| abstract | - The following is a letter found on a college campus within a library by a young student who reported the mysterious text in the hopes of an investigation. It should be noted there is no evidence supporting the author's writings nor have there been any studies on the subject matter at hand. The writer was never discovered and all investigations have ceased. Taking all of this into account, it recounts a very odd set of occurrences and should be read with discretion. The letter seems old so some parts of it are illegible due to aging, and sadly could not be recovered. "It wasn't supposed to be this way, I didn't intend for this. If you are reading then perhaps there's still a chance. Maybe I'm not as mad as everyone thinks I am. If I can convince you, then maybe, just maybe, we can stop it..." The next three lines of text are covered by a strange, red stain. It seems, though, that the author is hoping someone will read this and is addressing the audience directly. The writer suddenly jumps backwards chronologically almost as if trying to start from the beginning, trying to explain himself. "I grew up in Mississippi as a hardcore gamer. I was never the athletic type, and I was somewhat scrawny so I turned to games to help me feel stronger. After some time, I don't exactly remember when, but I decided that I was going to go to college for Interactive Media Works, I believe the local community college called it. At 19, I started my first semester and moved to the campus for my first semester at... community college." For some reason the name of the college is scribbled, almost as if the writer didn't want anyone knowing where he had studied, but it should be noted the writing was found in the library of Hinds Community College, it had been pressed between the pages of a copy of Stephen King's "Stand". "My roommate and I had hit it off great, and together we'd built up a nice little man-cave. Where the hell did they go, I know they're watching me, I can feel them. Stop them, get them away from me..." The writer appears to have a brief psychotic break as the next couple of lines continue with these odd ramblings with no clear subject. Whatever the writer is talking about, however, seems to be "watching" him. When our writer returns from this rant it's almost as if it never happened, he doesn't even acknowledge the strange cryptic writing. "Our room was stocked with soda's and energy drinks of all sorts and a slew of consoles and games. I also had a laptop of my own I'd gotten as a graduation gift. We got along great, never really having any issue and, even though we did have some ground rules, we never really stepped on each other's toes. We would greet each other each morning before leaving for class and then spend the late afternoon just goofing off together. I had just earned an academic refund and decided I'd spend a little bit on myself to buy a game. I went through the usual routine of going to Gamestop and browsing for a few hours. I stumbled across a copy of Super Mario Galaxy. Of course, I'd heard good things about it and decided it would be worth the quick buy. I made the transaction at the counter and returned to my dorm. I arrived at my room, popped the disk into my Wii, and played. I have to admit, I enjoyed it. It was a nice distraction from grades and school, but I had this strange feeling, almost like I was being watched. I racked that up to the fact we had security cameras in our dorms. After a few days of playing this as much as possible, stopping only to eat, sleep when necessary, and attend classes, I managed to complete the main game, but I never managed to shake that feeling of being stalked. A few weeks would go by and even though I had stopped playing the game, that sensation persisted..." The next words are blurred beyond repair, possibly caused by a coarse rubbing with the fingers or hand, this is further evidence by particularly severe wrinkling and tearing of the paper around this area. It should also be noted here that, in the following parts, the handwriting changes ever so slightly, becoming sloppier and more rushed, as if the writer is suddenly in a hurry. "I don't have much time, I have to finish quickly. Weeks would go by with that gut wrenching instinct, something telling me that I wasn't safe, I was in real danger. Despite this strange feeling no matter how much I looked, how meticulously I searched, there wasn't any identifiable threat. The last day of the semester would arrive and as a sort of celebration, my friends, my roommate, and I all threw a small party. We had passed our classes with no issue and just wanted to enjoy our few weeks of freedom for Christmas break. We took pictures, we drank, we did everything you could think of that night. Christmas break came, and I passed the time by watching Youtube videos and playing games. I stumbled across something, much like people tend to do on the internet, apparently someone had found these strange creatures in Super Mario Galaxy, he had video evidence and had even found the texture file. These mysterious creatures were called the..." Again, black scribbling through the name. "The videos and all the posts were old, and I wanted to see if they were in my game. So I revisited the game and played through a few of the worlds, until I came to the one they were supposed to have inhabited, I looked for them but they weren't there. I assumed this was some sort of weird hoax or just a prank, but I decided to look into it. "I had managed to find closer images of these creatures, they were strange, with the top end of their body being larger than the bottom. It appeared that their eyes were just voids through which you could see into their souls. There it was again, that sensation of being watched, that horrid feeling that someone was stalking me. This time however the feeling was accompanied by a new dread, there were whispers. "They started out as a singular, low whisper, but it slowly escalated into hundreds of thousands of voices until eventually it became a continuous, never ceasing drone. It was driving me crazy, finally I cried out, 'Shut up!' It stopped, I heard loud footsteps coming up the stairs, accompanied by my mother's voice." "Are you OK? I heard yelling..." "Yeah, I'm fine Ma." I hadn't referred to my mother by anything other than Ma, in years. I returned my focus to the screen. This creature, if so many people had seen it in their games, why hadn't I?" Here it appears the writer took a small break because the next lines have returned to the original handwriting and are somehow neater. "What day is it? I can't remember. I've been trapped here for too long, can't keep my focus up. My days and nights are blurring together, the sun doesn't rise and set here and everything is so disorienting." Possibly another break on the behalf of the writer. "The mind is such a wonderful thing, we can create entire worlds, if we can create worlds, then we can feed them right? If we can feed them, we can starve them, if we can starve them, we can kill them. I kept researching these mysterious entities. Constantly having to rest and try to shake the feeling of someone looking over my shoulder, what was that noise?" By now it appears our author is struggling to stay focused, with text being relevant to the topic interspersed with the occasional break from the story. "As I looked into every video, text, and image I could find on the subject, something about this creature seemed oddly familiar. Soon it had become an obsession, I began frequenting blogs and sights researching as much as I could about these..." Again, the name is scribbled as if he didn't want to let the name go. "Where had I seen this thing before? Suddenly it hit me. No, that couldn't be. I furiously typed in a new URL, redirecting me to my Facebook. I went to my uploaded photos and navigated my way to the folder of my college photos. There it was, that horrifying image. It was standing in the background of almost every picture I had taken since playing Super Mario Galaxy. They were hidden in plain sight whether it be off in the distance, veiled by the fog, or hidden behind a tree or building but they were always there." Our writer seems to have sketched an image of a strange creature, one that looks exactly as he described but with an added detail, two needle-like legs that stick out from the image. "I'm safe for now, here where they can't see. I switched to a more recent folder, and noticed as time went on and as my obsession grew the creatures grew closer to me in the photo. There it was, that whisper again, this time it was slightly louder and escalated more quickly than the first time I'd heard it. I wanted to scream out again, maybe it would stop like it did last time, but my voice failed me. I couldn't even muster the will to move my lips. My eyes grew heavy and I couldn't stay conscious anymore. "As I drifted into the oblivion of sleep I heard something clear and profound. One of the whispers sounded closer than the rest, as if it were right there in my ear. 'You did this,' I awoke, in this world of free-floating micro-planets, you should know this world, certainly you've seen it before. The world where they were born. If you're reading this then there is still a way out of this world for me, but there's no place left for me there. I can barely stay sane enough to write this letter, much less function in society, but if this letter finds you then you can seal this world away. Locking them here with me. "There they are watching me just waiting to see what I'm going to do next. If this finds you, and you read this, then don't keep it to yourself, spread it to everyone. They exist, they are real. As long as you think of them, as long as you continue to give them strength they will take more, but the moment you move on, the moment you stop caring about them then their world will break. One person's thoughts aren't enough to keep them healthy, they need more. I can keep them here, but I can't do it alone." It appears this is the end of the letter, several pages long and crinkled and browned, and even though the paper appears old, the writer references very recent things, such as the WII, and Super Mario Galaxy. The letter is also spotted with brown and red fingerprints. However, there is no evidence of foul play, and without a name to be searched, we can't say for sure whether a missing persons report was filed.
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