One By One As The Lights Turn Off



==                 There once was a boy named John who lived across the street from me. We didn’t really do much other than just play video-games together at his house. We always would play this one game most of the time; that game was Skyrim. He had just bought the game a couple months ago and at this time, he wanted to make a new character because he had finished the game and the dlcs. So, we started it up. == There was something strange about the way it started up though, the man that tried to steal the horse, wasn’t there, neither was Ralof, nor Ulfric. The usual being taken to Helgen to be killed wasn’t happening; we weren’t going to Helgen, we were going to Markarth. Very faintly, you could hear talk about Ulfric and General Tullius both being killed by a person who looked as if he had an open chest wound. When you got out of the carriage and you chose your race, Nord wasn’t there. This was strange because it was always the same races no matter which game it was, not to mention that this was Skyrim, the land of the Nords.

He decided to pick Dunmer as his race; and when Alduin came, he spoke to the player requesting he help Alduin enslave the land. He chose not to and Alduin proceeded to destroy Markarth. He proceeded to escape Markarth only to find all the guards dead and burned. We both agreed that this was strange so he decided to save and turn the game off so we could discuss what might have happened in the beginning of this playthrough. We came to the conclusion that the leads at Bethesda wanted to make the story different from what it already is.

The next day when I came home from school, I saw on the news that the guards at the highest ranking prison in Arizona were burned to death after bringing in a most wanted criminal. Not just that but the criminal also got away. I went to John’s and told him about the incident and we both figured that it was just a coincidence. He loaded up the save file and he started to go ahead and level up a few times before continuing the main quest.

When he came upon Forsworn territory, there was something strange and wrong with them. They didn’t attack John’s character, in fact, they talked to him. This odd chant is what they would say. “First, the Reach, and then, the World.” They just stood there, red eyes and wounded bodies. He and I both agreed to investigate the camp, and then we found Madanach. He was the worst looking of them all. He said to John, not as if talking to his character, as if he were talking to us. Then, the place went quiet and the lights turned off. We heard a scream and found blood in the kitchen and his dog lying on the floor when the lights came back on. Madanach had said “One by one as the lights turn off, something will be gone.” Then, the lights turned off once more, no one was hurt so we figured it must be the game now. The lights came back on and we heard static coming from John’s room. He didn’t bother to save and he turned the game off.

The next day, I came back to John’s house and he was really creeped out. He said that his last save file was corrupted and when he tried to load one of the saves before the one that was corrupted, he was told this. “One By One as the lights turn off, something will be gone.” “Something really bad is going on here and I think it’s time I get rid of this game,” he said to me. We decided to ask his Mom to take us to the dump to break the disc and bury it; he just wanted it gone. Weeks went by things being normal just as if nothing had happened. But then, one night I glanced over at John’s house. The lights turned off over there. I saw blood splatter at his sister’s room and the next day he told me that her sister was killed, her throat was slit and her body smashed in. The only clue to be found was the message on the T.V. it said, “One By One as the lights turn off, something will be gone.”

John was starting to get really scared and so was I, when he bought the game it wasn’t used, so he asked himself, “Who is doing this? Why are you doing this? What makes you want to do this?” We saw a shadow appear before us, faintly you could hear it whisper, “First, your soul, and then everyone else’s soul.” John wondered what he could have done to upset this spirit, he thought back to this one quest he did. “The Forsworn Conspiracy” He remembered how he killed Madanach and him only. He figured that this is what must have upset him. But he was just code, an entity created by Bethesda. But he said that this must be the reason. He asked the shadow, “What do you want me to do to make you feel better?” Madanach’s shadow demanded he go and turn on his Xbox. He did and on the screen it was the same thing that he started from last, talking to Madanach; which was odd considering the game was gone and there was no disc inside.

Madanach was on the screen telling John to turn off the lights. John was cautious but he turned off the lights. The lights came back on and there was Madanach. “Finally, now I can kill you all.” He decapitated John and I ran out of there as fast as I could and looked back over there. Madanach was right in front of me because, of course, he could catch up to me. He told me, “Whenever the lights go off, expect the worst to happen.” And he disappeared. I still think about John to this day and I’m still afraid to be in the dark. So remember, be cautious in the dark, you’ll never know what is out of your vision range.