Eric

I’ve been a fan of Animal Crossing since the very first one. To be honest when I heard about Animal Crossing and people playing I thought it was really stupid. The game looked something a 7 year old would play. I was about 13 when I heard about the game. So I borrowed a copy of it from my friend just to see what all the love is about for the game. It was not long until I got hooked onto the game. My friend even told me to keep the game if I wanted to keep, I did. When I heard that a second game (Animal Crossing: Wild World) was already out, I was ready. I ended up getting it for my DS.

Like the first game, I was immediately hooked on to it. I did the usual routine in the game; Going around talking to my animal neighbours, selling random stuff to get money to pay off my house and other typical doings for an Animal Crossing game. The online for Wild World was something I was really interested in. The fact that other’s can come into your town, help you with your house and maybe give items that you don’t even own, it was very ambitious. So I decided to have my town open just for others to do. I didn’t really expect a lot to enter my town, but it would’ve been nice to see other people instead of animals all the time. I didn’t have a lot of friends so this would be a good opportunity to meet new people who have the same interest I have. I started to game and named myself and named my town; Everlast. That name came out of nowhere in my head and I liked it. I got off the train and met Nook, just like the first game. He told me about where my house is and told me how much money I need to pay off for my house; about 12,000 bells. I went off into town, meeting my animal neighbors and started looking for fruits off trees. It’s a simple and obvious start for a new game of Animal Crossing. I had about a full inventory of fruits and sold them. I sold them for about nearly 2000 bells, nowhere near my debt but It was a start.

One night while I was doing a assignment for an animal I got a notice about someone that just entered my town. I stopped doing what I was doing and ran to the train station. Upon walking up to the train station I saw someone. It was a guy. He was wearing a striped green shirt, his face was the default face for the character and he was holding a slingshot. I said “hello” to him. After I said hello he just ran to the left off screen. I gave chase after him and he stopped in front of one of the animals house as he put his slingshot away. He finally said to me “hiii!!”. I kind of laughed at those words, I thought this person was a child, younger than me. I just responded with saying “what are you doing here?”. Once again, he just runs away, again, I chased him. He stopped in front of one of my ponds and spun around in place. I asked what he was doing in my town again. He stopped in place while he was spinning. He looked at me. “u got globe??” I just stand there in silence as he just continued to spin in place. “No I don’t”. After I said to him he once again runs away. He instantly stops by a near river. He looked at me and spun in place again. I started to laugh in real life. This guy was funny to watch. He stopped spinning around; “i got sumthin for u” he then proceeded to spin again, “What do you got for me?”. He stops again facing his right. He dropped about 22,000 bells below him, he once agains spins. I was stunned! The much money I mostly make in the game is about 2000 bells. I just stood there watching him as he still spins. I didn’t want to take it from him, I thought he was joking and probably will take it back. “take it” he says as he spins. I walked up to him and picked it up. Afterwards he ran away. While I was following him he started bugging out. “nicee town”. As soon as he said that he was gone. I assumed that he lost connection with my town. It’s a good thing he left after he gave me the money. I then just stood there in the place where he disconnected while other animals were walking around me with shovels and fishing poles. I now have enough money to pay for my home thanks to this random person. I afterwards ran to Nook to pay the debt.

The next day as I exit out of my home I saw my mail box flashing. I ended up getting four letter’s. Three of the letter’s were from my neighbours, while the fourth one… was from someone else, “from eric” that’s who the letter was from. The letter had a present with it. I open the letter to read what was inside;

“thank u for spendin time with me i had funn here is a gift for u. enjoy ::) from eric”

Eric was his name. I was glad, since I never had the chance of asking him for his name or even a thank you when he gave me the bells. I wanted to send him a letter back, but unfortunately I don’t have his friend code so I am unable to send him anything. I went off to start my day. On my way to Nooks store I saw a buried item spot. I digged and ended up digging out a slingshot. My eyes were wide open, I’ve never gotten anything like this before. I then remember back to yesterday; Eric had a slingshot when he first arrived to my town. “Could have this been his” I said this to myself as I fixed the hole. I continued to think about the slingshot as I make my way to Nook's shop. “Did he somehow entered my town when I wasn’t here and buried this?” I shook off the thought about it as I entered Nook’s shop.

I went on with my day, helping out animals as usual and a remindered struck me; I forgot to open up the gift that Eric gave me. I opened up my inventory and went to the letter section and grabbed the present and opened it. The present ended up being an Ebony Piano. A smile was on my face and I went to my home to place it. I thank Eric in my head as I entered my home. I placed the piano in the far left corner of my home. My home wasn’t very big, it was in its second stage of development. My home had blue wallpaper and a green carpet. My house had a single bed in the right hand corner, a dresser was near it that was given to me by one of my neighbour and a candle that I bought off Nook. I started playing with the piano, and when I mean by “playing” I mean by massing the A button multiple times. After setting up the piano I then I just went out of the house.

It was nearly 10:00 and I was about to get off the game, I was getting tired and bit bored. I went off to finish the night by looking for any buried items and talking to the remaining animals that were still awake at this time. Just before I was going to head off I got another notice. Someone has entered my town. It must be Eric again. Like before I ran to the train station to greet him. I saw Eric again but this time wearing something different, he was wearing a diamond shape t-shirt and he has a green hat on. I stood there staring at him “Hey there again”, Eric just stood there still. Out of nowhere he spun around like before and ran off pass me. I was kind of getting annoyed by this, he really is acting like a child, I then thought that maybe he was one. Again like before, I ran after him. He stopped near one of my neighbours house staring at the side left wall of it. “where ur homee?” this caught me by surprised, “over here” I then went off to my home, Eric followed behind but he stopped sometimes, I thought he was lagging again. “Here is my home” I stood there in front of the door, “Thanks for the 15,000 bells from yesterday”. He spun around in place and stop to turn to his back “no prolbem” I gave out a small chuckle due to his misspell but I was glad that he was ok with it. I was about to enter my house when Eric said “nice home” and just like that he was gone. I just stood there while scratching my head, he did this yesterday also, but he said “nice town” and left. I didn’t know if he was messing with since he didn’t even see the inside of my house. I went inside and save. I then remembered that I forgot to ask him his friend code.

I got into the game earlier than I normally do, about 10 in the morning. I saw that I got letter’s again, I got about two letter’s this time. One letter was from an animal and the other was again from Eric;

            “i had fun agin lets han out agan from eric”

After the “lets han out agan” he actually gave me his friend code, It’s as if he read my mind… or it was just luck. There was no present this time.I decided to enter his friend code. I then went off to start my day. The day was a bit slow, only had to do about three errands for the animals today and shook some trees and sell the fruits to Nook. While I was inside Nooks shop I decided to grab some letters, since I now have Erics Friend Code I can write a letter to him. I later found out that I can’t send letters to people from outside of my town. I looked it up on the internet and it says that; I have to be in his town to send him a letter. I guess this is how he keeps sending me letters, since he does end up entering my town. Which is very strange and creepy, but I did heard that people can pop into your town randomly. I guess they’re right… I hoped. After about an hour I had nothing to do. I decided to head to Erics town. I entered the train station and found Erics name. I entered the train and headed off to his town. To be honest I didn’t want to run into him. I want to surprise him as he did to me. I had the only thing I was able to buy, a red armchair. It is in my inventory as a gift to him since he get me a gift, so I thought of returning the favour. After about a minute of connection trying, I arrived at his town.

“Leafy”... that was the name of his town. An interesting name. Every name has a reason, especially for a town. I assumed he named his town Leafy because of… trees? I named my town Everlast because I wanted my town to “Everlast forever” … Kind of cheesy I know. Anyway, as I exit out of the train station I see that his town looks a lot more developed than mine is. He has is ground covered in pictures of sidewalks and roads, all neatly placed and he made it look like how a real town should look. I was really impressed. For someone who speaks like he is using the keyboard for the first time he sure does have a good looking town. I’m actually jealous, but then again, he could have been playing this game longer than I have. I wanted to go to his post office right away but I couldn’t help but to explore his town. I kind of didn’t want just incase I run into him while I’m looking at his town. But he would have came to me since it would’ve notified him about my visit. While exploring I saw animals that I have back in my town. It was a bit creepy since they didn’t know me and yet they also live back at my town. After about 5 minutes of exploring his well done town I went to his post office. I gave the letter to Pelly and telling her to send it to Eric;

“Thank you for the 22,000 bells you gave me, it really did help me. I also wanted to thank you for the piano, It looks very nice in my home and still have it. In response to the kindness you’ve shown me I thought of repaying you. I don’t have a lot of bells but I hope this will do. From xxxxx”

After I gave the letter and gift away I headed back to the train station and still hope that I don’t run into him. I started to lag while on my way to the train station. If I ended up losing connection It wouldn’t matter as long as I sent the letter to him. I managed to get to the train and headed back to my town. When I arrived I went back to my house to save since I was getting bored. As I make my way to my house I saw one of the neighbours upset. I ran up to her and she was crying and saying to “leave me alone” and went off upset. I thought that she got into a fight with one of the other animals and just continued off to my house. While making my way I saw ANOTHER animal upset. He said like “what did I do” but he wasn’t crying unlike the other one. I thought that this animal was the one that got into a fight with the other one. Nearing my house I saw an animal who was thrashing about and looked pretty pissed. I talked to her and she was just blowing steam. She said that her day was ruined. I was really confused what was going on. Maybe he got into a fight with an animal… fell into a pitfall trap? When I approached my home I saw that it was surrounded by holes and flowers. I saw that I had a letter in my mail box. I pulled out my shovel and fixed the holes that were around my house. The flowers that were placed around my home were dandelions and roses, all were placed in a neatly side by side order. After fixing the holes I took out the letter that was inside my mailbox. I had two letters, one from an animal, the other… Eric.

“u hav a nice town ur animlas r not nice i saw ur home it loked nice very nice pretty nice nice frm eric”

I just looked at the letter with a displeased face. I was a bit creeped out. I don’t know if it was his poor writing that did it, or it was the holes around my home that I KNOW I didn’t put. Before I went inside my home I looked around my town to see if there is any other problems with my neighbours, since he said that my animals are “not nice” so I hoped that he didn’t piss of or made them cry. As I make my way to their homes I saw even more animal’s sad and angry. “What the hell did he do?!” I thought as I made my way to their house’s. I approached one of their homes and saw the same thing he did to my home. Holes and flowers, the flowers were also the same like the ones at my home. I wanted to fix it but I needed to see if the other homes are the same. Making my way to another house I see more animal’s sad and angry. I also ended see holes placed everywhere in my towns field. I ran up to the second house, same thing. Ran to another house, saw more randomly placed holes. The third house I end up arriving is the same. I spent about 6 minutes exploring and seeing more of the same. I was really mad! All this is gonna take me forever to clean. I regret sending that letter now, hell even that armchair… I kind of want it now. I had a feeling that He entered my town while I was in his. Creepy, It’s like he knew. Or was it just a coincidence?

The next day I felt relieved to see my town back to normal. It took me about a half hour to fix the damaged done by him. When I exited my house I saw that I had letter’s. “I wonder who is this letter gonna be from?” I said in a sarcastic tone while looking through my mailbox. Only one letter… and it is from Eric.

“thnk u for the giftt it loks nicce frnd eric”

“Frnd”? I guess he meant “Friend”. Really though? He calls me “friend”?! After the mess he made? He was happy for the gift, but I wasn’t happy for what he did. I saw that he sent me a gift along with the letter. I wondered if he sent this before or after the mess. The present was a basketball hoop. I wanted to throw this away since the damage he has done to my town, but I hanged on to it just because I need some form of decoration for my home. I did my daily business in my town. I ended up going to the Island to get some rare bugs, bugs that cost up to 10,000 bells. I found my lucky break for making money since I knew that fruit wasn’t gonna help me forever. I went in and out of Nooks place and made up over 100,000 bells from the islands bug’s. I still needed about 20,000 bells to pay off my next debt. It was getting late, so I went to the house and saved, then I turned off the game to relax. It was about nearly midnight, I went in the game to see if there were any problems going on in my town. There were no one around. Everyone was sleeping. The sounds of the music and crickets were heard in the background. I only ended up seeing one villager mindlessly wandering around the night. I spent about ten minutes walking around the night, making sure nothing has happened while I was away. Nothing. Nothing was touched. No holes were dug. No flowers were planted. It was normal. I walked pass the train station and stopped in front of it, “should I do the same?” Any person who went what I just went through would do the same damage they caused them, just to return the favour I guess. I wasn’t that kind of person. I did fix the mess and it would be mean just to do it back. Besides… I was tired. I headed to my house and saved.

Before I went to play Animal Crossing the mail came to my house. I went in and saw a blank envelope. I asked the mailman who sent this and he said to me that he doesn’t know. I closed the door and looked at the mail. Like I said, it was blank. No return address. I opened it up and saw it just has the words

“nice house frind frm eric”

I was nearly frozen. Everything went spinning around me. I thought this was a dream. Like… How in the hell… No… Like… HOW IN THE HELL?!! I stood there with my eyes all wide with my mouth hanging. I was breathing heavily and started shaking. “W-who the hell… IS this guy?!” I couldn’t do anything in return, I had no address. My alternative approach was to call the cops… But I didn’t want to. I wanted to find out who is he myself. I know this sounds crazy to do. Pretty much ANY sane person would call the cops after getting a letter from someone who does know where you ACTUALLY live. So I ran to my room and booted up the game and hopefully find Eric.

When I got into the game I headed directly to Erics town. I hoped that I run into him so I can ask him how does he know where I lived. While waiting to go to his town I’ve started thinking; “Is he an old friend of mine from school? Is he someone I once knew? Is this a prank? Or just some kid being an idiot. No. This person knows where I live. He must be some perv who gets off by playing as a kid in Animal Crossing.” I shivered as that last thought came across. I finally arrived at Leafy and headed to his home. I remembered that I’ve never seen his home when I visited the first time, I was too busy exploring his town. Funny how I never ended up at his home while I was exploring before. His home was a mansion. I was stunned by this. Like I said before; “For someone who speaks like he is using the keyboard for the first time he sure does have a good looking town” that can now be said about his house. I entered his house and saw him standing there. Looking at me. I was really creeped out. It’s like he knew I was going to his town. Eric was wearing a Paw t-shirt and has a paper boy hat on. The inside of his house looked amazing! His main room has the full Modern set look, his walls were the Exotic wallpaper and his carpet was the Regal Carpet. I wanted to look around his house, but I guess I’ve should have done that before all these fucked up thing’s happened. “Who are you? How do you know where I live?!” Silence. Afterwards he spun around in place. I was really getting tired of his bullshit. “Who are you?!”. He stopped and looked at me, “eric”. he spun in place again. He stopped, “ur my frnd. 1st frind i had sinec” I didn’t believe him. I thought he was fucking with me. “Leave me alone! Or I’ll call the cops on you!” He stood there. Probably making another way to act all “kidy”. “ur my friend”. He managed to say “friend” right this time. “Who are you? Tell me?” In reality I was boiling, my DS was shaking due to my hands that were also shaking. “eric is my namme”. I wanted to say “no shit” but then after that I would ask the same question over and over again, then i’ll find myself caught in a loop with him. “I’m leaving”. Before I head for the door he said quickly, “dont leve me”. Leave him? I’ve known him for a couple of days. He’s making it sound like I’ve known him for years. I just ignored him and went off to my own town and I didn’t hesitate to stop, I just keep heading for the station. I finally get on the train and headed home.

I got on the game about earlier than normal, this time was 8 in the morning. I saw I had mail. I opened it and saw four letters, once again, three were from animal’s and one from Eric. “y u leve? ur my frind rite? I had funn wit u from eric”

“Friend”... he still calls me that. “FUN” he says?! The crazy bastard knows where I fucking live! Then has the balls to say that he had “fun”?! I had a feeling that he went into my town again when I wasn’t around due to this letter. I went out around town to see if he made anymore hole’s or placed more flower’s. Surprisingly he didn’t. I guess it was just that one time he did it. It was a quiet day in my town, I didn’t do a lot of errands for animal’s and I mostly spent my free time digging up fossils, planting fruit for fruit trees and going to the island. Spending about a near 20 minutes at the island I managed to make about 20,000, the amount I needed left to pay my third house debt. After I paid Nook I went through my day still going to the island to get more money. It was nearly 4:00 and I was wandering around town until I got a notice… Eric. I slowly make my way to the train station and saw Eric leaving the station. Eric was wearing a skull t-shirt and has black glasses on him. We both perfectly face at each other, “What are you doing here?”. After I asked him he just spun in place as usual After his spinning he ran to his right. I chased after him again. This is starting to feel like the time we first met again, but this time I wasn’t confused, no, this time... I was pissed. The place he was heading was to my post office, I guess he was going to send me a mail. I bet he did not want me he while he was doing it, but I don’t care. He walked up to Pelly and gave her a letter. He looked at me and spun around, he stopped to his left corner, “goodby frnd” and then he left. I assumed he disconnected from the game again, and also again, he says something and then he leaves. “goodby frnd”? Will this be the last time I see him? I was looking to see if there is a way to ban someone from entering your world, I was going to do that, but since he said goodbye I thought this is really the last time I’ll see him. I doubt that very much, He may just join my town with or without me here. I had to wait till I get his letter to see what he sent me… I’m not really looking forward to it, it’s mostly gonna be a bunch of poorly written grammar.

I got on the game at 11 at night and I saw that my mailbox has mail. I knew it was from Eric. I opened up the mailbox and saw two letters, one from Nook and the other from Eric.

“its hot here so hott from eric” “Its hot here”? Not really what I expected from him to say. Maybe he was talking about the heat he is having where he lives right now. It is pretty warm where I am right now. I have a fan blowing around my room and have the window open. I saw that Eric gave me a gift with the letter. To be honest, I really like the gifts that Eric gets me, since he looks loaded and probably has a lot of bells. The gift was a flower bag for a White Rose. I was a bit disappointed, I wanted a new furniture for my house. But I gave an interested smile, since I never had this kind of flower before. My memory then jumped back to remember that Eric planted flowers in my town along with the holes, It’s a memory that I really don’t want too look back on. I went back into my house and place the flower bag in the dresser that I bought off Nook and went off into town. I spent less time in my town than I normally do and I thought of going into Eric’s town. I had nothing else better to do with my free time. I hopped on the train and headed to Leafy. As I went my way to his house I saw that he has some new animal’s moving in, some of the animals are even moving on top of his ground design. I went into Erics house and he wasn’t there. His house though… it had campfire and bonfires place in different section of his house. He even blocked off his other room section, so I can’t explore his house other than the upstairs and his basement. I first went upstairs. His upstair room was completely empty. the only thing that was there was is the default save bed. I went to his basement and it too was empty. I didn’t see Eric on my way to his house, so I went out to find him. I spent about 10 minutes looking for Eric, but no sight of him. I had no choice but to leave the town. I then came to realize that He may have been in my town while I was here. I rushed back to the Station and headed back to my town.

When I arrived I immediately went around my town. I looked from top to bottom, looking at the animal’s and looking for hole’s and flower’s. The search ended up by seeing o damages done by Eric. I gave a huge sigh of relief and turned off the game since it was nearly late and I have school tomorrow. I put my DS away and went into bed. I laid there looking up at the dark ceiling that is being shined by the street light. I kept thinking about Eric… “Who is he?” I continued to think while the sounds of sirens were going on in the background, “am I free from him?” I gave a small chuckle knowing that He may bother me again. I also kept think the same thing over and over again, “is he in my game right now?” I wanted to go back in the game, but it was late. Plus, if he is as young as I thought he would be in bed right now. I closed my eyes to drift off to sleep, with the sounds of the sirens echo through my street.

I came back from school and saw my mother sitting on the chair with her hand on her head. I thought she was stressed out from her work. She looked at me and stood up and went off into the kitchen. I see an open newspaper on the table of where she was. I looked at the open newspaper and saw the following headline

<p style="text-align:center;">“House Fire Kills Young Boy”

As I kept reading I saw a picture of the young boy. The Boy looked young, about near the age of 10, he has blondish hair and green eyes. Under the picture of the boy read

<p style="text-align:center;">“Eric Thompson, Age 9”

“Eric”? Eric was his name…wait... ERIC?! I stood there in disbelief while my eyes were wide open. I kept thinking if this was the same Eric from the game. But that is impossible. Is this the same one? Or was just a major coincident that a boy… with the same name died. “House fire?” I remembered looking back in the game; Eric’s house was covered in fireplace’s and bonfire’s, the last thing he told me was “goodbye” and the clothes he wore last time I saw him was… a skull. Did he planned his death? Was he telling me that he was going to die? No. No that can’t be possible. As I walked to the kitchen I saw my mother looking at me. She came up to me, it looked like she was crying. Did she know this kid? A child of a friend of hers? That would probably make sense for the way he was able to know where I lived, but… could it? She let out a big sigh and looked me in the eyes, “Your… cousin is dead” Cousin?... Eric was my… Cousin? I stood there giving her a confused look. I wondered if she knew what I was thinking that I didn’t know I had a cousin named Eric. She showed me a picture of a family group, I saw myself sitting on the ground giving a childish face, and then my mother pointed her finger at a young boy. He had blondish hair, green eyes, it was the same boy from the picture just younger. My mother stood up and went off, she was rubbing her eyes to wipe away any tears, but I already saw them. I went to my room. The house was quiet, it was so quiet that you can hear a pin drop from one end of the house to another. I closed my door and flopped on my bed. I laid there staring at my ceiling thinking. I got up out of bed and grabbed my DS. I didn’t know what i was doing but I need to see if this was true. “There are millions of people in the world named Eric”. I kept telling myself that over and over again as I booted up the game. When I got in the game I saw I had letter’s. I opened it up and saw I have four, two from animal neighbour’s, one from Tom Nook and one… from Eric.

<p style="text-align:center;">“hey frnd if u r reading this i am dead i had so much fun wit u nd i wished i keppt playing with you. u are awsom <p style="text-align:center;">from ur friend eric”

“So. It really was this Eric”. All the anger that I had on him before was all gone. How could I be angry at him still? He’s dead. He’s not here to defend himself. Besides… he was just a kid. A kid who was having the time of his life, with me. I went off to Nooks shop and saw that he actually ended up having a globe available for sale. I remembered the first thing he asked me was if I had a globe. I bought the globe and went off home. I placed the globe near my back wall and placed the White Rose he gave me right in front of it.

<p style="text-align:center;">“Yes Eric”.

<p style="text-align:center;">“I do have a globe”.