[xxxxxxx] Police Department
Date: [Redacted]
Address: [Redacted]
The information below is a transcription of (at the time) 10 year old Daren Redd’s recording labeled “SPASE INVADERZ GLICH???”. Found at the former residence of the missing [xxxx] Redd, transcription provided by me, officer Matthew.
I have reason to believe that this tape could be related to the disappearance and presumed death of [xxxx] Redd, Nick Robin, and James Barlowe.
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Daren was sitting in his room, holding an Atari controller in one hand, and the camera in the other. He seems to realize that the camera is recording before taking his hand away from it and settling it on the controller. The way the camera is set up shows the back of Daren’s head, his back, and the TV screen. On the screen is the classic Space Invaders title screen.
“Hey guys,” A voice, presumably Daren’s, speaks. “Today I’m gonna be playing..Uh..Space invaders. Found this old Atari in the trash, and guess what?? It totally works.”
Daren presses the start button and the screen changes to depict a top-down view of a pixelated bedroom.
“See? Cool, isn’t it?” Daren says. “..doesn’t look too much like Space Invaders, though.”
Daren presses a button, and a black box appears at the bottom of the screen with white text in it.
The text reads, “There once was a boy named Daren. Daren had a mother, a father, and no siblings.”
Daren visibly tenses up at this, uttering “What..??” under his breath before clicking the button again.
The text continues. “Daren’s father was a fireman. His name was Dave (From what I can tell. It glitches out at this part. Note that Dave Redd is the name is Daren Redd’s father.)”
Daren hesitates before pressing the button.
“Dave (Again, from what I can tell.) was at the fire station, before Daren was born. He looked in the corner. And he saw the-” The text gets cut off there, the screen returning to the title.
“..Well, okay then. Just a little glitch.” Daren says, his voice making it clear he’s nervous as he presses start again.
This time, it goes to the first level of Space Invaders.
Daren plays through the level without much issue.
“Alright!” He cheered. “Woo! First level done. That was easy.”
The screen then changed to the bedroom again. Though it looked more detailed than before. The bed had a pattern on the blanket (The same checkerboard pattern that the bed in Daren’s room had when we went to investigate), a little bedside table with a lamp (Lamp looks similar to the one beside Daren’s bed. Was this on purpose??), and a dresser in the top right corner.
Daren wears a face of concern as the black box appears again, white text following soon after.
“shadow man. The shadow man looked at him and smiled. Dave did not smile back.” The text reads, appearing to continue from where it left off.
“The shadow man said his name was- (It glitches out here. Can’t make out anything.)” It continues.
As the text continues, a shadowy figure starts to appear on screen, appearing to come from under (presumably) Daren’s bed.
Daren frantically presses the button, going onto a level exactly the same as the first one. He mutters “How did they know that??” and laughs nervously as he plays the game.
Daren goes through most of the level without concern, though nearing the end he begins to hear knocking at his door.
“What is it??” Daren calls out, looking back at his bedroom door, only to be met with complete silence.
“..Mom??” He calls once again, no answer. The knocking starts up again. Daren looks back at the TV monitor and seems to conclude that the TV is where the knocking was coming from.
Daren mutters a quick “What the..??” before continuing to play the game.
The rest of the level goes on without much (There were little glitches and things that messed him up a little. He had to try again twice.) issue.
The bedroom shows up on screen again, though it’s much more detailed than before. The bed is shown with two pillows on it (the amount of pillows on Daren’s bed), there are shelves on the wall with action figures on them, there’s a TV monitor and a controller in the bottom left corner of the room. The shadowy figure appeared from under the bed again, watching him. (From what I could tell, everything was the exact same as Daren’s room in the real world, other than the shadow guy.)
Daren was about to question it when the black text box appeared.
“Dave asked how the shadow man knew his name. Then the shadow man said-” (It glitches out here. A lot of glitching- Maybe something wrong with the cartridge?)
“Dave was scared. But he agreed without a second thought.”
Daren immediately presses the button to get to the next level, visibly shaken up, but not saying anything.
Most of the rest of the level goes on without issue, despite the knocking from the TV, and a dark, pitch-black face appearing just barely on the screen every so often.
Daren hums to himself as he reaches the end of the level, commenting a quick “Isn’t this just the first one..??” before the next screen appears.
The bedroom isn’t a drawing this time. Instead, it’s more like a picture, from the TV’s point of view. It shows a terrified Daren, controller held tight in his grip as he looks at the screen in horror.
Behind him, there’s the shadow monster thing from the game, looking straight at the screen and grinning. (I could have sworn this thing was looking at ME.)
Daren rushes to turn the game off, but the screen stays on, showing the same bedroom that Daren is in.
The text box appears once more.
“Dave tried to ignore the shadow man’s request, but he couldn’t. The shadow man was already coming for him.”
Daren hesitates before pressing the button.
“And now he’s coming for you, Daren Redd.”
Daren stays frozen for a while, only jumping into action once the creature behind him in the screen starts to move. He turns to face the creature, but there’s nothing there. Only his bed, with its slightly messed up, checkerboard blanket.
Daren looks back at the TV and seems to realize something as the shadow monster starts to move past him and out towards the real room.
He jumps up, grabbing a baseball bat from under his bed and holding it tightly above his head, aiming to get a good swing at the TV. As the creature only moves closer, Daren finally makes his move, slamming the wooden bat down on the TV monitor about fourteen times before stopping.
He breathes heavily, looking down at the broken TV for about ten minutes before turning and shutting off the camera.
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Notes.
We at [xxxxxxx] Police Department have had many cases relating to something like this in the past year or two. If anyone knows anything about us, please contact us at [xxx]-[xxx]-133.