Luigi Kart 3
Read part 1 here and part 2 here.
It's been 3 months and the memory of Luigi Kart 1 and 2 still haunt my dreams and waking life. It all started when I bought what I thought was a bootleg Mario Kart DS at a suspicious GameStop. But it was actually Luigi Kart 1, some kind of haunted game that scared me so bad I destroyed it and my childhood Nintendo DS console to pieces. Some time after that I went on a hike in the woods and found the sequel to the game in my backpack, which I originally thought it was a gift from my brother-in-law. But it was an even more cursed version of Luigi Kart that made demonic entities attack me in the woods. All of this drove me crazy, but no one listened. I lost family, friends, and my job all because of this insanity. But my head is in a better place now and I'm ready to get to the bottom of the Luigi Kart mystery.
I scoured the internet for hours trying to find anything related to Luigi Kart, but nothing came up besides a bunch of crappy drawings on Google Images of fanmade Mario kart games. That's when I knew my encounter with these cursed games was personal. Someone, or something, made these games to make me suffer. I drove by the GameStop that sold the game to me, but surprise, it was no longer there. I remember the big old guy in there that offered me the game, he said that Nintendo shipped it to them. Which is totally phony, because Nintendo never made a Luigi Kart game. They did make a Mario Kart game for the DS, and that one was always my favorite. I could remember playing the game... But I can't remember when or where I played it. I do know I owned it, but that's it. It's strange, because I can remember all my other childhood games very fondly, right down to the time, date, and where I was at when playing them. It's almost like there's something in my mind blocking parts of the memory. Dang it, I wish I had talked to my therapist about this! But even he thought I was crazy, so he dropped me from his life harder than he dropped his wife for that affair he was having.
I figured I should drive by my old childhood home to see if I can remember playing Mario Kart DS there. Sounds nuts, but it could help me piece the puzzles of this Luigi Kart mystery together. 30 minutes later, I rolled into my old neighborhood I lived in as a kid 10 years ago. Upon seeing my old childhood home in view, a flood of memories hit me like a truck. They only got stronger the closer I got to the house. I parked right by the front lawn and just reminisced on all the wonderful memories I had here. I tried to remember playing Mario Kart DS here... But nothing was coming to mind. Still trying to think, I glanced my eyes at the neighboring house on the right. As soon as I did, images of death, mutilation, blood, ichor, and screaming souls flooded in my mind like a bloody waterfall. The images were so vivid that they hurt my eyes. I looked away quickly, but then I saw the house again from another angle and the images got worse.
I had a feeling in my gut that something evil happened there. I felt nauseous, dizzy, and even sick. My stomach churned and I couldn't stop shaking. I exited my vehicle and vomited a strange red liquid on the sidewalk. This was in broad daylight, so all the houses around could see me. I laid on the sidewalk with all the hairs standing up on my body, all while more disturbing graphic images flooded my mind. Whoever was living in my childhood house came rushing out and asked what was wrong. But I was so paralyzed with fear, that I cried and threw up again, until I eventually blacked out.
I woke up in a stranger's bed in an oddly familiar room. It was my old room from my childhood home! A large Latina woman who appeared to be in her 50s was standing beside me holding a glass of water. I grabbed the glass and took a sip. "Wh-what happened?" I croaked. "You parked outside of my house and began throwing up on my sidewalk!" she exclaimed. "I'm so terribly sorry... I used to live here as a kid so I drove by, then suddenly, visions of death crossed my mind, and it made me sick to the point I threw up." I said. "It's that dang house next door, I just know it." she replied. "What?" "There's a lot of paranormal activity in this area of the neighborhood. I blame that stupid house next door. The woman who lived there 10 years ago killed both of her children." "Yeah? G-go on..." I coughed.
"She allegedly killed them by accident. She followed several witchcraft blogs online and tried applying the methods her kids who were sick at the time. She tried to cure them but it ended up killing them. After the kids stopped showing up to school, the cops stopped by and found the oldest kid laying in bed with no pulse. The youngest kid was never found and the woman never revealed what happened to him or where he's at." "What w-were their names?" "Hmm.. Tryna remember. Oh! Excuse me, but the phone is ringing." She got up and went in the other room, leaving me all alone to my dark thoughts. That's crazy, because I lived here 10 years ago yet I don't remember there being a neighbor that killed their children. I tried thinking about Mario Kart DS memories again, but as soon as I did, an image of a bloodied woman screaming appeared in my head, followed by a horrible voice. "WAKE UP, LITTLE MAN! WAKE UP!" I jumped out of bed and ran down the hallway screaming. My caretaker looked at me with horror in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but I got to leave!" I shouted as I ran out the front door. I got in my car and sped off.
After about 5 minutes of driving I still couldn't stop shaking. I turned on the radio, so I could listen to some music. The song was some emo BS that would make me cry if I listened to it for too long. I turned it off and kept my eyes on the road. Why can't I remember the murder house neighbor? Did we move out before it happened? And what's with my memories of Mario Kart DS being corrupted by demonic imagery? In fact, the Luigi Kart games are full of crap like that. I am certainly being targeted by demonic forces when it comes to Mario Kart DS. I have no idea why, but I need to find out before something truly horrific happens. Like what if a kid I meet in real life is killed by a man or woman who has a deep interest in Mario Kart DS? Nah... that won't happen. But what if my mother dies like the DK man threatened when I played Luigi Kart 1? I need to stop asking questions and get to the bottom of this.
I went back home and fired up the Wii U to download Mario Kart DS from the Virtual Console. But before I could hit download, I saw the 3DS on my shelf receive a SpotPass notification. But the glow wasn't blue as it should be, it was red. I quickly grabbed the 3DS and flipped the screen open. The words "HAIL HELL! YOU ARE NEWLY ACCEPTED INTO THE PACT OF MISERY." appeared on screen and all my games were deleted except for the cartridge slot game. Great, there went $500 worth of games just wiped from my 128GB SD Card. I took a deep breathe... Swallowed hard... and prepared to highlight the game. The game was called 'Dysfunctional Family Gaming Union'. I reluctantly hit the start button. The forces that be want me to play this. Hopefully this will give me the answers I'm looking for.
The game started me in the first level of Mario Bros. for the Atari 2600. The background was black and there was no music, of course. Every time I would clear out an enemy, a dark red image of a dead child would flicker on the screen accompanied by a scratchy, static noise. The demonic forces that have been torturing me are definitely behind this. But thing got worse. When I hit the POW block, the words "LUIGI KART 3" flickered on the screen. I gasped and dropped the 3DS. My PTSD kicked in and it felt like my breathing got heavier. The game cut to black... And the blood red letters slowly started to form the Luigi Kart 3 logo on a pitch black background. Seeing the blood slowly form into those words filled me with some of the most intense dread and anxiety I've experienced thus far.
"PRESS START" appeared on the bottom screen. This will for sure add on to my trauma, but I have no choice... I picked up the 3DS and continued playing. The bottom screen appeared, showing a total of 5 options. A picture of a ghostly child, a triforce, a skull and crossbones, and a blue mushroom. I tapped on the Nintendo-friendly icons, but of course, nothing happened. I had no choice but to tap the ghost child icon, which caused the 3DS screens to instantly turn red followed by black text saying "DO YOU REMEMBER?" After a few seconds the screen cut to black. There was no sound at all, so I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and I could practically taste the blood in my mouth. I could dread something terrible was going to happen any moment.
Suddenly, the corpse of a little boy was shown on the screen. It was extremely pale and it's eyes were completely black, like they had been badly burned. I... I feel like I recognized the face, but a name wasn't coming to mind. The next screen was that of a race on the Banshee Boardwalk track. It showed Donkey Kong driving in his explorer kart on on the course all alone on the top screen. White text on the bottom screen read "DO YOU KNOW?" DK drove through the course without issue, until he abruptly stopped. The text "MOMMY, I'M SCARED" appeared on the bottom screen. There was total silence. I sat there and stared at DK stopped on the board for what felt like hours. My hands trembled and I felt a terrible pit in my stomach.
"WHAT IS IT YOU THINK YOU SEE?" text scattered on the bottom read. It then cut to a race track I don't recognize. It was of a long, winding road, surrounded by grass and various road signs. This course had no background, so it was all pitch black. A standard kart with no driver in it drove down the road for a few minutes until it reached an oddly specific looking house that looked eerily familiar. A creepy, pixelated and low-res model of a woman in a white gown walked out of this house and disappeared. "I DIE, LITTLE MAN" text flashed on the screen. It then cuts to a low-poly model of a bed with an pixelated image of a dead child laying on it. The phrase "DK DEAD DK DEAD DK DEAD" appeared all over the screen. My heart felt like it was about to burst and I started seeing black spots form on my eyes. "FIND LUIGI" was the last message the game showed before the 3DS showed before it shut off permanently.
When I stood up, I had an intense hot flash that caused me to fall to the ground and drop the 3DS, causing parts of it to break off. My vision quickly faded back in as I laid on my bedroom floor. My mind was spinning so fast that I could hardly think. The anxiety and fear was taking over, leeching off my energy and emotions. I noticed the cartridge popped out, so I crawled over to it and picked it up. It was a dark green cart that read "LUIGI KART 3" in yellow text on the front. But the back... What was written on the back completely changed me forever. "Property of Donny Klag" Upon seeing this, my heart literally stopped for a solid 2 seconds. I propped myself up with my hands and began throwing up all over my carpet. I could see from my hands that my skin was a pale white and my veins were pulsating really hard. I tried standing up again, but when I did, I blacked out and crashed into my gaming shelf, crushing dozens of mint condition game boxes. But the nightmare didn't end there.
Even though I was passed out, my brain was still running wild and showing my mind a constant flow of disturbing images. One of them was of a little boy sitting on the edge of a bathroom sink, looking at himself in the mirror. He had a blanket wrapped around him and he was crying. The tag on the blanket read "DK's Look Alike." I then saw two kids having fun playing outside of a house with their DS systems. This was followed by a beautiful garden with several witchcraft symbols imprinted in the ground that a woman in white had put there. The words "I WATCHED HIM DIE" flashed in my head, followed by a bloody crime scene with several police cars. It showed a dead little boy laying in a bed wrapped in a blanket with the same "DK's Look Alike" on the tag. The words "THE LITTLE ONE, WHERE IS HE?" was the last thing I saw.
I woke up laying in a pool of my own vomit. The broken 3DS and Luigi Kart 3 game were also lying in my own puke. I slowly stood up and stumbled into the bathroom and took a shower to clean myself. Normally, the shower is where I do most of my thinking, but I was so drained of this horrific experience that I couldn't even do that. Upon getting out of the shower I crashed landed in bed and fell asleep for 12 hours. For the next few days I sat around as an empty husk incapable of thinking. It was around 3 PM, I was lounging around at the kitchen table, dozing in out of reality. I heard a knock at the front door, which instantly snapped me out of the weird trance I had been in these past few days. I put on my pants and opened the door. Standing before me was a police officer, who I hadn't seen a while, Sheriff Derrick.
"Jacob? Your mother asked me to check in on you. Are you doing alright?" the good sheriff asked me. "Yeah, I'm fine," I responded in a dull monotone voice. Sheriff Derrick looked at me in confusion, and then back at the door behind him. After a brief pause, he asked me "Are you sure?" "I mean, yeah. There is no threat, there's nothing to worry about." I said firmly. Sheriff Derrick frowned and shook his head slightly before speaking again. "Well Jacob, if there's any trouble, give us a call." Derrick said as he walked back to his patrol car and drove off. Why didn't my mother call me if she was so worried? I ran to my phone and saw I had 20 missed calls from my mom from the past few days. How did I not hear these?! I noticed one of the missed calls was by a number with the contact ID of "Shantal" with a voicemail attached to it.
All it was was of a woman saying "You'll never find him," in a raspy voice. In fact, it sounded just like the woman who was stalking me in the woods last month. Wait... I know that name. I... I just remembered. That's the name of Donny Klag's mother. Or was, because they both di-- NO! IT CAN'T BE! I rushed to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror, splashing a ton of cold water on my face. When I looked up at the mirror again, the word "LUIGI" flashed in my mind. I charged out of the bathroom and fumbled around in the living room. I didn't want to go in shock and have another panic attack, so I took several, long, deep breathes while sitting down. I gave myself a minute to compose myself before unpacking this load.
Donny Klag was my childhood friend that I played Mario Kart DS with all the time. He... He was the one who was killed in that house. I remember, the news of his death was so traumatic for me that my parents moved out of the house shortly after it happened. I missed an entire year of school and was in intense psychological evaluation for the longest time. It shook me so bad that when I eventually got a grip on life again, I permanently blocked the memory of Donny from my mind altogether. That's why I couldn't think of any memories of myself playing Mario Kart DS, because almost all of it was associated with Donny. It's funny, because he had the same initials as DK, so that's the one he would always race as. He was also two years older than me, so he would always jokingly call me... Little Man.
Little Man... It took me a while, but I finally got it. The taunts, the voice, everything in the past month. It's Donny. He's come back to haunt me on the 10 year anniversary of his death... But why? Am I going to start hearing his screams or see him chasing me around the house if I don't do something about this? I got out a big piece of paper and began writing down all the crazy words spoken to me by the ghost of Donny. The first thing I wrote down was "Luigi". He keeps bringing up "Luigi" and asking me to "find him." And the mother... At least I'm pretty sure it's the mother, told me in the woods that Luigi is "buried in the garden where the children play." I just don't get it. Luigi is just a video game character. So WHO are they talking about? I took out my phone and searched the death of Donny and Shantal Klag. What I found made my pale face turn even paler.
"July 10, 2011 - Shantal Klag has been arrested after she confessed to accidentally murdering her child Donny Klag (aged 11). The other child, Luigi (age 4), is missing and Klag refuses to say where he is."
An intense boost of adrenaline entered my body as soon as I read it. I was in fight or flight mode. I think I know just what I have to do. It's now or never. I sprang up from the kitchen table and made a hot dash to my car. I grabbed a shovel and slipped on my jacket with the new DS I bought last month in its front pocket. I jumped in the car, threw the key in the ignition, and squealed out of the driveway. I pushed my foot to the pedal and wished I was driving a racing car so I could go faster. In 20 minutes flat I had made it back to the neighborhood of my childhood home. I parked outside of the Klag residence and looked at the house itself. The place looked so peaceful in the moonlight. There was no flashlights or any other signs of movement, so I got out of my car and went to the back. I climbed over a tall fence and landed in the backyard. The first thing I noticed was all the graffiti on the house. "Where The Dead Kidz Roam" one tag read. I ran further into the backyard until I reached the garden. I had such fond memories of playing Mario Kart DS with Donny here, since it was our favorite spot to hang out at.
I grabbed a shovel and began shoveling out large chunks of dirt out from the garden. I'm going to find the brother... Donny needs to know he's here. After the fifth or sixth scoop, I felt a vibration in pocket that made my heart jump. I nearly forgot - I brought the DS with me. I set the shovel down and flipped the DS open. There was a notification on the PictoChat app. Upon opening it, I was greeted with this message "LEAVE, LITTLE MAN, LEAVE!" It's Donny. I quickly typed a reply. "DK, your brother is here..." A few seconds after sending that, I could hear rustling in the overgrown bushes from behind me. I turned around and saw big red eyes peering at me through the bushes. I could sense it was Donny staring into my soul. He was not happy. And who could blame him? 10 years later he still doesn't know where his missing brother is and I'm trespassing on his property.
"LUIGI IS GONE, LITTLE MAN. SHE TOOK HIM." read another message from the chat. I looked back up at the bushes and saw the red eyes were gone. Then suddenly, I could feel long, long sharp finger nails dig into back of my neck. I let out a painful scream as I put the DS back in my pocket. I put my hand over the back of my neck and spun around to see the creepy woman I saw out in the woods all those months ago. It was Shantal. "Leave now!" she yelled. But I couldn't. I was paralyzed with fear. Before I could think of what to do next, a ghostly ape creature with DK's red neck tie came darting out of the woods and leaped out at Shantal. She let out dreadful banshee scream as the ghost of Donny Klag attacked her all while making realistic ape noises. I took this opportunity to keep digging in the garden. If I find Luigi's remains this will all be over... I just know it!
I was sweating more profusely the more I dug down. The horrific screams and yells of the ghosts behind me made it worse for sure. After several digs, I suddenly began falling until I shortly hit very cold, hard ground. I let out several loud coughs as a gallon of dirt swallowed me. Eugh, where am I...? It looks to be some kind of underground cavern. I likely just fell into the Klag's underground garden. I could see the roots of trees and plants on the ceiling. I had no idea this was even apart of the property. Did Donny even know about this? I brushed the dust and dirt off my clothes and began walking down this very dark tunnel. Each footstep I took forward echoed throughout the tunnel. The more I walked forward, the more the light began to dissipate. I was taking the plunge into darkness.
Something about this all seemed all too familiar... The darkness reminded me a lot of my mind these past 3 months. A broken mind filled with dark thoughts that only got worse as time went on. It felt like I was walking down one big reflection of my mind, mirroring back to me. I walked for what felt like hours, but were probably only a few minutes. Slowly, the tunnel was getting brighter and brighter until I reached a dead end. Before me was an large rectangular stone, engraved with a skull and crossbones. A stick with a lit candle with a blue flame was wedged into a hole in the wall of the stone. I took a deep breathe... and pushed the stone back. The stone door slowly pushed back, revealing a large tomb the size of an average family living room with a child's bed in the middle. I could see some cracks in the ceiling above, which let some moonlight seep in, giving a tiny bit of light for me to see. I wiped away a tear from my eye and all the dirt around it as I approached the bed. This has to be it. This has to be Luigi's resting place.
Before I could yank the cover to reveal the truth, Shantal appeared in front of me and stopped me. She let out a blood-curdling scream that flung me back and caused my ears to ring. "You dare disturb my children?!" she screamed. It sounded like her vocal cords had been torn and sewn back together wrong. I was scared, but I over came the fear and placed my hand on the blanket. "Don't you dare!" she screamed, striking at me. I ducked, and she fell to the ground. She then started to crawl after me like a spider, but she couldn't get to me in time. I curled the blanket back and ripped it right off the bed. As I did this, DK came barging through the wall huffing and puffing like crazy while pounding his hairy hands on his chest. Shantal let out another scream, but this one was of fear. She knows what I did.
On the bed was the mummified remains of a small boy. DK tilted his head staring at it, while Shantal laid on the floor in distress. DK ran over to me with a sad look on his ape-like face. He got on the bed and picked up the mummified remains of his brother Luigi in his arms. As he did this, his size began rapidly shrinking and he began shedding all of the ape hair covering his body, until he became the friend I remembered him as. Donny Klag's angry, violent spirit reverted to how he looked as an 11 year old human. Then a mysterious, bright, gold light shined through the cracks of the ceiling. Donny stared at his dead brother in the eyes, then back up at me. "Thank you, Little Man..." were his final words before vanished in thin air with his brother, Luigi.
At long last, DK finally got the closure he was looking for. I held back tears as I took all of this in. As for Shantal... I looked behind me and saw she was missing. I doubt she went with them. She will probably continue haunting, as I doubt she has any closure on her situation. Will I help her leave this world? No, I don't think I will. I think I'll get some much, much needed rest instead. I sat on Luigi's bed and took a sigh of relief. The hauntings are over and DK is now at peace. I hate to say it, but all this torment and mental anguish was worth it to help a friend in need. Before I took a rest, I pulled the DS out from my pocket, and saw I had one final message from PictoChat.
- "Sorry for taking my anger out on you, Jacob. For a decade I've been lost and confused from being apart of the pact of misery. I couldn't leave this world without knowing what happened to my brother. Before he died, he drew up a game with crayons called 'Luigi Kart 1'. To honor him, I tried modifying a Mario Kart DS cart with supernatural manipulation, but since my energy was negative, the games were also negative. I'm not even sure how it ended up at GameStop. I made the second game out of anger from you destroying the first game. Again, I am sorry for all the trouble this has caused you. I hope you can join me and my brother one day. Until then, I'll keep putting the 'Don' in Donkey Kong. You're the hero of the day. Thanks for being a good friend, Little Man. Love, Donny"
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