Jeremy's Darkness

Jeremy's Darkness   (Based On Actual Events)

In 1993 I met Jeremy Allan Miller, on the school bus, for the first time. We were 8. Jeremy seemed like a fairly ordinary kid, not unlike myself, with the primary difference being a thick Australian accent. Him and his parents had moved here when he was 5. I used to mock his accent, and he took it in stride. He never made fun of me though. Jeremy and I quickly became best friends when we discovered we shared a deep rooted love for video games. We started playing Super Mario World and never looked back. We would 100% a game in a weekend, taking shifts so as to not burn out our eyes. As we grew so did our tastes, with the N64 came puberty and Goldeneye and Ocarina of Time. Years passed and everything was great, Jeremy, Myself and Videogames. After graduating Highschool, I decided I wanted to go to university, Jeremy, did not. This left us both torn, and my first few months at school felt like hell. I was lost. He'd cheer me up every know and then with a photo of something cool or news about a new game coming out. Ever since Jeremy I hadn't needed to make new friends. One day in December of 2004 I got an e-mail from Jeremy. Let me state right now that if I had kept that e-mail, instead of purging my inbox every day, it would really help the end of my story. The e-mail arrived very early, which indicated to me that it was important, seeing as how Jeremy isn't a morning person. It explained how is grandfather had broken his hip, and needed to be cared for, and his grandmother was suffering from alzheimers and relied on the grandfather for support. His parents had left hours before on a red-eye flight to Australia. He went on to ask me if I had any spare cash so he could buy a bus ticket to come visit me. I told him where I hid a shoebox of emergency money in my old garage, it would be more than enough. The next day he arrived around mid afternoon at my University house. My 3 roommates were on Christmas break already so it was just us two. He walked in carrying a military style duffel bag, which he tossed on the floor and opened. Inside was a mesh bag full of clothes, a case of beer, and... a Gamecube? 'What the hell is that?' I exclaimed. 'Look, don't get too pissy about it, I can explain...' He then proceeded to explain that he had left out the detail that he was leaving the following day, to Australia, Forever. His parents let him leave a few days later to tie up loose ends and come to visit me. And no for the kicker, he used 337$ (OF MY MONEY) to buy the bus ticket, the Gamecube, and a game called Eternal Darkness. I had been stashing that money to hopefully buy a Wii... I couldn't even be mad, and we did what old boys and young men do, we drank beer and got our game on. I didn't pick up the game very fast. I was new to the Horror genre and pretty much sucked. But I still helped Pious slice and slash at the undead, and tried to cast spells. What I REALLY wanted was to trigger the 'insanity effects' I had read about this game. Little instances that break the 4th wall and mess with your head. But I couldn't not one. I got frustrated, however Jeremy was chomping at the bit to get a crack at this new game, and he was a natural. I would up having more fun just watching him, the effects would appear every 12 minutes or so. He would walk into a room and the players head would fall off, or walk through a door to have a swarm of the undead jump you while the game claims the controller is unplugged. We even laughed hysterically when I went scrambling for the remote when it claimed the volume was going all the way up and down. It was a blast. Beer and games... It was either late at night, or early in the morning when Jeremy was guiding his character back to the book room. It's a scary room with eyes and faces in the pink pulsating walls. He was walking forward and the game froze. It emitted a low buzz that sounded like a digital note stuttering over itself infinitely. That got old fast so Jeremy crawled off the couch and towards the gamecube on the floor. He wasn't watching the screen...But I was. When Jeremy arrived at the gamecube, still crawling, his head looking down at the gamecube, below the television, the screen flashed an image. It was very brief but I looked like... People. The same look as the characters in the game, but no one I recognized. Two middle aged people and two older people. At nearly the same time from the television speakers a fast, quick voice said, as clear as day 'You're going to die Jeremy'. Jeremy doubled back, looked at me in shock, then burst into laughter. 'That was AWESOME!' he shouted. I pretended to smile, I didn't laugh, it wasn't funny. We rationalized it as a flashback, because there are many in the game, that must have glitched out. Jeremy kept playing while I contained how I felt. Eventually, we both passed out. When I awoke Jeremy had already packed his things and made some coffee. We didn't need to say much. We were both sad. I guided him to the front door, we shook hands and I said 'Good Luck'. He smiled and said 'Game on...' While pointing at something behind me. I looked into the living room and saw that the gamecube was still hooked up to the tv. I turned around to see him closing the door behind him. I never did play it. I went home 2 weeks later for Christmas, and on the 26th in the afternoon, I got a call from my roommate. Our house had been broken into. I asked for details, he assured me I just need to see it. That didn't sit well at all. I returned early to find that it had been my room that was used as an entrance. Which I found odd, seeing as my room is on the 2nd floor. What was really odd... Was the mud. The glass was broken from the outside in and was everywhere, completely shattered, and there were handprints, going down my wall, across my bedspread and faded once they hit the carpet. Did someone CRAWL through my 2nd story window?!? I spun to my roommate and blurted 'what the hell did they take?...' 'Uh....Well...' He paused, '...every tv in the house.'  It was a university house, we had 5 tv's. From that I deduced that there was likely more than one intruder, or one intruder with hours of time and balls of steel. He also took the gamecube, with the disk of Eternal Darkness inside. I was only left with the game case. I instantly tried calling Jeremy. We hadn't spoken since he left and wanted to tell him. The number he gave me claimed not to be in service. I called my brother instead. 'Hey...' he said with what seemed like frightened curiosity. I asked if he was alright and he reluctantly admitted that he was a bit freaked out. Over the holidays I had told the Beer and Games story about Jeremy and the game many times. It turns out he had retold that story to a friend of his, and had been corrected. He was corrected by a game programmer who was familiar with Eternal Darkness. He explained how the game had no speech software for inputed information, and more so than that, you don't enter your name into Eternal Darkness. What I had seen, and what Jeremy and I both heard, was impossible. I was stunned, I hung up. I called Jeremy again. Not in service. I needed Jeremy to back me up. I looked stupid and I didn't even have my best friend to defend me. I spent 3 months trying to find Jeremy and almost failed my semester. Facebook, google searches, I even raked up on ugly phone bill calling Australia. Nothing. It's been 7 years. Still nothing. I still play games, but I like to keep them lighthearted though. I often think about Jeremy, even though I don't have a single photo. Hindsight is 20/20. If anyone reads this and happens to know or even have a hint to the whereabouts of Jeremy Allan Miller from Australia, please let him know that I need to get in contact with him. If I do, maybe I can stop going to therapy. People get worried and call you crazy when you claim you think a video game killed your best friend. I didn't even make a scene, I just brought it up a few too many times. And I know what you're thinking, but I'm NOT crazy. I saw what I saw and heard what I heard. So if you know Jeremy, please tell him to contact me... ...And that he owes me 337$ Game on.