Pokemon Void

I have made alot of mistakes in my life, but this one is the worst one I made. As a fantaticus of pokemon games, I've bought all versions that were available in english. Though I kept hearing of versions that I never knew about.

Versions that held mystic and terrifying powers. I didn't believe that they were real but when images began to pop-up of cartridges and screenshots, I started to doubt my own mind. This is the first mistake.

I stumbled upong a video on youtube. A video about a allegedly "Pokemon Creepy Black" by a youtuber called Yuriofwind. Throughout the video I was thinking about those versions I "missed". I stopped the video and began googling for these "haunted" cartridges. Maybe I should have stopped at that moment, but that was the second mistake. After 3 days I ended up on Ebay, sounds incredibly cliché, right?

"Pokemon GB/GBC/GBA cartridge!!"

The price was acceptable, 10$. Nobody had placed a bid though, it was already on there for 20 days. The pictures looked vague and blurry but there was a visible shape of a Pokemon Blue cartridge. I placed my bid of 18$ and waited for about an hour when it was immidiatly accepted. 7 Days later, the package arrived at my house. I should have left it at the front door, but I didn't. This was the third mistake.

The package looked wrecked, as if it was run over. Tape was sticking out from all the sides and there were huge rips in the side of the box. My adress was written with marker on the side of the box and it looked like he was

But for 8$ shipping costs, what could you expect? Besides, it wasn't the box I ordered but the game inside. At least, if something was inside that is. I opened the box to find a lonely cartridge. No bubblewrap, no holder, not even a piece of paper. Just a cartridge and nothing more, nothing less. I took the cartridge out and discarded the box. I went to sit on my couch and started inspecting my newly bought cartridge. Though one thing got my attention. The cartridge, was just a Pokemon Blue cartridge. Nothing was peeled off, the cartridge was no other color and it didn't have a different title. This didn't meet the requirements for it to be a haunted cartridge in my opinion, but I went to test it anyways. I wish I just had left it in the box or put it by my other pokemon games I own. The fourth mistake was done.

I put the cartridge in my Gameboy Advance SP and started playing. I went past the startup screen, to the scene with Professor Oak, to the rival battle. But nothing seemed to happen. Nothing I would call weird or haunted. I was expecting ghosts or entities that were living inside my game wanting to kill me, but Instead I got a normal Pokemon Blue. I was dissapointed and somehow reliefed at the same time. I just went to play the game, for the good old times instead of something unexplainable. Why didn't I just turn it off and went to play something else? I can't remember, this was the fifth mistake.

I was playing for about 2 hours when I got bored. I already got 2 badges and had completely given up on hoping it was a paranormal game. As I entered Vermilion City gym to get the Thunder Badge, my game began to lag. The game lagged for a while, until reverting to normal. Though at the time the game was lagging, the effect that you would get when a pokemon was poisoned appeared. No pokemon was poisoned tough. This was my chance I thought, this was the paranormal stuff I've read so much about. Now it was going to get down!

But nothing happened. My glitch never happened again. I kept playing all night, waiting for something to happen, until I got my sixth badge in the morning. I just needed to quit, but I didn't. The sixth mistake, had happend.

I then began to think to myself: Who hopes that he finds a cursed object? The people in those stories never really get a happy ending. I don't know why I wanted something like that, but something inside was thinking about the thrill of finding such things. I put my gameboy away, and went to sleep.

When I woke up, I went down to get myself something to eat while I was still hungry. I was eating and thinking about the fact I wasted 15$ on something I tought was going to be the greatest horror of my life. I was almost finished eating, when I saw my thumb was covered in small, black dots. Only my thumbs where covered in them. I just began to wash my hands but the dots didn't come off. I just left them and decided to wait until they just went away themself by wear.

I went to continue my Pokemon Blue, because I was almost done. As I entered the sixth gym my Gameboy shutted down. I restarted my gameboy but the game kept shutting off my gameboy. I went to see if the switch was working good but there was nothing wrong. I didn't think this was a glitch or something a "paranormal entity" was doing but just a mere fluke. I long stopped believing in those stories.

Unable to enter the 6th gym, I checked everything to see if it was fixable until after the 5th time I tried entering the gym. The screen turned to white instead of black as it did every time and with a black text saying "01010110011011110110100101100100".

I took a picture of my screen because I wouldn't remember the text when I turned it off.

I stared at my thumb when I took the picture to see that the black dots where still there.

I turned my gamebody back on. I noticed that I obtained the 6th badge, but I still couldn't enter the gym. I went to indigo plateau. This was the seventh mistake.

I was on my way to Indigo Plateau, when suddenly a strange feeling started to grow inside me. A feeling of being watched. I hastly looked around only to find nobody watching. I made my way through Indigo Plateau but without encountering any pokemon on my way. All the trainers were gone too, It was only me, walking around in a cave searching for an exit. I saved before exiting because I didn't want to lose it when something would happen. I headed into the exit, the screen flashed white and stayed white before another black text appeared. This time it was another number, only way to long to place here, so I added the photo I made of it.

I couldn't find a way on how these numbers would appear, why they did or what they meant. I turned on my gameboy, once again. My character was located inside the arena facing Lorelei. Without me pressing anything the battle began and I send out my level 59 Charizard. But then she send out a level 49 Haunter instead of any ice/water pokemon. I was a bit excited but that excitement suddenly turned into pure fear for no reason.

I kept jamming A without moving my fingers, staring at the screen like something locked my view inside it. My Charizard lost the battle and the screen went to white once more. But this time with no text. The screen started to flicker and a screeching sound emerged from the Gameboy. The sound was like that freezing sound you get when you pull out a cartridge while the game is still on. I was still staring at the screen. Hypnotized, I kept looking at the flickering until it went off. I sat there for a minute until I hurried and turned the Gameboy back on. But nothing happened, the screen stayed black. I tried putting the cartridge into another Gameboy but then that Gameboy would just show a black screen too. I should have left it off, this is the final mistake.

Since then, I feel hollow inside. No fear, no happiness, no emotion whatshowever. The black dots on my hands where gone the next day, but I feel like something is missing. Something I never looked at and now is gone.