Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-31919033-20170504210826

01
The evening of January 21 was an evening of uninspired writing and empty coffee cups.

It was a night where Josh Holmes forced the words to appear on paper, only to realise it wouldn’t work.

But later on, the evening of January 21 became an evening of nostalgia and reliving his childhood. When Josh had pushed aside his forced stories, he opened his laptop. He had enough of feeling the pressure of stress because he failed at writing, so he decided to reduce this pressure by relaxing. He did this by visting YouTube. He planned to watch only one, maybe two videos, but half an hour later he already neared the end of the tenth video. He had totally forgotten his writing and had no more desire to write.

It was at the moment that Josh wanted to close his computer to get some more words on paper, that he saw a video of Super Mario Galaxy 2 appearing in his suggestions. It was the soundtrack of the game.

When he saw the happy, Nintendo-like logo, he automatically moved his cursor to it and clicked.

When the music started to play, he felt a strong feeling of nostalgia hit his heart; a dart which landed right in the bullseye. He listened to this soundtrack again and again. Although much of his stress was already gone through the previous ten videos, it now felt like all of the remaining stress spots were washed away by the nostalgic sounds of this soundtrack. He hummed along with the music and noticed that he exactly knew how it went, even after all those years.

He turned up the volume.

Memories of the past played out in his head; the day he got Super Mario Galaxy from his parents on the day of release, that Saturday evening that he played till midnight, how he got Power Star after Power Star.

A moment without worries.

He took of his headphones and ran up the stairs to the attic while he repeated: ‘I still got it, I still got it,’ and ‘Where is it, where is it?’ as a spell. He rummaged through dozens of taped cardboard boxes, almost desperate to find his old Nintendo Wii.

Are you not too old for your Wii? he heard an echo of his childhood memories whisper.

It was the voice of his dad.

You’re twelve, time to become a man.

A black gust flashed before Josh’s eyes.

Maybe sell it to your uncle. ''He has a little boy of six. I’m sure your uncle will pay good money for it.''

Although at that time he indeed saved for a new PlayStation and had thought of selling his Wii, he never actually done it. And on a night like this, where he was overwhelmed by memories, he was grateful to Past-Josh that he never sold it.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">If he had sold his Wii, he would’ve sold his memories.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">After two hours of searching he finally found the Wii. He brought the console down, wired it up and got a Wii Remote and Nunchuck. Then, he connected the Wii with his television.

02
<p style="font-weight:normal;">When he was done he was overwhelmed with joy. Everything worked perfectly, as did the Wii Remote and Nunchuck. He didn’t find Super Mario Galaxy 2 yet, but that could wait. Josh looked at the menu, staring at the channel icons.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">He opened the Mii Creation Channel, listened to the iconic Nintendo music and simply closed it again after that. Back at the main menu, he saw the icon of the Message Board (a light grey letter), with below a "1". Curious, he clicked on it.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The Message Board opened and Josh saw a white letter flashing. It had the icon of his Mii on it. He had never seen this before. He opened the message and read what was written:

<p style="font-weight:normal;">''Throw away the Wii! Don’t sell it, don’t give it away, throw it away! To a place where nobody can find it, a place where I can’t find it again!'' There is too much of me inside of it, don’t play a game

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Did he write that? A message from Past-Josh to Future-Josh? But what could it mean? It was unclear, but at the same time it was clear. Throw away the Wii! was not difficult to understand, but because he’d written the message probably a decade ago, he couldn’t remember the meaning behind it. <p style="font-weight:normal;">Only later he wished he had listened to himself.

03
<p style="font-weight:normal;">It took him at least one hour, but he managed to find the box that was filled with his Wii-games. He took them all out, because he was looking for Super Mario Galaxy 2, no other game. Sure, he could still play them later, but for now he wanted to return to this masterpiece.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">During the search, the soundtrack played on the background. <p style="font-weight:normal;">Eventually, he found the game and was overflowed with excitement. He quickly went back into the living room and put the disc into the Wii. The game began and he was greeted by the opening tune. <p style="font-weight:normal;">‘Yes, finally!’ he cried, but his joy didn’t last long. <p style="font-weight:normal;">At the moment he pressed both A and B-buttons, the game froze and the happy music stopped abruptly. With half-open mouth, he looked at the illuminating logo, before the Wii began to blow incredibly hard. The colours disappeared. The TV went black. <p style="font-weight:normal;">‘Goddamn- no!’ he said. He slammed the Wii Remote on the ground.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">But the Wii wasn’t switched off. The light of the Power-button was still on.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Suddenly, all the lights in his house darkened. The only light still on, was the green light of the Wii, which increasingly became brighter and brighter. Loud noise rose into the room. The faint smell of sweat urged into Josh’s nose. The green light now filled the entire living room.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘What is happening?!’ He reached for his phone in his pocket, but it was empty. ‘What? Where is my phone?’ he hissed.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The green light narrowed and focused on his couch. The furniture seemed to be in a green spotlight. He saw that, in the light, his couch was not a couch, but a bed.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">A children’s bed, to be exact. The one that he had as a child.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘What is this?’ he said, looking at the Wii, but of course, the device didn’t answer.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Josh’s eyes were immediately drawn back to the light. He stepped closer and saw Past-Josh lying in bed, covered by his Mario-blankets. But he was not asleep. He was awake.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The green light widened and it unveiled the remainder of his childhood’s bedroom. Only now he saw that Past-Josh’s eyes were fixated on the door. Josh sensed something of fear in the glance of his eyes.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Then, the bedroom’s door opened. Silently. At the same time, the door of the living room opened.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘What- hello? Is someone there…? Jake? Jake?’ Josh said, looking up at the living room’s door. He tried to turn on the lights, but that didn’t happen. Everything stayed dark.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘Jake, are you there? Please, say something.’

<p style="font-weight:normal;">No answer.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘Do- do you see this crazy stuff, Jake? Dude, please say you also see it.’

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Silence.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘Are you not too old for your Wii?’ he heard his father’s voice saying behind him.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Josh turned around. In the holographic echo of the past, his father stood in Past-Josh’s bedroom. He was… different than he remembered. Leaner and much more sombre than in his memories, but there was something in his eyes that Josh didn’t like. Past-Josh looked at his dad with burning hatred.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Why? As far as he can remember, his father and him could always laugh with each other. They were like best friends. Always.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Until Mom left them. A dark reminder crawled back into his mind. Yes, that’s right. Mom left dad for another man. The divorce was anything but easy. Anything but easy for him, mainly. Past-Josh said nothing to his father.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘You’re twelve,’ Dad said, on the verge of crying. ‘Time to become a man.’ He approached Past-Josh and pulled the blankets of him while he unbuttoned his pants.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Josh’s heart jolted in his chest and he turned his eyes away from the holographic display. He was not really afraid, he was shocked. Shocked that he had forgotten.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Josh didn’t know when he started crying. Only that his cries were almost the same of Past-Josh’s cries. He heard his father’s voice, his moans breaking through the wails of a child.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘Turn it off, turn it off!’ he shouted, again repeating it like a spell.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The light became brighter and filled the living room with green.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">That was the moment when Josh saw the figure in the corner.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘Are you not too old for your Wii?’ the figure asked.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Josh held his breath.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘It’s time for you to become a man.’

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The figure stepped out from the corner and walked up to Josh with huge steps. He came into the light and Josh saw the distorted face of his father. His eyes were huge; the red veins swollen like boa constrictors, making the white of the eyes almost invisible; bulging, milk-coloured pupils stared unblinking at Josh. With a sinister grin, he bared his yellow teeth. His loose, white shirt was stained with fresh, bright red blood and his hands were dark red. The light started to flash violently, seeming like everything was photographed with a green flash.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">When his father’s face was only a few metres away from Josh’s, as he leaned towards him in an inhuman position, the light chanced to red.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">As shards, his dad was blown apart. The lost shards of his childhood were gone.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Escaped.

04
<p style="font-weight:normal;">When Josh woke up, he was in the fetal position in the corner of his living room, crawled away from the Wii. The light was gone and all lamps were switched on. Only now he understood what Past-Josh meant with the message.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">‘There is too much of me inside of it,’ Josh repeated. ‘Too much of me.’ Josh kept repeating these words as he pulled the plug and wiring of the Wii and returned the device into the cardboard box, along with the other hidden shards of his childhood memories. <ac_metadata title="Nostalgic Wii (unreviewed)"> </ac_metadata>