Townlore

The one thing that paralyzes all parents with fear is failing to protect their children. I regret taking that "game" from work. It took from me what was most important in my life. That is why soon I will be swallowing a bullet from my police issued revolver.

We had been called to check on a resident at an apartment complex. Neighbors were complaining about the smell and the landlord called the police. We first knocked on the door and tried to call him out, but no one answered. When we forced open the door, we found his limp dead body sitting in front of a PC. His face was partially torn away, part of the flesh dangling like cobwebs from the skull. We secured the body and any clues for what looked like a possible homicide. The coroner, though, determined from the guy’s fingernails that the wounds were self-inflicted. “Hell of a way to kill yourself,” I said. Now I know that the poor guy probably just lost it.

We didn't make any progress finding any reason for the suicide. The PC didn’t help much either, nowadays you expect to find a suicide note on facebook or twitter. There wasn’t even a word document that began with dear mom and dad. We did find a single folder titled "Townlore.” It was some kind of computer game, pretty boring too.

After the case closed, I made a copy of the game to give it to my son. It is common to take items from people that don’t use it anymore from the evidence locker. If you go to a police auction, you know exactly what I mean. I thought that the game was simple enough to entertain a young child. Being a single father is tough and sometimes I just needed him out of my hair.

Although, gameplay wasn't anything fancy, he did enjoy it. One night I even caught him playing past his bedtime. I grounded him from the game, but like most kids he didn’t listen.

Someday after that he ran to me pale as a sheet. I asked him what was wrong. He answered, "Pandora is resting.” I asked him who Pandora was and he responded, “The girl locked inside the game.” I just laughed it off as one big joke. Deep down, I started to get suspicious of this game so I started playing. If there was something on it that my little boy shouldn’t see, I’d simply delete it.

However when I tried to continue the game from my son’s save, it crashed. I decided to try playing a new game, but there was no gameplay. I reinstalled the game and realized that there was a save state. If I couldn't play the game from the beginning, I could continue from when it was playable.

I didn't know how to progress in the game. So I made the mistake of posting it online and tried to get help from other gamers. After that, my son started acting strange. I woke up with a start one night because he was standing beside my bedside just watching me. I asked him what was wrong; he responded by saying, “I can hear her crying.”

Then it happened, I heard a crash in the bathroom. I found my son lying face down on the ground. Somehow he had gotten into the medicine cabinet. There was a bottle of pills still being clutched in his tiny hand. He had taken so many pills that there were empty bottles and pills scattered everywhere. He choked and died in my arms that night. It was all because of that game. The last guy that played it killed himself. Now my son was on its victims list. By time I tried to pull the game off the internet, it had spread like a virus. Now all I can do is give you this warning:

DON’T PLAY THIS GAME LATE AT NIGHT.

DON’T GO INTO THE FOREST.

FOLLOW THE RULES.