Bound to death

Author's note: For the remake of this story, check out Bound to Death (Remake)

Hello. I am your everyday video game player. I was highly unusual among most gamers though. I was an Earthbound Fan. Many people are most addicted to Pokémon or Megaman, or even Legend Of Zelda. But I am an Earthbound fan. Many fans of Earthbound have given up on the series, mostly because the series stopped, Earthbound is not gonna go on Virtual Console, Mother 1 and 3 were never released in USA, you get the idea. Anyways, I was playing my Earthbound game, when I got to the Giygas fight. Suddenly, it froze. I thought this was a common error, so I restarted. I then saw my save file was deleted.

Ugh, another one of those damned pirated cartridges. Time to go to a store. I called my friend to pick me up, seeing is how I am not able to get my drivers license. He came to my house immediately, and we set off to the store. We went to the flea market, because, where else do you get video games that nobody ever plays anymore?

I then noticed a funny looking cartridge. Instead of a regular picture, it was a blank cartridge with a strip of tape with "Earthbound" put on it in permanent marker. I knew not to trust those things, seeing is how they are usually pirated or hacked to make a gamer go into suicide. I was smart for that, but very desperate. I picked up the cartridge. My friend told me that it shouldn't be trusted, but I told him that no other Earthbound cartridges were available. He then gave in. I showed the game to the cashier. He examined it, and said it was used. I bought it anyway.

My friend drove me home, and I immediately popped in the cartridge, turned on the SNES, and started to play. Of course, the previous owner wanted to make me scared, so he made 2 files. One said "NIGHT", and the next one said "MARE". I assumed this referenced to Ness's Nightmare. Nice try, previous owner. I made another file, and started playing. The gameplay was smooth, and great.

You don't get that from normal used cartridges. I started to like the original owner for not wrecking the cartridge. Anyways, just so you know, I picked the classic Ness, Paula, Jeff, Poo, King, Steak, and Rockin. I then started. Everything looked fine...except when I battled the Titanic Ant. The Titanic Ant looked very unusual. It looked all bloody, and sad. It's only actions were "Titanic Ant cried tears of blood!", "Titanic Ant quivered in fear!", "Titanic Ant softly said, "Help me..". I ignored its pleas, and continued to kill it. Sadistic, yes, but I only wanted to win.

When I beat it, it didn't disintegrate, it only fell onto the ground, and withered, and lost a lot of blood. This must have meant the Titanic Ant died. Then, the victory menu appeared. Very unusual indeed...But this was only the beginning. When I went onto Giant Step, it was all bloody. The grass was burned, and the walls were cracked. I recorded the melody. Only..this couldn't be the melody. It played backwards, it was distorted, and it seemed to be sped up x4. I tried to turn off the volume. Instead, it just got louder. I tried to turn up the volume, hoping it would work in reverse. It turned up still. This continued on. All the guardians were bloody, sad, and had the same actions as the Titanic Ant. The eight melodies were played backwards, distorted, and sped up x4. The areas in which the melodies were recorded looked destroyed.

The bones on the floor of Lilliput Steps were bloody, and surrounded by guts. The Pink Cloud had a blood red color. The Fire Spring was dried up, and raining blood mixed with water. Then, Ness entered Magicant. Magicant's music constantly shifted backwards and forward. Magicant's music was more distorted than before. It kept getting louder and louder. It was sped up x8. Ness's pajamas were stained in blood. All of the people in Magicant were skeletons covered in blood. When you talked to them, they moaned "Ness...help me...please...". When I went into the water, there were no Krakens. I also saw corpses of the Guardians in the water, which was red, indicating blood. Dead Titanic Ant. Dead Plague Rat of Doom. Dead Diamond Dog. I reached Ness's Nightmare. He looked like the only thing that wasn't changed. Except, in his battle sprite, he was covered in blood, while his background was the assumed-fetus form of Giygas. His battle music was mega distorted, shifting backwards and forwards repeatedly, 12x speed, volume that could split your ears open Giygas Is Fatally Wounded.

Plus, to make things more weirder, it was called Cole's Nightmare. What the HELL!? I never entered my name anywhere into the game! This scared the crap out of me. The only action Cole's Nightmare had was "Cole's Nightmare stared at you evilly, and said "You have no reason to live. You have no reason to live. You have no more reason to live..." I beat him, and then, the melodies called to me. Only, since they were distorted, they decreased Ness's stats severely, and Ness's HP stayed at 0. I then pressed A one more time. It said, instead of the normal

"Ness got hurt and collapsed...", it said.. "Ness clutched his heart, and withered away." The scene changed back to the Fire Spring. Ness disintegrated into a pool of blood. Paula, Jeff, and Poo were crying. Paula held Ness, and said "Ness....", and then cast PSI Fire on herself, and she burned into ashes. Jeff fell onto the ground, cried, and then took a bottle rocket to his face, and blasted himself, causing his head to explode. Poo bowed at Ness's body, then took his Sword Of Kings, and stabbed himself in the heart. The scene then changed to Pokey laughing, commenting how Ness and his stupid friends were meaningless to his plans. Then, he turned off the Devil's Machine. Giygas emerged, and cast shadows all over the world. The world was then consumed in darkness. The scene changed to the opening picture you see at the start of the game, only it was nighttime, there was no WAR AGAINST GIYGAS, Giygas was floating in the sky, and many blood-stained corpses littered the streets.

Then Giygas did one more thing. "Giygas tried PSI Nightmare!" The SNES then suddenly turned off, and my TV broke all of the sudden. I called a mechanic, then broke the cartridge into pieces. I don't care anymore about Earthbound. I then went to playing some Pokémon, which was one of my other favorite Nintendo series. But the game could not leave my memory. I also was desperate to find out who sold this cartridge of evil. Who wanted to scare kids? Who did this? I decided to go back to the flea market I went to.

I asked the cashier who sold this cartridge. He then said he didn't know who it was and where the cartridge even came from. He suggested I talked to the boss. I asked him who sold the cartridge. He also didn't know who it was. I just gave up, and went home. When I got home, I noticed it was late, so I went to sleep. I had a nightmare. I was in the same Magicant Ness was in, only more sinister, and no skeletons. I ventured through it, and I knew where I was going to end up. I encountered Cole's Nightmare again. He said that he created the cartridge, hoping for a victim. He then said that I belonged to him. Giygas then was the only thing I saw in my dreams then, with Cole's Nightmare in the background, until I woke up.

I never touched another Earthbound game again. But the nightmare still haunted me. How? Whenever I saw a large ant, a mole, a plant that hasn't grown in a long time, a mushroom, a sewer rat, a thunder cloud, a clump of concrete arranged into a humanoid, or a dog, I always hear the nightmare's voice in my dream. He says to me, "This is the guardian of your (insert number here) sanctuary...". Then, whatever it is grows legs and eyes if it doesn't have any (a head just pops out of the thundercloud), then it moves towards me. Their eyes are shown to me, empty sockets, they cry out blood, and softly say "Help me...Cole...". Credits to RedMageCole