You were sitting at your computer. Perhaps a little bored? So you contemplated what you could do to waste just a little more of your life a way; perhaps an hour or so? Just then you thought of the perfect franchise to do this with, the perfect video game series designed to waste the life of the users who played it. Sonic the Hedgehog.
It was written in some of the lost Reddit forums: he who plays sonic—in the pursuit of "going fast"—shall be smited by the hand of god and will lose their life in turn. Either by joining some sort of cult they called: the sonic fan base, or perhaps by playing the useless game that is Sonic the Hedgehog. Either way, it did nothing but ruin people's lives. If you were any other people you would of tried to stay as far away from it as possible-like your life depended on it. Unfortunately for you, you felt a little into the idea of "ruining your life" at the moment. It was a phase.
Last summer, you and your friends went to a garage sale that was hosted by a nearby neighbor of yours—one that you never knew existed. It was filled with some of the strangest and creepiest items you and your friends had ever seen. Stuff you probably would only see from an old drug addict's collection of antiques from the 60s. Actually, after seeing the neighbors, you guess that made sense.
You started to wonder whether there was anything at all that would be valuable to you in this place, but then you saw something that caught your eye. You spotted a cover with a blue smiling anthropomorphic hedgehog on it; something about its smile make you uncomfortable. You picked up its used and stained case, and bought it for 3 dollars. One of the neighbors gave you a deep grin afterwards and said: "Thanks, (y/n). I'm sure you'll love it…like we did". You feel a chill down your spine as you grab the game and go. Did you even did her your name? You awkwardly shrug it off, and move on with your life.
Ever since that day, it has laid on your shelf; lurking in the shadows and dusk. Despite you seeing that game on your shelf every day for that past year, it still gives you shivers. But now, you are giving it the opportunity to possess your screen—hoping it doesn't possess something else instead. Everything felt wrong about it. Everything felt wrong about you. However, you decide to ignore your basic human instincts and prepare yourself.
You grudgingly pick up the case and open it. The cartridge was perfectly intact—brand new even. After taking out and setting up your Sega genesis, you put the cartridge in. It made a clunky sound as in entered, as if the console was resisting its presence. Before the game started up, it made this very distinct but faint screeching sound—the sound may have been the screaming of a thousand human children warning you that your actions have consequences. A wave of horror embodied you, it was almost unreal. So unreality that you couldn't fully understand the horror you should be feeling. You were about to play sonic the hedgehog…
A bombing voice appeared before you, introducing itself. "Sega". Was that another name for 'Satan' or the name of a game company? You weren't scared though, you were used to entrances, at least company ones. Just as the game loaded up, you felt a shock got up your spine; you hoped it wasn't the game performing satanic rituals on it. It probably wasn't anything, you thought. But then, he came. It was Sonic…. Sonic the hedgehog. He was waving his finger with attitude as well as give you a look a determined victory—His victory. His image, however, made you feel… powerful.
As the game prompted you to press start, you did so almost instinctively. Too instinctively… and as you did, the game started to run like any other game did. Other than the more momentum style platforming, it was pretty much another Mario clone; you didn't see why it had the particular reputation it had. After a rather average gameplay session, you decided to set your controller down and focus on more meaningful activities; like living.
After a few seconds, you started to see that sonic was becoming a little bit more impatient with you. All that power that you initially had, seemed to fade. You realized that you secretly didn't want to disappoint the blue blur and you freaked out a little inside. As a reaction, you pulled the plug on the console and the screen went to black. This was a sign of relief for you, and the wave of momentary stress went away. After all, Sonic the Hedgehog is just a video game, it's not like anything else. It's Just a video game, you swear.