LSD: Let's Play

I guess I can start out with my name I suppose. My name is Jennifer. Jennifer Nicks. But my friends call me Jenny for short. Won't really tell you how old I am, but let's just say I'm in high school, enough said. I know how some girls are supposed to be into girly things like Barbie, My Little Pony, or those ridiculous easy-bake toys and such, well not me. Ok, ok, I guess I'm sort of into this new My Little Pony show or something, but most of the time, I spent my hours playing videos games with my older brother. I also like to spend time with my cousin, Stacy Gerome who is a lot like me in a way.

My parents recently got me my own credit card so that I don't need to keep using theirs to buy games on Amazon, eshop, or any other shopping site. I had to keep my word not to overuse it and keep it safe. I recently got my allowance for the week and put the money on my card when me and my mom went food shopping. After we got home, I wanted to see what games were being sold on the Playstaion Store None of them looked interesting to me and I didn't want to fork my cash on some games that I got bored with easily.

I asked my friends on Facebook if there's any cool games on the PSN store I could get. Some of them suggested that I get this game called "LSD: Dream Emulator". I was kinda confused about the title because I didn't see it anywhere on the PSN Store nor did I saw it in any used game shops. My friend told me that it was only released in Japan but can be played on an American PlayStations in certain ways. He linked me to some videos giving me tutorials on how to do it.

My brother still had his old PS1 that he didn't really play a lot any more. So, I decided to try this little trick on that. Although there are ways to get this on a PS3 or PSP, I wanted to stick with the PS1 because my brother was planning to give it away soon. So I looked around Amazon to see if I may find at least a cheap copy of the game and really wasn't that successful. The games sold on there were really expensive and I only had thirty dollars on my card. However, I saw this LSD Dream game on sale. It was a used copy sold for only ten dollars. I bought it off the spot. I was lucky to find something like this because most games like this must cost over a hundred dollars.

I really wanted to see what the game played like. But after watching countless game-play videos and troll videos about Sonic Generations and finally getting the game before tossing it aside, I couldn't relive that mistake. I decided not to see videos mainly because I wanted to be surprised.

At last, a few days later I got my the game in the mail and followed the steps in the video tutorial. Putting a paperclip in, switching the discs around and... Lo and behold, I got LSD Dream Emulator to play properly. I've been reading reviews of it for the remaining days and seemed excited for it considering the fact that it looked to be the most tripped up video game in existence. I was up for the task like daredevil.

I enjoy strange and horror-like stuff if done right. When the game started up... Wow, just... wow. It was extremely weird like what my friend was saying. Everything and anything you can imagine will happen in this game. Textures will spazz around, making the place look like your on drugs, you'll see strange eyes staring right at you, and just when you think you're having a really horrific day, the game soothes that with a cute scene of teddy bears and such. "This is really awesome," I said as I continued onward on the first day, seeing anything that just looked weird. But after running around and entering new places, I grew a little bored.

Fortunately, the days only last like ten minutes or less and the first day was going to end pretty soon. I was just about to cross some bridge in a green field until I heard some odd giggling. I turned around and noticed a figure standing right by me. This must be one of the weird human-like characters you encounter in the game. However, this one seemed to be different. It was as if this character had much, much more detail put into it. It looked like a little girl in pigtails, wearing a pink shirt slightly showing her stomach and wearing a purple skirt with white shoes.

She seemed to be giving me a cute smile as if she wanted to play with me. I slowly approached her as more details of her begin forming as I got closer. "Let's play!" I heard a digital-like voice play. It sounded like the same girl voice that was giggling. However, as soon as I got close to this girl, the game day ended and the screen faded out. I wasn't really quite surprised about this because I know that anything can happen in that game. However, I didn't know if there were any voice-overs in the game but shrugged it off. I saved the game, turned off the PS1 and went downstairs to make some lunch. My parents weren't home yet and I was hoping to show my brother this really cool game I witnessed when he would return from a friend's house.

The next morning, I woke up with my sweat making my skin feel dead cold. I had the strangest dream last night. Although it wasn't a nightmare, just... a strange dream. I was sitting in my room reading a book although I don't really read as much. I then decided to just walk out of my room. But when I opened the door, there was this little Japanese girl standing right in my way. I was quite surprised she was in my house because I didn't know this little girl and she didn't seem to be familiar to my family. "Hi," She said sweetly, "Will you play with me?"

I asked her why she was in my house, but kept persuading me to play with her. I kept telling her no and no over and over until she started to have a pouting face. "I want you to play with me!" She screamed. I grabbed her by her arm and tried to lead her out of my house but she kept screaming and wailing at the top of her lungs making my ears hurt. I expected my parents to come rushing in, but they didn't come. Neither did my brother."Shut up," I screamed, "Stop crying!" "Play with me right now!" The girl screamed again. And at that point, that's where I woke up.

After collecting myself and taking a few deep breathes, I tried to remember what my dream really was. I have a hard time remembering certain dreams but the thing that I could remember most was the girl. She looked a lot like, no, she looked EXACTLY like the girl from the LSD game. Maybe my mind was on that game a lot and made me think of her without even knowing. I then felt the urge to try and find this girl in the game.

Without even getting dressed for the day, I popped the disk back in the PS1 and started it up. I was just about to start the second day when all of a sudden the game just stayed on black for a few minutes and showed a grainy-looking full motion video clip of what looked like an abandoned town. I heard something very faint and distance grow louder and louder as this voice kept saying "Watashitoisshoni asobu..." over and over, giving me chills up my spine. Then all sound stopped as the screen flickered onto a pair of legs. The camera then moved up to the view of the same little girl that was in my dream.

The screen flickered again and it showed a close up of the cute little Japanese girl. She seemed to be staring at me with a blank expression with only the soft wind giving the scene something to listen to. She gave a soft smile and said in a quite hushed voice... "Let's play." The minute she said that, something flashed rapidly on screen before cutting back to black and bringing me back to the main menu.

When I started the next day in the game, it played like it was supposed to. Wow, that's odd to say it, expecting a game to play in it's tripped up state. But I digress on that. I kept walking and running around looking at strange things happening like the game was supposed to and I bumped into a wall filled with Japanese writing to bring me to another reality room. But then, the moment I appeared in one of the oddly made rooms, the music stopped.

I assumed that the game must've screwed up by disabling the music. However the only sound coming from my TV was the sound of the footsteps when I walk. As I took a few steps towards another hallway until...

"LET'S PLAY." This young little girl model appeared right in front of me, making me jump in my seat. I quickly turned around and ran faster and faster as the increasing speed of footprints were the only thing giving sound to the area. "Don't leave," The girl's voice said, but I didn't stop running. Luckily, the screen faded out, and I was brought back to the menu. I sighed with relief after that freakazoid show.

I didn't know what made me do it, but I continued onto the third day. This time, it was completely different. It just... stayed on a black screen. I thought the game froze and was about to turn it off, but I heard something that made me freeze in place. It was so faint... So faint and quiet, but you can make it out... It was that girl's voice again, I know it. This time, she was speaking Japanese.

"Dō ka watashi o oite ikanaide kudasai... Watashi wa, anata ga purei shitai."

I didn't understand what it meant as she kept repeating that sentence for a few more times until the screen faded to white and showed a grainy-looking pavement that was orange. I guess it was the sun's lighting or something. Then, some arm was drawing something on the pavement in chalk. It may've been the girl's arm, but I couldn't tell. After it finished, the drawing of the word was like this: "それ 天国". But then, the screen flashed for two seconds, depecting a new image. This time, the word was in English and said, "Hana Tengoku". But it looked like it was written slightly with blood. That seemed to be the only bloody thing I saw before it went back to the Japanese word.

The camera then showed the girl kneeling to the ground, facing the word. She turned to my view and smiled. She started laughing like any other little girl and said something that made my skin grow goosebumps.

"You're a cute toy."

The screen cut to black, and I was brought back to the menu with the option to begin the fourth day. I stopped playing on the spot to get a hold of myself. I was sweating like a dog as my heart was pounding in and out of my chest. The word Tengoku rang through my head for a minute or two until I realized something. That was the name of one of our neighbors'.

The next day, I walked at least a block or so until I reached the Tengoku's house. Their family and I get along pretty good but I didn't understand what their last name meant until my mom told me it was Japanese for "Heaven.". Pretty soothing but mysterious at the same time. When I knocked on the door the oldest son, Ichirou answered. I always wondered why Japanese people have really hard names to pernounce. Ichirou and his family moved in at least three years ago. They told us that they used to live in Japan, then moved to Calafornia, then finally New Jersey which is where I was born.

He welcomed me inside and asked if I would want some soda. I said yes and he came with some Sprite. I asked him about this girl who had his last name, Hana Tengoku. He froze in place, confused and concerned. He asked how I knew of this, and I decided to start from the begining. I told him about how I got this game from online using my card and playing it on my PS1 with these strange events happening. I told him to shrug it off, mainly because it would be a coincidence as the game could make anything happen. But he didn't believe it and asked if I could show him the game disc.

I didn't want to aruge with him so I left the house and ran mine to get the disc and then back to his. I showed him the game with the case and all still intact. He revealed to me that this is the game disc that he used to own but gave away. I was a bit confused as to why he said that.

When he was only eight years old, he was living in Japan with his mother, his younger brother, and his sister... Hana. I was quite surprised that he didn't, hell, not even his own FAMILY mentioned that they had two more kids. However, I can see why he and his parents never say anything about her. When Ichirou was still living in Japan, he had a Playstion, and the game LSD: Dream Emulator. He would play for hours and hours as the days of Summer Vacation would go by.

His little sister Hana wanted to play the game, but he said no because it would be too scary for her. Hana apparently was a big troublemaker, getting into fights with other kids, hitting her teachers, and stealing from stores. She seemed to be growing more insane and out of control for several months without explaination and somehow set the family's house on fire with some matches. Ichirou, his mother, and father managed to survive... However, his younger sister and little brother died in the fire incident. A day later, the fire fighters managed to find the young boy and Hana's corpse. Both were horribly burned.

I felt really sorry for Ichirou and apologized for bringing this up. I offered to give him back his game, but refused and kindly asked me to leave. I did just that without another word. Back in my bedroom at night, I sat on my bed and held the case in my hand. What should I do, I thought to myself. ''Should I destroy the disc? Continue playing? What does this sick in the head girl want?'' I felt really tired from all this and just laid down and sleep...

I was dreaming of... Nothing. Pitch Black. But that's when... I saw her. Her face. Her horrifying smile with her burnt up skin peeled off face. Her eyes were wide and big as her cheeks were slowly peeling off as parts of her hair were burnt off as well. She kept smiling. It was horrifying. Her smile grew wider like a little kid getting a new toy from his or her father. "It's time to play," She said sweetly and lunged at me. I awoke screaming and wailing like I did when I was six, after watching a horror movie with my brother. My mother ran into the room and asked what was wrong. I told her that I had a horrible nightmare and she hugged me and kept me company until I was comfortable enought to sleep on my own. But after she left the room, I just couldn't make myself fall asleep again. I had a feeling that Hana... No... This insane child would drag me into this never ending nightmare... and mock me for the rest of my life.

Without thinking, I took the game disc and snapped it in half with my bare strength. The moment I broke the disc, I felt some sort of weight fall off my back. As if something that was dragging me down suddenly fell of me and gave me more freedom to move my body... Without thinking, I laid in my bed... and fell asleep on the spot. I didn't dream of Hana. I didn't dream of her face, I didn't dream her PERIOD. ... In fact, I'm not sure if I even dreamed at all.

A few days have passed, and things were pretty much normal in my life. I told Ichirou about what happened, and he still felt a little sad for Hana. He said that he wanted to help his sister with her problems but didn't know what to do. He felt guilty about not being able to help her before she died. I told him that deep down she would've accepted his help and he shouldn't feel down but pray for her.

He thanked me and I left his house without another word. I walked back to my house as things around me were just as they were. I still play video games to this day, but still have Hana on my mind sometimes. Because now that I think about it... I'm not so afraid of her anymore. Instead, I just feel bad for her. I wish there was some way for me to help her instead of fear her. But I still can't think of anything. ... I suppose it's better that way.