I’m a huge creepypasta fan. My personal favorites are The Russian Sleep Experiment, Zalgo, The Harbinger Experiment, and I’m a Guard Stationed at a Secret Government Prison. I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of creepypasta readings, creepypasta icebergs and so on. To say I am well entrenched in the fandom is an understatement. However, I also knew all of these creepypastas were fake, even if some of them had a modicum of truth behind them. They’re just stories. So the idea that I would be swept up in a real life creepypasta, yet alone a Pokemon related creepypasta, seemed ridiculous. However, that is the reality I find myself in. Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t some haunted cartridge with the ghost of some kid in it who wants to possess me. No, this is simply nothing more or less than a hacked cartridge, totally within the realm of possibility.
However, it’s what was in that hack that haunts me to this day.First for a little background, as well as being a creepypasta fan, I am also a lifelong Pokemon fan. In fact, I have been the latter much longer than the former. I’ve had at least one game from every generation up till Black and White, minus the Johto games, though I did get in on the remakes of those games later in life. Pokemon was all the craze in my school when I was really young, everyone brought their cards wrapped in rubber bands. As a card game collector in my adult years, this practice makes me cringe in hindsight. I never knew how to play, but it was cool to still have them. I even had one of those thick metal Charizard cards that came with Happy Meals.
This love of the series ignited a friendship with a neighbor friend of mine. I’ll call him Craig for anonymity’s sake. He was rambunctious, and a bit of a bully now that I think about it. However, I got along with him. He would come over quite a lot, he had a link cable and we would battle and trade quite often. He had a surprisingly large collection of cards which I was jealous of to no end. I hate to admit it, but I might have stolen a couple of his cards when he wasn’t looking.
Craig and I spent most of our time at the playground since my parents didn’t like company over. We would get snacks from the corner shop with our allowance and mess around with our games for hours. We both had teams with fully evolved starters, something a lot of our other friends didn’t have unless they had Yellow edition, which they couldn’t get if they had already gotten Red or Blue. That’s something Craig and I may have gloated about a bit too much. We also played Yu-Gi-Oh, but that’s not important to the story.
Craig had a little brother at one point, but he died before I ever met Craig. Apparently his brother had been hit by a car while crossing the street, he was only 5. I didn’t really understand how this would affect a person as a kid, but the thought of losing my own brother is horrifying to say the least. He sits next to me as I write this and I can’t imagine my life without him. Upon reflection, I can see why Craig acted out the way he did. It must have been so hard on him. I was certainly hard on Craig’s parents. His mom ran off shortly after the brother’s funeral.
Around the time that Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire came out, Craig and his dad had moved out of his house. I had lost my Pokemon Red cartridge somewhere in my messy room, but since I was promised Ruby for Christmas, I didn’t bother looking. I was missing Craig a fair bit, even if my parents didn’t quite care that much about him. In fact, I think my mom even really hated him. Anyways, I got my copy of Ruby and played the crap out of it. I didn’t have a link cable, so I couldn’t trade with anyone sadly. That made me think of my old Red game, and by extension, Craig.
One day, I was cleaning my room. Mom had been yelling at me to clean it for months and I was livid so I just did it to shut her up. As I was picking up a pile of clothes, I saw it: my old red game. Memories flooded back and I dropped my laundry to pick it up. I remembered how I used a Master Ball on a Ditto on one playthrough and how Craig would make fun of me nonstop. I remembered when I first managed to figure out the thirsty guard puzzle, something that took an embarrassingly long time for me to figure out. I smiled as I put Pokemon Red into my Game Boy Advanced.
What greeted me was the old song and the outdated graphics of my very early childhood, a wave of nostalgia washed over me like I was at a beach of memories. I excitedly hit the start button, my heart rushing with anticipation. That is when things got weird. The save file had my name on it. I always liked to name my character Ash. Did my brother overwrite my save? That wasn’t right though, he would have used his name. Furthermore, the save didn’t have any extra information outside of the name. I was confused, was this a glitch? I hit the saved file.
The room my character was in wasn’t one that was in the game, in fact, it looked like my room but with the graphics of Pokemon Red. Everything was in place, minus the mess that I lost this game in the first place in. I stepped outside the room. It was the hall outside my room. Down the hall was my brother’s room, then the dining room. This was my house! Everything was in place! I went to the kitchen where I saw an NPC. Me entering the room triggered him to say “Hey, Slowpoke! Meet me at the corner store! You have five seconds!” The dialogue was labeled Craig.
My jaw dropped as the little man ran off screen. Did my friend make this? Was this something he made to keep me company? I never knew he could do something like this! I followed him out of the house. I found myself in my neighborhood. Instinctively, I found myself walking to the corner shop. I wanted to see my friend again, even if only in digital form. I wished the old games had a run button but oh well. I reached the shop, Craig was waiting outside. It took me far too long to realize there weren’t any Pokemon around. Weird but makes sense upon reflection, the original game was basically held together with duct tape and hopes and dreams. Taking out the Pokemon and the Pokemon battles probably made much more room for this fantastic recreation of my home town in these graphics.
Craig began following me after we got some snacks from the store. We went to the school, it was fully explorable. We went to each classroom, the gym, the library, and so on. This was so cool. It was then I decided we should visit Craig’s house. We went to the backyard first. Craig had a built-in pool and I went for a digital swim. I’m pretty sure if I made friends with my new neighbors I could get in the pool again, but the kids of the new neighbor’s kids were way too young. They were younger than my little brother. It was cool seeing me swim in a game where you couldn’t normally swim.
After a while of swimming, Craig and I went indoors. We stepped into the living room. Craig’s dad was sitting on the couch, facing the TV. When I tried talking to him, he just gave me the triple dot. That was a little unnerving. However, I ignored it. Craig and I moved upstairs. I saw Craig’s late brother’s room. Out of curiosity, I attempted to move in. That triggered Craig to go “you can’t go in there.” Makes sense, they would probably want to keep that room the way it is. I’m pretty certain Craig himself had never been in there actually. I then went to go to Craig’s dad’s room. Again, Craig said “you can’t go in there.”
I went into Craig’s room, causing a cutscene to start. Craig asked if I wanted to watch some Pokemon. I hit the yes button without question. The screen went black and I heard a digitized version of the Pokemon anime song which I thought was super amazing. When the screen came back on, Craig was asleep in his bed. When I tried to interact with him, he would just give me “zzzzzzzzz.” So, I left the room and went to Craig’s brother’s room. I was able to go inside this time. It was just a standard room. When I interacted with the bookcase, it just listed off a bunch of little kids books, mainly alphabet and numbers books. His brother was really young when he died.
I soon left the room and went to Craig’s dad’s room. When I tried, I was greeted with the phrase “You hear snoring on the other side of the door. You can’t go in.” Okay, so this game had a day/night cycle, or at least a day/night thing triggered by in-game events. That was cool since the original Red game didn’t have that. I decided to go downstairs and explore a bit. I went into the kitchen. I interacted with everything I could until I reached the drinking glasses. A prompt surprised me. It said “If broken, it’ll probably awaken Craig’s dad. Break?” I was given the yes or no prompt. Curious, I decided to hit yes. There was a crash noise and Craig’s dad yelled “who’s there?!”
I walked my character out of the kitchen and into the living room. I heard footsteps and then the dialogue came up “Who’s there?!” I realized that Craig’s dad’s room was probably open now. I went into the back yard, went around the house, avoiding the kitchen window, then went in the front door. I had collected the front door key from a plant pot earlier. The front door opened up into the hall where the stairs to the bedrooms were. I went upstairs and headed to his bedroom door. I smiled as I was finally allowed entrance into the room. It looked like a normal master bedroom. There was a double bed in the center of the room, a closet in one corner and a dresser in another. I also saw a telescope on the right side of the room. Curiously, I went over to the telescope and interacted with it.
What I saw sent a shiver down my spine. My heart jumped into my throat. My hands shook at what came on screen. I could see into my bedroom window. I could see my bed, my mirror, my dresser, all of it. How long had Craig’s dad been spying on me? Is this why Craig made this game? To tell me what his dad had been doing? Is that why they moved? My mind was racing. My friend was in danger, I couldn’t remember how long ago they had moved. I couldn’t remember how long my friend had been alone with this man. My thumb slipped, exiting out of the viewing screen, and I returned to the father’s bedroom. He was behind me.
There was no complex sprite interaction, but it was clear he was dragging my character out of the room. The screen went black. When the screen showed light again, I saw a dark room with no window. It was pitch black but showed just enough detail that I was able to move around. During my first playthrough of Red, I managed to use this little bit of detail to get through Rock Tunnel without Flash. I found myself bumping into something. I hit the A button to interact and was shown the following phrase: “It’s a corpse.” I looked around some more, I found three more “It’s a corpse” dialogues. I had been in more danger than I had thought, perhaps I was still in danger. Immediately, I ran to my mom and showed her the game, tears running down my face.
I never saw the game again, which I do think was probably a good thing. The police took the game and put out a manhunt for Craig and his dad. To this day, they have yet to be found. When the police searched my friend’s old home, they did indeed find four corpses of children. Thing is, they didn’t belong to any of the kids in our area, but rather they came from neighboring cities and towns. I guess that’s how he managed to get away with it for so long. My family moved shortly after this incident, I didn’t argue. I wanted to run as well.
I don’t know if Craig is alive or not. I wonder if they’re living under a different name or something. I find myself thinking about Craig a lot, even now in my adult years. I hope he’s safe, I hope he’s out there living a happy life. Perhaps publishing this story may get him to get back in touch with me. Who knows, I just want to know he’s okay, even if we never talk again after getting that confirmation. I still have one question that haunts me to this day, a question that makes me awaken with a cold sweat. A question with an answer that had horrifying implications. Was it really Craig who made that hack?
Next part: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/13knyy2/my_friend_is_being_followed_by_someone_i_cant_see/