Pikachu.exe

I found out that EB Games was closing. I was a little upset about it. EB Games was very close to where I lived and it sold really good Nintendo games! I figured that I'd go down there and see what kinds of stuff they're selling before they close, so I grabbed my wallet and headed down there.

When I entered the store, I saw that everything looked pretty normal. There was someone behind the counter and there were a few people there as well, but not many merchandise was on the walls. I walked over to the section of the store that sold Nintendo games and looked to see what they had.

I was surprised to find that there was virtually zero games there. The shelves were wiped clean. Confused, I went to the cashier.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"Yes?" she replied.

"This is your closing day, right?"

"Yes," she repeated.

"Do you have any Nintendo games left?" I asked her. "The shelves back there don't have any. Did you put them all in storage?"

"No," she replied, "they all got sold out. There were a lot of people here a moment ago."

"*Shoot*," I muttered. "So you've got no more games, then?"

"We do have *a* game," said the cashier. "It isn't Nintendo, but the game itself is *similar* to Nintendo. Did you want to see it?"

"Sure!" I replied.

The cashier opened up a drawer and pulled out a disc case. The disc was blank on both sides, but I saw that there was a piece of masking tape on it with the words "PIKACHU.EXE" on it, in sharpie.

"Hmm," I hummed.

"The game is similar to the classic Pokémon games that used to be on Nintendo," she explained. "That's what makes the game kind of like a Nintendo game."

"Well, sure!" I said. "I'll buy it. Um... how much is it?"

"It doesn't have a price," she replied.

I smiled. "Well then, is it free?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," she said, smiling back.

I blinked, surprised that it actually *was* free. "Oh, well, then is it okay if I have it?"

"Of course," said the cashier. She dumped the disc in a bag and handed it to me.

"Thanks!" I said.

"No problem!" she replied. "Have a nice day."

"That's my intention," I said, and with a quick nod and grin, I left.

Once I got home, I instantly booted up the computer. I was anxious to try out my new game, PIKACHU.EXE. Once the computer was up, I opened up the disc slot and slipped PIKACHU.EXE in.

The game started up immediately. Well, actually, it took a few seconds first, but then it opened. The game seemed to be set in big-screen mode, since all my desktop icons and my taskbar vanished in the black that became my screen as the game got ready.

Without even an intro of any kind, the game began. The cashier was right; the game *was* similar to the classic pixelated top-down Pokémon games. My character was a short, pudgy-looking Pokémon trainer, and he was standing in a grassy field. There was cheerful 8-bit music playing in the background. I made my character walk around in the emptiness of the map, and after a few moments, the screen started flaring black.

I thought *Aw, yeah! Random Battle!* and then I was taken to the battle. I was facing off against a Wild Machop, and even the battle field was set in the classic Pokémon way, with the opponent set in the top-right corner and my character set in the bottom-left. The classic 8-bit Pokémon battle music was playing in the background too, and I thought *This is awesome!* I looked at my Pokéballs and saw that I had only one. I hovered my cursor over it to see which Pokémon was in it, but it didn't show. All that came up was five "?"s.

Regardless, I clicked on the Pokéball and my character slid off to the left and off-screen. Then, a Pikachu slid to the right, back on-screen. Instead of the words "GO PIKACHU!" appearing in the little box below, the words "GO UHCAKIP!" appeared.

*Uhcakip?* I thought in confusion. *There isn't any Pokémon named-*

I didn't have time to finish my thought as the screen suddenly went pure red.

I thought *Oh, crap, did I crash the game? Is something wrong with the computer?* But then the battle came back...

... and Pikachu had changed.

It had little tufts of fur poking out from its body, standing up on end like a person's hair after they get electrocuted. His mouth was armed with razor-sharp triangular teeth and twisted in a grin that stretched up to the corners of his mouth, but the most noticable feature of all was his eyes; they were black with red pupils. Static was overlapping the battlefield, and the Wild Machop had a look of pure agony on its face. Static was overlapping the image, and a staticy sound emitted from the game...

Then, I was sent back to the grassy field.

"What the hell was all *that* about?" I asked no one in particular. I made my character look around, then I had him continue walking.

I was eventually sent into another random battle, this time with a Wild Butterfree. Once more, I selected my only Pokéball, once more, Pikachu slid out, once more, the words "GO UHCAKIP!" appeared, and once more, the screen flipped to red. The battle returned, Pikachu replaced with that awful, twisted, demon Uhcakip, and the Butterfree looking worried. The overlapping static was much denser this time, and the staticy noise even louder, and once it ended, I wasn't sent back to the grassy field. I was sent to a black screen with the words "Uhcakip", in the same style as the words "Pokémon". The word was dark, but it was gradually getting brighter. There was a slow, sad 8-bit melody in the background.

*What was all that?* I asked myself. *There was static, and Pikachu looked all creepy, and... I don't even know if I* won *the battle!*

Suddenly, an image of Pikachu from the anime Pokémon episodes appeared on-screen, and Pikachu had changed. Its fur was red, its razor-sharp teeth were blue, and its eyes were black with red pupils. A low-pitched scream emitted from the game, and I was sent to a black room, a white pixelated image running ahead of my character. I couldn't make out what it was, but I followed it.

I came to a crossroads, four paths leading downwards. It kinda reminded me of Pac-man, only the walls were red, not blue. I picked one of the paths and walked down it for quite a while, and then a most unpleasent image appeared in my face...

It was an image of Uhcakip, but not pixelated; this time, it looked hyper-realistic. Its fur was yellow this time, with no tufts of fur poking putwards, its razor-sharp teeth were white again and had bits of blood and flesh in between them, as if it ate some animal, and its red pupils were ever so slightly wiggling from side to side, as if it was looking me over. Its ears were sticking straight up in the air, like a rabbit, but they were going off-screen, making them nearly impossible to see. A very loud, high-pitched scream emitted from the game, it went on for eight seconds with that... *monster*... staring back at me...

Then I was sent to a black screen with a small pixelated image of Uhcakip grinning at me evilly and the bloody words "YOU DIED" at the bottom of the screen.

"I *died*?!" I yelled. "What does that even *mean*, 'I died'?!"

Then, I was sent back to the black room, the little white thing running ahead of me again, and this time I got a good look at it. It was Uhcakip.

I went down a different hallway this time, and was greeted with that evil monster screaming at me again. By now, I was too scared to keep playing. I felt like my spine was twisted up into a knot and there was a hot sweat on my forehead. My breath came fast and shallow, and my heart was going a mile a minute.

"This is too creepy," I stuttered shakily. I wanted to turn off my computer, take the disc out, and break it over my knee, but something made me walk down the third dark hallway.

Uhcakip screamed at me again, and once I went down the fourth and final hallway, Uhcakip didn't come. I was walking for what felt like an eternity, and as I walked, I thought about Uhcakip, about how he got to be so creepy.

*Why does he have flesh in his mouth?* I asked myself. *As far as I know, Pikachu does not eat meat. Oh, wait, that's right, this is* UHCAKIP*. The little moron... did he...?*

And then it dawned on me.

Whenever Uhcakip went into a battle with another Pokémon, he didn't make the Pokémon faint, he actually *killed* the Pokémon. Killed it, and ate it. And what was happening now was that he was running away from me, and I was going down to try and find him, and once I found him, he would eat my character, his evil face leering at me from the darkness...

... and that's what I was greeted with once more, only this time static was overlapping the image and the scream was slightly staticy.

Then, I was taken to what looked like a maze with no dead-ends. My character was completely red, as red as the walls, and I could hear the pumping of a heart on the background. It freaked me out, but I made my character navigate the maze. I was an expert at mazes, so this one was quite easy for me-

I was taken to a black screen.

*Is... is that the game?* I thought. *That's it?*

I waited for quite a while, waiting for something to happen, and I wish I hadn't. For that creepy little monster was screaming at me again, only this time, it was the image from the "anime" episode, the one with the red fur and the blue teeth. After that image, the computer shut down, and I couldn't get it back up. So I just gave up and went away, thinking that that was the creepiest game I've ever played.

When it was time for me to go to bed, I got into bed and tured off the light. Before I fell asleep, however, I remembered: *I don't know if the computer's off yet!*

I quickly got out of bed and went to the computer. I saw that it was still on, and the screen was black. As I reached for the button to shut it off, Uhcakip appeared on screen, screaming. I screamed as well and jumped back on the floor, staring in horror at the screen. Then, Uhcakip vanished.

After a minute, I got back up, shut off the computer, and went back to bed.

I was awoken by someone jumping up onto the bed. I thought that it must've been my cat, Oreo, coming to sleep with me.

"Hi, Oreo," I whispered gently, sitting up and turning to look.

But it wasn't Oreo.