Curse of the Infinite Staircase

This is a creepypasta based around Super Mario 64. This creepypasta is inspired by the Every Copy of Super Mario 64 is Personalized conspiracy theory. Thank you to those who read this creepypasta, and I hope you enjoy reading this!

Prologue

Hello there. My name is Ethan, and I would like to share with those of you reading a story about a game that has had a big impact on my life. I want to get this off of my chest so that each of you reading know about the copy of Super Mario 64 I played. The copy of Super Mario 64 that I played has tormented me in several ways. Let me tell all of you reading my story of this cursed copy of Super Mario 64.

Day 1

I was driving home from work one Friday night when something caught my eye when I was driving on the bridge that led to my hometown. It was a cartridge of Super Mario 64. I had memories of playing this game, so I decided to take it with me so I could play it later. I went to Gamestop, bought a Nintendo 64, drove home, ate dinner, brushed my teeth, and went to bed.

The next day, I woke up, brushed my teeth, and ate breakfast. I thought about the copy of Super Mario 64 I got last night, and chose to play the game all throughout the day till I finished it, since I had two days off of work until Monday. I put the cartridge in the Nintendo 64, turned on the console, and started the game.

The game started off as normal, and overall the game was normal. However, there were a few things different from the original game. There was no music, and the characters in the game looked worried, as if something bad was about to happen. But other than that, I played through the game just fine without any trouble. That is, until I got to the endless stairs.

I went past the 70 star door and ran up the endless stairs. As I ran up, I noticed instantly that something was off. Usually when you collect at least 70 stars, the endless stairs would no longer be endless. But I had 119 stars, and for some reason, that didn’t apply here. What was even more strange about this was the text box that informed you the endless stairs were no longer endless had showed up when I collected my 70th star.

I decided to try the backwards long jump glitch to get up the endless stairs. I got it right after my third try, but no matter how hard I tried, the glitch had no effect. I was fed up with this and ran down the endless stairs. Now I knew this wasn’t a typical copy of Super Mario 64, because apparently the endless stairs were endless both ways. I couldn’t even go down the endless stairs.

At this point, I was downright confused about why all of this was happening, so I turned off the game. I just went on with the rest of my day. Once it was around 11:00 at night, I went to bed.

Dream #1

After I feel asleep, I found myself in the world of Super Mario 64. I was in the body of Mario. As I looked around, I noticed a pair of coins that seemed to lead to something. Because this was a dream and I couldn’t control my actions, I decided to follow the coins to see where they led to.

The last coin was located in the castle courtyard. I saw a toad standing next to the eternal star statue. When I went up to talk to the toad, the toad simply said, “Help me.” I was a little freaked out by this, but I chose not to think about it and turned my attention to the eternal star statue. The text on it read the famous Easter egg/ theory, “L is Real 2401.”

After I read this, I felt an urge to run around the fountain. I run around the fountain for what felt like forever, but for some reason, I never got tired. After I ran around the fountain 2,401 times, Insaw that the eternal star statue was glowing. After glowing for about 10 seconds, the eternal star statue burst into a power star and floated over to the back of the castle courtyard, in between the two signs positioned there.

I ran past the fountain and collected the power star. When I turned back, I saw Luigi standing in the place of the eternal star statue, facing me. Before I could react, Luigi jumped forward, then dived straight at me. Right as he was about to make physical contact with me, I woke up. It was 8 am when I woke up.

Day 2

I was shaken from what happened in that dream, but I shrugged it off and started my day. At around 5 in the afternoon, I began to think about the dream I had last night, and started speculating the dream had something to do with the copy of Super Mario 64 I played yesterday. I couldn’t help but wonder what else the game was hiding, so I turned on my Nintendo 64, and started the game once more.

When the title screen appeared, I noticed the Mario face on the start menu had a worried facial expression. I began to think the Mario face‘s worried expression had to do with whatever was waiting for me in the game, as well the other characters worried expressions when I played the game yesterday. I chose not to think about this and continued onward.

After I selected my saved file on the file menu, I was placed in the middle of the endless stairs. For the first time in this copy of Super Mario 64, there was music playing. However, the music playing wasn’t from the original game. I listened to the music for a bit, and realized what song the music was playing. This was the endless stairs music in reverse.

I started running up the stairs. After 15 seconds of running up the stairs, a figure appeared floating in the air from the shadows at the top of the stairs. This figure looked like Mario, but with a few differences. The figure had no textures, very pale skin, a yellow cap, and a yellow shirt.

After 15 more seconds of running up the stairs, I saw red text written on the left wall. The words read, “Hello there, my name is Stanley.”

After 15 more seconds of running up the stairs, a second text appeared, written on the right wall. The words read, “Do you know why you are stuck here?”

After 15 more seconds of running up the stairs, a third text appeared, written on the left wall. The words read, “Let me tell you.”

After 15 more seconds of running up the stairs, a fourth text appeared, written on the right wall. The words read, “You can’t go back.”

After 15 more seconds of running up the stairs, a fifth text appeared, written on the left wall. The words read, “There is no escape.”

After 15 more seconds of running up the stairs, the sixth and final text appeared, written on the left wall. The words read, “Death is inevitable.”

After this text appeared, Stanley disappeared into the shadows at the top of the stairs. As soon as Stanley was out of sight, the game crashed. I turned off the TV once this happened, and thought to myself about two things. Who was Stanley, and what did he mean?

I didn’t want to think too deep about what just happened, and I was really freaked out about why my copy of Super Mario 64 was so different from the original, so I just went on with my daily routine. I went to bed once 12 P.M hit.

Dream #2

After falling asleep, I once again found myself in the world of Super Mario 64. Just like last time, I was in the body of Mario, and there were coins that led me to something. If I could control what I do in my dreams, I would have turned back immediately, but I had no control over what I did in my dreams, so I went to see what the coins were leading me to.

The last coin was located in front of the entrance to Dire Dire Docks. What the coins lead me to horrified me. In front of the entrance to Dire Dire Docks was a giant floating Wario head. I can’t even describe how terrifying the head looked.

I started to back away, then turned back and ran away. However, the hallway seemed to go on forever, and the door was very distant from me. But I chose to keep running. I looked back briefly, and saw the Wario apparition chasing me down the endless hallway. It was chomping viciously and laughing maniacally.

I kept running, and by some miracle, I made it to the door. When I got to the main area of the castle, the Wario apparition broke through the rug in the center of the room. Then a boss fight between me and the Wario apparition started.

The Wario apparition began firing projectiles at me, and would sometimes break through the castle walls. For a while, the Wario apparition was firing projectiles and breaking through the castle walls, and I was just avoiding the projectiles. The toads were missing. Eventually I tried escaping through the front door, but it was locked. I also tried escaping through the other doors, but they were all locked, and when I escaping to a hub world, the paintings were boarded up by a stone wall.

After running around for another 12 minutes, I decided that I wasn’t going down without a fight, so I tried diving at the Wario apparition. Somehow, this stunned the Wario apparition. It fell to the ground and laid there with an upright posture. I ground pounded on top of the Wario apparition, and it took damage. I knew right away that this is what I needed to do to win, so I kept doing this.

After diving at the Wario apparition and ground pounding it for the fifth time, the Wario apparition was finally defeated. It burst into a power star, and when it burst, the castle walls that were broken through were restored. The star was positioned above the rug in the center of the main area of the castle. I collected the power star, and when I did, I woke up. I looked at the clock on the wall to the right of my bed, and saw it was 4 in the morning.

Day 3

At 7 in the morning, I began doing my daily routine. I didn’t know how to feel about the dream I had last night. I wasn’t sure whether I should feel scared about what what dreams are to come, or if I should feel proud that I had a somewhat happy ending in my dream last night. I tried not to worry about it and went on with my daily routine.

As the day went on, the endless stairs music in reverse kept playing in my head. No matter how hard I tried to get rid of this thought, it was stuck in my head. I decided that I had to play my copy of Super Mario 64 again. I called off of work, and at 4 in the afternoon, I turned on my Nintendo 64 and started the game once again.

The Mario head in the start menu was worried as it was last time, but I shrugged it off and continued playing the game. I selected my saved file and was once again placed in the middle of the endless stairs. The endless stairs music in reverse was also playing like it did yesterday. I ran up the endless stairs and after 20 seconds, Stanley emerged from the shadows at the top of the stairs.

I kept running up the stairs, and after another 20 seconds, a warp pipe appeared in the middle of the stairs. I was dreadful of what the warp pipe would lead me to, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I went in the warp pipe.

The warp pipe led to the mirror room, and after examining the room, I realized I was behind the mirror in the mirror room. I decided to explore through the game to see if anything was different. There were three differences from the original game. The songs in the game that I heard were played backwards, the characters, enemies, and bosses were gone, and the hub worlds, as well as the castle areas and the outside of the castle, were in reverse.

I played through the game and collected all of the stars I could collect. Bowser was missing, so the key doors were open by default. As I played, there was a strange glitch in the game. Sometimes the area I was in, the pause, and various 3D objects would turn black, and my TV screen flickered. More importantly though, Mario would appear textureless when this happened.

After collecting stars, I went to the endless stairs. I actually managed to get up the stairs as you would when you get at least 70 stars. However, when I got to the top of the stairs, Stanley stood there in front of me. Right as this happened, the game crashed.

I turned off the game soon after. I had no idea why all of this was happening, but I chose not to worry about and continue on with my daily routine. This was easier said than done, because the endless stairs music played in my head much louder throughout the whole day. When 11 PM hit, I went to bed.

Dream #3

Right after I feel asleep, I found myself in the world of Super Mario 64, but different. I looked around, and realized that this was the 1995 Spaceworld Beta version of Super Mario 64. I decided to explore the game to see what it was like. Once again I couldn’t control my actions, but I wasn’t really ashamed of that this time around.

The HUD design had a different layout, the font was more simplistic, the health UI was a clock with a number counter, different sprites and images, Mario had a different voice, stars were sprites rather than models, the levels looked different cosmetically and sometimes structurally, and lots of other things.

There were also scrapped features and gameplay mechanics. There was a minimap that showed an overhead view of a level visible on the top right corner of the level, and Bowser gave out a star and a bunch of coins when defeated.

Some gameplay and psychics were also different. Mario would spin after a triple jump rather than flip, and Mario would not pause mid-air while doing a ground pound. Some levels also featured a different design, such as The Princess’s Secret Slide and Dire Dire Docks.

However, despite all of this, nothing back came out of it. I progressed through the game and eventually completed it. Once I completed it, I woke up. The time was 7 AM.

Day 4

I went through my daily routine, and thought about the dream I had last night. Did I really just get to experience the Spaceworld 1995 Beta version of Super Mario 64? I actually kind of enjoyed last night’s dream. However, the thought of the endless stairs music in reverse was still stuck in my head, and played even louder than it did yesterday.

I knew that I just needed to know what else this game had in store for me, so I called off of work, turned on my Nintendo 64, and started the game. The Mario face in the start screen menu looked even more worried than before, but I ignored that and resumed playing the game. I selected my saved file and was placed in the middle of the endless stairs once more. The endless stairs music was playing in reverse yet again. I began running up the stairs, and after running up the stairs for 10 seconds, Stanley appeared from the shadows at the top of the stairs.

After running up the stairs for another 10 seconds, I saw something that was not supposed to be in Super Mario 64. The dead bodies of every character in Super Mario 64 was placed on both walls of the endless stairs by a knife. After going through nearly all of the characters, I was at the final four characters. Placed by a knife on the left wall was Yoshi, placed by a knife on the right wall was Lakitu, then placed by a knife on the left wall was Bowser, and placed by a knife on the right wall was Peach.

5 seconds after going through the dead bodies of Yoshi, Lakitu, Bowser, and Peach, Stanley flew right at me. Just as he was about to make psychical contact with Mario, the screen went black. After 10 seconds, the credits began playing.

The credits were not the same as they were in the original Super Mario 64. The credits started at Bomb-omb Battlefield, there was no music, the characters, enemies, and bosses were gone, and the sky in the hub worlds that had a sky were pitch black. When the screen cut to the castle, instead of showing Mario and Peach waving at the camera with two toads by their side, it showed Stanley floating above the bridge connected to the castle. When the camera zoomed out all the way, Stanley teleported in front of the camera and wave at it. The end screen showed Mario hanged in the middle of the endless stairs.

I turned off the game almost instantly after the end screen appeared. I couldn’t even process what just happened. Why was this copy of Super Mario 64 so different from the rest! I tried not to worry about it and go on with my daily routine. I struggled to do so, since the endless stairs music in reverse played in my head even louder than before. By the time it was midnight, I went to bed.

Dream #4

Once I feel asleep, I found myself for the third time in the world of Super Mario 64. For the third time, I was in the body of Mario and there were a path of coins as well. I wish I could have avoided having to see where these coins lead me to, but since this was all a dream, I had no control over what would happen.

I went to see where the coins lead me to, and the last coin was located right outside Unagi’s tunnel. I swam past the seaweed blocking the cave and swam into the cave. The cave had a black hole inside of it. I swam into it and was teleported to another location.

Soon after, I awoke in another location. It was a small room with a white floor and grey walls, with a picture of Bowser hung up on the wall in front of me. At first, I thought this wasn’t all that bad since nothing could really harm me here in this empty room.

However, I started growing more and more irritated and agitated as time went on. I was stuck alone in this empty room with no way to get out, with a picture of bowser just staring at me. I got more anxious and insane by the second, and began to go crazy.

I started ripping off the skin of my arms, legs, hands, and feet. This didn’t help me at all. I saw a knife in the top left corner of the room, and cut my left hand off, cut my left arm off, cut my left foot off, cut my leg off, cut my right foot off, and cut my right leg off. I don’t even know how I was still alive after that. I was now just a body with a head and a right arm. I couldn’t take it anymore, and cut my head off. After I cut my head off, I woke up. It was 7 in the morning.

Epilogue  

I can’t do this anymore. I’ve had enough dealing with these dreams I’ve been having. I’m also fed up playing this copy of Super Mario 64. I quit my job, took the cartridge of Super Mario 64 out of the Nintendo 64, and drove over to the bridge I found this copy of Super Mario 64 at, taking the cartridge with me.

For those of you reading, I am currently standing over the bridge I found my copy of Super Mario 64 at. I have thrown the cartridge of it into the water, as the previous owner of this copy of Super Mario 64 should have. Thank you to those of you reading for listening to my story. I wish the best of luck to all of you in the near future.