Lavender Town Syndrome: My Experience

What are my thoughts on the Lavender Town Syndrome? Rather how do I feel about it? The following story will answer those questions. I've always been well aware about the story; hundreds of kids committing suicide over a song in a game. The perfect nightmare fuel for anyone really. Take a game that millions grew up playing and loved and turn it into something terrifying. I know I had nightmares for days after reading all of the creepypasta's about Lavender Town. Well here's another to add to the list I guess, whether you believe me or not about what I'm going to tell you is your choice, but regardless take it as a warning.
My little brother's birthday was coming up. He was turning 9 and I wasn't entirely sure on what to get him. Although he was young he was really into retro gaming. You see, he looked up to me and because I was a gamer and a big time collector he wanted to be too and loved seeing my collection of Dreamcast, N64, and Game Boy games and memorabilia. He was particularly fond of the Game Boy and especially Pokémon, red version to be exact as red is his favorite color. He played my unboxed copy of red every time I had him at my apartment to watch him for my dad and step mom when they needed me to. So after thinking about this, it became clear to me as to what I should get for him. I searched eBay for both a game boy color and a copy of Pokémon Red version all the while constantly thinking about the stupid Lavender Town Syndrome, (for some reason I just couldn't get the thought out of my head). After awhile of searching I found a like new conditioned Game Boy Color with a slightly used copy of Pokémon Red for $50. It struck me as somewhat odd that I found both of these things being sold together, but shrugged it off as this was exactly what I was looking for to begin with and for 50 bucks plus free shipping it was a pretty good deal so I bought it.
About 4 days later I got the package in the mail and was very excited as my brothers b-day was next week. I opened the box and found both the game boy and game neatly wrapped in bubble wrap and buried in packing peanuts. I dug out the items and unwrapped them to check the cosmetic conditions, they looked pretty much brand new. As I was setting them to the side I noticed a folded piece of paper in the box, thinking it was just the invoice. I unfolded it to see that it was a drawing of a "smiley face" but it wasn't like any other smiley face picture, it was very distinctive and seemed so familiar though I couldn't quite figure out why. Better yet, what the hell was this picture all about anyway? A week went by and I was headed to my dad's for my brother's b-day, all the while thinking to myself I couldn't help but think I forgot something. I had his gifts and a card to give him but it seemed liked something was missing. Anyway, I shrugged it off as I knew I had everything to give him. I showed up to his party somewhat late, but just in time to open presents. I put mine with the other gifts said my hi's and hey's to everyone and waited for him to open presents. I was so excited for him to open mine that I had butterflies, meanwhile still thinking that I forgot something. After a few gifts he opened mine which wasn't that well wrapped to begin with, but he didn't seem to care. As he opened the box I could see his face light up with excitement. He pulled out the game and the game boy and started to vigorously thank me and said that it was the best thing he could've gotten. At the same time his friends were all curious as to what it was I got him, since they probably have never even seen a game boy in their life or knew what one was.
Shortly after all the fun I said my goodbyes as I had to leave because I had to get an early night to be up at a decent time for work tomorrow. A few hours later as I was lying in bed, I still had the thought I was forgetting something, but again just shrugged it off and went to sleep. Around 4am I got a phone call from my dad telling me that he was on his way to the hospital with my brother because he was having seizure's and didn't know what else to do other than rushing him to the ER. Immediately my heart sank and I felt as if I couldn't breathe, and then I knew what it was I had forgotten to do. Test the game out to make sure it worked. My dad cut off my train of thought by repeating my name several times and asking if I was still there. I responded by saying, "I'll meet you there." I got off the phone and sat on the edge of my bed thinking to myself this has to just be a coincidence, "it's just a damn game" I said to myself. Even if there's a slight truth to "The Lavender Town Syndrome," it's only supposed to be existent in the Japanese red and green, not the US red and blue which I got him a US red version, didn't I? I put my thoughts aside as there were more important matters to attend to. I got dressed and made my way to the hospital all the while trying to convince myself the game has nothing to do with this.
When I arrived my dad and step mom were already there with my brother. I made my way to the room they were in and found that my brother was now unconscious and my stepmother was hysterical over what was going on. As the doctor was trying to calm her down and explain that everything was going to be okay, I asked my dad what had happened. He said that he had gotten up to use the bathroom and noticed that my brothers bedroom light was on, so he went into his room to scold him for being up so late, only to discover that he was lying on the floor having what appeared to be a seizure. He was twitching, foaming at the mouth and his eyes were rolled back into his head. Immediately he woke my step mom up and they rushed to the hospital. On their way there he eventually stopped and just passed out, but was still breathing. After a couple hours of being there I noticed the sun began to rise and saw that I had to be to work in less than an hour so I got on the phone and called out due to a family emergency. Although my boss was mad, I didn't care.
Afterwards, the doctor came into the room and explained to us that my brother was in what appeared to be a coma and that he would have to run further tests to be 100% sure of this and it could take some time. So my dad and I set out to his house to get a change of clothes while my step mom stayed with my brother. On the way to their house we were both quiet until my dad suggested we should grab a bite to eat on the way back to which I agreed. We pulled up to the driveway, got out of the car and headed into the house. My dad said he was going to hop in the shower real quick and I said okay. While he was in the shower I went into my brothers room scared at what I might find. The game boy was lying on the floor with headphones plugged in and the power switch set to "ON". I presumed the batteries were dead since it did nothing when I switched the power button to "ON" and "OFF" repeatedly. I went into the kitchen to grab more batteries since that's where my dad kept them. I swapped the old ones out with the new ones and switched the game boy to on. The game started up as normal with the Game Freak logo and the battle between Gengar and Nidorino. Afterward I immediately noticed something wasn't right as all the lettering was in Japanese, so I presumed and the Pokémon next to Red looked ridiculous like they did in the Japanese versions of the game. I pressed start and loaded up the save file which had a name I couldn't understand, 3 badges, exactly 42 hours, and 1 Pokémon.
When the game loaded up it appeared to be all glitched and resembled glitch city and I could only slightly move around there was no sound, but then I remembered I forgot to remove the headphones. Upon doing so my ears were blasted by the sound of the Lavender Town music and I dropped the game boy nearly scared to death. I picked the game boy back up and quickly turned down the music as I hated it enough already. I then pressed start and examined the Pokémon which was named with a ? and had the sprite of a person so I immediately knew it was a missingno. I looked at the stats of the Pokémon and saw that its missingno form was the creepy ghost from Pokémon tower. I then froze and could only think about the picture of the smiley face that was in the package box. It was the same face as the creepy ghost Pokémon, the same damn one. I turned off the game boy and sat there thinking to myself how could I be so stupid, why didn't I check the game? I pulled the cartridge out of the game boy and examined it. The case and picture were unmistakably of the us red version but it was certainly not the us version of the game. I set the game and game boy to the side and sat there waiting for my dad to get out of the shower. I had to tell him what had happened as ridiculous as it sounds, he has to know the truth.
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