Xbox Forgotten

When I was little, very little, I would move all the time. After moving 5 times within 3 years, my parents decided to settle down in one house. My parents were cheap, and when they saw a big, beautiful house for a cheap price, they jumped to their chance to buy it. The one reason that it was so cheap however, is that a family was murdered the year before in that house and the neighbors claimed that it was haunted. My parents were skeptics, so they didn't buy into the claims and they bought the house. The first few days were great, then things went bad. A lot of times I would hear demonic screaming from the basement and also a little girl who would point at me in the corner of my eye, but when I looked, nothing was there. The worst of all, every night I was greeted by shadow people standing by my bed, looking down at me with red, lifeless eyes.



I tried to tell my parents but, they just said I was pretending. They were wrong, oh so very wrong. They saw that I was distressed, so one year, they surprised me with an original Xbox. Coming with Halo Combat Evolved.

I used that Xbox all the time, and the best thing about it, was that it completely took my mind off of the shadow people/ghosts. I wouldn't even see them anymore, and I played the Xbox pretty much 24/7. After knowing that, imagine my surprise when I found out that a 2nd Xbox; The Xbox 360 was coming out. I flipped out and saved up my money for 6 months, but alas, I still couldn't afford it. That christmas, however, my parents surprised me with an Xbox 360. I rushed upstairs excited as all hell, and plugged in my brand new Xbox 360.

All went well for about a week, until I played Halo on the new 360. Among it's cast of normal, main characters, was a man named Steve. No first name, no last name, just, Steve. Steve was an... odd fellow. He was missing one eye and he had a stitch where his mouth should have been. He was also dressed like a US Army soldier. Steve never really seemed to talk much to anybody, he would just stare at the screen and twitch his one eye.

The only other thing Steve would do, was stalk me in-game. I'd go around a corner and he'd be right there, staring at me. I also noticed that in school, nobody talked about steve like they did about other characters like MC or Cortana. I was sure something was wrong when I saw him take over other games too. I'd be playing burnout and he'd be in all the other cars. As a young child, he truly scared me, just staring at me through the screen.

It was worse when he actually talked. He had a dark, raspy horrifying voice that made nails on a chalkboard sound like Mozart. He would only utter two phrases, "I want your blood!" or "I want your flesh!". After playing on the system for about a year, Steve stalking me throughout, he would begin to say more phrases and would seem to have more power. At two years it would get to the point where if he said, "I want your blood" while I was holding the remote then my nose would begin to bleed. At an older age, when I would tell my parents, they were still skeptical, but took me to a therapist instead of disregarding me.

The thereapist didn't help at all. Worst part was, I would see the ghost girl and the shadow people every night now. Finally, after one more month, the system got the red ring of death, getting rid of Steve and letting me get back to my original Xbox.

After a few years, I completely blocked the bad memories out of my head and I had forgot about Steve. We stayed in that house for 3 more years and then we finally moved out. This house was smaller, and ghost proof, so we planned to live there for a while. While helping unpack I noticed my old Xbox 360 in the pile, so I set it aside to play for later, completely forgetting how it was broken and about what happened with Steve.

When we were done, I immediatly plugged in my Xbox 360 and tried it. It got the red ring of death for a second, then worked. I was incredibly happy as it got the system update. After it updated, I grabbed my remote and got ready to play. I was halted from my actions when an old "friend" returned.

Steve showed up on the screen, in his demonic glory and looked around. As he did a shockwave of all my dead memories rushed through my head, knocking me back. I was angry when I saw Steve and was about to scream at my screen, when he began to talk.

"I see you have aged..." Steve said, with his horrible voice, "And your location too..." I was blinded with rage and I screamed at the screen, "DONT THINK I FORGOT ABOUT YOU! YOU RUINED MOST OF MY CHILDHOOD!!!" "Yes, I did." Steve calmly responded. I was even more angry now, since I couldn't see any emotion change. I blurted out, "Who are you and what do you want?!" Steve looked confused then began talking.

"Ah yes, I forgot to tell you... See, back before you lived in your old house I was a notorious killer, and I had just found a big house with a riich family, so I sprung to my chance to kill. I jumped in through the window and started silently slitting thre throats of the sleeping children. Then I came to the parent's room. Surprisingly, the father got up and fought me. He grabbed my knife and cut out my eye. He then proceeded to slice my mouth and lips to bits so I would stop attacking him. But I couldn't, the urge was just too strong... I ended up knocking him down and killing him, followed by me raping and killing his bitch wife. When I was done. On my way out I got light headed and fell to the ground dead because of loss of blood. The ghosts you see are the family, and the shadow man was the father and used to be me. See, the reason why I stalked you at night, was because if I could harvest your flesh and blood, I can be set free of my ghost form and be reincarnated. You were the perfect candidate and when I saw you bring in that high tech Xbox 360, I knew I had my chance for the kill. I went into your Xbox and slowly seeped blood out of you through the system. It's confusing how it works and I don't want to explain. Now that I have you and my powers are through the roof... I can start the session."

I was horrified and I then asked, "What do you mean the session?" Steve raised his arms up and I felt my own blood seeping out of me and I couldn't stop it. Although it hurt, I just tried to lay back, close my eyes, and let it happen.

When I opened my eyes next I was in the middle of a street. I looked at a sign. I was in Boston Massachusetts, far away from my home in Seattle. I had only a $20 bill in my pocket so I knew I couldn't get back home any time soon. I was able to get a job and enough money to afford an apartment.

I have been here for 4 months and very recently decided to call my parents again, as all the other times they hadn't picked up. It rang three times, and then my mom picked up. "Hello, mom?" I said. "Hun, I think you have the wrong number." she answered. I replied, "Stop playing mom!" She didn't answer for a second, then she responded, "We don't have a son, well at least not anymore..." I had forgot that she hadn't known I had somehow gotten here and that I wasn't kidnapped or dead. "No, no, I'm not dead, ya see I... "moved"... to Boston and I forgot to say bye, sooo sorry mom!" I told her. She didn't answer for ten seconds and then she finally said, "It's not that he's missing... about four months ago, we found him in his new room, dead on the spot." I was so shocked, I dropped the phone on the ground, shattering it to bits.