pretty much just hibernated while playing the game. It was just as amazing as everybody said. I know the graphics don't seem like much now, but back then, that game was the single coolest shit I'd ever seen. My mom would peek in and tell me to go to bed when it got too late, but I'd always just pretend to obey her, then get back up and turn the game back on low volume. Just like I always did I whizzed through the game at record speed. Sunday night rolled around and I had refused to sleep the entire weekend, but I was almost finished with the game. All I had left to do was to beat Ganondorf's castle and the final boss, and a few of the mini-quests, but basically I had the main plot of the map mapped out except for the final level. My mom came in and told me to go to bed, and again I pretended to do so, then got back up and turned the game back on. I was damn tired, could barely keep my eyes open, but I really wanted to beat the game that night so I could finally brag to my buddies about it the next day. I crawled over to the console, flicked it on and set the volume to 3 (out of 50) like I always did, because Triforce. So I could barely hear it unless I got real close to the TV, basically glued to the screen. The regular intro came up and I selected my game and it loaded up in the Temple of Time. The familiar monk-like chanting lulled me, and I nodded involuntarily just once. When I caught myself and opened my eyes, I began to move Link forward and out of the temple. It took me a few seconds to realize that I wasn't actually using the controller or my hands to do this, that I was doing it with my mind. It hit me just before Link exited the Temple, and as he passed through that dark and shadowy doorway, my mind went into his body. It might seem cool, actually going into the game, and at first I kind of thought it was and went with it. But it was also kind of scary. It felt like my spirit was trapped in something like a mannequin from the mall, but even more compact. When I tried to feel my body it was just hard and cold like plastic, or a rock, or, fuck I dunno, there's nothing I can really compare it to that's exactly what I felt, but it was the exact opposite of organic or human. I could move my human shape around, but I felt like the body I entered was that of some kind of doll, stiff and lifeless. I didn't like that part and wanted to leave, but I got really scared about going back the way I came for some reason. When I tried to go forward and realized that meant going into a courtyard full of Redead, I rethought that. I retraced my steps back into the temple, but then I noticed the strangest thing when I came back in. It wasn't how it should have been when I usually came back into the temple. The pedestal room was sealed off. It occured to me that I might have passed out and was dreaming this weird shit, so I tried to focus on waking up. It usually worked with my other occasional bad dreams, but it wouldn't work now. My weird Link-mannequin body just started to do that stupid shuffle thing the character does in the game when you don't move him a while. I barely remembered that fact since I'd been playing the game obsessively and only noticed on a much-needed Dorito break. So I went back outside of the temple. I figured, maybe I just gotta complete the game and then I can go back to my real body. It made sense at the time, for some reason. But when I finally mustered up the courage to go into the marketplace, I was terrified to realize that the way to the castle had been sealed up too, and then doubly horrified to hear the Redead shrieking in my ear, to see their sunken, soulless faces and their disgusting bodies dragging along towards me. Funnily enough, even though the buildings and the sky and other surroundings still looked pixelated and fake, certain enemies felt even more terrifying than ever. And even though I had Link's body and his weapons, I was a pansy-ass and I ran the hell out of the market, across the moat and out into Hyrule Field where the redeads in the market would, for whatever reason, not follow. It was day-time outside. I started heading to Lon Lon Ranch, and for some reason it started getting dark faster than usual, or rather how fast is usually does in game, so I had to run past a few of the skeleton dudes that popped up when night fell. They still looked about as comically 'menacing' as they did in game, but I still ran past them instead of fighting. When I got into Lon Lon Ranch it was still dark. I went into the main house first, but when I opened the door and peeked in, my body froze with fear as Talon looked back at me from across the room with very dark and extremely angry-looking eyes. Like miniature black holes in his face, they bore into my, as if they wanted to suck me in. He moved jaggedly to get up, and I quickly closed the door and ran to the barn instead. I found Malon inside next to the cows. Unlike Talon she looked like her normal friendly self, so I didn't feel scared around her at least. But when I tried to talk to her, she only said the same thing she always did in game. The same thing. Over and over again. Just another lifeless doll. It was like that basically wherever I went. All of the monsters were still menacing, but it was more the 'people' that I was wary of. Because the monsters I could still fight, I finally realized when I stopped being a wuss about it. But only a few of the regular characters, like Malon and the Kokiri kids and most of the Gerudo women, were still 'nice' ones. Most of the other characters in the game were rather frightening to behold, and I tended to avoid them, because if I paid attention to them, they'd look back at me, and having those eyes on me was one of the worst, most unsettling sensations I'd ever experienced. That pale guy who says everyone is disgusting? Oh man that guy was SUPER fucking creepy... At first and for a long time I was a wuss and tried to stay in places I felt safe. I might be in Link's body but the pain was one of the only real sensations in this weird game I was trapped in, so I was afraid of dying in it at first, just in case in meant 'dying for real'. But I also felt like forever was going by and I was getting nowhere, so I wondered if I maybe I had to redo all the temples before I the castle would become unsealed. Again, it made sense at the time. However, when I finally sought out the Forest temple, it was already complete and the boss room gone. Same for all the other temples, when I searched through them too. Well, except for the Shadow Temple. I couldn't bring myself to go there, or the grave or the well in Kakariko. It seemed like it'd be obvious to find trouble in those places. Well, that's how it was at first anyways. But after a while, and I mean a -long- while, I slowly began to change my mind, and find my nerve. Because although there were plenty of places to go in this world, it was still -much- smaller than the world my spirit truly belonged to. I was  trapped in a doll that itself was trapped in a series of boxes disguised as land and sky, and since time seemed to drag on and on, one day I finally dared to step foot into the Kakariko graveyard. This turned out to be a big mistake. I had chosen to go specifically at daytime, but when I entered the graveyard, it hard turned to night. Dante's spirit was waiting for me in front of all the graves. He rushed at me, and I was horrified to find myself literally frozen with fear. The ghost opened his huge, disgusting mouth with those weird jagged teeth, and for a second I really thought he was going to bite my head off. But instead, this inhumanly deep and impossibly loud voice boomed inside my head, "THIS IS THE PORTAL TO THE LAND OF THE DEAD. DO NOT COME HERE AGAIN UNLESS YOU TRULY WISH TO BE HERE." My body finally jump-started again and I turned heel and ran the hell out of there. But like a trapped rat I eventually began to try to desperate methods of escape, no longer caring about death if it possibly meant a chance at escape. Besides the pain, the only thing the felt almost real to me in this realm was the water. I drank the potions for nourishment, and they tasted almost like the memory of Koolaid that I had drank while playing the game in reality. So I tried to drown myself in Lake Hylia, by willing on some iron boots with my mind and then dropping myself into the lake. When I finally stopped breathing and sank into darkness, I just found myself waking up in the Temple of Time again. Every other desperate suicide attempt -- Jumping  off of really high cliffs, wandering off into Dessert Collossus, or jumping into lava, all ended the same way. Darkness took over my vision and I found myself in the Temple of Time again. So finally I realized that giving into death was my only option. I went to the graveyard once more, and again, it was night as soon as I stepped inside. Dante's spirit was there, but this time, he made that sound like a cackling poe, then spun in the air and disappeared. The scene around me changed in a flash, as if I had been telekenetically transported into the market square instead. Immediately all the Redead began coming at me, but I was just so done. Too fucking tired to be scared anymore. I let them dragged on towards me, grab me, jump onto my body and start biting me. More piled on top of my body, crushing me and blotting out the light. I passed out from the fear and the expectance that I would finally die from this. But to my even greater horror, I woke up and again found myself in the goddamn Temple of Time. I wanted to scream with frustration, but then I gasped instead to realize that something was very different this time, unlike all the other times I'd found myself in the Temple of Time. The way out was sealed off, and the pedestal room was finally open. I walked past the Spiritual Stones, and they were glittering to prettily I was almost tempted to try and take them. But a strange silent voice inside me warned me that it would be a very bad idea to try and take anything from here with me. So I obeyed and carried on to the pedestal. As I began to ascend the steps, I realized that with each step my legs and then the rest of my body began to feel heavier and stiffer. I was suddenly very glad I hadn't take the stones after all, as they would have weighed me down even more. I was barely able to make the last step, I literally had to reach down and pull my leg up. It was strange though, when I reached by my side for the Master Sword, it was completely weightless. I sank the blade into the slit in the rock, and light surged up from all around me, blinding me with whiteness. Suddenly I found myself choking on a gasp. My vision was still all white for a second, but then I realized it was because my head was pressed against something hard. I pulled back and found that my body had been slumped over and my forehead was pressed against the tv screen. When my eyes readjusted, and I looked at the screen, my heart froze with fear at what I saw. The screen was dark. In the back, Link's dead body was laying on the ground in the Temple of Time, even though there shouldn't logically be any reason why he could die there. In the shadow over that scene, the text read, "Would you like to play again?" A shiver went down my spine reading that seemingly 'normal' question. I didn't dare even touch the controller to answer Yes or No. I reached behind the TV and pulled the Nintendo's plug out of the wall socket, and the screen went blissfully black. At first I wasn't sure what to make of what happened. Had it just been a ridiculously realistic and longer-than-usual dream? Was my sudden urge to never touch another video game just overreacting to that? I actually started to consider that, after I realized that only about three hours had passed in the 'real world' since I got up to play the game. After getting a few more normal hours of sleep in my bed, I woke up feeling that maybe that nightmare had just been that after all. But then, when I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, I found my little brother already there, and he giggled at the sight of me. I asked him what was so funny, and he told me, "I woke up to go pee last night, and I heard this weird thumping noise coming from your room. When I opened the door I found you sitting in front of the TV, playing the game all weird, like just running around in circles, and you were bumping your forehead against the screen with your eyes closed, again and again. Like you were trying to get inside the game or something!" I stared at him for a second, then I asked, weirdly serious, "Why didn't you wake me up?" He raised an eyebrow at my weird tone and answered hesitantly, "I don't know... I guess it's because somebody at school once told me that if you wake someone up when they're sleepwalking or having a nightmare, they might get trapped there. So, I didn't..." I sold the N64 and the game later that day, and eventually I sold all my other video games too. I know it seems silly, but I just don't want to risk it. I know no one will believe me, that you'll all just think I had a stupid nightmare, nothing more and nothing less. But even if my body was only separated for a few hours, I know my mind was gone MUCH longer than that. I felt like I was trapped in that place at least a few years. I don't want to know how long I could be trapped there if I ever find myself there again. I didn't write this as a 'warning' or anything like that to any of you. I'm not gonna tell any of you to stop playing video games just because I don't play them anymore. Hell, the new Zelda game commercials have looked pretty cool, enjoy them. I wrote this for me. But I do hope just one thing gets across to anyone who bothers to read this -- Don't envy these tiny people in their tiny worlds. If they were truly as human as they feel to some of you, they wouldn't want to be stuck there. They'd want to be in our world. The real world. That's where I want to be from now on. Yeah Link, old buddy, old pal -- I no longer envy you your eternal playtime, you unfortunate fairy bastard... 