So, you're probably wondering why I've made this audio diary, why I'm recording this...bizarre event... Well...I've seen a lot of things in my life not many have...But no one would believe me...Every time, I'd try to tell people...to ask for help...
He was there... Staring at me...Even now...he's watching me from inside that screen...But he does come out when I leave the room...He follows me everywhere...All because of the stupid mistake I made...
That's why I'm recording this...To warn everyone...if he doesn't destroy this first...
The creature I had looked up to during my childhood...even now, despite what has happened...I still look up to my old memories of him...
I never knew about the old console's dark secret...Though no one really knows about it...I own an old playstation one console, the old chunky design...I also own the first three original Spyro the Dragon games for the Playstation...I've had those games since I was five years old...
Sixteen years later...I still have those games...They gave me comfort during those dark times in my life...When things got really bad and I wanted to end it all...I would play Spyro the Dragon...Those bright happy colours made me happy...Spyro made me happy...
Because I was a girl who liked playing video games, the other girls kept away from me...calling me a freak...It hurt...I tried to hang out with the guys...but...they also stayed away...I spent my whole Primary and high school life labeled as a freak...
I found comfort by playing in Spyro's bright, happy world...I was useful...I was needed...I saw this purple dragon as my one and only friend...I didn't need anyone else...I started to avoid everyone, knowing that they never cared...
It was around July...I had just turned 21...My Mother pulled me aside for a moment...
She said..."Hannah, you're too old for video games now...Don't you think you should pass them onto someone else? I don't want you to waste your life on those things." Every year she said the same thing...and every year I told her. "You know how much those games mean to me. Besides, I don't live with you anymore, it's not your concern."
This time though...My mother asked my younger brother for help...So he walked up to me when she left the room to answer the phone...He asked how I was, how things were going at work and such... I told him I had been swamped for the past year, so many clients had placed numerous orders and I could barely keep up with it...At some point, the conversation lead up to this...
"You never play your games anymore, you said so yourself, you're too busy at work...Maybe you should give them to someone who would play it often...I know I would..."
He asked me if he could have my old console and games...It had been a while since I played...but...I still loved the games...I still loved Spyro and I saw how he treated his games...
Some were badly scratched within days of getting them...This alone made me say 'no' and walk away...Why couldn't they let me have my games? I was an adult, a 21 year old woman...who cares if I still played video games?
This lead up to another argument...Every year on my birthday she did this...She always made me feel like crap...Like I was worthless...The Imperfect Child...
I had enough...I told her I was sick of it and left...I was so angry...I could never talk to her... I got in my small blue pitiful excuse for a car and left...Heading for home...My place of peace from the outside world...Besides...I still had so much work to do...
...It was late when I got back...I stumbled into my room, my eyelids feeling the weight of the day on them, my shoulders slumped from exhaustion...I barely registered the rumbling of thunder...
There was a storm outside...The fat drops pounding on the roof outside, almost deafening as they suddenly became heavy but I didn't care...I was so tired...
I flopped onto my bed, face buried in the covers...I was thinking about earlier...The events annoying me...I did everything that others did in society...I worked hard at my job, I earned the money to buy my house, my car... My eyes drifted over as I looked at nothing in particular...
My console sat on the wall unit, just in front of the retro television, justly name 'Cement Box' Due to it's awkward size and shape...I didn't want a plasma screen...I didn't need any of that new stuff, I was just happy with what I had...
...But...I thought about what my Brother said...
I didn't want to be like those collectors who bought old games yet never played them... My eyes fell to the floor...
I couldn't just part with something I had for most of my life...But... If I gave it to someone I knew would take care of him...It would be less painful...
I rolled onto my right side, facing away from the console and shut my eyes... I was so tired...It didn't take me long to fall asleep...
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that the television screen was on, the familiar title screen of Spyro the Dragon was playing that calming music... I lazily reached for the controller, pretty sure that I hadn't turned the television or console on... I still had work to do but I decided to play with Spyro instead, I figured I could just catch up with it later with a few all nighters...
Spyro's controls were second nature to me as I easily guided him past traps and easily slayed Gnorcs by the dozens...
I briefly remembered my cousin, John...He was a good guy, like myself, he also played old games... I started to wonder if he would be able to take care of Spyro for me...
The moment I had that thought, Spyro stopped moving...I frowned, moving the joystick forward...but he remained there...He didn't move at all, I wondered if the game froze, as it did on occasions or if my controller was playing up...I reached for the console, making sure it was plugged in properly, I was sure I hadn't tugged on it...No...It was fine...
At that moment, Spyro turned around to face the camera, the screen briefly flickering before he began walking towards it... The camera floated backwards, not letting me see where he was going but I already knew the area... I was in Alpine Ridge, just near the thief's track where a dragon statue was... It was already gone due to me already completing it years ago...
He was walking towards the ledge... I tried moving the joysticks back, to move him away but Spyro stopped at the ledge, his wings flapping around for balance...
Then...It happened...
At the bottom of the screen, slowly a message written in messy black writing began to appear...
'PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME.'
I dropped the controller... My eyes were wide... That text, I knew it wasn't part of the game, it definitely didn't belong... My hands started sweating as I fumbled in my pocket for my phone, I would need it to prove I wasn't insane but the text was fading...
I just managed to take the photo before it completely vanished, staring at those words that were barely visible... I sat up and turned the console and television off... Maybe I was still asleep, maybe I'm just having a nightmare from all this stress...
John's number was displayed on the screen as I selected it, the phone ringing...
"Hello?" He sounded annoyed and I could faintly hear gunshots in the background, he was playing COD.
"Hey John, I know it's really late and we haven't talked in years but would you mind coming over?"
"Hannah, what're you talking about? It's ten at night." He said, frustrated.
"I know, I know but I'll make it up to you, I promise, I just need you to come over." A heavy sigh came from his end of the line.
"Fine, I'm sick of these trolls anyway." He mumbled...If I hadn't been so spooked, I would've laughed... I waited patiently as he made his way over...I immediately let him in before he could knock, having heard his car pull into the driveway...
"So, why have you dragged me over here for?" I frowned.
"There's something important I have for you."
"Couldn't it have waited until tomorrow?" I shook my head.
"No, I don't think he'll remain normal until then."
"He?"
We walked into my bedroom to my old console...John's gave had locked onto it as soon as we entered...
"You've still got Spyro?" I nodded.
"Yes...but, I...Something weird happened..." I pulled out my phone and showed him the photo...Watching as he examined it...
"You photo shopped it?" I frowned.
"I didn't!" I replied sharply, I was already on edge and he wasn't helping...but I calmed down... "Listen...I want you to take care of him for me..." His eyebrows rose. John knew how much I loved my old console and my Spyro games.
"What? No, Hannah I can't-"
"John, I'm too busy with work...It's just destroying me that he's sitting here and no one's playing the games... You're the only person I know who'll take care of Spyro..." He sighed, looking at the console...
"Are you sure?" I nodded... Watching as John gave me a tight hug... He had been searching for these same games for years, so I knew he would take care of them..
He reached for the console to pick it up but recoiled as he was shocked... He swore but unplugged the power cord before trying again, this time without electrocution.
It was heart breaking watching John drive off with my console and Spyro but I had to get back to work, ignoring the tear that ran down my cheek...
I should've known that something strange was going on with Spyro and my console... I know it was an old console and it would eventually play up but that message was stuck in my mind and was now stuck as my wallpaper on my phone... I had no idea what to do about this...
The next night, I woke to heavy pounding on my front door... I had fallen asleep while working on a client's design... I grabbed my night gown and walked up to the front door, opening it...
No one was there... I looked around for any young kids chuckling in the bushes next door but it was dead quiet... I was about to shut my door when I noticed something on the ground... I picked up the envelope, still looking around...
I returned inside my home and locked the front door again, opening the envelope...
'I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE.'
I froze, my eyes wide... The same writing from the screen was now scrawled on the note and it was stained with a dark red substance on the bottom right corner...
It was blood... I reached for my phone and called John, terrified... It rung for the longest time before going straight to answering machine... I hung up, my heart pounding through my head, filling my ears with the sound.
A thump came from my bedroom... The sudden thought that this was some sort of sick joke made me shake my head, realizing that noise was probably John hiding in my room, trying to scare me.
I slowly walked to my room, looking around for the blonde man... But he wasn't there... I checked my closet and bathroom...No sign...
"Hey Buddy."
My blood ran cold... I noticed my PlayStation sitting innocently in front of the television, the three games stacked beside it but it was the screen that made my heart stop.
Those empty sockets stared right through me, the glowing red dots locked with my eyes... I wanted to run, so I did... I could hear him call after me, "Hey Hannah, where're you going? Buddy? WHERE'RE YA GOIN?!" I could imagine him trying to look through the corner of the screen, watching me run towards the front door, keys in hand.
I fumbled with the keys, unlocking the car door and sliding into the driver's side, starting the engine and shot out of the driveway, I wanted to get as far away from him as I could...
...My heart was still pounding as I checked my mirror, imagining that he would be chasing the car...
I checked again, seeing that he wasn nowhere to be seen... I released the breath I had been holding and focused on the road... What the hell was happening? Was I losing my mind or was this all really happening?
My head pounded, I still remember that horrifying experience...
The radio played one of my CD's and I frowned, looking over...
"Hi Buddy." My eyes widened as he sat in the passenger side, having hidden under my jacket I had thrown on the seat earlier... I went for the brake but he shook his head.
"No, we're going home." Spyro said, watching me closely... I was sure I was trembling... God those eyes... I just wish he'd stop staring at me...
I pulled into the driveway again... My heart was pounding as I painfully swallowed.
"Turn the car off." I did, waiting for what was going to happen next... "Now go inside." Again, I did...My head hurting from how loud my heart was pounding, my eyes watering as my hands trembled...
Spyro followed me inside and instructed me to lock the door. I did and followed him to my room...
He jumped up onto my bed and patted the spot beside him, those glowing dots watching me...
At first, I was too scared... Horrible scenarios, one after the other played through my mind, whether he would burn away my flesh, bite into my neck and tear out my throat... I honestly was shaking when he patted the spot again...
I walked over and slowly sat down, staring ahead, noticing the screen was empty... It showed the Shadow Realm from Shadow Legacy but there were several game characters inside, some I recognized, wondering around aimlessly, blank expressions on their faces, they looked so...sad...Like they had given up on everything...
"You're probably wondering why you're seeing this." Spyro said, a sad tone in his voice but I was too scared to look at his eyes while this close...
"W-What are you?" I asked. "Where's John?" Spyro pointed...
John was inside the screen, tied to a round stone table... Surrounded by Hunter, Bianca, Elora, Bentley, Sgt. Byrd, Agent 9 and all the other familiar characters... My eyes widened as John was regaining consciousness...
"Wait, what're they doing?" I looked at Spyro but he was staring fiercely at John through the screen, fury radiating from him... I felt my stomach fall straight through my feet, my nerves shook violently...
"He tried to to take us away...Tried to take you away...Being away from you hurts me Hannah, it hurts me very much but John doesn't understand that, not unless he feels that pain himself." As if he signaled them, Hunter and Bianca both gripped his head tightly, holding it up as John became aware of his surrounding and began struggling, until he noticed who was holding his head.
"WHAT THE FUCK?! LET GO OF ME!" Their eyes were dark.
I prayed they were only going to scare him but to my horror, Agent 9 applied some type of pronged claw to the end of his gun and in one sharp movement, shoved the gun's end into John's left eye, the claw's tight grip firmly holding the eyeball inside as he screamed and howled in pain, making the mistake of shaking his head, hoping to throw it off, failing to realize that the heavy gun was attached to the end... The movement pulled his eye clean out of the socket and dangled, the weight of the gun on his eye's cord from the empty socket, pulling on his pain as he screamed in agony...
I turned to Spyro and wrapped my arms around him. "STOP! PLEASE!" He was tense as John's screams continued in the background. "I'm sorry Spyro! I'm so sorry, please, just please, please stop this!" My eyes were squeezed shut so tightly I was seeing dots as John kept screaming...That sound of pure pain destroying me... I had caused this, this was all my fault and John was suffering because of me...
I felt Spyro move and John's screaming changed to whimpering, followed by a thud... I opened my eyes to see those glowing red dots staring right into me...
"You're truely sorry?" He asked as I nodded, tears streaming down my eyes... I dared to look at the screen, seeing John was gone...
"Where-"
"He's home..." Spyro said, cutting me off but I saw the pain in his eyes, yet they were still that horrifying blood red. "You're scared of me..." He used his wing to gently push me off, looking at his claws. He was right, I was scared...but...I suddenly felt guilty...
"I can't let you go..." A pang of fear shot through me. "You're the only person I know, the only friend I have...if I lose you..." I looked at the screen.
"That's not true! You have Hunter, Bianca, Sparx, there are so many friends you have Spyro, you just don't realize it." Spyro looked at the screen.
"They aren't real...The others died a very long time ago but you would've noticed the characters missing, that's why those zombies were made, they're just empty shells...No emotion...No thought of their own...Nothing..."
"I'm sorry...I had no idea..." I only shook my head as tears fell from my eyes, stinging as Spyro just sat quietly beside me, his head still low. "But...why are your eyes red?"
"Because I am corrupt...When you stopped playing I lost my way...I thought...'What was the point?'...I...I...went insane from the thought of losing you...I didn't mean for this to happen..."
"What about John?" He lifted his head.
"If he talks...Then...I'll have to do what they were going to...He knows this..."
"Spyro, are you the only one that is...alive?"I asked, suddenly realizing something.
"No, when a Gamer has a game long enough, to be emotionally attached, that player in the game becomes 'alive'...This happened between us sixteen years ago..." Spyro stood and hopped off the bed, standing in front of the screen with his back to me.
"I honestly never meant for things to go so bad...I'm so sorry Hannah...You lost your chance of being normal because of me-" I hugged him, feeling the purple dragon tense.
"No, it was my choice to be a Gamer sixteen years ago, so no more blaming yourself!" Spyro said nothing but slid through the screen, standing on the other side with the dead grass.
"Please tell John that I'm sorry..." He said and the console shut itself off, the television's power dying as well. Though I could have sworn I heard him whisper, "..But I don't regret it..."
I saw John at the hospital...His eye was missing...He didn't want to talk to me...He was even furious when I tried to explain that 'you-know-who' didn't mean it but he still refused to speak to me, let alone look at me...
I don't blame him though...It was my fault that he lost his eye...I heard that when he was released, John moved far from here... When I returned home, Spyro was inside the screen and asked how things went, so I told him John had decided to move and left it at that... After a while, I went to bed but the next day I received a call from my mother...
John had been murdered...
I listened as she described the details to me that were given to her, she said his only eye had been ripped out and his chest torn open, his innards splattered across the walls...
His skull was snapped off the neck at the joint and his legs had been snapped backwards at the knee caps... He was also covered in deep savage sliced all over the parts of his skin that remained mostly intact...
I asked Spyro about it once I got off the phone but what he said, it was eerie...
"It wasn't me...But have you asked Hunter?"
"I thought you said he died..."
"He did."
I ask...That if you are a Gamer...like me...don't throw your games away...It will come back to haunt you and make your Player insecure...insane...unstable...
Spyro won't admit it but he's scared of being alone...despite what's happened he's still my best friend...