Everyone has that one memory of a childhood game, back in the 2000s it was almost always those poorly designed PC games that were admittedly made on the cheap, they were either edutainment or games solely created as a means for a quick pickup from a grandmother to be given to a child for a special occasion. One thing is usually common with these games though, they are all obscure, nobody has PC discs anymore, it's all digital nowadays, so those old games usually get left to rot in some abandoned warehouse. There is so much that is unseen, one of these games were bound to be sold on store shelves without a second thought.
Wind.
July 13th, 2007
I remember that day well, my 4th birthday, it started as a big celebration I could never forget, my whole family was with me on this special day, including my younger sister, Juliana. She was one year younger and probably didn't even know it was my birthday, but we had fun anyway. After we sang Happy Birthday and ate cake, I got to open my presents, but to my disappointment, it seemed I didn't get any video games, those were my favorite, luckily, my father presented to me one last gift, it was square shaped, I knew that it must be a new video game and to my delight it was.
"MarLand"
Despite me not knowing how to read very well I was able to say the name of this game perfectly, the box art had a very simplistic look to it, a white background with a city behind, a few trees, and a little girl at the front who I assumed was the main character, she had red hair with a big bow on her head and sported a gleeful smile. While a bit down that it wasn't a game based on a favorite cartoon of mine I was still very happy to be given a video game at all, I thanked everyone for the wonderful birthday and went downstairs to the computer to play my new game.
I was able to boot it up quickly, my little sister watched me as I excitedly got out the keyboard, a cheerful sound que played as the girl on the front of the box entered the screen, and started to speak in a text-to-speech voice.
"Hello there! You may call me Wind. We're gonna have so much fun in MarLand today! Before we begin, I'd like to get to know you a little better, What's your name? When's your birthday? What kind of pet do you own? Click anywhere on the boxes below to enter your answers, then we'll get right into the fun!"
This part was useless to me as I didn't know how to write either, so I wrote a bunch of nonsense in all the entries
"Nice to meet you Ghlenjdhfhj, I know a couple of friends whos birthday is also on May 29, 1856, a Dfopejrt is so cute! One of my favorite animals!"
With that, I was immediately put into the selection screen, just an orange background with 6 multicolored squares that were the minigames, one of them was locked, Wind popped up again and gave me insight.
"Welcome to the play place Ghlenjdhfhj! This is where our fun begins! click any of the squares to enter a game! Oh, and you may also click on me if you need help!"
With that, she stood on the screen, just staring at me, I was just ready to play the game, so I clicked on the first square at the top.
Ball.
Mercifully I don't have to explain how any of the games work in my own words, Wind does just that.
"In this game, you control Mr. Ball, he has to fend his carrot garden from those pesky cats!, use your arrow keys on your keyboard to aim at the cats and shoot water all over their coat to get them wet and have them flee away, if all your carrots are eaten then it's game over, shoot all the cats to win!"
To say the least, this game was easy, you play as a green ball shooting water at cats, and that's literally this entire game, you can't move at all, just stand in the same spot waiting for a cat to show up and shoot water at it. Most of the time you are waiting for a cat to come, but they rarely appear, all it takes is to shoot water at 3 cats and you win the game. Wind comes out to congratulate you.
"You did it Ghlenjdhfhj! You earn a gold star! Hooray!"
Despite the game being insultingly simple, as a 4-year-old, I didn't mind at all and thought that meant I was good at video games, Juliana cheered me on too, so it felt like a big victory just for me. I was taken back to the game selection and picked the next game.
Doggy in a Bush.
"It's time for a new game I'm sure you'll love Ghlenjdhfhj! You play as a doggy named Sam who must collect biscuits while hiding from the snake by going behind the bushes, make sure to collect all your treats! Use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move Sam around and jump while avoiding the evil snake!"
A 2D platformer was a lot more of what I was used to, this game, just like Ball, was incredibly short, only lasting a single screen with three bushes to hide behind, a few dog biscuits were scattered around the screen, the snake "enemy" wasn't very threatening, only moving a couple of pixels before stopping dead in its track for mere seconds, then it moves a couple more pixels, effectively repeating the process for the whole game. I collected all the biscuits and I was presented with another instance of Wind appearing at the corner of the screen to congratulate me.
"Yay for Ghlenjdhfhj! You are an expert dog biscuit collector! You earned your second gold star!"
I did a stupid dance right in front of the computer as Juliana hugged me, thinking I was some sort of master at video games. Game number 2 done, 4 to go.
Jungle Explorer.
I'm gonna be completely honest here, I still have no idea how this minigame works, it's so incompetently designed that looking back I was wondering whether or not they even tried, not even Wind's explanation shed any light on my confusion.
"Have fun playing as Jungle Jim as you explore the cascading waterfalls and large trees, if you don't then I don't know"
I'm gonna attempt to explain this game as best as I can, so as always this game consists of only a single screen, Jungle Jim hangs onto a vine and you use the arrow keys to push him back and forth, I'm not even sure you can lose in this game, as moving the vine for a short amount of time will immediately have you win the game anyway.
"Wow, good job, you did it!"
As a child I was puzzled as to what I even did, but didn't care, getting the satisfaction of winning was the only thing important to me. Juliana was so mesmerized by the game that she asked if she could play too, I was hesitant at first, if there's one thing siblings don't like it's sharing, my games were off limits and any time I'd let Juliana play she'd not even know what to do and completely mess up, which was very frustrating, I angrily told her "no" which caused her to start having a tantrum, knowing I'd get in trouble for causing her to cry I calmed her down and apathetically let her sit down on the chair and play the game. Juliana already knew I was going down in an order, so she wanted to pick the fourth game on the list.
Card Match.
"This one will be a great game Ghlenjdhfhj! These cards all have pictures of shapes on them and you must correctly guess what matches what when I flip them over, it's tricky, but very fun! Good luck!"
Just a classic memory game, I already had fun playing these before so I was annoyed that my little sister was playing it instead, as always she wasn't doing anything right, just clicking everywhere having the cards flip around, I asked her if I can help her but she refused, wanting to do it all by herself, I was clearly devasted by this because I knew that she would make me lose, but that's when I realized that there didn't seem to be any consequence for getting a wrong match, Wind just says "oops" and lets you try again, Juliana blindly clicking everywhere eventually got her to win the game anyway, it kind of spoiled my enjoyment because it made me wonder if there was even any point to this game at all, was this just some baby game that dad bought me? Even at such a young age I already knew what baby games were like, the daycare I used to go to was filled with them, I felt a bit offended, really my one and only drive to continue was the fact I had never beaten a game before and since I was close to playing all the minigames I eagerly wanted to see the end, Juliana cheerfully let me back on the chair to continue playing, there was only one game left that wasn't locked.
The Dungeon.
"Ooooooh, look at this creepy dungeon! you play as Sir Armsalot, as you try and find a way out of this spooky basement, use the arrow keys on your keyboard to move the brave knight to his destination! there's only one exit so you better use your head!"
This one is the most complex of the games, it's still very easy, but this is the only minigame where there is actually more than one screen, what you do is move the knight Sir Armsalot around this very eerie torture dungeon, I'm not even kidding, there's a guillotine, chains, stocks, swords, impalement wheels, any kind of medieval torture you can think of is there, the remains of skeletons are all that's left in this dungeon, this was oddly out of place and even disturbing for a kids' game, and it terrified me, Juliana didn't seem scared and she was even making fun of me, calling me childish names like "poop head" and "diaper butt". I didn't want to seem like I was lesser than my younger sister so I carried on, the whole dungeon was a maze each with different doors that led to different areas, they all looked the same with the skeletons and the torture devices, so I was pretty stumped, I really couldn't get the atmosphere out of my head, that music was really chilling. The graphics seemed a lot more advanced than the previous minigames, what really got me was whenever there was a skeleton in the way of a door, the knight would continuously slice it with his sword until it became nothing more than dust.
After going through many of the different doors, the knight ended up outside in broad daylight, I felt relieved, I figured that I never wanted to play that minigame again, there was a feeling of dread that was still in me, and I was even considering just shutting the game off.
"Awesome! You successfully conquered the dungeon! You are such an amazing player Ghlenjdhfhj!"
I didn't want to play the game anymore, I was an easily frightened child and would often be scared of things that had any kind of spooky atmosphere to it, I even skipped out on my first Halloween because things like ghosts and skeletons scared me, I remember not being able to play this one 3D platformer I only vividly recall with a ghost mansion level, that reminded me of when I would ask my dad to complete those levels for me, I always looked up to him, he was the person that helped me get over my fear of the dark.
I was booted back to the minigame selection screen, the sixth and final level was unlocked, and I was able to click it to enter, I initially went for it at first, but after playing The Dungeon I started to imagine something even scarier for this one, maybe zombies? Or chainsaw wielding killers? It made me not take any chances, I held Juliana's hand as I sprinted upstairs to my dad, both my parents were watching the news on the couch. Obviously being the whiney child I was I blabbered to my dad to help me complete this level as I was too scared to play it, my mom, clearly annoyed by me as well, convinced my dad to come downstairs with me and play the game with me, my father was a tad reluctant, but he simply wanted to shut my yapping, so he sighed as he walked downstairs with me and Juliana.
When we got to the computer I pointed at the level I wanted him to play. I stopped him before he clicked on the minigame as I didn't want to see it, but I told him to call me down when he completes it so I can see the ending, he agreed to do so, Juliana wanted to stay, which at first made me want to do the same, but the fear of the unknown got the best of me, I ran out all the way upstairs to my room.
I got to play with the rest of my birthday presents for a good while, I had a good time in my room, I had hardly paid attention to the passage of time, it was still light out when I left the computer room, by the time I had even forgotten about the game it was already pitch black outside. My mother had knocked on the door informing me that it was time for bed, I let out a little sigh but was still feeling tired, my mom looked into her bedroom, then she looked into Juliana's bedroom and had a slightly worried expression on her face.
"Is your father and Juliana still downstairs together? I Haven't seen them at all since you told them to come with you for that video game" my mother asked in a relatively concerning tone. At first I was confused by what she meant by this, then only now it hit me that my dad was supposed to complete that level and show me the ending, I walked downstairs with mom to check up on them, I was a bit furious because in my mind, I thought my dad already beat the game and didn't even tell me. While walking, mom asked me a question "How was that game anyway?" My mother questioned. I simply said "it was ok." she didn't even respond.
While walking downstairs, for whatever reason I was feeling uneasy, maybe it was seeing my mom feeling worried about what happened, or maybe I still felt scared about the game and didn't want to see The Dungeon minigame again. My mother hollered out to Juliana and dad. No answer. Something caught my eye from the inside of the computer room, the door leading into the garage seemed to be open by a crack, I walked over to the door to investigate, the computer was shut off.
When I went into the basement, I was at first, relieved to see my father... Something wasn't right though, he was kneeling on the ground, I looked at his hands and his shirt, he was covered in some sort of red liquid, while speaking something under his breath, I didn't know what he was saying, I tapped his shoulder, no response. it seemed as though he was hiding something right in front of him.
"D-Daddy, what's all that red paint?" I asked.
He got up, as he said one word. A word that has gone on to take all the happiness I had left.
"Sorry."
I had figured out what he was hiding... It was my sister and a hacksaw, the red liquid I couldn't identify turned out to be blood, Juliana was cut in half from the stomach, her intestine and guts had been spilled out, she was killed. My dad was sobbing uncontrollably as soon as I found out, I let out a blood-curdling scream, my mother heard and rushed all the way to the garage, she screamed even louder, we were all crying, my mother told me to run out to the backyard, seeing what happened to my little sister, with almost zero hesitation, I sprinted to the back door and shut it.
While outside, I could only hear the heart-wrenching sobbing from my mother, and my father screaming "I'M NOT A BAD PERSON, PLEASE, I'M NOT A BAD PERSON" over and over, it didn't take long before I saw red a blue lights coming from my front yard.
Days had passed since the incident, I had no idea what happened to my father since then, it was the first time I ever appeared on TV, I wasn't happy with the exposure, I lost my sister and my dad, and the whole country gets to know my misfortune, I only felt a great deal of shame from everything. I remember the nice reporter lady asked what I saw when I went into the garage on that day, I didn't even want to speak, I didn't want to think about what had happened that day ever again. I got rid of all my birthday presents, including MarLand, knowing what had happened, it was only going to be a further reminder of this trauma, I locked them all up in a chest and my mother put them in an attic, I didn't even care if I had fun with my new toys, I wanted them all gone for good.
A day later, my mother informed me that my dad was checked into a hospital, I had the option to visit him, as much as it pained me to see him again, knowing he was the one responsible for my sister's death, as a young child, hatred for a person you're supposed to love didn't seem like a real idea. I grudgingly agreed to come with.
It was a long car drive to get there, my mother probably had to go across town to get there, when we arrived, I was astonished at how tall the building was. Going into the building was strange, there was a few security guards that had to scan us before we visited any of the rooms, we then needed to go up an elevator that felt like it took forever, dad's room seemed to be on one of the higher floors.
While walking through the hallway I couldn't help but hear a lot of noises coming from the different rooms, it was all very creepy, I assumed this was just a regular hospital but it had to be much more than that. When mom opened the door I was greeted to my dad wearing a strange-looking gown as he was sitting on a bed, the room he was in looked very peaceful, like a normal bedroom, it even had a television, there were no sign of windows though.
"Heyyyyy, how is everyone doing?" my father asked in an unusually friendly tone.
Me and my mom were both apprehensive about seeing dad again, my father looked visibly sad when we didn't reply, so I asked why did he kill Juliana.
"I made a mistake" he replied
"A very big one!" mom said in an angry tone.
I was left listening to my mom angrily cry and shout at my dad, it always made me uncomfortable seeing my parents fight, but for something as disturbing as what happened to me days earlier, it only made me feel insecure, I still remembered that emotionless face from my father that turned into complete sorrow. I noticed, however, that my dad seemed to act completely fine now, he murdered my sister yet wasn't showing any signs that he was mentally insane, he acted the same way he always acted, it made me wonder why he made a decision like this.
Our visit to dad had been short-lived, as my mother angrily informed me that we will never visit her husband again, with that we walked out of the hospital and went back home.
Weeks had passed, we tried to forget everything that happened, it seemed my mom just wanted to pretend none of this had even happened, she had ripped out both dad and Juliana from our family portrait leaving just me and her, I still remember what had happened, it never escaped my mind, I never had a normal dream since the day before my birthday, I had recurring nightmares about seeing my dad with that hacksaw, seeing Juliana cut in half and laying there lifeless, sometimes I dreamt that my dad killed me, in far more brutal ways. The worst dream I had was my father slicing off all my limbs and letting me bleed out before cutting off my head, the trauma left me paranoid, I would rarely ever go outside, and I'd never step foot into the garage.
When the mail truck arrived, I noticed my mother read a letter that left her ecstatic, I haven't seen her happy in such a long time, I asked her what it was but she refused to tell me, I was annoyed at this but I tried to not let it bother me, when it came to evening my mother was gleefully watching the news, I was bummed to hear another story about the murder case, but my mom seemed very joyful, however upon hearing closely it wasn't about Juliana at all, it was a story describing my dad's death, when being taken to the meal area my father bolted away from the security guards and jumped out the window just feet away from his room, he killed himself.
The aftermath
My name is Timothy Bud, it has been 16 years since the murder of my little sister Juliana. It has always been a mystery as to why my father would do such a grisly activity, the only light I could shed on this question is an interrogation video with my dad. All he said to the interviewer was that something in his head was telling him to do it, but he couldn't remember anything past that because during the experience, he felt dizzy. Many suspected that he had schizophrenia, though he was tested for a number of mental illnesses, the doctors couldn't diagnose anything.
I have no plans of moving out, my last surviving grandparent recently succumb to lung cancer, she helped us around the house as it was just me and my mother, now that it's just the two of us left. I had to keep the candle from dying out the best I could, working more hours at a dead end fast food place with questionable health standards was the least of my worries.
I remember cleaning the house with my mother, and a burning question was racing through my mind.
"Hey mom..." I started off in a slow tone of voice
"You remember that one game I got on my fourth birthday.... given to me by.....uh... that guy? Where did he get it...?"
My mom did a breather through her nose
"I dunno... he just found it at a Goodwill, it was like, 50 cents, that jackass had always been a cheapskate so of course he'd buy the most inexpensive game there."
That game still stuck in my mind, I forever remembered it as the last normal thing that scared me, it was crazy how I still knew the title. "MarLand" I never understood the title of the game when I was a kid, and I still don't get it, this game was clearly forgotten about, nothing about it exists online, not a single person had any recollection of playing the game, anytime I'd ever mention it to anyone they'd just dismiss me of something I made up because I was a generally messed up person, I know deep down inside that this game existed, but there's a problem, why would I want to play something that's just gonna remind me of a distressing moment of my life? I wanted to at least know what I was getting into before I jump to any conclusions, that was when I found the website.
"thesearchformarland.com"
"That was it!" I said confidently to myself. I had to go through so many pages to get to some sort of lead, after all these years, this better be worth it.
I was surprised to see a copyright date that suggests this website was made this year, it was an old-looking forum, not many entries either, only about 3, I'm not even sure if anyone of the members have actually played the game, more so just questioning its existence. The website layout was completely brown.
I was considering to post about actually owning the game, then I got worried that I'd have people begging for me to rom dump it or something, knowing that this game may be extremely rare, I'd rather not lessen its value as that money could help support my mother. I was thinking instead I'd lie and help start a rally to find this game, that way the word could spread faster.
Subject: Help
"I remember looking for this stupid game for as long as I could remember, I'm part of a special organization that tracks down missing video games, MarLand is on the top of our list. We have a bounty, $5000 to be exact, we've been trying everything we can, help for goodness sake!"
Yeah I know this is immoral, but hey, it's kind of funny to mess with people looking for a game that's just some shovelware trash at the end of the day, if these bozos make the game valuable I'm sure it'd be worth my while. It's been a couple of hours since I posted that message, I knew that I probably wouldn't even get a reply back but I checked again anyway, I was wrong.
Subject: Re: Help
"Hi! I'm glad you reached out to us, honestly this search was going nowhere lol, we actually made this website for the four of us, I never actually thought that someone outside our little friend group would be aware of this game, in fact all of my friends but me left this site, I only check up on it every now and then, didn't expect to see another person make a post on here, but I guess anything's possible lol. We never really talked about this in any of our posts, have you ever heard of Hiuuap? Don't worry if you haven't, it's a made up religion from the late 90s that's unknown to most, I always viewed it as more of a cult, think Christianity but a lot more... vague. I only ever got information on their church, which looked way more like some testing lab, both inside and out, it was located on a secluded grassy island surrounded by a body of water, there were only 6 adults and 30 children, the kids ranged from being 2 to 13, they worshipped 3 gods, which were depicted as being 3 completely black figures, they wanted the kids to become the future gods, they believed that once the children have completed their tasks, they'd inevitably add to the gods when they died and become one themself, making the world a better and safer place to live in, one of the tasks involved producing a few 100 copies of a game we know as MarLand, it was used only in the church, with a promise that this game was connected to the gods, the game was only a collection of 6 minigames, they were all lazily made, the higherups forced a single developer to create the game in just one week, he even resorted to using assets from some cancelled medieval horror game and overly simplified it to death, it was impossible to lose at any of the games, this was a futile attempt to make the kids feel prideful of themselves, interestingly, an anonymous from the church shipped at least half of the games to different warehouses, we're very certain that the copies the church used to have are all kept away, but the warehouse copies still exist somewhere, we are happy you're interested in our search! Mind I ask, how exactly did you and your organization find out about the game?"
Well this is news to me, was this guy trolling just like I was? This sounded unbelievable, however it was making me feel intrigued, this game is related to some cult with children? Sounded a lot more like a pedophile ring or human trafficking to me, wanting to get to the bottom of this, I went all the way up to the attic, gone through a few cobwebs and dusted off the chest I locked away my 4th birthday presents, I took the box downstairs to the computer room, opening up the box made me tremble, even though it was mostly just toys. I saw the game again, it instantly took me back to opening it for the first time as a little kid. The box art was exactly how I remembered, overly cutesy. I annoyingly had to set up the old computer again, after a bit of trial and error (and frustratingly yelling at the damn PC) I heard it boot up.
Before I entered the game into the disc slot, I decided it was only fair to reply to the guy who messaged me, I got out my phone and went back to the forums, the whole backstory they gave to me was eyebrow raising, so I decided to come clean to them and admit that I own the game.
Subject: Re: Help
"That's crazy! I never knew that this piece of garbage had such a complicated history behind it, I'm gonna be honest, but I'm not really part of an organization, Call me a bullshitter all you want IDC, I had this game since I was 4 years old and always assumed it was just some baby game shovelware to entertain a 2-year-old for like 5 minutes, at least I finally have some closure on why the dungeon level was so scary lol, yo man, I finally built up the courage to play this nightmare again, set up my old computer and everything, I was never able to play the sixth game, no spoilers lmao."
I inserted the game into the disc slot, the software booted up, it was instantly bringing me back to when I was 4 years old, I wasn't feeling any childhood whimsy though, just a ton of anxiety, I felt like it was my 4th birthday all over again. Surprisingly, the game saved all my progress, it even had all the nonsense I remember writing when I was 4. Wind popped up again, felt like meeting some messed up childhood friend years later, she weirdly didn't seem happy to see me, she looked distraught.
"Ghlenjdhfhj? That's a surprise! Did something not go right with you? I didn't expect for this to open again... Can you do me a favor and click the last minigame again? I think you might of missed something, which is ok!"
"Well... This is awkward" I said rather sarcastically to myself, I already had a pretty good feel for this game now, nothing seemed scary at all, though Wind's message was strange to say the least, guess this was just some easter egg this "cult" put in for anyone who hasn't played the game for a while, I happily beat my worries as I clicked on the final minigame.
New Land Enter.
Wind didn't appear to give the instructions of the level this time, not a big loss, you know those baby toys where you match the shapes into the correct holes? It's literally just that verbatim, a green board with 5 different shape holes and 5 different shape blocks against a white background. "This is lame." I thought to myself, but seeing how the rest of the games were like this should I even act surprised? I matched each of the shapes into the holes, easy.
Suddenly, the board and the pieces disappear, only leaving the white background. Wind appears from the corner one last time.
"Well, it has been a fun journey hasn't it? We went through so much but now it's time to go, I was so happy to spend all my time with you, but nothing lasts forever, I wish you the best of luck in the new land! I know that you will do great to help make the people of the world happy! Goodbye, I'll never forget you. Friend."
Wind slowly fades out, I was confused to say the least. Then, it happened.
The game went crazy, it was flashing different colors every second, it was making an incredibly distorted sound, however, I wasn't startled by this at all, I had fallen into a trance in mere seconds, I was still very much aware of my surroundings, but I couldn't look away, I couldn't even blink, I started to see incoherent abstract images flash on the screen, words that I couldn't make out, I heard this babbling come from my speakers, it sounded like someone speaking directly into my ears, I couldn't understand it at all, like how foreigners who only speak one language hear people speak English, I had no idea how long this went on for, eventually, the game just crashed and went straight back to the desktop.
I felt lightheaded afterwards, whatever that was screwed with my mind to the point where I wasn't even sure what was reality or not, things kept popping into my brain, stuff I had never even thought of before, ideas that were beyond anything recognizable, and scenarios I knew were wrong, but felt myself realistically doing. I reached over to my phone to try and look up my symptoms so I'd knew if this was serious or not, I was still on the MarLand forums, I accidentally refreshed, and noticed I had received a final message.
Subject: Re: Help
"GET RID OF THAT GAME NOW! You have no idea how dangerous that thing is, I didn't want to tell you this, I didn't want to tell anyone this, we started this website as we were the last surviving members of the Hiuuap church, I had to see that shit, it's no joke, the head of the church worked at a military force interrogating war criminals, he created these subliminal messages for those guys, but it eventually went to a passion of him when the captives started claiming that they were seeing dark figures during the message, this made him study deeply into his delusion realizing that this must be a key to unlocking an afterlife, this spread into a cult around Southfield, Michigan, he needed children as he believed the youngest were the ones to inspire the next generation, as they'd do the same, the parents who had blindly been following the cult signed their children up, and that's how we got to their church, they had us stay there like a camp, they'd make us write down essays explaining why we should accept this "religion" and put us into dedicated rooms watching propaganda for hours, when the church higher ups announced it was time for us to go home, they all put us in a computer lab and made us play the game, they knew one thing, children love video games, regardless of what age we were they wanted us to get to the end. A few kids were beating the game and starting to act strangely, eventually more of the kids completed the game and soon after started acting violent, it started with scratching and punching and it got worse overtime, this religion was pro suicide and pro murder, it wasn't pretty, a variety of knives were handed out from another room and out of nowhere a voice from a speaker on the wall told all of us to start cutting open each other and appease our gods, me and a few other kids who hadn't finished the game yet realized what was going on and we ran out the door, we had to swim all the way back to town, from what I heard during the letters sent to our parents, the children who survived the slaughtering acted normal as if nothing had happened to them, but eventually killed themselves a month or so later, us as the only survivors finally reunited and created this website, one of the higher ups apparently sent out the game to different warehouses in secret so more can experience this cult and gain this horrible message, we are trying to get rid of these discs as fast as possible before people are killed, we need you to destroy it, this is urgent."
I was trying to comprehend this, I knew that this wasn't a joke anymore, I could barely control myself, twitching and jolting around, it felt unreal, I walked upstairs, my mother was dusting the tables when she saw me.
"Timothy...? Is everything ok....?" she asked.
I didn't reply, I began to lay on the floor as I spoke softly to myself, eventually having an episode as I frantically jittered and layed on the floor. My mother screamed and tried to get me back up, I was fully aware what was going on but couldn't do anything about it, my mother began to sob as she had no idea what was happening to me. She rushed towards her purse to get her cellphone.
That's when I got up, slowly.
I inched my way to the cupboards, opened it and got out a kitchen knife.
Slowly I walked toward my mother, she was too much in a panic to notice me, tears began forming around my eyes, I only had a single word left on my mind.
Martyr.
Written by SneakerLoop
Content is available under CC BY-SA