Halo: John
Jan. 21 2012
I am one of the survivors of a horrible event that killed everyone in our family, except me and my cousins (Harry and Carl). It all started on the 27th of December.
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This Christmas, I got a $25 giftcard for GameStop! I was excited, as i could finally afford to buy the new Halo: CE Anniversary! It cost about $50, and I only had $25 before getting the giftcard! Me and my cousins went to GameStop to spend the money we got for Christmas. As Halo was the only thing I wanted, I ran straight to the Xbox section of the store searching eagerly for the game. My eyes shwooped over it, and when I picked it up I noticed the game was pre-owned and cost measly $24.95 (I decided to save the rest). I gave the game to the cashier together with the money, and ran back to the car with my cousins following behind. I remember talking about what we were going to do with the game when we got back to my place.
My older cousin (Carl, who is 2 years older than me) and me (I am 15) were going to play all the first levels, then my younger cousin (Harry, and he is 4 years younger than me.) and me were going to play the last level, The Maw together. When we got home, we shut ourselves in my room with the lights off. As expected the game was pretty good, the graphics were amazing, and the game ran pretty smoothly. I noticed some strange bugs in the game though, and for a second I found them very odd. This was a pretty new game, why would it have these bugs? Then I forgot about it as my cousin ran me over with a ghost. The bugs consisted of textures changing, enemies coming back to life, falling through the map, and certain enemies getting caught in walls. The usual bugs you'd find in a game. But the only unnerving thing, was the strange way that everywhere I would go in the game, something would happen, and I could swear that I would hear the giggle of 343 Guilty Spark. 343 always annoyed me.
Everything about him would just vex me. I remember, that when I was little I would always shoot the crap out of him in The Library until the flood stopped attacking me. Something about his manner always got on my last nerve. Maybe it was his arrogance, or maybe it was something else. Anyways, everything was normal except when we neared the level 343 Guilty Spark the game suddenly switched to classic mode (The old graphics from the first game). Puzzled, me and my cousin looked at each other. The game had the option to play in the classic game or the revamped version, but it was odd for it do it on its own. With the lights turned off I shook off the feeling that I was being watched and laughed nervously as I picked up my controller and hit start. The game would not respond. Looking at my controller in the dark I figured I had pressed the wrong button. I tried again, but the game was stubborn and wouldn't do anything. After about 3 more tries, I became frustrated and got up to get my water bottle since it was around 7 pm, and I hadn't left my room since around 10.
When I came back, the game was back to normal in the better version again. Sitting down, I asked my cousin what had happened. He simply said that the pause screen came up and turned itself off. Knowing my jerk of a cousin, I thought that he was probably just trying to freak me out like always. I picked up my controller, and told him to not kid around with me.
We were on the level Silent Cartographer and had just opened the locked doors. My cousin had killed the white elite with the sword through the little opening in the door where usually a glass plate would be but was not. Being an idiot I thought I would bring the warthog down into the spot just for amusement. As I got to the decline tunnel, I suddenly died. I have no idea how or for the sake of right now, WHAT had killed me, as I just dropped through the warthog and died. The warthog kept on going down the tunnel very slowly and the rigid, random jerks it would make made me think of the time I was watching a reality TV show with my mom, where someone had a seizure. The poor person was foaming at the mouth and their body shook horridly as their eyes rolled slowly to the back of their head. It was one of the most disturbing things I ever saw. I felt bad for the woman who didn't know the other was having a seizure.
But the warthog kept on moving downward on its own. I swear I could hear that creepy little mocking giggle of 343, somewhere in the game. I had no idea where, but it felt near somehow. I don't know how, because it's just a video game, right?
The warthog continued down the hall. It even turned on its own and went down the other hall chasing my cousin until he ran into the room with the elite he killed previously, while I was trapped on the other side of this jittery thing. I hoped inside and I tried to drive out of the doorway it was lodged in. Me and my cousin didn't even think of going back a checkpoint, because the situation appeared hopeless. We were just so sucked into the game. But considering what happened, I think he wanted it that way.
I tried my hardest to drive out but the warthog wouldn't do anything . I would use the correct commands on my controller and everything to make the warthog move, but it just wouldn't move. At all. It just sat there. I was thoroughly creeped out at this point. I probably wouldn't have been so freaked if I hadn't read BEN so recently. Damn it. Right after that, a chill ran down my spine, prickling my skin and sending wavelengths of fear down my back, because Master Chief died again as his body was distorted and glitched. His head was twisted backwards and his back was thrown forward, as his body was laid in the driver's seat of the warthog. The camera did its usual thing and gave me the view of this disturbing picture from bird's eye view. My cousin looked at me and stated, "What the hell just happened?" I don't know why, but that stuck in my head. I laughed in my nervous manner and answered saying that I had no idea. My younger cousin was sitting on my bed watching from his iPad when suddenly, his eyes rounded, and his jaws seemed to unhook, that's how big his mouth was, and he stuck out his finger at my screen ominously.
Noting his shocked expression I turned over to my screen and saw....HIM... for the first time. It was 343 and he was glowing red. I knew that he did turn red in Halo 3 when he attempts to murder you, but why does it happen in Halo 1? That was strange. I had seen the "secret" new cutscences with 343, where he's vloging, and I assumed it was one of them, but why did it happen at such an odd interval? There was no button to press to watch it. All the other vlogs by him you have to press a button, but this just happened. He didn't move or anything, he just sat there and stared and floated. I tried to press the Xbox menu button, but nothing happened. It was frozen on him. Then he spoke. It was strange, because he definitely doesn't say this in the game at all, specifically this game. The words where, as the term goes, 'copy and pasted'. Like it was edited. He said this one thing to me, a sentence that sent shivers down my spine: Don't leave. The words had a different pitch, like it was distorted somehow, and it was very very creepy. It brought up a type box, like the one you use if you're searching for a game or typing something on the Xbox. I typed in: Why? very slowly. To my astonishment he answered me again in his creepy manner with his words distorted:
I'm not through playing yet.
I looked at my cousin and he looked at me. We didn't say anything, because we were to freaked out to even speak. It brought up the type box again. I typed in: Who are you? He answered after a bit of hesitation, and I could practically hear him breath inward, at a slow rate, and then he said again in different pitches:
I have no name.
At that point I was about to cry. I had felt something strange, like a feeling that flooded over me. It was immense fear. I wasn't concerned for Master Chief or me in the game, but this, this was a fear I had experienced once before. The fear I experienced when I was trapped in a earthquake and I almost fell down a flight of stair and landed on my head. It felt like a near death experience. It was so odd that i got this feeling from a videogame because its fake. It's just virtual, isn't it? I'm not so sure anymore. After the long pause I had noticed my palms had become very clammy and sweaty. He talked again:
I know you are there, don't hide from me.
I answered him:
Why are you doing this? He answered me faster this time
I like your fear.
At this point I was exasperated. I was way too freaked out from this thing whatever it was. I decided to quit and my cousin thought the same.
When we did, we heard a voice sounding like it came from every possible direction, and it echoed all around us. It was the distorted version of 343's voice. He said:
You shouldn't have done that.
Suddenly we heard screams coming from our kitchen, and when we got out of there we noticed our parents being horribly mutilated by the robots from the level 343 Guilty Spark. As the robots noticed us we started running as fast as we could to the front door, and what we saw outside didn't make things better. We were inside the Laboratory and there were not only more robots, but also the Flood. Harry was shot in the leg, and me and Carl had to carry over to a small enclave that we noticed, with an enclosable entrance. Inside we found food and water, but also a note from someone named John. It read as following:
If anyone reads this, then I am either dead, or free. My name is John. Or at least, that's what my name was before coming to this wretched place. I am guessing, that if you are here, then you must have played the new Halo game. A used one, bought from GameStop. As you may have noticed, you are inside the Library, and you must have found my little enclave. The food in here will last you several years, as it is replenished from an unknown source. I have decided that i am going to have to leave this enclave before i go insane, and search my way out. Maybe the marines also exist in this universe. I implore you, find help. Or otherwise they will--(The writing was unreadable from this point on.)
We have lived here a year now. We can still hear them outside the doors, but as the letter said, there is an unlimited source of food and water. It replenishes by itself when we sleep. If anyone ever finds this diary, the game will reappear at a random GameStop. If you find an Used copy of Halo: CE Anniversary, and it costs $25, don't buy it. Leave as fast as you can.
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Police report, 27th of may 2021
Officer Brandon [Last name redacted]
This diary was found in an abandoned cabin in Alder Creek Crove, along with the bodies of 3 young men at the age of 20, 28 and 16 respectively. They were identified as the cousins Harry, Carl and Name blurred that disappeared on the 28th of December, after severely mutilating their parents with different knifes and various other tools. The only survivor of the massacre, Harry and Carls sister who is now 22, said that Name Blurred never got a giftcard on Christmas, and was just sitting with his cousins inside their room on the 27th of December, never going to GameStop. This sudden onset of insanity, occurred to a lot of children during this timeperiod, and police have yet to figure out why.
Credited to Xlr834
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