Hypno's Lullaby: The Creepypasta

Ah...Pokemon. As a nerdy sort of kid who grew up in the late nineties, it was one of the staples of my childhood, a game that I could always get together with my friends and play. We always had a lot of fun with it, trading, battling, even sharing tips with one another on how to get the most out of the experience. Yet, as we grew older and the newer generations of the game came out, my friends started to lose interest. Most of them complained about the new games lacking originality when it came to the designs of the Pokemon, but I never shared their thoughts. After all, every gen had its own share of lame designs. Regardless, I soon was one of the only people in my nerdy little group of buddies that still played the games.

Well, you don't really want to hear about all that, do you? I have a story to tell and I'm pretty sure you're all much more interested in that than what I did when I was a kid. It all started about a week before the release of X and Y. I was playing my copy of Black, like I usually did on lazy Saturday afternoons. With my copy of X already preordered, I was pretty excited about the entire thing. I had been playing nothing but fifth gen for a while and craved something new. Something different. As I sat there, EXP farming the elite four like I often did to raise my lower leveled Pokemon, I vaguely wondered if I had any other versions lying around my room. After a while, I shut off my DS and decided to look around. Nothing turned up. Though I remember having copies of Diamond and HeartGold somewhere, I couldn't find them. Being a slob really did have its disadvantages sometimes. It didn't help that the cartridges were so tiny, either. Since I had a little extra money from work, I decided to head over to my local game store and see if they had any replacements, though finding Pearl, Platinum, or SoulSilver would be just as good. They usually had a bunch of used games in a case near the front, so it hopefully wouldn't be too much of a problem.

When I got there, I wasn't disappointed. They had both Diamond and SoulSilver, slightly used, but supposedly still in good shape. I paid for them without any problems and left the store. Once I got home, I headed up to my room and popped SoulSilver in. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, thankfully. I had gotten used copies of games before that wouldn't start or had sound glitches and that sort of thing. Upon loading it up, I saw that there was a file already saved and out of curiosity, I opened it to see what the other person had done and what kind of Pokemon they had. Sometimes you could find real gems in there. I once found an Arceus in someone's save file and used my friend's DS to trade it over to my copy of Black. Unfortunately, though, it seemed like the file was corrupted. This honestly worried me a little. What if there was something wrong with the game's internal battery? I figured I'd test it after playing for a little while and return the game if I needed to. With that, I pressed in that needlessly complicated code to wipe the other person's file and started a new game.

Everything seemed alright. The opening cinematic played as it normally did and I started my adventure, choosing Cyndaquil as my starter. The save feature seemed to work, too. I played the game for about a week and a half, getting all of the badges in Johto and defeating the Elite Four without much of a problem. Once they let me over to Kanto, I easily beat the first gym, though on my way to the second, I found something kind of weird. It was a cave that I didn't remember being there before, right on the edge of the Route 3. I opened my map and, strangely enough, the area didn't show up. Perhaps this game was hacked? That seemed like the only logical explanation. It could also explain the corrupted save data, too, if the area wasn't well programmed. I wanted to explore it, though. After all, it could have something cool inside. My hope was that everything would be alright as long as I didn't save in the cave. With that thought in mind, I walked in.

The first thing that struck me was the music. Or rather, the absolute lack of music. As I entered, it was completely silent...there was something almost foreboding about it. I figured that since the cave was hacked in, though, the programmer had just forgotten to add the sound. That, or it had just glitched out. Yeah, that had to be it. Yet, I couldn't shake this odd, nervous feeling. I pressed on, though. I wanted to know what was in here. As my character walked, her footsteps echoed loudly on the stone floor, the noise only emphasizing the silence. I swallowed roughly, my hands shaking a little. I knew it was probably just a hacking error...so why did I feel so freaked out?

For quite a bit of time, there was nothing but straight path. I was starting to think that this was just some sort of prank that some hacker had put in here to waste someone's time. The thought calmed me down considerably, enough that I actually started to get a little bored as I kept walking. After a few minutes, I decided to turn around, though before I could, I spotted a little patch of light a few tiles ahead. A door! Instead of feeling excitement, though, the nervousness from earlier once again began to rise up in my chest. Yet, after all the time I had spent getting to this point, I couldn't just leave this area unexplored. I walked in.

I was greeted by the sight of a large, square room, the kind that usually contained a legendary. At this, my nervousness subsided a little, replaced by quite a bit of excitement. Had the hacker programmed in one of the Pokemon you couldn't normally get in the game? Mew, maybe Celebi...or something else? They could have made up their own legendary, too. Either way, it had to be something good. Hopefully. As I stepped further in, there was a small set of stairs, leading up to a platform. On it sat...Hypno? I couldn't believe my eyes at first. Had a hacker really spent all this time making this area just to give someone a Hypno? The idea was ridiculous. Maybe it was shiny or something? I had really started to give up hope on this whole thing. I had just wasted a good ten minutes or so of my life going through a cave and didn't even find anything cool. Huffing a little, I approached the Hypno and pressed the A button. Might as well catch it since I came all this way.

Strangely enough, it didn't bring up the battle screen. For a few seconds, there was nothing. I was really starting to get annoyed now. Stupid hacker. When I tried to walk away, though, it wouldn't let me. The little character sprite didn't seem to respond to the controls. Great. This cave wasted my time and it froze my game. I went to soft reset my DS, but paused as the colors on the screen began to flicker. Curious, I watched. A soft glow pulsed back and forth on the screen with the Hypno sprite in the center, almost as if the Pokemon was causing it. I couldn't look away. As I watched, everything around me started to feel fuzzy...

"Come little children, come with me

Safe and happy, you will be

Away from home, now let us run

With Hypno, you'll have so much fun"

The voice was soft, inviting. It didn't seem to be coming from my speakers. Was it coming from...my head?

"Oh, little children, please don't cry

Hypno wouldn't hurt a fly

Be free to frolic, be free to play

Come with me to my cave to stay"

I knew I should look away, that there was something wrong with the game that was causing this. Yet, I couldn't. The glowing light from the screen made me feel warm and safe, the voice dancing through my head and lulling me with every word.

"Oh, little children, please don't squirm

These ropes, I know, will hold you firm

Now look to me, the pendant calls

Back and forth, your eyelids fall"

It was then that I started to feel sleepy...I fell back against the bed, though my eyes never left the screen. My body was heavy, almost like it was sinking into the mattress.

"Oh, little children, you cannot leave

For you, your families will grieve

Minds unraveling at the seams

Allowing me to haunt their dreams"

Dreams...yes... My eyelids fluttered a little before finally slipping closed. So sleepy...as I laid there, though I had looked away, the voice never left my head. I felt limp, helpless, but never had I been so calm. I never wanted this feeling to end.

"Do not wail and do not weep

It's time for you to go to sleep

Little children, you were not clever

Now you'll stay with me forever..."

That was the last thing I remember. That is, until I woke up in a hospital bed a few days later. My neck was bound by gauze and I later learned that my parents had found me on the bathroom, blood pooled under me and a steak knife in my hand. I had tried to slit my own throat. The news hit me like a ton of bricks. How could a game even do this? I knew that I had to destroy it the second I got home...I probably would never play Pokemon again, either. Not after that experience. I was to be transferred to the mental health ward first, once my wound scabbed over. It had been an attempted suicide, after all. Maybe I needed it. Maybe it wasn't just the game. After a few days, they allowed me to see my cellphone before I was moved. There wasn't much, only a text message from one of my best friends. When I read it, though, my heart felt like it was caught in my throat.

"Hey, thanks for the Pokemon game. I haven't been able to find this version anywhere! Your save was corrupted, though. Is it safe to save? Anyway, figured I'd play. Any ideas about this weird cave by Pewter City?"

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The original "Hypo's Lullaby" was not written by the author of this Creepypasta.