# "Family_simulator.EXE" Creepypasta

An episode of [CreepsMcPasta Creepypasta Radio](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1492008134), 12 Aug 2024, 38 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/60988970/family_simulator_exe_creepypasta.mp3

CREEPYPASTA STORY►by Plus_Ad_4226: / family_simulatorexe Creepypastas are the campfire tales of the internet. Horror stories spread through Reddit r/nosleep, forums and blogs, rather than word of mouth. Whether you believe these scary stories to be true or not is left to your own discretion and imagination. LISTEN TO CREEPYPASTAS ON THE GO- SPOTIFY► https://open.spotify.com/show/7l0iRPd... iTUNES► https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast... SUGGESTED CREEPYPASTA PLAYLISTS- ►"Good Places to Start"- • "I wasn't careful enough on the deep ... ►"Personal Favourites"- • "I sold my soul for a used dishwasher... ►"Written by me"- • "I've been Blind my Whole Life" Creep... ►"Long Stories"- • Long Stories FOLLOW ME ON- ►Twitter: / creeps_mcpasta ►Instagram: / creepsmcpasta ►Twitch: / creepsmcpasta ►Facebook: / creepsmcpasta CREEPYPASTA MUSIC/ SFX- ►http://bit.ly/Audionic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/Myuusic ♪ ►http://bit.ly/incompt ♪ ►http://bit.ly/EpidemicM ♪ This creepypasta is for entertainment purposes only

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: I wish I could say that my parents death had meaning,
[0:05] Speaker 1: that they died for a good reason, But they didn't.
[0:11] Speaker 1: I was only eleven years old at the time. A
[0:14] Speaker 1: drunk man racing home to catch his wife cheating blind
[0:17] Speaker 1: sided them on a turn. My parents didn't die heroes.
[0:22] Speaker 1: They didn't die for a grand purpose. They died because
[0:27] Speaker 1: some one took them from me too early. This was
[0:33] Speaker 1: the first time I felt real, raw grief. The memory
[0:38] Speaker 1: of when I was told the moment it happened is
[0:41] Speaker 1: snap shot in my mind, like a burn that never heals.
[0:45] Speaker 1: The way my guts sank, like the dip of a
[0:48] Speaker 1: monstrous roller coaster, the pit left as my child's self
[0:52] Speaker 1: realized the permanent nature of it. I can even still
[0:56] Speaker 1: feel the tingles in my fingers as the shock set in.
[1:00] Speaker 1: The words played in real time, but my body felt slowed.
[1:04] Speaker 1: Breathing became manual, as my vision tilted over and over.
[1:11] Speaker 1: I was not emotionally ready for this. I was barely
[1:15] Speaker 1: emotionally handling school, so them being taken so callously left
[1:20] Speaker 1: me empty for longer than I'd liked to admit. After
[1:26] Speaker 1: their passing, my grandparents moved into my parents home with me.
[1:30] Speaker 1: They packed up their lives and tried to pick up
[1:32] Speaker 1: where my parents left off. Four years. They tried to
[1:37] Speaker 1: connect with me, but I was emotionally unstable. I resented
[1:42] Speaker 1: them for trying to take their place. Their love hurt
[1:46] Speaker 1: me in ways they couldn't win. They tried to coddle
[1:51] Speaker 1: me during and after the funeral. For four years. They
[1:55] Speaker 1: tried to break down my walls, but the walls I
[1:58] Speaker 1: built held strong. I sank myself into the last connection
[2:02] Speaker 1: I felt I had with them. Games. My father was
[2:09] Speaker 1: a software engineer, so he spent a lot of time
[2:12] Speaker 1: on the computer, and to my mother's dismay, he dragged
[2:16] Speaker 1: me into the digital world. Early on. I couldn't get
[2:21] Speaker 1: the hang of using a mouse and keyboard. I think
[2:24] Speaker 1: my hands were too small at the time, so we
[2:26] Speaker 1: bought me a console. We would huddle around the TV
[2:30] Speaker 1: and play all the best co op games he could find,
[2:35] Speaker 1: or snooping for presents. One Christmas, I even found a
[2:38] Speaker 1: stack of games magazines red marker circles around games that
[2:42] Speaker 1: specifically mentioned local co op. This is how he always
[2:47] Speaker 1: managed to find a perfect game for us every time
[2:51] Speaker 1: I skimmed over this in the moment, having not found
[2:54] Speaker 1: the presence. They hid so well, but looking back, my
[2:58] Speaker 1: heart breaks knowing how much care he put into this
[3:02] Speaker 1: harby of ours. However, there were times I'd catch him
[3:07] Speaker 1: playing games on his own. He was a PC gamer
[3:11] Speaker 1: born and bred, so that was where i'd find him
[3:14] Speaker 1: playing solo, but he never seemed to put the same
[3:17] Speaker 1: energy into finding new games to play. Rather, I'd always
[3:22] Speaker 1: seen him playing games of pixels and numbers, simulation games
[3:26] Speaker 1: from his era of gaming. I'd asked to play too,
[3:31] Speaker 1: but he'd always tell me I was too young for
[3:33] Speaker 1: these kinds of games, and that when I was older,
[3:36] Speaker 1: he'd show me how to play them. This always welled
[3:40] Speaker 1: mixed feelings of annoyance in the moment and anticipation for
[3:44] Speaker 1: that time to come. But eventually games lost their luster,
[3:51] Speaker 1: no matter how much I played, trying to honor them.
[3:54] Speaker 1: In my mind, I was now playing solo. Not seeing
[3:59] Speaker 1: the screensp with another player alongside me was a constant
[4:03] Speaker 1: reminder of the pain I was almost exclusively broad up
[4:07] Speaker 1: on split screen CORP experiences. I was never into playing
[4:11] Speaker 1: without my dad, but that's when it hit me. My
[4:17] Speaker 1: father would play solo, but he'd play those weird pixelated
[4:20] Speaker 1: simulation games so I had it in my head that
[4:25] Speaker 1: to enjoy those types of games would make me the
[4:28] Speaker 1: adult I idolized him as, but I didn't know where
[4:33] Speaker 1: to start. He never talked about them, saving that for
[4:38] Speaker 1: a time that would never come. His computer was locked
[4:42] Speaker 1: behind a password that was forever lost. So I had
[4:46] Speaker 1: to find these games myself. I took to the best
[4:51] Speaker 1: resource I knew of to solve the greatest mysteries on Earth. Google.
[4:59] Speaker 1: I put him buzzwe of what I could remember simulation
[5:02] Speaker 1: games in the single player old and press search. These
[5:09] Speaker 1: words were not very specific, so it yielded a wide
[5:12] Speaker 1: variety of stuff, and after hours of scarring each page,
[5:17] Speaker 1: I found a foreign post about a game someone had made,
[5:22] Speaker 1: even though it was made in recent times. The screenshots
[5:25] Speaker 1: they used to advertise it had that retro style I
[5:28] Speaker 1: was looking for. But it wasn't just how it looked.
[5:33] Speaker 1: Something else drew me to this game above all the
[5:36] Speaker 1: others that had a similar vibe. Its name Family Simulator.
[5:47] Speaker 1: It boasted an extensive game system that you had to
[5:50] Speaker 1: manage to keep up an ideal family, something I wouldn't
[5:54] Speaker 1: have gone for, opting to lean towards shooters, but it
[5:58] Speaker 1: was this dichotomy that made me take the plunge. The
[6:02] Speaker 1: instructions were fairly simple for my first time, not just
[6:05] Speaker 1: popping in a disc. It ran through an ex file
[6:08] Speaker 1: that did all the decisions for me. As the green
[6:12] Speaker 1: bar field, A sudden wave of emotions overcame me. My
[6:18] Speaker 1: father had always kept me from these kinds of games,
[6:21] Speaker 1: always thinking I'd prefer the modern titles he kept up with,
[6:25] Speaker 1: so this really felt like a chance to connect with
[6:28] Speaker 1: them post mortem, no matter how little it was. I
[6:34] Speaker 1: launched the game. Initially I was met with a black screen,
[6:39] Speaker 1: and then a studio logo screen. An image of a
[6:43] Speaker 1: heart came up alongside the words Famco most likely the
[6:48] Speaker 1: came creator, trying to get their name out there. Nothing
[6:52] Speaker 1: flash your significant, but charming for something probably made by
[6:56] Speaker 1: one person. The title screen faced, followed by a basic textbox,
[7:03] Speaker 1: a little line flickering, beckoning me to start writing. The
[7:08] Speaker 1: question was simple, tell me about your life. I thought
[7:15] Speaker 1: for a moment I had been asked this a lot
[7:21] Speaker 1: by counselors, my grandparents and kids that never cared about
[7:25] Speaker 1: me before they heard the news. A gesture I dismissed
[7:29] Speaker 1: at face value with a blunt I'm fine they should
[7:33] Speaker 1: have known the answer, so I felt insulted each time
[7:37] Speaker 1: I was asked. After a while, my grandparents were withdrawn
[7:41] Speaker 1: about asking this, seemingly respecting my decision of maintaining distance,
[7:47] Speaker 1: and yet for some reason that frustrated me too. But
[7:52] Speaker 1: looking back, I'd never truly thought about the answer above
[7:57] Speaker 1: a simple no, much less answered it honestly. I kept
[8:03] Speaker 1: all of this inside, and it finally bubbled up to
[8:06] Speaker 1: a point, the straw that broke the camel's back. I
[8:12] Speaker 1: started typing. All the frustration, sadness, envy, jealousy, all of
[8:19] Speaker 1: it was being shoved into this game. Time blurred while
[8:24] Speaker 1: I hashed out my rant. I was putting my soul
[8:27] Speaker 1: into this answer for the first time ever. It felt silly,
[8:32] Speaker 1: even in the moment, knowing I was going at it
[8:35] Speaker 1: into some indie game of pixels and text. I didn't
[8:39] Speaker 1: know why I was giving this game so much information
[8:41] Speaker 1: about myself, but it felt good to get these feelings
[8:45] Speaker 1: out somewhere where I knew I couldn't be judged. I
[8:49] Speaker 1: could just say my piece and not hear hollow rhetoric
[8:52] Speaker 1: about hope and healing, and it felt good. The black
[8:59] Speaker 1: Box a silent listener that I needed something that wouldn't
[9:04] Speaker 1: pity me, but would just listen. I hadn't even gotten
[9:10] Speaker 1: into the game, and I was exhausted. I had tied
[9:13] Speaker 1: out everything I missed about my parents. How I dearly
[9:16] Speaker 1: missed the meals my mother would make, my father taking
[9:19] Speaker 1: me out to a field just to throw a ball around.
[9:22] Speaker 1: How he'd show me neat tricks that would have me
[9:24] Speaker 1: barely laughing. The way he would get up five hours
[9:27] Speaker 1: before any of us to tell us that he woke
[9:30] Speaker 1: up early, only to go back to bed a few
[9:32] Speaker 1: minutes after informing us. I missed staring at the watch
[9:36] Speaker 1: I gifted my mother, with my dad's help, of course,
[9:40] Speaker 1: that my mother adored when we went out for special occasions,
[9:43] Speaker 1: The way they treated me, how much I loved them,
[9:46] Speaker 1: how much I missed loving them. Every single minute detail
[9:51] Speaker 1: was handed over. The game accepted the information with a
[9:58] Speaker 1: satisfying ding sound, and I was sent to another menu,
[10:03] Speaker 1: this time character creation. Now I've never been the creative sort,
[10:10] Speaker 1: so I blatantly just made myself. I named myself Alex
[10:15] Speaker 1: set brown hair and brown eyes, a simple white T
[10:18] Speaker 1: shirt and jeans. I was also prompted with adding personal
[10:22] Speaker 1: details like my birthday, number of friends, and my likes
[10:26] Speaker 1: and dislikes. What I didn't expect was the choice of
[10:31] Speaker 1: a family. It was in as in depth as the
[10:35] Speaker 1: character creation itself, only a couple of presets. Preset one
[10:40] Speaker 1: was a woman with red hair, a simple crop top,
[10:43] Speaker 1: and some shorts. The men not too dissimilar from my
[10:46] Speaker 1: own outfit. Preset two was they looked like my parents.
[10:54] Speaker 1: It sounds crazy, but it just felt like them. The
[10:59] Speaker 1: models were just ash above simple pixels, but they carried
[11:02] Speaker 1: so many of their characteristics I grew to recognize in them.
[11:06] Speaker 1: The jovial look my mother wore on a near constant basis,
[11:10] Speaker 1: my father's stoic stature that exuded the confidence that he
[11:14] Speaker 1: was always trying to pass on to me. It was uncanny.
[11:20] Speaker 1: I was at a bit of a loss. I know
[11:23] Speaker 1: I missed them, but I didn't realize how much I
[11:26] Speaker 1: still missed them, even after four years. I mean, for
[11:31] Speaker 1: a second, I had been convinced that these were my
[11:34] Speaker 1: parents in some way. The game was something I was
[11:38] Speaker 1: looking to sing some time into as a distraction, but
[11:41] Speaker 1: now it fully captured my attention. I accepted all the
[11:47] Speaker 1: settings and the game loaded up. It played a scenic
[11:52] Speaker 1: shot of the house before fading to me in a
[11:55] Speaker 1: room with the family. But as soon as I spawned in,
[12:00] Speaker 1: I was shocked with a loud bang. I jumped a
[12:05] Speaker 1: little in my seat and my heart raised at the fright. Alex,
[12:10] Speaker 1: go to bed yo of school to morrow. Those games
[12:13] Speaker 1: are going to make you sick. It was my grandmother
[12:18] Speaker 1: on the other side of my door. I always had
[12:22] Speaker 1: my door locked, so this was how she would communicate
[12:25] Speaker 1: with me. I checked the time and it was already
[12:29] Speaker 1: two a m. As much as I hated to admit it,
[12:34] Speaker 1: she was right. But sleep didn't come easy with my
[12:40] Speaker 1: curiosity swelling around my head about this new game. Perhaps
[12:44] Speaker 1: I was mistaken, but the thing I had seen as
[12:48] Speaker 1: the game had just loaded in was too much to
[12:51] Speaker 1: be a coincidence. Surely it couldn't have been a mistake.
[12:56] Speaker 1: The setting was a near perfect rendition of the house
[13:01] Speaker 1: I grew up in, the house I was in right now.
[13:06] Speaker 1: The more I thought about it, the more excuses I
[13:08] Speaker 1: made to cope. How had the game replicated these things
[13:12] Speaker 1: so perfectly? But it was the room that was what
[13:16] Speaker 1: I couldn't explain. I saw a dining room, but the
[13:20] Speaker 1: details were too familiar. The shade of wood on the
[13:23] Speaker 1: square dining table, the layout of the cabinets, the door
[13:27] Speaker 1: that led to the kitchen. It was almost entirely the same.
[13:33] Speaker 1: It could have been coincidence. My house was a common
[13:36] Speaker 1: suburban build with similar layouts in the rows of houses
[13:40] Speaker 1: near me. But it was the layers of coincidences that
[13:44] Speaker 1: had me stumped on an explanation. I breathed a sigh
[13:48] Speaker 1: of relief as I realized that I was the one
[13:51] Speaker 1: that handed details over. Perhaps I really had given the
[13:55] Speaker 1: game too much information. This thought didn't entirely settle me,
[14:02] Speaker 1: but it eased my mind enough to get some sleep.
[14:14] Speaker 1: I rose out of bed with a heavy groan. I
[14:17] Speaker 1: looked over my clock and bolted awake. Seeing that I
[14:21] Speaker 1: missed my first alarm, I quickly got up and rushed
[14:25] Speaker 1: my morning routine. As I boarded the bus, I prepared
[14:30] Speaker 1: mentally for another crueling day of education. School was meant
[14:35] Speaker 1: to be an escape, at least that's what I was told,
[14:39] Speaker 1: and place where you kick back with your friends and
[14:42] Speaker 1: get into little adventures, all while building your future. For me,
[14:48] Speaker 1: though that couldn't be further from the truth. I was
[14:54] Speaker 1: an outcast, no small fault of my own, and I
[14:58] Speaker 1: refused to socialize. I couldn't when I started high school.
[15:04] Speaker 1: It was not long after the incident. My only thought
[15:08] Speaker 1: was if only I could speak to them one last time.
[15:13] Speaker 1: This floated in my head as my peers attempted to
[15:16] Speaker 1: make conversation with me. By the time I realized I'd
[15:20] Speaker 1: made myself alone, the cliques were formed, and I was
[15:24] Speaker 1: labeled as a quiet, weird kid, a prime target for harassment.
[15:32] Speaker 1: Arriving at class, I was reminded of the grim reality
[15:35] Speaker 1: I was facing the thing I dreaded for a week,
[15:40] Speaker 1: group assignments. I attempted to weasele myself into a group,
[15:47] Speaker 1: but of course Jonathan and his bodies ensured that I
[15:50] Speaker 1: would achieve no such thing. The truth was that Jonathan
[15:55] Speaker 1: was just as insecure as I was, but the difference
[15:59] Speaker 1: was that he projected his much louder than anyone else,
[16:03] Speaker 1: and I was the conduit for his emotional baggage. The
[16:08] Speaker 1: teacher saw me alone and exclaimed that whoever I had
[16:11] Speaker 1: no group, would take a test instead. He spoke like
[16:15] Speaker 1: he was talking to the class, but he was obviously
[16:19] Speaker 1: just about me. I sat in the corner of the classroom,
[16:24] Speaker 1: away from everyone else, But instead of getting on with
[16:29] Speaker 1: the test, I started to dwell on the game again.
[16:34] Speaker 1: I could easily chalk everything down to coincidence, but what
[16:39] Speaker 1: if it wasn't Could I speak with them again? The
[16:44] Speaker 1: notion was absurd. Thinking my parents was somehow in that
[16:48] Speaker 1: game was an impossibility, But with so much unresolved, there
[16:53] Speaker 1: was an irrational part of me that wanted to believe
[16:56] Speaker 1: it was true. I on the test with how distracted
[17:01] Speaker 1: I was, and school couldn't end any sooner. But I
[17:06] Speaker 1: knew it wasn't over yet. Jonathan had a knack for
[17:12] Speaker 1: finding blind spots from authority. Somehow, he'd always catch me alone,
[17:17] Speaker 1: despite my best attempts at staying within eyeshot of people,
[17:21] Speaker 1: though this sometimes didn't even help when other kids would
[17:24] Speaker 1: just turn a blind eye to his outbursts. The only
[17:28] Speaker 1: constant was me. A slap here, a slap there. I'd
[17:33] Speaker 1: learned to ignore them, but in my already emotional state,
[17:37] Speaker 1: I ran crying when I got home. My eyes had
[17:44] Speaker 1: already run dry. As I entered through the front door,
[17:48] Speaker 1: my grandmother greeted me, how a school to day, honey,
[17:53] Speaker 1: she soothed. Despite her soft tone, the sadness quickly turned
[17:58] Speaker 1: to frustration. I shrugged her off with a plunt. It
[18:03] Speaker 1: was fine, and I ran past her. Rushing past the kitchen,
[18:08] Speaker 1: a glint caught my eye, a watch. I didn't have
[18:12] Speaker 1: time to check. I needed to get back on the game.
[18:18] Speaker 1: I slammed my door shut and latched the bolt. I
[18:21] Speaker 1: booted up the game and was loaded in. It was
[18:25] Speaker 1: me in my own house with my parents, and it
[18:30] Speaker 1: was everything I had always wanted. My pixelated character walked
[18:38] Speaker 1: over to my mother, and as I got close to her,
[18:41] Speaker 1: a black square appeared. Press enter to interact how a
[18:49] Speaker 1: school today? Honey popped up, followed by a box I
[18:53] Speaker 1: could type in this question again. I'd grown to hate
[18:59] Speaker 1: this question. The people had asked this never seemed to
[19:02] Speaker 1: actually care about my well being, more so just going
[19:06] Speaker 1: through the motions of conversation. But I felt safe opening
[19:11] Speaker 1: up in this game. The disconnect helped me disassociate from
[19:15] Speaker 1: judgment before, so I wanted to try it again, even
[19:19] Speaker 1: if to just vent privately. This is where the game
[19:23] Speaker 1: became my escape, another reality where everything was as it
[19:27] Speaker 1: was always meant to be. Jonathan keeps bullying me. The
[19:32] Speaker 1: Kitten class despise me, and I can't even muster rub
[19:35] Speaker 1: the effort to stand up for myself, because in all honesty,
[19:39] Speaker 1: it's the path I chose. I miss you, ma'am. I
[19:44] Speaker 1: wish you were here to guide me, to comfort me.
[19:49] Speaker 1: As soon as I sent the message, she instantly responded,
[19:53] Speaker 1: I see, sweetie, Mammy is here for you. Your father
[19:57] Speaker 1: and I missed you so dearly. The NBC responded, I
[20:04] Speaker 1: felt warm. Those were the words that I had been
[20:07] Speaker 1: craving and craving that my grandparents, no matter their efforts,
[20:12] Speaker 1: could never satisfy. The dialog option disappeared, and with it,
[20:18] Speaker 1: so did my ability to interact with her. The sadness
[20:22] Speaker 1: lingered over the fact that the interaction was so short,
[20:26] Speaker 1: but I wanted to see more. I decided I'd take
[20:31] Speaker 1: some time and explore the house and maybe see if
[20:34] Speaker 1: I could interact with her father too. I walked down
[20:38] Speaker 1: the corridor of my childhood home towards my father's office.
[20:44] Speaker 1: I prompt appeared, asking me if I wanted a knock
[20:47] Speaker 1: on the office door, and I accepted. He called to
[20:51] Speaker 1: come in, and the screen faded out and back in
[20:54] Speaker 1: to us in the office. In reality, it was now
[20:59] Speaker 1: a room for boxes still unpacked from my grandparents moving in,
[21:04] Speaker 1: But here the room was back to life. My father
[21:08] Speaker 1: sat at his desk, which spent the majority of the
[21:11] Speaker 1: small offices with This time, the conversation began without a
[21:17] Speaker 1: need for me to initiate any prompts. The words of
[21:21] Speaker 1: my MPC father flashed across the screen. Hey, Champ, everything
[21:27] Speaker 1: all right. No textbox came up for me to type in,
[21:32] Speaker 1: he staid. This time I was met with two choices,
[21:36] Speaker 1: yes and no. After the talk with the mother, I
[21:41] Speaker 1: was feeling a lot better, so I chose the first option.
[21:46] Speaker 1: That's great to hear, Champ, he responded. This made me smile.
[21:52] Speaker 1: Though he would cycle through nicknames and titles to call me,
[21:56] Speaker 1: Champ was sometimes one of them. It might have been
[21:59] Speaker 1: added as a clear shay, but even as a coincidence,
[22:02] Speaker 1: it still made me happy. Then the NBC asked me
[22:07] Speaker 1: if I wanted to play ball with him. Even though
[22:11] Speaker 1: I knew was or virtual, there was still a small
[22:14] Speaker 1: excitement at the idea of playing ball with my dad again.
[22:19] Speaker 1: The screen faded to black and we were in the yard.
[22:23] Speaker 1: We passed the ball around for a few minutes, the
[22:25] Speaker 1: game looking like nothing more than a PowerPoint presentation animation
[22:30] Speaker 1: but in its own way it was endearing. Sleep came
[22:35] Speaker 1: easier this time, for the first time in recent years.
[22:40] Speaker 1: I was fulfilled, as if I had felt parental connections again,
[22:45] Speaker 1: even if only virtually. Still, some moneyes set in as
[22:50] Speaker 1: I contemplated the legitimacy of the interactions I just had,
[22:54] Speaker 1: if there was simply the execution of basic code or
[22:58] Speaker 1: something more. In the moment, I was absorbed with trying
[23:03] Speaker 1: to connect to my parents, but lying in bed, I
[23:06] Speaker 1: was debating whether feeling satisfied emotionally from a bunch of
[23:10] Speaker 1: pixels was healthy. The next morning, as I rushed through
[23:19] Speaker 1: the house to catch the bus, I noticed my father's
[23:23] Speaker 1: office door was slightly ajar. I'm not a superstitious person,
[23:28] Speaker 1: but that room was not in use by my grandparents
[23:31] Speaker 1: or myself. It was, for all intents and purposes, a
[23:36] Speaker 1: storage room. I gently pushed the door open, and the
[23:41] Speaker 1: first thing I noticed was that the boxes had been rearranged,
[23:45] Speaker 1: as if whoever had moved them needed space for something.
[23:49] Speaker 1: Then I saw it, a ball lying in the middle
[23:54] Speaker 1: of the room. The move boxes could be explained away.
[23:59] Speaker 1: The ball being there made my head spin with questions.
[24:04] Speaker 1: It looked uncanny to the one i'd just seen in
[24:07] Speaker 1: the game, not identical, but too close to be written off.
[24:13] Speaker 1: The call from downstairs had me pull away from the scene.
[24:17] Speaker 1: I was already running late, and then the bus wouldn't
[24:20] Speaker 1: wait forever. I gave the room one more look before leaving,
[24:25] Speaker 1: the snapshot replaying in my head the whole day at school,
[24:31] Speaker 1: Another arduous day of school, more isolation, more pointless assignments,
[24:37] Speaker 1: more Jonathan. Getting home couldn't come any faster. When I
[24:43] Speaker 1: got home, I tried going straight to my room, but
[24:46] Speaker 1: was stopped. My grandmother deliberately placed herself in the way
[24:51] Speaker 1: of the stairs, making sure I couldn't get past without
[24:54] Speaker 1: hearing what she wanted to say. First, Alex worried about you.
[25:01] Speaker 1: We thought giving you space the heel would help, but
[25:04] Speaker 1: every day you've just shut yourself in your room. I
[25:08] Speaker 1: know you missed them. We missed them too. My grandfather
[25:13] Speaker 1: stepped around the corner and joined her side. He wasn't
[25:17] Speaker 1: on his feet much in his age, having waited for
[25:19] Speaker 1: my grandmother to start as he joined. How can you
[25:23] Speaker 1: know how I feel. You're not my parents, I yelled back,
[25:27] Speaker 1: my emotional bottle bobbling. Did my surprise this didn't elicit
[25:34] Speaker 1: anger from my grandparents. Rather, their faces turned soft. Look
[25:40] Speaker 1: at us, we're old. You don't think our parents are
[25:43] Speaker 1: gone too, But you're forgetting something. They were your parents, sure, However,
[25:49] Speaker 1: they were our kids, our daughter and son in law.
[25:53] Speaker 1: We loved them, and every day we hurt without them too.
[25:58] Speaker 1: My grandmother soothed, we raised them good, and we can
[26:02] Speaker 1: raise you good. You just have to let us in.
[26:06] Speaker 1: My grandfather added. I soaked in what they said, but
[26:11] Speaker 1: I closed it off. It wasn't the same, it would
[26:16] Speaker 1: never be the same. So, with my eyes welling, I
[26:20] Speaker 1: just ran to my room and locked myself in. After
[26:25] Speaker 1: sulking on my bed, I was left with silence. I
[26:29] Speaker 1: hated being with my thoughts, so I turned to the
[26:32] Speaker 1: noise I used to drown them out. The game. He
[26:38] Speaker 1: loaded it in, and I was back with my family.
[26:42] Speaker 1: My mother greeted me, and I welcomed this much better
[26:45] Speaker 1: than how I felt cornered earlier. However, instead of a conversation,
[26:51] Speaker 1: she simply told me to wait where I was, so
[26:55] Speaker 1: my character sat at the table. My father came in
[26:59] Speaker 1: and said some comments about work, something he'd always do,
[27:03] Speaker 1: regardless of if I understood what he was talking. About
[27:06] Speaker 1: or not, but I didn't mind. It was always nice
[27:11] Speaker 1: to hear him talk. Soon, my mother came back in.
[27:16] Speaker 1: Her outfit had changed a more fancier apparel instead of
[27:21] Speaker 1: normal house clothes. She wore a red dress and her
[27:24] Speaker 1: hair was made up into a bun. Her arms were bare,
[27:29] Speaker 1: which is how I spotted something that stood out in
[27:34] Speaker 1: the game. It looked like a few red pixels with
[27:37] Speaker 1: a yellow dot in the middle, unmistakably a watch, and
[27:42] Speaker 1: my heart was in my throat. It was uncanny to
[27:48] Speaker 1: the watch my father and I had gotten her for
[27:50] Speaker 1: a birthday, red band with a gold face. It really
[27:56] Speaker 1: was them. My eyes bald hard trying to take this in.
[28:02] Speaker 1: We have a surprise for you, she said, And I
[28:06] Speaker 1: knew what it was before I saw it, because I
[28:09] Speaker 1: smelled it. The smell of cake wafted it in and
[28:15] Speaker 1: I instantly recognized it a black forest ghatto, the cake
[28:21] Speaker 1: she always made me for my birthday. In the game,
[28:25] Speaker 1: she bawled it out and set it on the table,
[28:28] Speaker 1: candles already set on top. I checked the date on
[28:32] Speaker 1: the bottom right and completely forgot what day it was.
[28:37] Speaker 1: I hadn't celebrated my birthday since they passed my grandparents
[28:42] Speaker 1: tried to, but I always dismissed it. It was hard
[28:45] Speaker 1: to think of my birthday as a celebration without my parents.
[28:50] Speaker 1: A jingle played to the tune of the Birthday song,
[28:53] Speaker 1: and confetti flew around the room. My parents looked elated
[28:58] Speaker 1: as my character blew out the candle, something I wouldn't
[29:01] Speaker 1: have been able to do in my current heaving state.
[29:06] Speaker 1: But the smell lingered longer than I thought. At first,
[29:10] Speaker 1: I thought it was my emotions getting the better of me,
[29:14] Speaker 1: but there was the unmistakable smell of cake in my room.
[29:19] Speaker 1: Happy Birthday sun. They both exclaimed, we want to take
[29:24] Speaker 1: you out for your birthday our treat. My mother said,
[29:28] Speaker 1: pick any place you want. Where do you want to go?
[29:31] Speaker 1: My dad asked. A textbox appeared, prompting me to type
[29:36] Speaker 1: in an answer. I contemplated the answer. My first thought
[29:42] Speaker 1: was KFC. I know it's cheap junk food, but for
[29:47] Speaker 1: some reason, it was a bit of a family tradition,
[29:51] Speaker 1: though it might have been an indicator of our financial status.
[29:55] Speaker 1: But I thought about it more deeper than what the
[29:59] Speaker 1: game was, asking where did I truly want to go? Well,
[30:05] Speaker 1: the answer would be to be with my parents, So
[30:08] Speaker 1: I typed in the place then everyone had told me
[30:11] Speaker 1: where they went Heaven. That's a wonderful choice, son, they exclaimed.
[30:20] Speaker 1: Grab your thing, son, Let's go there, my dad said.
[30:25] Speaker 1: Then the screen faded to black, then crashed. My heart raised.
[30:33] Speaker 1: No no, no, no no, I muttered to myself, had nauseum.
[30:38] Speaker 1: I slapped the side of my monitor, knowing, damn well,
[30:40] Speaker 1: it wouldn't do a thing. I was so close. My
[30:45] Speaker 1: heart was setting the idea that I'd somehow see them again.
[30:50] Speaker 1: But in the silence, I started to think about it.
[30:55] Speaker 1: What if this was something they were telling me? The
[30:58] Speaker 1: last thing they were telling me felt like the game.
[31:02] Speaker 1: To get to where I needed to go, something had
[31:07] Speaker 1: to end. Life. Life is what needs to end to
[31:13] Speaker 1: get to Heaven, the place I wanted to be to
[31:17] Speaker 1: be with them. I looked around my room, then remembered something.
[31:24] Speaker 1: When they passed, I snuck into my dad's office and
[31:26] Speaker 1: took his old letter opener a drink it he'd show
[31:30] Speaker 1: off to me to open mail. He'd sometimes let me
[31:33] Speaker 1: use it myself, which my mother didn't approve of. It
[31:37] Speaker 1: was too sharp for a child to be playing with.
[31:41] Speaker 1: But as I slid it out of my drawer, hidden
[31:44] Speaker 1: away from my grandparents. I looked at it. Would it
[31:49] Speaker 1: get the job done? I put it down. This was ridiculous.
[31:55] Speaker 1: I tried to talk myself out of it, but each
[31:58] Speaker 1: rationality was answered with retal. I was unhappy, I had
[32:03] Speaker 1: no friends, I had no family, I was alone, so
[32:08] Speaker 1: why not join them? Even if it didn't work, it
[32:12] Speaker 1: would put me out of my misery. I stared at
[32:16] Speaker 1: the blade, deep in thought, and was ripped out of
[32:21] Speaker 1: it with a loud bang. Alex, can you get out here? Please?
[32:30] Speaker 1: Here was my grandmother on the other side of the
[32:33] Speaker 1: locked door. The shuffling footsteps I could hear catching up
[32:37] Speaker 1: must have been my grandfather. They had no idea what
[32:41] Speaker 1: I was up to. There was no way for them
[32:44] Speaker 1: to know, so they must have been just bothering me.
[32:49] Speaker 1: My eyes returned to the knife once more, the thoughts
[32:52] Speaker 1: coming back, yet I was ripped from it yet again
[32:56] Speaker 1: with bangs, more of them this time. If you don't
[33:00] Speaker 1: want to come out, can you at least let us in?
[33:05] Speaker 1: This was new They never tried twice. The door acted
[33:09] Speaker 1: like a voicemail. They'd say their message, then leave me
[33:13] Speaker 1: to respond to it, or not let us in. Those
[33:19] Speaker 1: words lingered in my head. I always went to them,
[33:23] Speaker 1: but I never let them in. This was my space
[33:27] Speaker 1: I'd carved out for myself, and I used it to
[33:30] Speaker 1: keep everyone out. This was the choice I had go
[33:37] Speaker 1: through with a plan to see my parents or see
[33:40] Speaker 1: what they wanted, and it was the hardest choice of
[33:45] Speaker 1: my life. The silence of the room weighed down on me,
[33:51] Speaker 1: and my breath shallowed. Could I make it quick? How
[33:55] Speaker 1: painful would it be? Would I actually see them? But
[34:01] Speaker 1: the lingering thought was if I could do it with
[34:03] Speaker 1: my grandparents on the other side of the door. So
[34:07] Speaker 1: I went with the second option to see what they wanted.
[34:13] Speaker 1: I hid the knife and slowly unlocked the door. Stood
[34:18] Speaker 1: outside with my grandparents big grins on their faces. Happy birthday, Alex,
[34:26] Speaker 1: they said. Enthused, I didn't know how to respond, and
[34:31] Speaker 1: they continued, I know you don't like to celebrate, but
[34:35] Speaker 1: we have something special for you. Come with us, my
[34:39] Speaker 1: grandmother said, So I did, my mind, too foggy to
[34:45] Speaker 1: do otherwise. They led me to the kitchen and in
[34:51] Speaker 1: the middle sat a cake, an exact replica of my
[34:55] Speaker 1: mother's black Forest gatto. This opened me up. What how,
[35:04] Speaker 1: how did you why? I was too stunned to form
[35:08] Speaker 1: a question, too many of them flying through my mind. Remember, Alex,
[35:14] Speaker 1: she had to learn it from somewhere. Making this cake
[35:17] Speaker 1: for your mother was a tradition that started with me,
[35:21] Speaker 1: she said proudly. I got something for you too, Alex.
[35:25] Speaker 1: My grandfather wheezed the walk from the stairs, taking the
[35:29] Speaker 1: wind out of him. He hobbled over with a box
[35:33] Speaker 1: wrapped in a red ribbon. I looked at it, not
[35:38] Speaker 1: having any idea what they could have gotten me. They
[35:41] Speaker 1: didn't know me, not in a personal way, to not
[35:45] Speaker 1: get me something generic. But I couldnt not open it
[35:49] Speaker 1: with them watching me, So I slipped the ribbon off
[35:53] Speaker 1: and looked. And what was inside it was something that
[35:59] Speaker 1: made my headlight from shock, needing to have to sit
[36:03] Speaker 1: down after seeing it. It was a watch with a
[36:08] Speaker 1: red strap and a gold face. My mother's watch? Is this?
[36:17] Speaker 1: I started, not having the energy to finish asking yes.
[36:22] Speaker 1: After the investigation, the police held on to it for evidence.
[36:26] Speaker 1: It took a while to get it back, but when
[36:29] Speaker 1: I did, I had it restored to give you on
[36:31] Speaker 1: a special occasion. My grandfather answered, I have something else too.
[36:38] Speaker 1: My grandfather added, he built his arm from behind his
[36:42] Speaker 1: back and pulled out the ball i'd seen in the office,
[36:46] Speaker 1: like the one my dad used to have when he
[36:47] Speaker 1: played with me. I've been practicing some tricks in the
[36:51] Speaker 1: old office. Bet you didn't notice. I'm not as good
[36:55] Speaker 1: as your old man, But he showed me some of
[36:58] Speaker 1: the basics. He smuggled announced. He twirled it around and
[37:03] Speaker 1: tried to catch it as it span, but it caught
[37:06] Speaker 1: his knuckle at a funny angle and bounced wildly away,
[37:10] Speaker 1: almost hitting the cake. My grandmother's friendly demeanor dropped as
[37:15] Speaker 1: she shot him the dirtiest look at almost ruining the cake,
[37:19] Speaker 1: which made me do something I thought i'd lost the
[37:22] Speaker 1: ability to do. I laughed. It poured out of me
[37:30] Speaker 1: years of pain leaking as joy took its place. Here
[37:35] Speaker 1: they were. They were not my parents, nor could they be. However,
[37:41] Speaker 1: they knew that and loved me all the same. They
[37:46] Speaker 1: were never trying to replace them. They were just picking
[37:50] Speaker 1: up where they left off. And I realized that I
[37:55] Speaker 1: didn't have to be alone, and from then on I
[38:00] Speaker 1: always let them in.

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