Pokemon Dead Channel 2

Original source: star-byte on deviantART

Normally I'm not one to snoop around in my daughter's business, but when she doesn't leave her room for over a good twelve hours, I have an excuse.

It was around eight PM, and my daughter had been in her room playing video games since eight AM. I'd heard her scream a few times throughout the day, but recently she'd been getting into horror games, and that was now a normal occurrence so I thought nothing more of it. But since she'd been in there literally all day without leaving once I needed to take an intervention.

I opened the door casually, calling out her name. Her not answering was my first clue something was wrong. I checked her bed, closet, and even shelves and cabinets, but there weren't any clues as to where she could've been. Getting frantic she'd been kidnapped or worse, I decIded instead to dwell in the thought that she may just be outside or in another room and I just didn't hear her sneak out like she usually does.

Before I left, I couldn't help but notice her GameCube. The controller was still on the bed as if she'd just been playing it. Feeling sneaky like it was my responsibility, I turned the station on to play whatever game was in it for a bit, just to see how it kept my daughter's attention for twelve hours.

I felt a wave of nostalgia as the game started up, of when I used to play games with my daughter all the time. After I tested a quick sample of whatever thiS was, I vowed to play a little with my daughter. She needed someone to be herself with anyways, especially with how depressed she's been recently.

I was so caught up in my thoughts the title screen music took me a bit by surprise. After a moment I realized it was Pokémon Channel. I remembered how much my daughter used to love playing that game; maybe she was just getting re-addicted to playing it? Whatever the case, there was only a "New Game" option, so I selected so.

I found myself in what looked like a bedroom. The only thing about this room was that the walls appeared to be drenched in blood, and contained morbid little Pikachu dolls littered throughout it, plus a less-than-appealing Pikachu head as a TV. No wonder my daughter was screaming earlier.

Fighting down my nausea, I looked around the room. After a while the red everywhere and sharp fang scare effect wore off, and I could examine with more ease. I noticed a picture of a Jirachi hanging on the wall. It was one of the few Pokémon I knew right off the bat since it was one of my daughter's favorites. The picture would've actually been pretty if it didn't have a large red X over it with bloody claw marks. A bit scared to examine the rest of the game world, I instead opened the start menu to find what looked like a diary or journal of some sorts. There appeared to be enTries in it, so I read.

I didn't get very far though as the menu closed without my command. I came face-to-face with a Pikachu, who looked like he wasn't very pleased. It scowled at me, and the GameCube shut off. Well then. I was a bit insulted, of all things, and quickly turned the system back on.

Soon I was back in action in the room. The Pikachu wasn't there anymore. The room was still the same, Pikachu Dolls staring me down, so I swiveled the screen around to the back of the room to find myself freeze in fear.

There was a Jirachi floating in front of the door. Its eyes were closed, but the one on its stomach was wide open, and hyper realistic. The eye looked like it was cracked and broken, and from that it was bleeding. I also noted the colors of it were grey-scale, but I was too preoccupied staring at the eye, which was staring straight back at me.

I cannot describe the relief I felt when that thing left. I realized I'd been holding my breath, and let it out. It felt like an icy claw had been holding a grip on me, and now that it had released me, I wanted to take the opportunity and turn this thing off. But something compelled me to keep going on. I just decided if that thing popped up again this game was going in the trash.

"Pika." I turned around to find the Pikachu staring at me with a melancholy face, standing in front of the TV. It glared at me then went to turn the TV on. I followed it, a bIt scared of what it might do if I didn't, plus I'd rather be with the cute and cuddly creature than that disturbing eyeball creature. It changed the channel to "PNF", which according to the game was the news.

It zoomed into a duck Pokémon which didn't say or do anything. I think it was called Psyduck, playing the game was starting to "recharge" my old Pokémon knowledge. It then panned to a news station screen, which showed that Jirachi floating through a crimson, carcass strewn meadow, a burning forest, bloody beach, a dead, snowy mountain, and made sure to get it at a lot of angles. The Jirachi finally stopped in the middle of darkness, and turned to face me. The Psyduck's eyes suddenly went black, and turned to face the screen. In the text box where there had previously been nothing, something appeared; "Save X".

The Pikachu quickly changed the channel to the Egg Channel, whatever that was. There was a white egg wiggling around in a void of darkness. It had cracks, and blood dripping from them. It wobbled back and forth very slowly, almost painfully. I didn't want to know what was going to hatch from that thing, and apparently the Pikachu had the same thoughts, as it turned the TV off.

Back in the center of the room, the screen panned towards the Pikachu, and a text box appeared with, "BRVR wants to know if you'll play with him? (O) (X)" Assuming "O" was for yes and "X" for no, I selected O, starting to get into this game despite how unnerving it was. It panned away from BRVR, and he grinned, showing off his toothy fangs. Another text at the top of the screen, "You're going to regret that."

And I sure as hell did.

He went outside, and I followed along behind, although I didn't have much choice as the game made me. It wasn't much prettier outside than inside. The sky was blood red, although it was prettier than the dead Pokémon bodies lying everywhere. He didn't seem to be fazed at the scene as much as I was, and just went along to the meadow next door.

This fieLd wasn't much different, blood and bodies, although there was a hole in the ground which BRVR seemed to take interest in. He reached into it and pulled out one of those unsettling hyper realistic eyes like on the Jirachi. He threw the eye at me, which I casually let fall to the ground. BRVR shook his head and glared. "Catch it and throw it to BRVR.", the text informed me. I grimaced, and moused over the eye to pick it up.

Instead I picked up a dead Poochyena body, which I quickly dropped back to the ground. BRVR doubled over laughing on the other side of the screen, to which I glared at him. He grinned and made a motion eager for me to pass the "eye"ball. I seLected it, and threw it as fast as I could without looking at the screen. When I looked again, BRVR was holding it, and threw it back. I ran to the other side of the screen so I wouldn't have to see it.

The screen faded to black then back, and I assumed the "mini game" sequence was over, although BRVR was still holding the eyeball. Then, without any warning what-so-ever, he ate it. "Pika, Pika… Pika, Pika… Pikachu!" I sat there disgusted as he finished it off, grinning afterwards. The screen suddenly shifted to black, then back once again. Except when it came to the sky was dark grey, and everything else was a darker tint. BRVR's smug grin was now melancholy once more.

He walked back through the meadow and to the house very slow with the same gloomy expression all the way, almost like a zombie. If anything it was more disturbing than his previous morbid mode. Once back at de casa, everything was bright and un-cheery once more. I noticed a trail of blood on the floor that wasn't there previously. I followed it over to a small closet-like compartment, and preparing myself for the worst, I opened it.

Inside the walls were covered in blood, with a pile of Skitty limbs and guts on the floor, head adorned on top. I barely had three seconds to look at this sight before BRVR ran over and shut the closet door. He made a threatening growl at me, then ran to the back door and on outside to the bus stop, I tagging aLong behind.

Out at the bus stop the sky was red and the environment throbbing once more. The bus to Viridian Forest pulled up and we got on it, even though I didn't select it, but I was accustomed to this now. After a what-would-be-innocent cut scene we arrived to a forest set aflame, charred bodies littering the ground. Picking our way through the landscape with ease, well, BRVR did so with ease, we went to the other side of the forest.

Here it was like a campsite. Except the large bonfire in the middle was a pile of fleshy, burning bodies, all set alight and fueling the flame. There was also a projector, which after a quick tinkering by BRVR, turned to the starry sky. A movie started playing, and I braced myself for the worst. It delivered.

Most of the "movie" was buggy and glitchy, but from what I could tell it was mainly other Pokémon being brutally maimed and killed. Dead, bloody carcasses, pretty much everything I'd seen up to that point just in different poses and angles. Although seeing them in animation was a bit more unnerving, despite how the animation programming seemed choppy and shaky, like the game wasn't made for it.

But what was different was that eye would be there, and flash in the static every now and then. A mOre prominent notice is the Jirachi was in some frames too, without its eye. It seemed to be… tortured more than murdered though. Some scenes were where it was drowning in a lake of blood, a stake-like thing impaled through where its stomach eye would be, it being hung from some ceiling, and a whole variety of others. But it looked like it was suffering, and just couldn't die no matter what happened to it.

It ended after taking its dear, sweet time. Once back on the ground, BRVR started to charge for an attack. He fired a bolt of lightning and struck the projector. The screen went black, then back to the body-fueled fire, except the projector was gone and eVerything was in a darker, more grey tone. BRVR started painfully strolling through the forest and back to the bus stop, all with that face void of emotion.

Back home BRVR started running around, and I wanted to take my time before our next outing. I browsed around the room, now completely immune to its ghastly interior, and found a binder. I opened it to find a bunch of Pokémon cards. Except each and every Pokémon in it was morbidly disfigured.

There was an Oddish, brown and wrinkled like a dried prune, maggots crawling out of its eye sockets and other slashes in its carcass. Magby was hung from the collar-like thing on its neck, only a few tendons connecting its head to its frail body. In the Milotic card it looked like a dried out snake skin, puss leaking from several cracks along its flesh. Poochyena looked like a pile of road kill, mangy, blood clotted fur with flies floating around it, and foam at the mouth. Vulpix had an oily-like substance dripping from its mouth, and black, soul-less eyes. And of course the Jirachi card looked like the demented version of it I was getting used to.

But the one that genuinely gave me chills was the Pikachu. It was curled up in a ball with its eyes closed, floating in a red, fleshy void, and bobbed up and down as I moved the card around with the control stick. It reminded me of a fetus still in the womb, which quite frankly creeped the hell out of me more so on a personal level than the other cards, so I hastily changed it.

Once I was done browsing the card collection, which was pretty quick, I exited out to find BRVR holding one of those morbid Pikachu dolls. He looked somber and walked around slowly with it for a minute like a lost child looking for his mother, then turned to me. He walked up to me and asked a question in text, "Do you know what's happening to me?" It didn't talk in third person perspective like before, so this was a fourth wall breaker to me. I selected "X", because quite frankly, I still didn't have much of a clue as to what was going on at all.

He sighed and looked despondent and defeated. He set down the doll then ran out the door, I following in tow. At the bus stop wE hopped on the bus to Cobalt Coast. The beach was littered with bodies and the water bloody, a perfect vacation destination.

Before I could get a good examination of the place, BRVR ran out into the ocean. He sprinted way far out there, then started swimming, and eventually on out of my sight. Screen faded to black then back, and when it came to, the sky was grey and everything was in a darker tone. He came swimming back to shore. His face looked fearful, an emotion I hadn't seen from him yet. A message appeared atop the screen, "BRVR tried to wash away the pain. It didn't work."

He walked slowly back to the bus, looking around every few seconds, like he'd saw something who-knows-how-awful in that ocean and it might come back to get him. Once into the bus and back at the house, he still seemed a bit "paranoid". I myself felt pretty good since that was the shortest outing yet.

I selected the "Pokémon Mini" that was sitting next to the binder, since I didn't get to check it out before. There were six games to choose from, so I picked a random one on the bottom left. When the game started, it was a glitched mess. I was surprised I could find the start button. Once it started, the background to it was solid black, with a pair of sharp teeth floating in it. A heart appeared below it, and I pressed A. The fangs opened and closed like it was eating it, and a positive bleep sounded, so I assumed I did whatever it was right.

I kept "eating" the hearts for a couple of seconds, until an eyeball appeared. When I ate it, the mini game glitched out into a chaotic mess even worse than before, along with a high pitched noise that grated my ear drums. I quickly mashed a variety of buttons until I exited out of that mess and was back in the room. BRVR was standing in front of the back door, and I knew what that meant before he even opened it and went to the bus stop.

This time we went to Mt. Snowfall. It was snowing softly, and frostbitten bodies were piled up halfwaY under the snow. I felt more sad here than anything, it wasn't grotesque and brutal like the other places, but more of like a sad graveyard. BRVR seemed to feel the same as he slowly and carefully treaded through the snow, over to the next section, and into a temple dubbed by the game, "The Ruins Of Truth".

Inside it was pitch black. BRVR walked over to the left, to find two what I assume would be flowers, except they had eyeballs instead of petals. He charged up an electric attack and fired it at one, which caused it to glow and illuminate the room in a dark red hue. He lit up the other one, which made the room even brighter. The room was still fairly dark; the red hue just seemed to make it more ominous.

BRVR walked over the bridge and to the other side, where a tall stone tablet was sitting with a big "O" and "X" button. I selected it, and a question appeared, "Redemption?" I suddenly felt very anxious and bit my lip, unsure of how to answer. I selected "O" and hoped for the best. BRVR walked up and pressed the "O" button. The tablet sank into the ground.

The pillars surrounding the now hole in the ground suddenly lit up, and I felt a pit form in my stomach. The ground shook as something started tO rise from the hole, although BRVR didn't even flinch. Out of the hole rose the demented Jirachi. Text appeared on top of the screen, "There is no redemption.". The eyeball on the Jirachi's stomach rose over its head, and just when I was about to cover my eyes, the screen cut to black.

When it came back, it was on the Egg Channel. The same egg from before was still on there. Before I could react, the bleeding egg started glowing, and then hatched. Out popped a Jirachi. A normal, non-mentally scarring Jirachi. It flew off the screen, and then the channel changed like when you're watching TV on full screen with Pikachu. It went to a static channel titled, "444".

The background was red, fleshy, and throbbing, just like in that Pikachu card. Speaking of the devil, BRVR was in the middle of the screen too. Text appeared at the top of the screen, "BRVR will never be born." He closed his eyes, gave a wide, sharp fanged grin, and the eyeball that had been haunting me the whole game opened up on his stomach.

As soon as it appeared, it was gone, and the game was back on the title screen, the "Continue" button still missing. I sat there dumbfounded for at least a good, solid five minutes. It was as if all the horror I had just witnessed was finally crashing down on me, and I was petrified, afraid to move a muscle. Despite everything rational inside my mind screaming at me, You're an idiot, I tentatively started to select the "New Game" option.

"Mom, why are you in my room?"

The tension broke and I had to cover my mouth to keep from screaming. I sighed in extreme relief when I saw it was just my daughter at the door, looking at me like I belonged in a mental asylum, which at the moment, I felt like I did. I noticed it was getting late, and told her to go to my room and wait for me there. She agreed, althoUgh still obviously confused.

I'd ask her questions later, but for the moment, I took out the CD from the GameCube. I turned around to go throw this thing in the trash can where it belonged, but I was cut short.

In the mirror was the Jirachi eye.