A Timely Terror

My experience started 2 weeks ago (as of this being posted)

The old game store that's near my house was about to close. It's a shame because the store carried games all the way back to the NES. Which meant I could buy games for my SNES at the store, not on eBay or such. On the day before it closed, I went there to buy my last game. After walking to the store, the owners assistant welcomed me, (he was a friend of mine, as we talked about random things going on in town) and said all the games were 50% off. I went to the SNES library but I just couldn't decide which game to buy. Mainly because it was going to be my last before I would have to go to a Japanese Con that had an event every month in order to buy SNES games. Asking the assistant for what game I should buy he said "Just dig deep and all your problems will be solved." After hearing this, I pushed some games aside and noticed a game with an interesting box cover. The title read "Chrono Trigger" and depicted a snowy mountain with a black monster, a spiky haired man, a frog-warrior-thing, and some woman using fire magic. Looking at the logo, I noticed it was made by Square (Square Enix today) and suddenly remembered all those worthy classics that I owned, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy VI, those kinds of games. Knowing this game could be gold, I bought it for a cheap 10 dollars and thanked the assistant for all the time we spent. Walking home, I felt excited to play this RPG.

When I opened the box, the cartridge label looked a little torn. But that seemed normal, as the game had been produced 17 years ago, of course it would have been damaged a little. After popping the game in the SNES, I was greeted with the title screen. Everything seemed normal, the graphics looked amazing for SNES standards, and the story was really interesting.

When I reached 2300 A.D. for the first time, instead of the normal 'Gate' sound that would play I would hear a scream. Thinking, that was part of the game itself, I continued forward. Seeing the world ruined heavily made me scared a little and made me feel a little depressed. Now, when you stand still a little while you can see the time period your in at the bottom left corner. Instead of saying '2300 A.D.' it read 'TRICKED YOU' Not knowing what this meant at the time, I traveled through Lab 16 not knowing what to expect.

I saw puddles of what should be dirty water was instead white as a ghost, and when I walked through it I lost about 5HP a second. And the enemy Mutant looked the same except it had Lavos' face instead of its normal face. Thinking this was a hack, I rushed to the store before it closed for good.

When I got there, I asked about the game. The assistant said it was donated like all the other games in the store. I then asked who donated it, but he just simply said "A father who was just cleaning his house" After I left, I decided to continue playing Chrono Trigger tomorrow.

Restarting, I arrived at Arris Dome. The old guy who you talk to when you arrive there said "Got you good, didn't I?" Strange, but when facing the Guardian boss I was shown the boss with Lavos' head instead of its normal head. The attack "Delta Attack" would cause Marle and Lucca to scream, and Crono would simply just laugh. Now, when you reach the area where you find out about Lavos; you are presented with that apocalypse cutscene. When I watched the Earth being destroyed, something felt strange, as the cartridge was vibrating in the slot. Feeling panicked, I turned the SNES off, and went to bed.

Overnight, I had a strange dream, or maybe it wasn't, but it did feel really real. I saw a little boy in the distance, and he was walking towards me. Noticing that I could not move, I was trying to wake myself up as hard as I possibly could. When he was an arms-length away from he, the little boy screamed like Lavos, and suddenly I waked up. The game was turned on somehow, and when I selected my save file, I was given the messge when you die facing Lavos (The Bad Ending) but the text read: "But....your future refused to change." instead of 'the' future. When the screen faded back to the title, I pressed start. Instead of the save file selection, I got the sprite for a little boy. He was laughing demonically, like a person who has triumphed in war. I quickly turned the game off and took the cartridge out of the slot. I then saw some letters under the tear on the label, curious, I lifted the label up. Seeing an address, presumably the owners, I looked up on Mapquest to see how far the house was. It was just 2 miles away, and decided to walk there.

When I arrived, I told the man at the door about the game. He said that his son played the game and had the same nightmares. The address was simply on there because the son always seemed to lose things around the house. He also said he knew that the house he lived in belonged to another family back in the 1950s, and the son of that family apparently loved to play practical jokes on people to the point where as to he sent his sister to the hospital. When he died from a murder, the son might have possessed the cartridge when the current house owner bought the game for his son. He was told from his son that the joke player would prank him every now and then, and would scream like Lavos after the prank happened. After heading home, I burned the cartridge in the firepit. As it was burning, I suddenly jerked and fell to the ground.

I was back in the same setting as the previous night. But now the little boy was holding a watch, swaying it like the watch on the title screen of Chrono Trigger. He was saying this: "Don't hurt me...I'm just a little kid...." when I woke up, the cartridge was back in my hand, and the firepit was not there. My watch read 3:17 PM, but I burned the cartridge at 3:14 PM. Freaked out, I took a shower, just thinking this was a dream. As I grabbed the shampoo, the liquid was red instead of white. I felt something touch my shoulders, and I heard 'BOO' and then that demonic laugh.

Drying off and went to bed, I would just wonder what life I would have with this pranking child.

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