Blue Tears

“Pardon me, Sir. How much do you want for this?”

“S’free, take it.”

“What? Are you sure? I can pay you f—-”

“I said you can take it! Now get out of here!”

The above was a brief exchange of words between a very edgy young man, possibly in his late twenties, and myself at a yard sale I happened by. I always find the most interesting things at yard sales and flea markets. I’m normally there for books, but I’ll occasionally happen across something else that I find worth my time.

I didn’t find any books this time around; the entire sale seemed to be comprised of children’s toys, clothes for both little boys and little girls, as well as some items I’d expect a young married woman to use. Silken night clothes, stacks of cheesy romance novels that I had no interest in (I can’t read pure romance, I need something like murder or mystery to make it interesting), jewelry, as well as several cases of makeup, most of which appeared to be half used.

I found the used makeup to be in bad taste. If you no longer had a use for it, throw it away. Don’t try to peddle what’s touched your face to other people… it’s disgusting. I kept these thoughts to myself, however, as the man running the small junk sale seemed far from stable.

As I was about to leave, something blue peeking out from underneath a small, grey plush caught my eye. Colors always catch my attention, especially blue, so I lifted the plush to examine it. To my surprise, it was a Pokémon Blue game. Not that I had been looking for one, but I felt like experiencing a little nostalgia… even though the first generation of games wasn’t my favorite, it reflects back to a much simpler time in my life.

The cartridge had the word "Tears" written neatly in black across the image of the Blastoise. I assumed it was a nickname of some sort, perhaps the previous owner of the game cried a lot. It was within a bunch of child things, perhaps they were young enough to be labeled a "crybaby" by others and "Tears" was just a nicer name… I’m not sure. Anyway, I got the game for free, but I left a dollar on the table just so I’d feel better for taking it.

When I got home, I inserted the game in my SP and turned it on. The sound at the start up screen was greatly distorted… it sort of fluctuated from being several tones lower than normal to being nothing more than a low rumble. It was… unsettling to say the least. Naturally, I assumed the game was faulty, but I thought I’d play through until something froze up on me.

The previous owner, this "Tears" person, still had a game on file (as would be expected with a used game) but no information about playtime, character name, or anything else of that sort was displayed when that option was highlighted. Curious, I chose the previously started game, just to see where they were with everything. A child was bound to have an interesting game with creative names… Insight into the innocent mindset that was slowly becoming rarer with each passing year…

Upon choosing the previously saved game, I was met with a black screen and silence. I felt disappointed; the game seemed to already have messed up on me. I was just about to turn it off when a dialogue box popped up.

I began to read, but the text was moving painstakingly slow:

> ……….
>
>
> I’ve been robbed of everything…
>
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> My title as champion…
>
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> My grandfather’s respect…
>
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> … Even my Pokemon are dead because of you…
>
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> … I won’t stand for this…
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>
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> I will come to find you.
>
>

I was confused… who was speaking? Who were they speaking to? My heart rate had picked up out of what I assumed was fear… it had been a while, but I knew this wasn’t normal… but curiosity continued to keep me locked onto the game.

As the black screen faded away, the music belonging to the inside of the Pokémon Tower began playing perfectly… the sound obviously wasn’t as broken as it appeared to be at the beginning.

The scene revealed when the black faded was that of the appropriate area, the Pokémon Tower. The not-so-familiar-to-me sprite of your in-game rival, Blue, was standing in front of one of the many graves inside the tower. He stayed there for several minutes, the disturbing music continuing to play throughout his silence, before he finally said something, “This ends today… for the both of us.”

With that, he left the tower, my screen followed him. As he stood outside the tower, the music did not change to Lavender Town’s normal depressing music… rather, the haunting tune from inside the graveyard continued to play through on a loop… as much as I wanted to turn down the music, I couldn’t bring myself to do so.

I couldn’t move the character after that. I couldn’t tell if it was another assumed glitch of the clearly hacked game, or if it was hesitation on the character's part. After another minute, he finally spoke again, “… Fly…” Even though there was no voice connected to the character in the game, with the speed in which the text moved, there was an almost obvious feel of depression about him.

I opened the start menu and checked Blue’s party, all he had was a Pidgeot which had no level… I checked its stats, the only move it knew was the requested action of "Fly," and all its stats (except for health) were at zero. Odd as I found this, I didn’t question it and chose to fly.

When the map opened up, it was black save for one small square that was marked "Mt. Silver"… I knew this was impossible. Mt. Silver was in Johto which had yet to be introduced in the original Pokémon games… regardless, it was my only destination, so I chose it. The typical animation of the trainer sprite turning into the bird sprite and flying off took place and, sure enough, I landed in front of the cave entrance to Mt. Silver.

Rather than having the sprite shift back to Blue’s sprite, his image moved to the left of Pidgeot’s sprite. They faced each other for a minute before a sound much like that of entering or exiting a room played but in a much higher tone. It sounded as if something had broken.

When Blue spoke yet again, “Fly away, you’re free…” I began to assume the noise was the sound of a pokeball breaking. The Pidgeot cried out once before doing as its former master commanded and flying away. After his final Pokémon flew away, the haunting music continuing to play, he faced the entrance, “… I’m coming for you…”

I now had the impression that this was a mission of revenge… and with the way he was speaking, it was a revenge of the darkest sort. It dawned on me to check the items he had on him, I don’t know why this thought crossed my mind… but given the ongoing circumstances, I felt there would be something there. And there was.

There was only one item in the list, KNIFE, an item that certainly wasn’t programmed into the game under normal circumstances. Anytime I picked the option to use it just to see what it did, Blue said, “Not yet…” After that, I was unable to control the character anymore. It was as if he wanted me to get him there and see his single item just to get the gist of what he may be planning, but that was it… the rest was all his own.

Blue stepped into the cave and as he trekked through the stone maze of the cave, he never encountered any Pokémon, but I could faintly hear distorted cries mixed in with the music… I’m not sure, but I believe they could feel the negative emotions coming off Blue… and they cried out in concern.

Finally, he reached the chamber that harbored Red in the Gold and Silver games. Blue’s pace slowed a little as he approached his rival, and the music, dark as it was already, lowered considerably making it infinitely darker…

As the two rivals faced each other, Red simply greeted Blue with the silence I had become accustomed to in Pokémon Gold. However, Blue didn’t take to this very well as he shouted in apparent anger, “Don’t ignore me like you have everything and everyone else!”

A battle ensued but the normal music didn’t play, the darkened music of the Pokémon Tower continued. By this time, other people were home and were becoming quite annoyed with the volume of my music, so I was forced to put in headphones as I still couldn’t bring myself to actually lower the volume… disturbing as it was, the music had some sort of hold on me.

I stared at the game screen as the battle opened up. Obviously, since Blue had no Pokémon, he never called anything out. Neither did Red. In the battle option box, the four options of "Fight, PKMN, Item, and Run" weren’t all there; all there was to choose at the moment was "Item" so, obviously, he chose it.

The only item there to use was the one I had mentioned before, KNIFE. It was quickly selected on its own and went back to the battle scene; now the only battle option available was "Fight." In the fight menu, Blue only had one attack at his disposal… MURDER… I couldn’t regain control of the game, there was no option to run, I couldn’t bring myself to turn the game off and end what had quickly become a disturbing experience… the only choice there was to sit there and allow Blue to murder Red.

After selecting the attack, Blue shouted, “This is for everything!” and a typical attack animation much like tackle played out only, instead of a single strike, Blue attacked repeatedly. The dark music in the background began to pick up its pace and become more high-pitched… it was painful to listen to as it reverberated through my headphones, but I never removed them.

Red’s sprite flickered in and out as he took the damage and, as his health dwindled to zero; a gurgled screeching sound broke through the noise of the music, replacing it only briefly as Red’s sprite faded into something that looked more like a decaying body before fading away completely with the screech.

My heart was pounding, I was beginning to get a throbbing headache, and yet my eyes remained glued to the screen as the remainder of the scene played out. As the music replaced the screen once again, another dialogue box popped up as Blue spoke yet again.

> ……………………………………
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>
> …………………………….
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> …………………….
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>
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> See you in hell…
>
>

The battle options box popped up again, "Fight" the only remaining option. Blue selected it yet again, but instead of "MURDER" the attack option available was "SUICIDE." There was a moment of hesitation, but Blue finally attacked himself with less fury than he had Red. As his own health fell to zero, a lower gurgled screech replaced the high-pitched Pokémon tower music, his sprite faded away. Only when the "decayed" sprite faded in, he wasn’t facing the battlefield…

He faced me.

His screech continued on, growing in volume to the point where the pain it caused equaled that of a migraine... and yet I still kept the headphones in. My eyes locked onto the dead, hollow eyes of Blue as he continued to scream before the screen began to flicker. It was slow at first, but it quickly picked up to a rapid strobe effect. The "scream" grew in volume and pitch one more time before the screen simply cut to black.

I held my breath, my heart pounded so hard against my chest that it hurt. I deeply hoped that it was over but considering the fact that I couldn’t move, or even hear any noise outside of my headphones, I fearfully assumed that it wasn’t… and I was right.

White lettering began slowly typing out across the black screen and, as each word formed, I read:

> I finally got my revenge.
>
>
> The life YOU ruined is now faded away.
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> But don’t think it’s over yet.
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> My suffering has ended, but yours has only begun.
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> I’ll be watching your strife with a grin on my face.
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> And when it all ends…
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> …
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> I’ll see you in hell…
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>

Though I had a full battery just a moment ago, the light turned red and the system turned off. My nose began to spill blood for several minutes… and... I… I’ll never be able to describe the terror I felt afterwards… I’ll never be able to describe the terror I still feel…

You see, the very next day on the news, they announced that the very same man I purchased the game from, I won’t release his name, had called the police saying that he had killed his wife three days prior and buried her in the backyard… When they reached his house, they had found him by the phone, dead… he had slit his throat and committed suicide. It was also mentioned that, several weeks ago, his eight-year-old son had murdered their six-year-old son and then killed himself…

I assume that the game had done all this, and I’m next. I don’t know how much longer I have, nor do I know who will die at my hand... but you deserve to know this…

Never play Blue Tears.