"Merry Christmas." My mother said cheerfully as she passed the wrapped up rectangular and flat present to my older brother, He opened it with glee by the familiar shape of a brand new video game. The nostalgia went over him and seemed to be the most happiest he has ever been.I could see the excitement in his eyes as he ripped the wrapping off and then came with a sudden stop as he look at the front. He looked up at our mother and thanked her for the game. He seemed to be disappointed and was expecting something else. After the yearly present opening, My older sister convinced my brother to try the game to make our parents feel like they actually bought a game that he really wanted. He huffed and then started up the game on the brand new Xbox that our uncle bought us a few months back. He started to play this game and later on seemed to loved it. A while after he finished the game and laid it on the coffee table with a satisfied look on his face. I never seen him so happy before (or after a few months ). Since I was an average seven year old girl, I did what they usually did, Played with barbies,played tents with the dinning tables, watched cartoons and played with my teddy bear. But I was friendless at the time. Being a child with autism I played alone. But I was close with my older brother. One of my only playmates that I ever had and I knew something had to be great fun if he thought so, So I picked up the game off the table. It was labeled "Fable: The lost chapters" and I placed the disk of the game into the drive to proceed to play it.

I had a swell time of that game. When it was time to name my hero, I named the man "Hood" (not really original.) It also didn't bother me in the slightest that I had to be a male for the entire game . Actually, I loved being the character and I took great time to make him the savior of the land. I was also so horrified in the Darkwood levels so much that it motivated me to try making friends to have someone to hug in a fearful dismay while playing the game when my brother wasn't available . And the times that I cried tears of joy like the time when my character finally reunited his captured mother, or when he got married to a beautiful wife and lived happily in Oakvalle. But there was also cries of sadness when his mother's throat had been sacrificed to Jack for a not so merciful power. Soon the game came to it's end when the hero finally slain the second incarnation of Jack. Once the story was over, there was barely much else to do. I finished the knuckle fight subplot up to the final round with the Knothole Glade clan leader. Never beat him. All of the demon doors had been cracked open with no more special loot. The hero's wife seemed to be bored of my hero and never said much and then it got to a point where there was nothing to do. I finally got bored and lead my hero inside the Knothole Glade demon door which lead me to The Hidden Copse . The soft and merciful music began playing as I made the hero stand in front of the already emptied chest. I made him stand where he was facing the screen. A feeling went up my spine when it seemed like he was...sad. As if he knew this was the end of us adventuring through Albion. I saved the game after 5 minutes of mental goodbyes and shut down the system thinking that I will never play this game for a long time. I told myself to forget about the game and move on to new things that may interest me.

I have moved on.

and I almost forgot.

Many years later, I have became more in control with my disability. Now with daily medication, I act like a nerdy normal teenager that is obsessed with Tumblr and Video games that keep me busy most of the past few years. Though things had changed since that one Christmas. My parents had gone separate ways and my sister is now looking for a life long job in the Dental industry. My brother never talks to me anymore and sees me nothing more than an annoyance. I had a few friends, But most of them were ones I have only met through the old Xbox gave out due to it collecting dust and being out shined by the Xbox 360. Also my copy of the long forgotten Fable was now gone due to my brother selling it. I also played the sequel and the final game but they both will never live up to the time I had with the first instalment of the franchise. I never saw it for 2 years,

I had long forgotten about this game for a long while until recently. Now,I held a amazon card and just ordered the game again for old times sakes. It took weeks to arrive and during that time, I fixed the old xbox and had it running again. Then after that I waited a few more days until it finally arrived with a persistent knocking at the front door. When the package was delivered I felt a wave of cheerful memories engulf me. That's when I wondered why I stoped playing in the first place. I couldn't recall why for some time but now it does not matter, It was time to begin my adventure all over again. I switched on the xbox and placed the disk inside the Like an idiot, I thought that I would have an awesome part of my childhood replayed all over again just like the old days.

That was before the incident.

The game Started like normal, Except none of the companies logo nor the intro played. It just came to the starting menu. 'Strange' I thought, but it shrugged it off and clicked start. The "continue" option was the only one in the menu. And the only save file was labed "XxX". With no other option, I selected it.'I bet this is my brothers save file maybe...but where is mine?' My mind was in a confused blur as it was a pitch black screen for more than five minutes. I was about to think about switching it off until it availed something startling. This is the same demon door my character was placed, and there was my hero. He looked like as if he was stripped to his pants. His tattoos that had I given him were gone. He stood there like before but only he seemed...quite sad. A sudden feeling of guilt went through my body like a mother cat had found her injured instinct, I quickly checked into his inventory and it has been wiped clean except for a few old letters from his sister. All of his powers were gone but, his hp and mana were still the same as I left them. He had also gone down a few levels and his stats were all at '0'. The map was blanked and the guild seal was missing. Now this seemed to be a glitch at first but I swore that I fixed the xbox...'was the disk scratched?'. I continued on by exiting the menu and looked around the demon door area. There was chilling silence and the only sound was the footsteps of my character. But then my eye caught something below the screen. They were subtitles but there was no one talking. It went like this:

Chest: open me

At that moment I laid my eyes on the previously emptied chest. It was closed again as if something was in it. It also had looked more of a dark tint than before. There was nothing else to lose so I opened the chest and found a sword that I have never seen in the game before. The uncanny weapon had a rigid edge like a flattened chain saw. The entire thing was dark navy with a silver lining of aura. There is also markings of drops on the blade itself and black cloth hanging from the handle. I checked it's stats. It looks powerful enough but the damage was only 10hp and the weapon seemed to have a heavy weight. There was also an argument on the weapon, It only said "Fear". There was a description of theanemic blade but it only said a few words.

Abandoned. useless. why?

I was not sure what to think of this.
My logic wanted me to quit the game and see why it was acting so strange, But my curiosity wanted to do otherwise. The sword automatically equipped itself to the hero and I could not get it to come off. At Least it's some protection for what ever it is outside. When I exited my inventory
and into the game, There was a sudden clashing sound like when falling glass meets the sidewalk. I jumped and I made my hero dash out of the small area to the open world of Albion ... That was a big mistake. When I entered the outside world, the entire forest area was all burning down in a pure indigo color. the ground was pure white and it was covered with blood splats. Piles of disgusting organs were everywhere oh the city walls. I nearly gagged at the site of all of this but, I kept going to see what other damage was done. Music started playing in the background but it was not the ordinary Knotwhole Glade music, It was the graveyard soundtrack playing on a loop. The blood submerged gate was unguarded and the shooting range next to it was all demolished. Bodies of the NCPs were nowhere in sight. My hands were shaking and I could not imagine what would've done all of this. It was bound to get a lot more worse.
Upon Entering the miniature city, It seemed all normal unlike the outside. Everything did not look blood tainted and the ground was in its normal state. No fire was to be found but only the torches where that haunting fire. There was also still no one around. The nerve-wreaking music was still playing however, It was giving me chills throughout my body. I walked along the path, the houses and the stores were not enterable. There was empty barrels and stalls all around. Suddenly the subtitles begun appearing on the screen:

XxX: It's been forever, How long until you decide to come back?

XxX: We've been waiting for our savior to come save us.

XxX: But he is weak.

XxX: And so are you.

Then on cue, Balverines jumped out of nowhere. They all looked like normal balverines, Except their fur was a black color scheme than the original dark down. Also their eyes were ruby red and seemed to be dripping blood. Battle broke out as I fought through the waves of balverines. It was difficult but as I made through with the weak weapon, But the spell mod was powerful enough to keep the monsters at bay. I noticed that their name was changed to something else. Their so called new name was "Doubt". At this point I began wondering if someone somehow hacked the xbox over the years. While trying to remember if anyone mentioned the modification of the device, The Doubt stopped attacking. Their bodies disintegrated into a red pulp. Then the subtitles came back:

XxX:Doubt.

XxX: Doubt kept me alive.

XxX: And let you win.

XxX: for now...

The darkened soundtrack faded out and then the Darkwood music began to play. Lighting struck and the rain began to downpour as a figure of the CHief of the village was shown to be dead with a sword though this chest. There was nothing else around for me to find, So I went back out the Knotwhole Glade gate expecting to return to the horrific scene. But instead it lead me to the Guild forest. The trees were dead and no leaves were anywhere and there was rotten apples scattered everywhere. There was also beetles crawling around everywhere that seem to be vomiting black slime on the roots of the trees. They did not even take a glance towards me while I passed them, As if they had more important issues to comply with. As I moved through the forest, I also saw the trees fall on the ground with glass breaking sounds. The trees scattered into little pieces as if they were now made of glass. This game now just got more confusing. I continued to the exit of the forest and it lead me to Bowerstone. The dinky town was normal as it was years ago but only without the NCPs or any enterable buildings like how Knotwhole Glade was. The soundtrack continued playing but it was lowered in pitch. Then out of nowhere, I heard screaming children. Screams of terror where coming out of the school. My hero rushed to the school and came through the back door. When he was on the stage, All of the seats of the school chairs were turned to face the stage. No child was there, Only spots of red goo on the chairs. Books were scattered around the room and were torn of their pages. When I picked them up one by one I realized, These were the books that I have donated to the school teacher. When I have collected them, I heard faint giggles. Suddenly, a white flashed and then the school took on a whole new look. Most of the chairs were gone and the ones that were left seemed to be rotting with the paint chipped off. The teacher's desk matched the chairs with age but it had an ax hacked into it. There was cobwebs and dust all around the room and the once colorful pictures on the walls were now face down on the ground. It seemed like no one has came here for years to tend to this place. Then I looked on the cloth that hung on the wall was now tainted with bloody letters that spelled out "ROT IN HELL HERO". The tapestry seemed to be holed and ripped with small handprints on it. Now this place that used to be a place of learning was now a run down and ruined childhood monastery. The damned subtitles flashed on the screen:
Molly: We are gone.

Ted: Where are my eyes?

A disturbing high pitched screech suddenly burst through the music and then thumping noises as if someone was struggling to get on their feet. The camera on the screen jiggled and then went haywire. Soon, The camera went back to its normal state but then undead began crawling out of the floorboards. But these did not look like normal undead enemies, They looked alot like the villagers in the town. Even the children were cracking their way out of the wood floors. The music had now dropped to a demonic rumble and the area became a lot more refectaint. I began my attacks on the undead civilians as they came to spill my blood. They all had angry looks on their faces and they were speedy runners. The horde were difficult and knocked away much of my HP. As I slaughtered them all, the world around me became a lot more transparent. When the last villager was slain, The town was gone and my hero was left in a black void. There was no sound at all at first. Then slowly, I heard the lost chamber music arise from the silent really slowly. Then a beam of heaven like light burst through the "sky". It revealed someone, It was a smallish child. They seemed to be as tall as when the hero was a child. The child wore their hair down in a brown curly mess and they only wore a long striped dress with long sleeves. Then I realized it was a girl. The hero then began to draw close to the kid. I could not control him at all at this point. I could only watch as he slowly waltzed over to her as the sobbing grew louder. The area around them was lit suddenly to show that it was the chamber itself. It all looked the same but the pictures were all blank and were splattered with some sort of ink. Soon the sobbing stopped and the girl looked at the man with tearing eyes. Then it hit me, The girl, She was me. All those years ago. Thoughts ran through my mind in complete shock and confused. 'How...what...' I whispered as I remained still and kept my eyes glued to the screen. It was unremarkable. Suddenly, I noticed the hero got down on one knee and look at my child self. It began to melt into a cutscene as they looked into each other's eyes. Then unexpectedly, they embraced each other like long lost friends. At first I was suspicious and felt like something horrible was going to happen next such as the hero killing her in explicit gore or her eyes would bleed out worms. But nothing like that happened. They just hugged and unlike the start of the game, his frown became a glowing grin.

'He missed me, Did he?'

Then, The joyful reunion was cut short by the subtitles appearing comeing on the screen.

XxX: NO.

Walls started to shatter, The floor began to crack and the ceiling began to drip black osse. The two of them began to ran and were struggling to find a way out. But the Doubt came back and began to suppress them. His fear could not hold them back for long. His face was being shred into pieces and his wounds became fatal. A blood curdling scream could be heard and it rose in pitch. The scream started to hurt my ears and gave me a throbbing headache. Then It stopped, with a slow whimper.

He fell.

And the girl that was once me began to sob all over again. She scratched the wall and began hitting it with pounds of terror. She finally broke the glass wall, and she sprinted into the darkness. The game mechanics went back to its combat setting but instead of controlling the hero, I controlled myself. As I walked through the seemly endless trail into the darkness, The music faded away and there was only silence. Images of ghostly white images of plot characters arose from the darkness. All of them looked happy and seemed to be at peace. Soundtrack began to come back also but it was now the calming Light temple music. As I made my way though the characters, I made it to the end of the line. There was the hero. But this time he was ghostly white and transparent. There was also no scars or a sorrowful expression, And he was a child again. Then, without pressing anything, It went ot a dialogue scene between him and me.
These were the subtitles:

Hood: …
her : Are you at peace now?
Hood: Yes. but I don't want to stay here.
her : Why not? Your friends and family are all here!
Hood: I am happy to see them again. But now I have no goals.
Hood: And I have no guidance.
her : You have your freedom to choose your own destiny now.
Hood: My destiny is already complete.
Hood: Now I have no purpose.
Hood: I want to re-do my adventure. Undo mistakes or make new ones to solve.
her : But do you want to relive THIS.
Hood: I won't have too.
Hood: I'll be here after you find another story to control.
Hood: I will wait for you.
Hood: Like I have always been.
Hood: and I'll be here when you come back.
her :...you will?
Hood: What kind of hero would I be if I did not listen to my conscience?

At that point, I felt a hand lay on my shoulder. I turned around quickly to see who it was but nothing was there. chilling as it was, I turned around to see something I was hoping to see in a long time. It was the start menu. I clicked start and it was just like normal. But the save file that has brought me nightmares was gone as if the game had not been played before. After that experience, I tried to figure out what the hell happened in that game. Or if anything, How could something like that happen? I tried to re-think the symbolism in the game and tried to look for others who had this problem. But so far I could not find anyone that spoke of this. Soon, I told myself to let it be a mystery that should never be solved. The game is a blast like in my childhood years. I recommend anyone to this masterpiece. And a simple piece of advice I could ever give anyone would be : Don't have any doubt that you are lost in the game. The hero and you have a lifelong partnership that could get through the toughest situations.. Remember that.