Red Heart

I have always been a Pokémon fan ever since I was little. When Pokémon heart gold came out I saved money from my allowance, a 20 every two weeks. The game costs about 43 bucks and I have habit of spending money so it took a few months but I finally had enough for the game. My parents drove me to Wal-Mart and I quickly ran down the walk ways, through the clothes, dodging carts and occasionally stopping to wait for my parents so they don’t get to mad their left behind. I finally got to the game section and I talked to the clerk for the game heart gold. He said “Yeah, some are in back.” He coughed and mumbled. “Glad I came.” He grinned getting red in the face and I stood there confused. “What did he mean glad I came?” I thought. As he walked away he hummed a weird song that almost seemed, distorted. Mom and Dad finally caught up with me. I told him he is getting the game for me. We stood there for five minutes and he came back with the game. He said “Have a wonderful day.” and handed the game over after I gave him the money and we quickly left. The car drive home was long and quiet so my mom broke the silence. “I think it was weird he didn’t have the keys.” I quickly answered. “Who?” “The clerk. How did he enter the back or cases without a key?” “Maybe they were already open.” My dad pointed out. “Why would a store keep merchandised in the back unlocked?” she shot back. That confused me too. The way he smiled seemed loopy and his eyes were distant. I quickly forgot about that after I got home that late evening to find my DSI fully charged. I ripped opened the game with excitement. The Poke Walker fell out and rolled landing face up. looking down at it, I saw what looked like a Haunter or Gasly in the walker. Something like that. I thought maybe it was a bounce Pokémon or someone could have already used the game before me. I left the walker by my left leg as I sat on the floor getting the game chip out and pushing it in my DSI. The game started and I had no idea what to expect. The game freak logo stayed in place as the rising sun came over the water and I pressed a to start the game. Pokémon Heart Gold Version is stated. The gold was tinted with pink or red or something but I didn’t care. The Ho-oh flew at a slow pace like a clock or something. When I pressed A the cry was load, load enough to surprise me that it seemed to alt the song all together. I noticed there was already a saved game but when I looked at the saved game file there was no name just the time and badges. BADGES: 16 TIME: 20:12 POKeDEX: 1. Some had played the game before me. That’s pretty strange. How could someone just win all those badges with only seen one Pokémon and no name? I hit continue. The screen went white and it came to I was in Cinnabar island. The player is a boy and the Pokémon standing next to him is a Raikou. Its normal purple fur is red and its fangs yellow and with yellow body was bigger, muscular, its fur sticking out like it’s on edge. I didn’t know what to think. “Is this normal?” I thought. I never considered the game was hacked since I never played a hacked game or herd of games been changed by hackers. Rationalizing, I decided it was a shiny Pokémon. I looked at the boy and his hat had a red stripe from his forehead to the back. I never played the game or seen the previews before so I thought most of this was normal. His eyes were instead of black pixels they were red. I wanted to look at the rest of his party. First is a Raikou, second a Suicune, third Entei, fourth Zapdos, fifth Articuno, last Moltres. All of the same kind of elements, water, fire, electricity. Their cries are low and depressing like. They all at level 40 and had one move each. Raikou had thunder, Suicune had surf, Entei had eruption, Zapdos had discharge, Articuno had ice beam, and Moltres had flamethrower. Each one had what looked like they had matted fur or messy and missing feathers sticking out. When I looked at Entei again his cry was loader than the others. He didn’t have those round bracelets around his ankles. What scared me the most is the items they all had. Same one each. DEATH TAG. I tried to give them another item but there was no ITEM selection on the selected Pokémon. I went into my bag and the only items were ESCAPE ROPE, DEATH TAG, DESTINY KNOT, DRAGON SCALE, GRIP CLAW, and REAPER CLOTH. I do like scary ghost stories and gore. This really amused me more than scare me. But what I didn’t like is the DEATH TAG. Even if I like gore I didn’t want any of my Pokémon to die. It didn’t seem right. The song of Cinnabar Island was slow and methodic tune. Like a lullaby. I walked around to venture the island. Raikou not bouncing or moving when I stopped but always faced me from behind. Never to my side or in front of me no matter how had I tried. Didn’t bother me, I thought that was programed into the game. I went up to the sign to read when I noticed all the white rocks and rods all over the place. Weird how there are so many of them. There are also scattered brown boards or logs and bricks everywhere. When I did make it to the sign and it read. “There is a warning here… The Cinnabar Gym has relocated to Seafoam Islands. Pain.” I was confused why it said Pain. I read it again and it said Blaine. Must have miss read I guess. I walked north and there is another sign. It read. “Cinnabar Island The Ravaged Town of the Past.” I wondered what happened here. Checking the map it said the island used to have a town here until it was swept away by an eruption. An Eruption? People died here. When I looked at one of the white, round rocks and saw three holes in an upside-down triangle shape. Then it hit me “THOSE ARE BODIES!!!” I said out load in my bedroom. Those logs and bricks were houses! “So this is a volcano island.” I thought. A cry from Entei surprised me. Its cry was pain and it trailed off. Raikou seemed to fall to the ground. I checked its status and its HP was 5. In its status Raikou looked weak and tired. It had black marks around it mouth like smoke. Its cry was low and shallow. I switched my first Pokémon with Suicune and I continued to the top. Ten minutes later walking around all the skulls and logs Suicune started to shake with every step. then I checked Suicune’s status. Suicune had red and bloody feet and red lips. Its mane was thin and wispy with a blackish tint to its original blue color and its HP was at 3. I switched Suicune to Entei and continued on. I eventually made it to the top to see the crater with red and yellow liquid inside. Still active. There were a few bodies and logs on fire. The slow, soft song mocked at the destruction of the island. The only thing not destroyed is the POKeCENTER. Entei walked in front of me was weird and then I road over the creator making everything shake. Then the ground expanded and descended in a breathing type way. And the creator rose with lava. Quickly leaving I went into the POKeCENTER. When I enter the normal, cheerful song was in reverse and distorted. No one there except for Nurse Joy. I walked up to her slowly. I even tried to press B to go quicker because I was getting impatient but that did nothing. Finally getting there she turned her back towards me and a text box came up. “This horrible place… Glad I’m here.” she stated and turned around with a red face. Deep, darkish red. I pressed A to talk but she said “No.” I repeated several times and just gave up and started to walk out. But as I reached the door she said “You can’t leave. Have a wonderful day.” I thought in my head that this is not Heat Gold but to interesting to stop playing. A text box came up and said “Ha, those Pokémon are just like that lady.” I looked at Nurse Joy. She was standing by a door on the top floor. A cry of Entei was low. I checked his status and his picture horrified me. His teeth broken off and his stomach skinny to the point I can his ribs. “What the hell is going on?” I said. I stood up swinging my legs off my bed which flung my poke walker somewhere but I didn’t care at the moment. I need someone else to see this. Reaching for the door knob a bolt of electricity shocked my hand. It made me jump. My DSI made the cry of Zapdos. I tossed the game on my bed and stared at it. I wasn’t fully scared just surprised. Trying the door knob again it was looked. I twisted it again and again till I had to let go. The knob was getting too hot. Then the cry of Moltres echoed from my DSI. “MOM! DAD!” I cried out banging the door. My throat went dry and cold. I couldn’t shout any more. The last cry was from Articuno. “What the fuck is happening?” I said in my head. Next to the door I sat there with tears running down my cheek. “What do you fucking want from me?” I said but no words came out. Just my mouth moving. Then the chime of Nurse Joy healing Pokémon came out through the speakers. The distorted music resumed but faster and more horrifying. I inched my way over to the DSI and picked it up in my cold hands. A text box came up as the boy stood in front of Nurse Joy. “Terror is beautiful, isn’t it?” then a yes or no choice came up. My head was screaming no but why give her the satisfaction. I picked yes. Blood splattered from the boy who is facing away from the screen. Like a hammer of a knife struck him on his head. His shook and a small whimper came from the speakers. I felt like I am killing the boy. I felt horrible. “Dose this please you?” another box came up with yes or no. I franticly pressed no. Static came over the speakers and I heard a snicker from Nurse Joy. The static got loader so I tried the volume but it was like it was broke. The volume button didn’t work. I looked around my room feeling like I’m not alone. My closet was cracked open. “Why is this happening to me? Why couldn’t I get a different game?” an idea popped into my head. I pressed my thumb on the game card to get the game out. “WONT WOOORRK.” A voiced said through the speaker. The voice was terribly dry and horse. The closet flew open and slammed shut and the light bulb broke. Afraid to look at the closet I looked back at my game. The boy was in a dark room and a location box appeared saying “Joy’s back room.” The boy was standing on a box with a rope hanging from the ceiling. The pixels show the rope around his neck and hands tied behind him. Nurse Joy standing next to him with something in her hand. A text box came up. “Pokémon are toys that you destroyed. They’re toys that I led you here with. You thought of fun and so did I. I will have fun now.” Nurse Joy said. The static went to lavender town music with the Cinnabar music mixed in. The text box went down for a few seconds and then came back up and said “Nurse Joy used GRIP CLAW.” Her arms held out toward the boy and tilted one way like she’s twisting something. The boy squirmed and kicked. When she was done blood was all over her dress and hands. The boy stopped moving though through the music I heard maybe slow shallow breathing. After watching the still boy a high pitched scream interrupted the music. Nurse Joy held something else in her hand. “Nurse Joy used DRAGON SCALE.” She seemed to wrestle with the boy as he shook his head over to one place to another. Then the scream stopped. The screen went red and came back to a picture of the boy with skin melded to the DRAGON SCALE, like the scale was part of his skin covering his mouth but not his nose which blood flowed freely from. In that close up I could see the slash on his head splitting the hat almost in two and more blood running down his face. His hair wild and weighed by sticky red ooze that probably hid the horrific view of his brain. The rope was holding his head up not choking him entirely. On his chest was the GRIP CLAW cork screwed deep into his flesh. His eye lids barley open I could see his blood shot eyes. The picture disappeared and the screen back to the back room. His back still towards me so I can see is bleeding tied up hands. My own body shaking with horror. “Stop.” I whispered. “Stop doing this to him.” I heard another snicker through the speakers. Nurse Joy holding her hand to her mouth covering the smile. “You fucking bitch!” I said with no words. Gulping I still couldn’t talk. She looked toward me, not the boy but me. She held another item of horror. The music stopped and all my pokeballs came out releasing all my legendarys. “Nurse Joy used REAPER CLOTH.” She walked over to the boy and covered him in a black blanket. The legendarys were all lined up across the wall. A snap echoed from the speakers and all the legendarys were turned into pokedolls. Toys. Nurse Joy held another item. It was red. “Nurse Joy used DESTINY KNOT.” She tied the boy with the string and the screen went white. When it came back the red string was around the boy and tied to all the dolls and the dolls had tags tied to them with the string. “This was fun. Glad I ca… you came. Have a wonderful day.” a female voice said through the speakers. Nurse Joy turned all red and laughed. The text box came up one last time. “      used ESCAPE ROPE.” Nurse Joy kicked the box from under the boy’s feet and a crack came throughout the house. The boy hanged there bleeding. Nothing moved on the screen at all. My stomach was in knots and my throat burned. Tears ran down my face blurring my vision. I watched the boy hang with Nurse Joy gone for minutes before I could finally look away. By the time I did look away the floor of the back room was almost completely covered in blood. The dolls hanged from the ceiling by the red string. The DSI powered off as sun light peered through from my window. I knew I could’ve jumped out my window to escape earlier but the fall would kill me. I live eight stories high in an apartment building. I sat in my room for hours crying before I took the game out of the DSI. I brought it over to the parking lot down in the basement of the building and took a hammer to it. The pieces shattered everywhere. Lifting the hammer up I saw a scrap of newspaper under the cover of the game card. It had a date. “2012 Jan 16” few days later I searched up the newspaper online. The headline was about a kidnapping of a boy murdered in a hospital by one of the staff. “Cause of death, hanging and loss of blood.” It also read that there was a chest in the murder scene. The chest was from the one of the waiting rooms where it caters to children. He was in the waiting room waiting for his aunt to come back from the ICU visiting his mother was has fallen from breathing problems. She’s was a smoker and was very skinny. A picture was featured in the column of his sick mother in the hospital. She came in the hospital with red lip stick, a small shirt, skinny jeans and red shoes. It reminded me of Raikou, Suicune, and Entei. Ever since I broke the game card it never happened again. I went to therapy for years and never play another Pokémon game. Apparently on ‘the night’ Mom and Dad were visiting the neighbor’s and didn’t hear me. Every now and then my chest hurts, my head aches, and my neck burns but it’s over. Even at night I can hear a chime from the poke walker that I never found. Sometimes I think that nurse’s soul is stuck in that walker. How it got into Wal-Mart into a new case I don’t know. But what I do know is that the hospital were the kid died is just blocks away from Wal-Mart.

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Written  by Thrustwar.