She's All In Your Head

It's all in my head. That's how this has to start, with five simple words thrusted into the unseeing void, will anyone read this? Probably not, if they do, will they believe this? Probably not...

It started how most things in my life do, tucked up in a chair, wasting my time in front of a computer screen, most of the time it's just to placate the boredom and melancholy of my normal life, although, it doesn't always help, as I look up at the desktop I've sat in front of for 10 or so minutes. I’ve always been pretty awkward socially, and have had mental problems in the past making me very introverted.

"There's nothing to do..." I think to myself. My roommate had hit the road a few days ago, taking all of their belongings, and most of my xbox games. Most of my skype so-called "friends" are offline and I've played all of the single player games I own. What I'm really in the mood for, however, is some good, old horror games. Nothing helps me vividly escape my apathetic reality like horror games!

The other day, a "friend" told me about this site where you could download obscure Japanese horror games, well..I say Japanese, but I can't really tell Japanese from most other Asian languages, so I'll just call them Japanese. I've played one or two, and for the most part, was not impressed. The English on the entire site overall is laughable, it's obvious whoever made it has barely any understanding of the language. And to top it off, most of the games aren't even scary, mainly just "scary maze-game" style jump scares and whatnot.

The games wildly vary in style which makes me think that there are different developers working on each game, unsurprising, all the downloads are probably just pirated Japanese indie games. Well, anyway, I was browsing through all the file titles, and they have little download counters next to each game. Most of these marking 10-20 downloads, however, one catches my eyes, zero downloads. Interesting, it must have been a new release?

That's probably a correct assumption, and the screenshot they used to show the game looked interesting with actually relatively impressive graphics compared to the rest of the site's inventory, which cataloged mostly 8-bit rpg-maker styled titles but I'm getting off track. The picture was of a young girl, I couldn't really put an age to her, and she was standing in some sort of tunnel, which looked like a subway tunnel if I had to guess. I had taken a picture of it with my phone to send it, and the title, "ミツバチと養蜂家" to a "friend" and tell him about the game. Also, I've started to take journal entries on these obscure games, just because a lot of them are so bizarre, and I can translate the words later on.

I hadn't had any recording or screenshot software, but this'll work fine. I'll attach the screenshot on this page. But I'm getting off-track again. So, I downloaded the file, and like all files I download, I thoroughly scanned it for viruses, so I turned on my software and got up to get a drink. As I walked through the dark hallway, I noticed a strange sound, it sounded like someone walking?

Strange...It's pitch black in the hallway, and the sounds repeated again, making the hairs stand-up on my neck, now it sounded more like a scratching...I flipped the switch quickly, but the damn bulb burnt out again, 2nd time this week! The sound came closer, and I backed away slowly, until my back was touching against my bedroom door, whatever it was, knocked over a book from my hallway's bookshelf and bolted toward me! Fear clenched my muscles and my throat, where I could only let out a whimper. And right then the light flickered on, and I heard a soft "Mew" and as I looked down, I saw...my roommate's cat. She forgot her cat here, that moron!

Ugh...well, maybe these horror games and creepypasta are getting to my head? Whatever. I grab my preferred drink, just a nice glass of water, pick up the cat and go to my room, sitting back down into my rightful place in front of the computer. I checked the virus software...it's looking clean, and I'm good to go. So I start it up, while petting the cat sitting in my lap. So the game starts...it opens up on the menu, which is just a black background with a strange smoke effect with the title written on it, and under it 2 text lines. The first says, "日本語".

And the second says, "Engles". Well, the pattern of these games having terrible English continues. So I select..."Engles", and the menu fades to black, and in red text, these symbols appeared on the screen, "話題の話題小さなハチ. キーパーはあなたのために来て" I jotted them down in my notebook and clicked to continue, or as the game said, "Clik to continu". God, this translation is awful.

And I was dropped into a first person perspective. Soft, somber music started pushing itself into my ear canal through my headphones. This music wasn't really scary, it was more sad music than anything.

Looking around, it seems that I was in some old house of some kind, there were cobwebs, dust, and rotted wood around me, and what looks to be boxes stacked in various locations, the ceiling seemed to point upward, how I imagined a roof would, and with that clue, I could tell I was probably in an attic or something, this was affirmed when I turned and saw a window in the wall looking outward, it looked to be the front yard of a house, I could see the patio below, and the yard, while untended and overgrown, was definitely present here, lastly I could see a van in the driveway.

Well, nothing important here it seems. I turned from the window and looked towards a trapdoor opposite from the window. At this point I could tell that the attic was very large and the house underneath probably followed suit. I clicked on the trapdoor and text popped up on the screen, "Not yet, yu ar not". I'm assuming they mean I have to do something up here first. So I look around the attic until I find a black rectangular object, I click it, and judging from the circular light now in front of my characters line of vision, I have to assume this was a flashlight I picked up.

And as soon as I did, I head a large thump that made me flinch slightly, and turning toward the trapdoor again, showed that a large box had fallen over, but that's not what made my blood chill.

What did it was that the box was moving, only slightly, only enough to question if you even saw it move or if it was just your imagination. I went over to the box and clicked on it, it told me I could not do that, with the same error message as the trapdoor. I clicked it again and this time, the text said, "PAY HER NO MIND...LEAVE THE ATTIC!"

This put me slightly on edge, for both, the vastly improved spelling and because of the eerie wording of the message. Well, I complied with the game and left through the trapdoor. This left me in some kind of hallway, to either side of me, a door. And across from me....a girl. She looked like the girl from the screenshot, but here she was more pale and wearing what looked to be, a white robe? She slowly walked towards me and a chat box opened up.

"Natsumi Hirata: Please, save me...he's coming for us..." Then it gave me two options..."1. Yes, I will. 2. No, I won't." I clicked option 1, and the slow, steady music from before was replaced by faster music, and red text faded over the screen. "HIDE. THE KEEPER IS HOME."

I ran into the door on my left and it seemed to be a closet, the girl followed in with me, and I closed the door behind us, my character looked through the keyhole and I could see a large, burly man..well I say man, but he had no face, just a blank model, like the developer forgot the add it. The man had blood on his hands and he walked up into the attic and closed the trapdoor behind himself. Screams were heard from upstairs and they honestly chilled my blood a little. But...I was getting excited, cause the game was finally starting to insight fear in me. Now that fear has a face, or lack thereof.

I left the closet, with the girl following close by, and made my way to the front door, locked...of course. So I turned back and saw that there was another door, I walked in and was greeted by stairs and darkness, at least the screaming finally stopped...the flashlight helped me through to the basement, creaking stairs on every step.

And once I got to the bottom, I noticed something, for some reason there was a large corridor here, looking down the corridor, it was just as pitch black as the rest of the basement. And now, I heard the familiar thud of the man's steps, and the creaking of the basement stairs... I ran into the corridor, and quickly moved forward, looking back for a split-second showed the man grabbing the girl and pulling her back while she screamed, and begged for me to help her...I did not, and I could not.

Self-preservation kicked in and I ran deeper into the corridor, blood-curdling screams echoed through it and then stopped very suddenly. And there I was, a dead end at the end of the corridor, but alas, a pathway opened up when I neared. Pushing forward I saw a figure standing there, donning a familiar white robe, with red stains and blotches covering it.

She turned to view me, with eyeless sockets...She opened her mouth and a guttural, broken noise lept out making me jump, she ran towards me and I know this sounds crazy...but she came out, through the computer, and grabbed my face with her ice cold hands and whispered to me. "You...did not...save me...LIAR!" This last word was screamed and the guttural noise began again, it felt as if my eardrums would burst from the pure force of it. Then my eyes closed and I lost consciousness.

I woke up in my bed the next morning, not knowing what had happened. It was a bad dream, it had to have been...right? Just in my head. Must have been, the files were all gone. Any messages sent to my friend were gone, the only proof was my game journal...or was it a dream journal...? It had to have been a dream journal, right? It's all in my head. Every time I hear her whisper in my ear. Every time I feel her breath on my neck...every time I see her standing behind me in my reflection. It's all in my head...