Barnigan Part 1

Barnigan Part 1 by Andrew Giarrusso



Hello, my name is Andrew Giarrusso, and I will be telling our story tonight. As a 14-year old, I haven’t seen much, but I have seen. The following story for instance, is something I have seen.





All but 2 months ago, a man named Arthur McDawkins of humble Riverside, California was walking home from his girlfriends house. He had just broken up with her. His girlfriend, Courtney Sprouting had recently experienced the tragedy of a mothers death, and she was drinking. She had become abusive, and Arthur didn’t tell anyone because he’d be laughed at, and he didn’t fight back because people would believe he was the abusive one, he was a pacifist, and he knew what she was going through. He had himself.



Arthur had just gotten home, and he wanted to tune out and forget about everything. He decided to get lost in a video game, but found he wasn’t in the mood for playing any of his games. He decided to look on the internet for an emulator to play.



He eventually found a game simply called “The Voices.ZSNES”. He then looked at some gameplay of it on its’ page to see it was about a young boy saving citizens from Transparent beings simply referred to as “The Voices”, as the name of the game. Arthur thought the level design looked good (which he should know, as he is a level designer) and decided to download it. When it turned on, it showed 6 terrified civilians being chased by the voices, and the boy standing on the title which was written in cartoony, pixelated, blood with a smug look on his face and a baseball bat in his hand. The developer and publisher was named “Barnigans’ Bargains”, and Arthur thought that was pretty funny.



He continued to press start and found the music in the game was very good, with a cartoon Halloween special feel to it. He went through the first level, defeating monsters, and got to the end of the level. He saw a woman being chased by a Voice, so he attacked the voice with his baseball bat. He soon defeated it and it dissipated. The woman thanked him and left, but just as she got out of sight, a picture of a woman flashed before his eyes, for just a second. Arthur was curious as to what it meant, so he went on.



Arthur went through another level, but this time it the monsters were slightly, ever so slightly, less cartoony then before. Arthur thought it had to do with difficulty curve, so he shrugged it off. He found, that at the end of the level, the one to be saved was a man wearing a blue buttoned shirt on top of a sky-scraper. Arthur beat the Voice to see a picture of a man who looked exactly like the civilian appear for a second. Arthur had grown uncomfortable, but he kept going due to his curiosity.



 He got to the 3rd level to find the music had become more like something Kevin MacLeod would have composed, but only slightly. The monsters of the level seemed slightly less like a cartoon monster that was unintentionally scary and more like something H.P. Lovecraft made for a kids book because he felt confined to horror, but once again, only slightly. The Voice of this level seemed more demonic than the others, and when he saved the civilian, the picture of a man it showed was sadder than the others.

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<p class="MsoNormal">            The monsters and music became more and more disturbing as the game progressed. Soon, Arthur finally made it to the final level, the 6th one, to see that the monsters had become something straight out of a cartoon intended to be scary directed, written and animated by Lovecraft, and the music sounded like Kevin MacLeod’s most serious piece of all time. You’d imagine he’d turn off his computer at this point, but human curiosity is a powerful, and dangerous thing.

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<p class="MsoNormal">He finally reached the end of the level, and tried to defeat the Voice, but this time, he failed. A picture of a man with a knife standing in front of the screen and staring at it with a murderous glare appeared for a second, and Arthur had enough. He turned off his computer and sat on his couch, unable to sleep for the rest of the night.

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<p class="MsoNormal">When Arthur finally managed to get to sleep, he was awoken by his alarm. Knowing he had to get to work, he started to get coffee and breakfast. He turned on the T.V. and turned the channel to the news to see someone had been murdered. The picture that showed up looked exactly like the civilian from the game. Arthur choked on his coffee, and he then heard the Anchor say the suspect was a man named Franklin, and the picture they showed of him looked just like the picture of the man with the knife.