BEN

[SCAR Cheatulies]

CHAPTER ONE

 

"WHY IS HE SMILING?! WHY IS HE SMILING?! WHY IS HE SMILING?! WHY IS HE SMILING?! WHY IS HE SMILING?!"

 

Everything was black as the boy screamed, his own words echoing loudly in his head, fright and terror filled in his voice with a high degree of horror. He thought he had died, the large monster that looked to be a giant skull having devoured him whole just minutes ago. His own screams began to quiet down though, until all was silent. But his vision soon returned afterwards, his eyes opening as he lyed on the ground. His body had been set down on course grass, and as he sat up, he found himself alone in a graveyard, a dirt path leading off into some nearby woods while tombstones lined the sides of it.

 

With a confused look on his face, he rose to his feet and looked at the tombstone directly behind him, able to read the words that were on it, "The melody that summons the tears of angels rests here." After reading that, the quiet sound of someone sobbing could be heard, presumably a woman. Having already spent enough time in this Hell, there wasn't much that surprised him, strange noises and weird places being all too common. He turned and walked down the path, going over to the next tombstone, before reading it. "The soul of a brave soldier rests here."

 

The faint noises of snare drums being rolled on by drumsticks and the sounds of war filled the background. Soon, the sobbing and the war noises mixed together, blending, only for a loud rip to be heard. Looking up, there was the sight of the very air ripping apart, a white gash appearing in midair, only to be mended back together before another was made, then repeating. In between each rip, there was a twisted, five-note melody that played, the song unnatural and sick. It could've been as normal as any ancient music that could've been, but it was somehow contorted, warped into what was close to being a record scratched apart and being put on a playing loop.

 

Wincing at the irritating noise, the boy moved on, before arriving to the next tombstone. Unlike the other graves, which were obviously buried and filled, this one had an empty six foot hole in it, and the writing appeared to be smaller. Leaning forwards, he was just barely able to read, "A vessel that holds wandering spirits rests here," while underneath that was even smaller words, being "Jadusable." But he leaned in too far, and he then fell forwards into the hole. There was no bottom though, only more darkness, more black, and he screamed as he just continuously fell.

 

After awhile, it didn't feel like he was falling any more, but it did feel like he was being held still, and a voice whispered to him, quiet and sounding like a small child. "It'll be our little secret, okay?" The small child laughed just as quiet, but that soon grew louder, and as it did, it began to change deeper and even became demonic, until that amused laugh had become an evil cackle of horrific sadism. Then the laugh stopped, and the dirt path of the graveyard came back into view, but instead he was in the forest, and that path was twisted and leading to a square doorway with nothing but blackness within it. A spark of hope swelled up within him, and the boy quickly dashed forwards, running down the twisted path as what was now a wall was now a floor, and that spark even caused a song of hope to burst within the air.

 

He managed to get to the doorway, but then it lit up, and directly in front of him and blocking his path was THE STATUE. His hope went away in a millisecond, and his face went wide, the statue of what seemed to be himself staring at him, except that the only difference in appearance was that something about it just looked wrong, like it always had been since the first time he ran into it. Before he could react any further, or even do anything, a loud "DID-DUN" filled the hallway and his ears, sounding like a mixed of a computer error message being made and someone mashing down on a controller button really hard. Everything froze, and all he could do was STARE AT THE STATUE, getting a completely good view of its face, before everything went black again and the young child's voice whispered to him again. "You can't run."

 

I tried to squirm, feeling so uncomfortable, feeling the same horrible, terrible emotions he felt as all I could do was stare at him, standing completely still in those sewers next to the statue, the strange and bizarre man standing behind them as he rubbed his hands together evilly while he hunched forwards and smiled, a new and loud song of evil seeming to be all over the place. Jadusable then whispered to me, but I couldn't tell if his mouth had opened or not. "Please... help me." Then they dissapeared, and all I saw was the menu. I gasped as I saw the next name on the list, but then my eyes opened and I awoke, finding myself back in my bed.

 

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I stared at my computer screen for a moment, trying to remember my log in name, before I typed in "Justin1337" before pressing the enter key, successfully logging in after that. Jadusable had been my college roomate, but he went missing around a week or two ago, and no one had seen him since then. He had said he wanted to return back to his home and stay with his parents for awhile, but no one saw him leave the dorms, especially in the middle of the night. I glanced over at the empty seat he usually sat in, which was next to mine, before I looked around the class room, seeing everyone else stationed at their own computers and going about their business. My degree was Simulation and Game Development, and Jadusable had all of the classes I had.

 

Jadusable wasn't his real name, of course. We had met many years ago over the internet, whenever I was just a freshman in high school, on a Grand Theft Auto forums. We shared many things in common and had many of the same likes, and after having normal discussion, I found out we lived in the same town, and then found out we went to the same school. We had become best friends ever since that. But since college had started for us, he had begun to act strangely, but before I could figure out anything, he went missing.

 

Benjamin Engles Northpoint Community College was just like any other two-year community college, and was a great place to get an education near home, even if the Dean did seem kind of weird, but I had no complaints. It was safe, although there had been reports that strange people were roaming around campus at night and poking their heads into places they shouldn't have, a few of the people being some creepy old man, a tall guy in a suit, and a hunchback carrying a rake. I never saw them, but Jadusable thought the old guy was stalking him. It was just one of many things that Jadusable had said he saw, and it was just as paranoid as his other complaints, but none of it made sense. I feared that he had started taking drugs.

 

I began to think about the bizarre dream I had, and the things that I had saw in my sleep. It all looked to be like The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which was one of my favorite video games, but I didn't remember any of that happening in the game. If anything, it was as if someone hacked the game and created odd glitches, but whoever had done it must've been a mastermind. Not that it mattered, it was just a dream. There was no point in trying to solve a mystery of something that didn't exist.

 

The next thing I knew, everyone stood up from their seats, got their things, and started leaving. I must've spent most of my time thinking about the dream, as all that I saw on my screen was the desktop. Oh well, this was the last class of the day anyways, and I could do everything I didn't do for homework. I left the building, got in my car, and drove home to go visit my family that day. Everything was normal as I drove back home, for the most part.

 

On one particular stretch of suburban road was what looked to be a yardsale in front of a house, with an old man standing behind one of the tables that held a bunch of stuff on it. I glanced over as I passed, but the old man stared directly at me, peering into my eyes with a mostly blank expression, but I did notice a hint of anger, maybe even rage, although I didn't think he heard the music I had blasting inside my car, since my windows were closed and I thought it was enough to contain Ron Browz "Gimme Twenty Dollas". After about five seconds, I tore my eyes away and focused back on the road. I got home, and went inside. My parents were in the living room and waved to me, who I waved back to, before I then went to my room.

 

Sitting on my bed was my brother Travis, who was holding a Nintendo 64 cartridge in his hands, eyeing it curiously. I looked at it myself, and saw that it didn't have anything on it, as there were no labels or stickers to identify what kind of game it was. But then my eyes went wide. I quickly looked back over at Travis. I noticed that he was wearing my shirt.

 

Travis is one of those "annoying little brother" types, with most of everything he did getting on my nerves. The way he talked, acted, and did things just bothered me. He had took one of my favorite shirts and wore it without my permission... not that he ever got permission anyways. It was a black shirt, with white words on the front. "DON'T BRO ME IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME."

 

Travis looked up from the cartridge, before a goofy grin appeared on his face. "Oh, hey BRO!" Just the way he said it made me grit my teeth. His vocabulary was something that was aggravating, using bothersome vocabulary and words that were unneeded. He was the type to obviously use "bro-slang" and if he was older than I was then he would be a frat boy, but luckily he was still in high school.

 

"Hey there..." I grumbled, sitting on the bed next to him. "What do you got there?" I pointed to the cartridge, which caused him to blink before he looked down at it, as if he had forgot he was holding something in his hands. "Oh, I got this for free at some yard sale here in the neighborhood, this old dude gave it to me!"

 

I nodded, knowing exactly who he was talking about. He then spoke again. "I dunno what game it is, since I haven't put it in yet, but I was thinkin' that Hailey could play some Nintendo with me!" I just shrugged. But it wasn't a bad idea.

 

Hailey is my younger cousin who my family was taking care of, who was only three years old at the time. It really wasn't that young of an age to learn how to play games, as I was near that age myself whenever I first started. Well, she was my second cousin, as her dad was never around and her mom went missing about a year earlier, so we decided to take care of her. She was sweet, and never did anything wrong, behaving politely and always doing as told. Teaching her how to play video games would be a treat for both of us.

 

"Yeah, sure. You go get her, and I'll get this started." Travis stood up from the bed before walking out of the room. The Nintendo 64 was already set up, placed on a stand next to the TV, where Travis usually kept his stuff. I looked down at the cartridge, staring at it for a moment, before I put it into the slot and pressed the on switch.

 

I was thinking of what game to teach Hailey to play first as I waited for the system to load up. Since it was so old, it didn't start right away like newer systems. I was thinking that she could start off with Zelda, since it was one of my first series, and I found it easy to play and I still love the series, even after all this time... and after everything that had happened. By coincidence in more ways than one, and perhaps ironicly, the start up screen for Majora's Mask appeared. Despite me assuming that the game was used because of the condition it was in, there was no save file present.

 

I made a new save file, creating mine as "Justin", before starting the game, using my new file. But suddenly, there was a bright flash of white light coming from the screen, and I gasped, before my vision turned to black. Travis soon walked back into the room. "Hey BRO, Hailey is-" He stopped in mid sentence and looked around, with me nowhere to be seen.

[cammi]

I like it

[SCAR l Reflex]

Interesting

[SCAR Cheatulies]

CHAPTER TWO

 

When my vision returned, I found myself in what appeared to be a square room lined with pipes along the edges, and gears able to be found on the walls, along with a staircase going down on one side. I knew where the staircase lead to; they went to the sewers that I saw in my dream, and I didn't want to go down there in fear of what I had saw to be true. But I also knew where I was, and that was underneath the clock tower in Clock Town, which was the central city found in the Majora's Mask game. I couldn't believe it at first, as everything looked to be so real, but I knew then that I had gotten sucked into the game somehow. I really started to realize things whenever I looked down at myself, and realized that I wasn't myself at all, but I was actually the game's protagonist, Link, dressed in the same green outfit he wore, which signaled that I wasn't just IN the game, but I WAS the game.

 

In front of me was the wooden double doors that would lead out into the town's marketplace, which was likely to be a bustling, busy place full of people and commerce. I stepped forwards, and was about to open the doors, whenever I heard footsteps among the clicking of the metal pipes and the chugging of the rusty gears. I stopped, freezing in my tracks, listening to the slow foot steps come up the stairs. I wasn't sure what it was, but nothing in the game ever came down here unless it was important to the story, and what did come down here was saw in my dream as dangerous. Taking a risk, I turned my head to look over my shoulder, before another Link stood in the middle of the room staring at me.

 

We both just stared at each other for awhile, with me unsure of what to say, and me trying to figure out what to do. He didn't do anything either, but after thinking for a moment, my mouth opened, and I could hear my own voice. "Jadusable...?" The other Link's eyes widened, before he spoke as well, and I instantly recognized it as my friend's voice. "Justin!"

 

He ran over to me excitedly, the look in his eyes saying it all, a look of safety and appreciation able to be seen. I walked over to him quickly, and I spoke as we stood in front of each other. "What's going on? How did we get here?" The look in his eyes soon went away, and was instead replaced with one of dread.

 

"Last week, an old man was having a yardsale, and there was an unmarked cartridge that he gave to me for free. He didn't say much, and he looked rather serious, but I decided to take it from him anyways. This is the same old man that I said was staring up at the dorm's window I was telling you about. Anyways, when I first put it in I was sucked in, and appeared here as well, but I tried to explore different parts of the game, and found them to be abandoned. Except for some statue of Link who has been following me around."

 

I frowned, before speaking. "I saw that he was having another yardsale today, and he gave Travis a similiar cartridge. I'm sorry I didn't believe you. Last night I had a dream about this, where you were in a graveyard, but then got stuck here. We have to find a way out of here."

 

Jadusable's eyes went wide, before he spoke quickly. "Travis isn't in here is he?! He can't be here! That dream actually happened! We need to get out now!"

 

He began to walk to the doors, but I stopped him. "No, Travis isn't here, we were going to teach Hailey how to play video games and he went to go get her but then I got put here. So he's safe, and so is she. Either way, we do need to find a way out. So, where should we start?'

 

Jadusable began to walk forwards, going to the doors. "They're still not safe. Even outside of this game, they're in danger. I don't know the way out. But we need to get moving right now."

 

Before either of us could say anything, the bells underneath the clock tower began to ring, and they rang loudly as well since we were directly underneath them. Jadusable began to step back, pointing towards the doors. "There's no time... he's going to come, you need to leave now!" I looked at him in confusion as he went to the stairs, watching him go down them. "Who?!"

 

He didn't reply back, just going down the stairs, his echoing footsteps fading as the bells drowned them out. Sighing, I turned around and opened the doors, stepping out as the bells stopped ringing. Instead of the large crowds of people I expected to see, there was simply no one at all, the place looking completely abandoned. I was surprised, although Jadusable did say that everywhere was abandoned. I slowly stepped forwards, looking around at the empty rows of tables and vendor stalls as I walked through the market, unsure of where to go exactly.

 

Soon I had reached the end of the market and just looked around, sighing to myself, with nothing having happened. "Uh, hello... is anyone around here?" Then, I heard what seemed to be loud, rapid footsteps behind me, and I turned around, thinking that it had been Jadusable coming to follow me. But it was something else instead, as I saw that nearby, behind a table, there was THE STATUE from the dream that I had, staring off in the distance and facing east. I had easily recognized it, but I was more so confused and unsure of what to do instead of being scared by it.

 

I just stared at it for a moment, but then in a split second, it was suddenly facing me, and staring right at me. It's eyes were staring straight into mine, and the statue's facial expression seemed to be one of dark amusement, but that's whenever I felt the fear, and knew that this thing wasn't safe to be around. I was frozen in shock though, and as I stared at it, I could somehow feel the thing slowly moving closer to me with bad intentions even though I didn't know how it was moving, wanting to do something horrible to me, and even somehow had the power to do it. I managed to snap out of it, and I turned before quickly running off in the nearest direction, going through the western doorway, which led to the west section of the town, dashing off as the statue just watched me leave. I didn't look back as I went up the steps of the small hill that rise upwards to the west square, this area being just as abandoned, but there was nothing beneath my feet but clouds and blue sky, with me somehow being able to run on still air, and that evil and backwards song I had heard in my dream started to loudly be heard around me as I just ran forwards and didn't look back.

 

I found the ground again as I arrived at the western square, and I quickly entered the first door I saw, slamming the door behind me. I panted as I looked around, finding myself in the Dojo, with no one inside. I went up onto the nearby stage, before going into the storage room that was at the back of the Dojo and getting into the corner, crouching down and pressing my back against the wall, just hoping that the statue wouldn't be able to find me here. Suddenly, there was a large green beam of light that appeared in the middle of the room, and the statue arrive within it, looking directly at me. "Go away and leave me alone!"

 

This time the statue had a creepy smile, and it was a wide one as his eyes stared into what felt like my soul. Once again, I froze in place, and I just stared back... but nothing happened. My fright was on a high with me being so close to it, but I managed to reach down and pull out the sword that was at my side, before sending a vertical slice at it, my blade connecting before bouncing back, not harming the statue in the slightest. It was then that the statue lurched forwards, lunging at me, before I quickly rolled off to the side and into the other corner, the statue then following me and pressing me back against the wall. In a flash, the man who was in my dream that had stood behind Jadusable and the statue appeared, the sewers in the background, a similiar smile on his own face, and even though he looked much younger, he had reminded me of the old man from the yard sale.

 

I screamed as my vision came back to the Dojo, the statue in my face as it screamed back to me, but his was loud and demonic, along with his eyes looking huge and his mouth unnaturally wide, as if it could just swallow my head whole. I gave the statue a shove, and it actually fell backwards, before I desperately ran out of the storage room and to the door, the statue screaming at me again. I actually tripped before I made it to the door, but I scrambled to my feet, before I left it. But instead of returning back to the western square, I was actually in a long corridor, and I noticed that I was in a different part of the sewers. This didn't stop me from running though.

 

The evil backwards song had went away whenever I was in the Dojo, but it returned again as I ran down the corridor. I was reaching the end of it, where I knew the water of the sewer would then appear, but the green beam appeared again in front of me before the statue showed up and blocked the corridor's exit. I swiveled around before dashing back to where I came from, and as I exited the corridor, I was back in the market place, coming from the eastern exit. The music continued going on, and I ran out to the middle of the market, before I was stopped. My vision went black again, but from the darkness, a white bar slowly came into view, with words listed in the middle of it, "Dawn of A New Day".

 

My "normal" vision then slowly returned, but then I found myself standing on top of the clock tower. There was another evil song, but this one was new, and it didn't sound warped and backwards but it was sinister. Floating in the air in front of me was the game's antagonist, the Skull Kid, who was dressed in all red and was wearing the Majora's Mask, which was purple, heart shaped, and had horns. I just stared at him for a moment, expecting him to do or say something, but he just floated there and stayed silent. I sighed, taking a moment to try and relax, looking around, before glancing back to the Skull Kid.

 

Then a thought came into my head; the Skull Kid was the main boss of the game, so if I defeated him, it might've been possible for me to leave the game. My anger was also rising as well, as I didn't want to be in this situation, and I certainly didn't want to go through anything Jadusable had been through, atleast not anything worse than what I had just experienced. Reaching behind me, I grabbed the bow that Link usually had, before pulling it out, along with an arrow from his quiver. I took aim, before firing a perfect shot at the Skull Kid. It landed on him, but just bounced off his body, causing it to shake before he laughed playfully.

 

This surprised me, as I thought that it would've done some sort of damage. I reached back, pulling out another arrow, firing another perfect shot, seeing it bounce off as well, before shooting one more time and seeing the same results. The Skull Kid just laughed louder, before he then suddenly spoke, his voice sounding just as childish as the one I had heard in my dream. "That won't do you any good, hehe." Suddenly, I was lifted up into the air, and I gasped as I tried to bring myself back to the floor with my feet, but gravity was just lifting me up and stopping me from doing so.

 

But I was then slammed back down, and at the same time, I was both electrocuted and put into flames, resulting in a loud scream of pain as I fell to my knees. I felt my entire body become burnt to a crisp, and it shook with electricity, feeling myself die as I then crumpled to the floor. I heard the Skull Kid cackle as I lost conciousness, but right after that, I was back on my feet again, as if nothing had just happened. I stared at him with fear of what would happen next, as I simply didn't know what to do... if hitting him with arrows wouldn't work, nothing likely would. I began to think through my head possible solutions of what to do, but then I was lifted into the air again, before being slammed back down and lit on fire along with being shocked.

 

After dieing a second time, I was once again put where I was before. The Skull Kid was just playing with me, and I knew he was enjoying the torture he was sending me, repeatedly killing me and burning me. I looked around frantically, trying to find an escape, but for the third time, I was lifted into the air, slammed back down, then felt fire and electricity consume my body. But this time, instead of resetting, my point of view changed, slowly zooming out from my eyes and to a viewpoint as if I was the one looking at the screen, seeing my/Link's body just lying there, staring blankly back at me through the screen. Then, everything went black again.

 

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" There was a chuckle, and it sounded like an old man. Then the save file menu came into view, and in place of my name, there was a different file. The title was: "YOURTURN". Somehow, I could feel in my mind I was able to press buttons, and if I pressed A I would be able to go back into the game, but if I pressed B then I would be able to go back to the real world.

 

It would've been a great idea to just go back to the real world, throw away the cartridge, and just pretend none of this ever happened. But I was filled with anger, at the game, at the creepy statue, and at the Skull Kid, and I wanted to kill them. Not only that, but I also still had to save Jadusable, who was still in the game. I made the foolish decision, and in my mind, I quickly mashed down on the A button, sending me right directly into the game. It also sent me directly back into death as well.

 

All it were was Link's dead body in front of the screen, MY dead body, staring back at me as the Skull Kid repeatedly laughed, cackling evilly. This went on for a long while, until I was sent back to the save screen, and underneath the only save file present before was a new one, with the name, "BEN". This time, I hesitated. I didn't want to be sent back to death, but my objectives still remained, and I wanted to solve the mystery of who BEN was... did that mean the college, or did it mean Benjamin Engles, the man who the college is named after? I prepared myself, before then pressing the A button.

 

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"DUDE, he left! He's not coming back!" Travis whined as he turned to face my parents standing in the living room, who didn't seem as worried as they probably should have. My dad just shrugged before he replied back. "He probably went back to school, don't worry about it."

 

Travis stomped his foot angrily, his eyes narrowed. "But he doesn't just leave like that without saying anything! That was f*ckin' rude!" He then turned around, going back to his room, before then slamming the door. It was now night time, and it was quite some hours now after I had put the cartridge in.

 

My brother flopped down onto his bed, sighing as he just stared up at the ceiling. Everything was quiet, but then, from outside, there was the sound of something that seemed to have dropped, before there were then loud footsteps coming out from the porch. Travis blinked, before he stood up from his bed and went over to his window, peering out through the blinds. Standing on the porch was a very tall man wearing a business suit, who glanced around at my front yard, not seeming to notice anyone watching him yet. But then he turned his head and looked directly at Travis in a split second with a literally blank face, with Travis quickly stepping back out of view after that.

 

"Da f*ck?!" Those few seconds of just seeing the strange man was enough to frighten Travis, and he quickly dashed out of his room, scrambling down the hallway, stumbling past the living room and going to the front door. While I am the type to run away from my problems, he is usually the type to fight them, even in situations where he can't win. This time wouldn't be one of them. As he opened the door, he found the porch to be empty, before he then stepped out onto it himself, looking around quickly.

 

It was very dark outside, so he wasn't able to see anything, but even then, there didn't seem to be anything out there, atleast not anything he could sense. But there wasn't even anything to sense, as the tall man was gone. Travis just stood on the porch, glaring out into the dark, before he shouted out loudly. "Yeah, you better run, get the f*ck off my property and don't come back!" Travis then turned around before then walking back inside.