Minecraft

Nearly everyone has played Minecraft at one point or another. It's strangely addicting in it's childish ways and it can suck you in pretty easily. It has a darker side, though, that few have actually encountered.

The night I had the unfortunate pleasure of stumbling across what I did was just as normal as any other night, save that it was an especially dark night as it was a few days after the winter solstice. My parents were out and I had run of the entire house. I got bored and decided I wanted to play a game that I rarely played anymore: Minecraft. I booted up my laptop and started the game up.

All was normal (or as normal as I remembered). I browsed all of the worlds I had generated and was overcome by fond memories of gigantic PVP matches with my friends. I shook these memories off and came to the conclusion that I should generate a new world.

I clicked on the option for a new world and spammed the seed generator, resulting in a purposeless code of random numbers and letters. I chose survival mode on peaceful (I know, I know) and clicked to start a new world.

The load screen was particularly odd. There were all kinds of eerie sounds playing in the background and it took me a few minutes to realize that they were the sounds of the Nether. I thought that maybe I had gotten lucky with the seed and had possibly been spawned in the Nether.

The world generated as usual and the Nether sounds eventually died down. I looked around and noticed something odd... Everything was a few shades darker than it should have been. Then I looked up at was shocked at what I saw.

The sun was as bright as the actual sun and it was a truly painful experience to gaze into it. It was then that I realized something was truly amiss and that this wasn't just some sort of bug. The brightness of the sun forced me to travel away from it into an odd forest that was swamped with animals. The further into the forest I went, however, the darker the textures got, save for a path of stone that stretched for what seemed like eternity.

Curiosity got the better of me and against all instinct I was travelling down the well-lit path. When I had reached the cave it lead into everything was black besides the sky that was now eminating a sickly dark red. Once again curiosity got the better of me and I delved into the cave with an empty inventory and genuine fear.

Then the music started playing. It was a song I had never heard in the game and was probably a song in reverse. It had a static effect, though, that made it terrifying. As I traversed deeper into the cave the music and the static grew louder. Soon I was hearing whispers coming from behind me, but when I turned the sound (including the music) stopped. I couldn't believe what I was both seeing and hearing, coming from such an innocent game. My heart was slowly coming out of my chest... But I had to see what was at the bottom of this cave. It was just a game after all...

There was now a light at the bottom of the cave. It was a dark red, much like the sky, and it beckoned to me. I felt compelled to find out what was making all of this noise.

When I got within three blocks of the rather large void the light was glowing out of, the music and static and whispering picked up to an unbearable level. My speakers were thumping, spitting these horrible sounds at me with such terrifying disregard for me. If only I had heeded their warnings...

It was so horrible I had to turn the speakers off. I walked up to the red abyss, in complete silence, and gazed down hoping this was just some sort of hack. Once again my curiosity got the better of my and I tentatively tried to scale the side of the void, but to no avail.

I fell, nauseatingly quick, and I was bombarded with an onslaught of bright colors. Sadly I had forgotten to turn my built in speakers off and they were furious with me, now issuing a scream of such horrifying volume that it paralyzed me. Then I hit the bottom of the cave and the flurry of sound and color stopped. I died but the typical death menu didn't show up. It was just a spinning view of the cave bottom.

The light grew brighter and the hissing grew louder. Before I knew it I was engulfed in a blinding red light and being hissed at by my computer. I just sat and watched and the horror of whatever this was unravelled before me in a petrifying barrage of sound and sight.

Then a message flashed on my screen. It said "Run". It was red against a black background. I had no time to contemplate what this meant as my laptop burst into flames. Sparks flew everywhere and there was an explosion of blue light followed by an overwhelmingly loud pop. I entered a hysterical frenzy, one of pure horror and confusion, and ran to find something, anything, to end this nightmare.

I knew never to ever try to put out an electrical fire with water ever. As I searched for a fire extinguisher I frantically dialed 911 on my cellphone and spoke of the fire so fast that the operator couldn't even follow.

"Sir, calm down, we're sending a fireteam to your location immidieatly. Can you explain what happened again?"

I tried, but the terror and the tears I no longer fought back flowed like water from a broken dam. I smelled the smoke, hung up, and doubled my efforts to find something to extenguish the fire. I finally found an extenguisher that seemed nearly hidden and brought a blanket with me thinking I could smother it. I got into my room only to find that it was entirely ablaze and that I was now incapacitated by the fumes and the heat. The wall caved in and I was stuck, hoping with all of my existance that I wouldn't fall victim to such a childish game.

Thankfully the firemen showed up only a few minutes after I passed out. I was saved and had to explain the entire ordeal to my parents. Shortly thereafter, life returned to normal. We had repaired all of the damage done to my room (which there was apparently alot of) and soon we were living as if it never happened. But one day I got the urge to play that foresaken game once more and possibly seek resolve or find an apology, anything to find closure to what had happened, any explanation at all...

I downloaded Minecraft on my new laptop under the same username. I started it up and created a new world and built a house that was strikingly similar to the one I actually lived in. I loaded the map up after a few days only to find that the house was on fire.

I put out the fire and proceeded to salvage the house. I went into my room where the most damage had been done and looked out the window to find something that brought anything but closure to my tumultous situation: there was a sign placed directly outside my window.

It read: "You should have listened..."