Lavender Town: pUt soRRoW tO rESt

I've always heard rumours about hacked pokemon games; but I never had the chance to try it. I longed for my own Gameboy but my parents won't let me get close to one. I could only watch people play it from videos on Youtube to quench my longing for playing. Even doing so, I still wanted to try my own mystical, virtual journey in the game.

It wasn't long that I've finally started my own. How? You ask? It's an older version, nonetheless it was my first. I picked it up on the sidewalk on my home from school.

I held the plastic game console on my hand, looking around to look for the owner, no one came. I told myself this is a good chance to have my own Gameboy. The thought basically begged me to agree, eventually I caved. I sprinted home into my room. Locking the door I proceeded to turn the game on.

It was your usual intro, a male trainer riding a bike through an endless field with several pokemon following. I was quite disappointed that this game did not have color pixels, but this was all I had at the moment.

It was quite strange, for the version of the Gameboy it should be at least at version X and Y. Is this one of the hacked games I heard about? The screen then proceeded to play it's pokemon theme song like it should, but out came a strange tune that reminded me of one if the hacked games "Lavender Town".

I'm not a big fan of horror games, but this is pokemon! It'll have to do for now. The menu surprised me, instead of "New Game/Continue/Options", it didn't have the "New Game" button, only the options and the continue button.

With a strange feeling in my stomach I pushed the "Continue" button, the music never stopped once. Unlike normal games it should have stopped when the game starts. My stats came on and my name was "Leaf", who would choose a name like that? I had no money, I only had a shiny Celebi that her only movesets are "Perish Song" and "Psychic".

Oh, this really is a hacked game after all. The rest of my pokemon slots were Unowns that didn't make any sense at the moment.

Oh wait. Wait. My avatar is somewhat strange. Instead of the usual smirk, mine had a face of agony and blood dripped down from my eyes. I was crying blood. I shrugged it off and continued on the game, the screen showed me a normal town, with houses… but no people or pokemon. I was alone.

What did the person before me do? I walked around in the game, my fingers shaking slightly as I pressed down to each button as my avatar moved around.

I walked around. No one was here. I walked and walked and walked. Still no one. Only signs. Signs that are worn down, growing plants and were stained with blood pixels. I went to one and pressed "A", words showed up on my screen on the classical text box:

TuRN bACk NOw

No comment. I honestly have a lack of words at this moment. My fingers do the tapping uncontrollably. I walked to another sign and it didn't get any better:

pUt soRRoW tO rESt

"Put sorrow to rest"? What does it mean? Sorrow? Rest? How do I put an emotion to rest? Is this game logic? Okay, I see someone coming on the screen with an exclamation mark on her. I walked over to her and as usual, I pressed "A". Her dialogue wasn't any better. She said, "whatever you do, DON'T kill SoRRow!" How can I kill an emotion, I pressed the button again and she continued:

"Look for the tomb and put SoRRow to rest."

Now I was beyond confused, well, she said tomb right? Find a in game-graveyard and look through a thousand people or pokemon's tomb so I can look for a particular one? Is there a GPS for it? Curse my luck. I walked to the graveyard, there's trails of blood.

Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all! The blood pixels glitched, it randomly changed directions to different graves. Until I finally found one that was isolated. A name carved on the rocky tomb:

SORROW, in full capitals. The screen turned and I was engaged in a battle. The textbox was glitching, like the Missingno. 'Sorrow would like to battle!' it read.

My opponent was an Eevee? A bloody Eevee. Instead of smiling warmly it's eyes were black, and blood dripped from it. It looked like Joker from Arkham Asylum without the smile. I can't escape, the game won't let me.

'SORROW used AGONY!' it started, the battle started. My shiny Celebi was sent out. No attack effects came from it but my Celebi took a super-effective damage, it was down to 13 HP already. I browsed through the moveset and used "Psychic". It missed! How could it miss at a time like this?!

'SORROW used FRUSTRATION! But it missed!' thank god for that, I used this chance to use another Psychic. From my friend I knew that Perish Song will take out both of the pokemon willing or not in three turns. My eyes beamed as it was a one-hit kill. But… instead of the normal 'SORROW has fainted', it said, 'You have been cursed by SORROW'. I have been cursed? Cursed of what? All the credits of the battle. But the Celebi disappeared.

In panic, I looked through my bag and found it was all Unowns, that spelled out 'NO MORE'. My hands were shaking, I couldn't think straight. I hope that this is just a glitch… just a glitch… I tried to turn it off, but it wouldn't let me. I tried taking out the internal battery but it was still going.

I got so scared I threw it across the room. The screen cracked. Good. At least now it's broken. Regaining my breath I slowly picked it up.

pUt soRRoW tO rESt

It's still going? How? After that? I looked at my avatar. I'm gone. I'm a ghost now. My whole body was white and my eyes- were red. This thing isn't supposed to show color. Blood dripped down from the avatar's eyes and my name was no more. I looked into a mirror in real life to tell me that this is just a game. Just a game.

I was not there, the game in my hand has vanished.

I no longer exist. I'm a ghost in the game and in real life.

I have been cursed by SORROW.

Now I know why no one ever played the game.

They didn't live to tell the tale. All of them. No one escaped the curse.

pUt soRRoW tO rESt.