BEN: The Last Victim

Part 1: The return of Ben

Most people know the story of Ben, the demon inside a Majora's Mask cartridge. Every story I have read about ben, or peoples own experience with Ben, ended in tragedy, or with them so mentally scarred by what happened to them as they played. My experience was very different… it was more personal than any other person got to BEN. It was like he singled me out to be his pawn. But after my experience, I realized that no matter how creepy it is, I must try to stop him…or it…or whatever that fucking thing is.

To get started with a little backstory, I loved video games, especially Zelda. I beat Ocarina of Time many times. I even owned and played Majora's Mask a lot, and I knew about the elegy of emptiness and how it made those creepy statues. I also agreed with other gamers when they say that Majora's Mask was one of the most fucked up and creepy Zelda games. Unfortunately, I didn't know that creepypasta existed, or about the BEN phenomenon that scared the pants off of any person who read it. I really wish I had known about BEN…then maybe I could avoid my obligation to destroy the evil thing, but it's too late now. I have to do this… I have to stop him before hurts anymore people. Anyway, here's my story

I had a really disturbing dream about Ben before I even knew who the Jadusable story. I had no idea of the torment that he had caused so many people…but I digress…One night I was sleeping in my bed with my father in the next room. My dad and I lived in a little house in Iowa together since my mom died and my stepmother basically turned into a bitch. Again, I'm getting off topic. I was in my room and for some reason I felt uneasy, as if someone was watching me. I tried to will myself fall to sleep and eventually what I did, but my dreams weren't any better.

I was lying in my bedroom back in my old house when I was a lot younger. Instantly I realized I had been turned into my five-year-old self again. As I laid there in my bed, I heard something strange, like a song being played in reverse. It was very faint, almost like a whisper. As I tried to listen more carefully it sounded like the Song of Healing being played, except it was being distorted. Against my better judgment, I got up and started to walk out of my bedroom door. As I walked down the stairs and two the living room, the music got louder and louder. I felt a chill running down my spine.

"Hello, Daniel," A voice said behind me, a voice I had forgotten. I turned around I what I saw took away the breath in my lungs.

It was my Mom. Her blonde hair was down and at her shoulders. She was wearing sort of robe that was all black. Her warm brown eyes that I remember having a certain glow to them was gone. She just smiled at me creepily and stared deep down into my soul.

"Mom?" I replied to her greeting "what are you doing here? And what are you wearing?"

My mom didn't answer me. All she did was laugh at me, her laugh distorted as if she were possessed. She looked at me with her evil smile.

"It's time for you to become him, Daniel. Soon both of you will be one."

I was too terrified to answer. All of a sudden she screamed a bloodcurdling shriek, which sounded like the scream of skull kid. Her skin began to melt off and revealed something that scared the ever-loving shit out of me.

It was an elegy of emptiness statue. I screamed in horror as the eyes move to gaze into mine. The eyes became dark red which glowed. In the midst of all the craziness I heard a voice say in a deep, monotone voice say:

"I am BEN. And soon you will be my vessel."

As soon as he finished his words, a burst of fire came up like a waterfall and washed over me. As I burned I heard the creepy laugh that sounded like a demented version of the happy mask salesman giggle. I felt the pain of the fire burning my skin, which shouldn't be happening in a dream. The pain got worse and worse until I, in my dreams, died as the laughter rushed over me.

I woke up screaming. I was all dripping with sweat. I didn't know what to do. I felt completely frozen with fear of what I just saw in my dreams... it felt so real! I felt like I was dying! Burning alive, I thought to myself, what could that horrible thing be?!

I had school this morning. I couldn't concentrate with all these images in mind. I kept thinking about "Ben," the psychotic figure from my dreams. I kept thinking I saw someone sitting next to me in an empty chair but when I looked there was nothing there.

I started to put together that this ben character was somehow connected to Majora's Mask. I know right? It seems so obvious. The statue, the song of healing, that hideous fucking laughs…it's all there. I went to the school library to study and do some research on ben. What I had found made my skin crawl. There were stories about a haunted Majora's Mask cartridge that wasn't just a cartridge at all. it was an entity of consciousness. It loved to cause people pain. I read Jadusable's story and various other accounts that detail their experience with Ben… all ending in tragedy. Unfortunately, I tried to dismiss it as untrue, considering the fact that it was on creepypasta, a website that supplies fictitious stories by various writers. I tried to put it out of my head as I went through my day normally.

After school, I took the bus home. I was walking home from the bus stop and as I approached my front porch, I noticed there was a small package on the doormat. I picked it up and looked at the front. There was only my name and address; no stamp, no return address.

Curious, I thought, I wonder where this came from.

I grabbed a pair of scissors to open the package. Inside I found what looked like a note. It was written in what seemed like red ink(which I had found out was blood later.) the writing was all in capital letters and it was all over the place, like someone write if their hands were trembling. I carefully read it aloud:

ENJOY MY GAME. YOU'RE SUFFERING WILL HAIL MY RETURN

I brought myself to look inside the package and underneath the note was a game cartridge specifically a Nintendo 64 cartridge. It was a plain, grey cart with no title or artwork at all. on the front there was the word "Majora," written across it. I looked immediately at it and remembered Jadusable's story about ben and I immediately had a bad feeling in my chest about this.

I looked at it over and over again. I was creeped out. Who could've possibly sent this? I thought to myself. I tried to convince myself that it was probably a prank by some asshole, or maybe someone trying to get rid of a game and decided to fuck with someone, but somehow, in my head, I knew better. Even though, at the time, I thought those stories about ben were fake, something still didn't rub me the right way. For some reason, I couldn't just throw it away. I needed to confirm that they weren't true and this was just a hoax.

So late that night, I went into the living room and sat in front of the TV. My n64 was already plugged in, with a copy of Donkey Kong 64 in the cartridge slot. I pulled it out and switched it with the weird Majora's Mask cartridge. I turned it on and started playing it.

Everything seemed to be running normally. The title screen played out normally, except the graphics were a little darker than I remembered. Some graphics were a different color and a little lag, but there was no cause for concern yet, and I stress yet. I pressed start to boot up and the screen froze for a bit. As it switched to the select screen, the screen flashed and I could've sworn I saw the happy mask salesman smiling at me for a second. Weird, I thought.

As soon as the profile select screen came up, both save files were already filed. The names were in all capital letters. One said "VESSEL," and the other said, as I feared "BEN." As much as I wanted to tell myself that it was purely coincidence, I couldn't just ignore it. one of the games was "vessel," just like Ben had called me in the dream. I was terrified, and I couldn't keep convincing me that it was coincidence. For some reason, I forced myself to play it. I felt as if it was the only way to disprove my fear.

I erased the "VESSEL," File and typed in my name. I started playing out like it should, except for the beginning, instead of the intro storyline text; there was a single phrase that I saw over and over again related to Ben:

You've met with a terrible fate…Haven't you?

That screen isn't supposed to play until you let the moon fall on Termina. Why was it playing here? I tried to stomach the fear that was growing in my heart. I started playing the game more. I moved link around clock town, just to get a bearing. For a while to that point, playing the game was fine. What set me on edge were the NPCs. They were normal sometimes and when you looked at them other times, they would look at you with the face of the elegy of emptiness statue. And instead of the regular dialogue, some NPCs would say weird stuff like:

- Are you the Vessel?

--You are the One he seeks

- Your sacrifice will mean his return

What the fuck? I thought to myself. I was absolutely terrified by this point and thought that I should turn off the game, but I couldn't I was drawn to playing it. I needed to know if it was real.

So I played on against my better judgment, and tried to stomach my fear. I kept playing and got to the woodfall temple when I started to freak out. As I finished off Oldowa and picked up his remains, the screen went dark. What happened next made me jump. All of a sudden I heard a high pitched screech, as BEN's face was looking at me, smiling at me with those empty eyes, staring at me. Then the screen went black and I saw text on the game screen again.

Are you having fun? Yes/No

I pressed "No," then I heard the skull kid scream. It was so loud it deafened my ears. All of a sudden the screen went back to the gameplay Link was standing in the middle of a room that looks like the room where you meet the four giants, except the room was black instead of a giant, Ben was there, staring at me. I tried moving Link around but it didn't work. He, as well as I, was completely paralyzed. Then a dialogue box showed up out of nowhere.

You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?

All of a sudden Link fell through the darkness and drowned in what seemed like "black water." The death music doesn't play. Instead, a dark, foreboding laugh plays on the game over screen.

It was Ganondorf's laugh. How did it even exist in this game? I reset the game, trying to get that evil laugh out of my head. Once again, the title screen played, but instead of the wooshing sound, the reverse song of healing, the one from my dream and from the story, played with an infinite loop. The profile screen had changed. It had changed back to the way it was before. Instead of my name there was "VESSEL" and the other name was "URNEXT." My heart was racing. This fucking thing is trying to get to me. I didn't know what to do. I think I was close to vomiting.

I selected "URNEXT." I was to curious to stop playing. I thought it would be the safe thing to do. The game file started up in north clock town, except it wasn't north clock town. It wasn't even the "Twilight Zone" clock town that jadusable wrote about. Clock town was dark, darker than it ever was. The little pools of water near the entrance red, I'm guessing with blood. The sky was blood red and the moon was closer than I ever saw it in the game. I moved Link around, trying to see if I could find any sign of life, but there was nothing. I searched all of clock town. The one thing I noticed was the clock tower was open, which was weird because it was the first day. I started to believe that whatever this thing was, it wanted me to do that, and it seems like if I don't play something bad will happen. So I pressed on.

I went into the clock tower. I didn't know what to expect. I was on edge from playing it all night. The clock tower area wasn't any different. What was different was there was no cutscene, and that various townspeople were gathered around the place where skull kid was, just below it. Skull kid himself was missing, instead there was Ben; Floating above the townspeople. All the townspeople had masks on, masks that looked like Ben's face. I stood in horror as the skull kid scream emanated from Ben and the townspeople charged link, almost like zombies would charge a fresh piece of meat. Link was killed by his own people. I was appalled to see them attack him until he fell dead.

The screen didn't go back to the title instead it showed link in the middle of the clock tower area, covered in blood… I couldn't control him. He was a pawn of Ben now. Ben was showing me what was going to happen to me. I watched as link, helplessly pulled out a bomb and committed suicide .The haunting song of reverse healing plays in the background as link died.

I couldn't believe this was happening to me. I was mentally and physically exhausted. I turned the N64 off and tried to will myself to into getting up from the floor. I had do wrap my mind around this. Why was it doing this? Why does it want me? Why does it call me vessel? I have to figure it out before me, or anyone else, gets hurt.