RED DEAD

My name is Marc Grey. I live in Ireland and I enjoy playing video games. I always looked for scary or shooting games and something I saw named "Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare" fulfilled all my targets. I thought it was a dumb name, but it turned out to be a decent game after all. I played the original and it was the best game I ever played so I decided to purchase the sequel.

I went into town and to my shock a lot of the games were way too expensive, so I lost my patience (I'm obviously from this, not a guy who likes high prices.), and headed home after telling my friend (whose name is John Connor) about my troubles, and he said that the game I was trying to purchase was apparently his brother's favorite game. He said he would give it to me pretty cheap as his brother passed away years ago, and they no longer wanted the game as it apparently brought back bad memories.

I was delighted and couldn't wait to play it. I thanked my friend and went home smiling. Inside I couldn't wait for the new adventure.

I put the game into my Xbox 360, switched the TV on, and the weirdest thing happened the minute the game started loading. The screen flashed for a split second looked like a face, and the game switched off.

"That's weird.." I thought to myself. I wasn't scared by this, though. Anyway, I switched the game back and began playing not seeing many other problems.

I loved this game. Shooting Zombies was great. Only killing them with head shots however was difficult but it was rewarding. At least... until there were more strange things happening while fighting the Zombies in the grave yard. I aimed my gun at a grave, which apparently had the name "Jim Connor" on it. I thought to myself.. was Jim the name of my friend's brother?

The screen flashed, a face came on it and it shut off again. I was getting really creeped out, but because it was a horror game I suspected the game was trying to mess with your head, kind of like Psycho Mantis in Metal Gear Solid, where he would break the fourth wall; he would try to "move your controller" through vibrating it intensely, and he would read what kind of games you like to play from your memory card. I switched it back on.

I was annoyed though when it launched, because my game didn't save. I had to do the graveyard section again. I headed back to the graveyard, and killed all the zombies. I was on a roll until suddenly one grave was just a hole; with no legitimate body. I was shocked at this, even though zombies were up and about, most of the other graves weren't dug open.

When I looked at the grave through my sniper rifle's scope, I froze with fear, and got goosebumps.

That grave said my name, Marc Grey. The grave next to it with Jim Connor's name on it, was dug up. The game flashed, switched off, and the face looked like it was laughing. I was freaked out, but thought the game probably tracked my Xbox profile; a common theme in games with fourth wall breaking is that they'll dig through the info on your system for your name.

It probably saw my name, and I was impressed, the thought of "This is a very intelligent game." being put in my head. But it was getting late, and even though I was tired; I was intrigued. So I switched the game back on, and to my surprise, all the Zombies were dead.. I know, ironic as fuck, but apparently all of them were already shot in the head. All of my missions were Zombieless. I thought "maybe the game is old, it's just some glitch" and decided to head to town.

All the people in the town kept on running away when they saw me and suddenly one citizen ran up to me, and said "Run Marc, Jim is after you. He hides in the shadows, and wants to get out." Chills ran down my spine. My character was called John Marston, why were they calling me by my real name? The game froze, flashed and switched off, like the game didn't want me to know this.

At this time i switched the light on in my room and slept with the light on the whole night. This game got way too creepy, way too fast. I went back over to my friends house to ask him did he experience the same crazy story as me, and what shocked me with fear was that he told me of his experience; it related to mine.

I soon realized all this strange stuff going on was not normal. The idea of the game glitching was ruled out. The game knew my name, and I told my friend about my experiences. He laughed and asked "Was it Hyper-realistic?" I laughed too as I could see he was trying to lighten the mood.

But as I walked out of his house, I froze up with fear seeing a picture on the wall. It was the face of the one which flashes sometimes in the game; I asked my friend while stuttering with fear, "Who's that?" and he replied, "Oh, that's my deceased brother, Jim. Remember how I mentioned to you who originally owned the game? That's him." All the strange incidents suddenly connected in my head.

I swiftly went home, and I went into my room debating if I should break the game, or give it back. I decided to break the game, and stuffed it in a trash can. I didn't want anyone else to get hold of this possessed game. I went to bed that night. It rained, and it was storming outside. Thinking of all the horrific events I encountered with the game.

My Xbox had turned on by itself; suddenly the game started on the TV. There wasn't any escape apparently, so I just decided that if I just complete the game; everything will reset or something.

How silly I was. I grabbed my controller and went to the town. Blood leaked off the town walls, and my body was hung with rope, moving side to side. The wind was blowing, and there was apparently the brave citizen who told me of his return.

There was a phrase in blood on a wallr; it said "Jim's coming home". As I ran up the wall with blood, it seemed to be leaking out of my screen. At this point I was nearly crying with fear; then the screen flashed the words, "LOOK BEHIND YOU." and when I did with the character, afar was what looked like a person.. It was Jim Connor.

At this point though, I seriously thought I was having a nightmare. This couldn't be real. So I just kept on shooting him with a shotgun, as he slowly walked towards my character. My shotgun blasts weren't doing anything to him! In fact he laughed, more and more with every shot. Suddenly, my controller stopped working, and my character couldn't move.

Jim walked straight up to my character, and I shouted "Why," at the screen. "WHY ME?!" to which he replied in the most cruel tone possible, "Why not? You know, if you play on the Xbox too long, you can die.. right?" It sounded like he was giving me a lecture on his death.. but was it really from his gaming console? In any case, I just listened. "I learned that as I played for hours, days, weeks. In the real world, I was a nobody. On the Xbox, I was a hero. My obsession killed me. But my spirit lives on in this game. I've grown tired of this world and now you have saved me from an eternity of hell in this game. Thank you, and goodbye."

He stabbed my character afterwards. Suddenly blood, was coming out of my abdomen like I myself had been stabbed by him. The screen flashed, and after losing an amount of blood, I fainted.

That's all I could remember, and I've moved on from the incident by now.